Natascha is a new agent at Bookends Literary and a former editorial assistant for Simon & Schuster. She is open to submissions for picture books, middle grade, and young adult across multiple genres: contemporary, mysteries, thrillers, fantasy, historical fiction, and narrative non-fiction. She is looking for authors, illustrators, and author-illustrators.
Thank you, Natascha, for your insightful answers.
What was your favorite role during your days as an editorial assistant at Simon & Schuster?
There were two things I loved about working at Simon & Schuster: reading the submissions to find that standout project, and working with the design team to come up with great covers. As an agent, I can still find that diamond in the rough, but I will miss coming up with cover concepts.
Were there any manuscripts you helped acquire that you’re particularly proud of?
Kit Frick’s See All the Stars (Summer 2018) is one I’m particularly proud of. Read it on submission and fell in love with it. I also had the opportunity to offer editorial notes. Kit is an amazingly talented writer who changed the whole manuscript with a few smart line changes. I’d love to find an author like her.
Could you walk us through the acquisitions process—what stars had to align in order for S&S to select a manuscript for publication?
Every book is different and sometimes, editors don’t follow the process. But in general, once an editor has a project they want to pursue, they take it to the editorial meeting. If the other editors agree (and sometimes they don’t), the editor takes it to acquisitions. I worked at two literary imprints, so quality of writing was a big factor. After that it came down to a host of factors: editorial taste, vision for the project, and market saturation. Publishing is subjective, and sometimes timing plays a part of that.
I attended a writer's conference in Boston over the weekend. Chuck Sambuchino was the keynote speaker. He did a great job of plowing through writing advice from author platform to how to write a solid query (the video above is how to do an in-person pitch), but the highlight of the event for me was the "Writer's Got Talent" session. About seven of the literary agents who attended made up a panel to critique first pages of anonymously submitted novel manuscripts. Chuck read the page until three agents held up their hands, then he stopped and let the agents explain why they would stop reading at that point. They were blessedly candid. One agent even confessed that certain words turn her off. She said she knew it seemed shallow to stop reading a manuscript at the word "shapely," for example, but when you're pouring through 200 plus pages a day, you are looking for a reason to say no. I found their instantaneous critiques fascinating and enlightening. I also learned loads from the pages they commented on as to what worked and what didn't. Over-descriptive language was a sure sign of an author trying too hard. Verb tense shifts were another problem, and info dumping was a common error as well. And they didn't always agree with each other, which goes to show that the industry is subjective. I walked away from that session feeling less distant from the querying process. I also found I was often agreeing with the agents' assessments, which gave me confidence that I'm arriving at an understanding of what works well and what does not. And as you know, any confidence boost a writer can get is a welcome one. I also enjoyed the in-person pitches I had with agents. Both sessions went well and I walked away with two requests for manuscripts and loads of information on how to make my queries even better. The conference was worth all the logistics that went into getting me there. Have a great week.
I'm sneaking in a post about KidLit 411, partly because they're having excellent giveaways, like a bypass-slush-pile submission to Lori Kilkelly of Rodeen Literary (and I get an extra entry for blogging about them), but also because it's a great resource I should have blogged about earlier. The nutshell version: KidLit 411 is run by Elaine Kiely Kearns and Sylvia Liu with help from lots of other writers as well. It really is the one-stop shop it claims to be. They have resources for every genre of kid lit, a manuscript swap option through their Facebook group, and this week they are running some fabulous articles with incredible giveaways. Check them out: http://www.kidlit411.com
Julie Hedlund and Emma Walton Hamilton are hosting a self-guided, online course on how to prepare a picture book query and manuscript for submission. The early bird price ends tonight at midnight (P.S. The deadline has been extended by a day, so tonight is the cut off for the early bird price), so I wanted to get this out while there's a few hours left: http://picturebooksubmissions.com The video above is a brief overview of the course, and the video below is a more in-depth explanation of the course and answers to many of the basic questions on how to prepare a query for submission. I took Emma's middle grade writing course and loved it and Julie is a power-house in marketing, so these two make a perfect teaching duo on how to put your best foot forward in submitting to agents or editors. Enjoy.
Our regional kid lit group hosted a workshop on writing with humor by Erin Cabatingan, author of A is for Musk Ox and Musk Ox Counts. If you've read her stories, you know she gets humor. If you haven’t read her stories, you are seriously missing out. (See the trailer above.)
I took copious notes from her excellent workshop, but I was also able to ask Erin questions about her personal writer's journey and that is what I will share with you today:
Q: What was the evolution of your journey to find an agent and when did your Musk Ox books come into that phase?
A: My publishing journey started in college when I took a class about writing for publication. That was when I first started to understand how to actually go about getting published. Starting then, I began writing and submitting my work, but I didn't do much else to improve my writing or increase my knowledge of how publishing worked. It was about six years before that I got really serious about trying to get published. I joined a critique group. I started reading tons of blogs about publishing. I worked a little with Rick Walton, who helped me understand what it took to get a manuscript submission ready. I went to my first conference and workshop. It was also then that I decided I definitely wanted an agent. My A is for Musk Ox book came into the whole process at about this point. I had my musk ox book, and another one about a toucan that I really liked, and I took turns submitting them to different agents. When an agent rejected one story, I would send them the other.
After receiving lots of rejections, life got in the way and I stopped submitting manuscripts to agents. At the time, I thought I had received rejections from all the agents I had submitted to, so months later, I was surprised to get a voice mail from Nancy Gallt telling me that she was interested in representing A is for Musk Ox.
Q: Where did the idea for your Musk Ox character come from?
A: I needed an animal that began with “m," so I found a website that listed "m" animals. Musk Ox happened to be the first one that I liked. The personality of the musk ox came as I wrote the story.
Q: How did you pitch to your now agent? Did she contact you right away or ask for revisions first? What was the process?
A: I was one of those dredged from the slush pile. I wrote a query letter to Nancy Gallt, having no connection to her at all--I hadn't met her at a conference or anything like that--and she liked my manuscript enough to want to represent it. In fact, she already had an editor who was interested in it when she contacted me.
Q: What were some pivotal moments in your search for an agent that got you to the point you’re in right now?
A: Probably the most helpful thing was my "internship" with Rick Walton. He's the author of over 90 published books, many of which are picture books. He had projects for me to work on and in return, he would help me with my manuscripts. The projects themselves helped me become a better writer.
One thing he had me do was go over editors'/agents'/authors' blogs and find all the parts that talked about how to be a better writer. That really helped me understand the publishing world better. And then he worked with me on my writing. With his help, I drastically changed a manuscript I was working on and made it much better. I haven't yet published that manuscript, but I learned so much from working with him on it. And maybe one day it will get published.
Q: Did you have a writing background? What did you study in college?
A: I didn't finish college--all I managed to do was get my general education requirements done. And the only writing background I have is what I did in high school and the two writing classes I took in college, one of which was writing for publication.
Q: Once you landed your agent, what has changed for you as a writer, mom, wife, person?
A: I’m not embarrassed to tell people that I'm a writer any more. I'm still shy about mentioning it, but not embarrassed. I also don't feel quite as guilty spending my time writing, since there's a little more hope that I might sell something else. Or at least I can tell myself that. Other than that, I can't really think of anything. Maybe more will change if/when I write a book that is much more popular, or if I sell more manuscripts.
Q: Any favorite moments/responses when talking to or hearing back from readers of your books? A: I’ve had a few. There was one time when I went to the book fair at my kid's school. They had A is for Musk Ox there, and I overheard one lady gushing to the PTA president and cashier about how much she loved my book. That was really fun to hear.
It's always fun when I meet someone who has read my book, likes it, and is excited to meet me. That's only happened once or twice, but it's pretty fun. It's also fun to hear kids laugh when I read one of my books to them. That's maybe my favorite.
Q: When is the third book in the Musk Ox family coming out?
A: September 30!
Q: What are your favorite picture books?
A: Besides my three picture books? Hmmm. That's a hard one. I really like Where the Wild Things Are, probably in part because I remember reading it with my dad. I still remember rolling my terrible eyes and gnashing my terrible teeth with him. I like There's a Nightmare in My Closet, King Bidgood's in the Bathtub, Bedtime at the Swamp, Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type, and many others.
Q: Name your favorite part in your books.
A: That’s another hard one. Probably the holes in their covers. I had mentioned having a hole in the manuscript for A is for Musk Ox, but I wasn't sure they would actually put one in because I knew it would cost more money. I was excited to see it there. I wasn't expecting a hole in Musk Ox Counts, so that was fun to see. And the third one has a hole as well! Holes are fun.
Q: What advice do you have for writer’s struggling to land the agent or publishing deal?
A: Keep going! If you love writing, and want to be published, don't ever stop trying. Keep improving your craft--search the internet for information about writing and publishing, go to conferences, have others look at your manuscripts, read books. Eventually you'll make it. Just don't give up.
Erin is repped by Marietta Zacker at Nacy Gallt Literary Agency.
In case your weekend plans don't include much time for writing, here's a few links to help assuage any writer's guilt: Folio Lit Co-founder, Scott Hoffman, and NYT best selling author, Brendon Burchard, have a 50-minute video (it's worth every minute) for writers on how to develop a platform.
They discuss working with agents, self-publishing, traditional publishing and solid tips on how to write and market yourself. See here: http://www.foliolit.com/nytimesbestseller/
After we moved back to the
U.S., I decided it was time to dust of a dream to write children’s books. So I
started writing.
I found a writing group and regaled them with my
1000 plus word "picture book," with about 50 main characters (that's a bit of an exaggeration) and lots of description.
Suffice it to say, I shelved
that story and started writing others. I thought I’d hit gold when my
manuscripts started getting better reactions, so I started sending out
queries—to agents and publishers.
AAAAAARGH!!!!! Here’s a few
things I wish I would have done (and actually some I did) before ever sending
my name out into the publishing world.
