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.
Tracy represents my friend and critique partner Tara Cattie Luebbe. Tracy is a relatively new agent at BookEnds literary, but is not new to the publishing world. As you'll see by her comments, Tracy is knowledgeable about the industry and is seeking to build her client list.
Thank you, Tracy, for taking time out of your busy day to answer these questions.
You’ve had an impressive career. You worked at Curtis Brown, then took time off to finish an MFA in writing for children from Simmons College. You are an agent at BookEnds Literary and an author as well. What started you on the path to working in the publishing industry and in particular, becoming an agent?
Like many of my colleagues, I was writing and reading from a young age. My mother joined SCBWI in 1996 and learned how to submit to publishers, and the next year I started submitting my first picture book. (In hindsight, it was not that good.) A few years later, I graduated college with a degree in English and attended the local SCBWI conference.
I was sitting with Gail Carson Levine and mentioned that I’d just graduated from college and was hoping to work in publishing. She offered to pass along my resume to her agent, where it was hung on the kitchen bulletin board. Kirsten Manges was leaving Curtis Brown to start her own agency, and so she grabbed my resume and I was able to intern for her as she set up everything from the phone lines to the submissions system to the boilerplate files. After about six months, I had to leave and find full time work. But a few months later, Kirsten told me that Curtis Brown was looking for an agent’s assistant. I interviewed first with one of their romance agents and didn’t get the job. A month or so later though I had an interview in the children’s suite, and that’s how I ended up with my first full time job at an agency!
I met rick at a conference in Boston, in fact, you might say I agent stalked him. I heard about him through 12x12, did my research, and found he'd be presenting at a conference. The conference sounded great, and I was able to get a good deal on airfare, so I went. I have to admit, that I was nervous meeting with Rick, but he is personable and charming as you will see from his interview. Thank you, Rick!
Let me first set up your rather amazing resume. You were a co-founder (with many others) and former CEO of Candlewick Press, a publisher at Simon & Schuster Children’s Books, president of Simon & Schuster Sales and Distribution Division, the creator of Simon Spotlight, and the founder of Ruckus Media Group. You’ve also served as chairman of the Children’s Book Council, and an early director of First Book. You’re a literary agent at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth and helped reintroduce the current market to Eloise and Raggedy Ann in prior lives. I think it’s safe to say you know a lot about children’s lit. How did you get started on this path?
My father worked the night shift at the Boston Globe – the “lobstah” shift I think is what they called it – and he thought the book business was nobler than newspapers. “People don’t wrap fish in your work at the end of the day.” I remember him saying, so he encouraged me to find a job in books. My soon-to-be-wife introduced me to a friend who worked at a small company in Natick, Massachusetts – Picture Book Studio – and I fell head over heels over the work of Lizbeth Zwerger. I remember telling the staff there (the entire staff interviewed me!) that I would do anything at the company. “Anything at all.” I started packing books in their warehouse.
I was really fortunate to have two amazing bosses at this little company. The first, Motoko Inoue, went on to become Eric Carle’s long-time and exclusive agent. The second, Andrew Clements, went on the write the classic Frindle, and became a staple in the industry. So I learned to love the business at the knee of two highly principled and wonderful people.
Now that you’re an agent, do you see the children’s lit world differently?
Absolutely, I think becoming an agent is something every publisher should do. It is a lesson in humility, a lesson in patience, and one feels the victories and set backs of the authors and illustrators we work with in a much, much more visceral way. I’m even more in awe of the talented people who make up our industry and their willingness to persevere.
For the rest of the interview, please visit my website.
A picture book text can paint a picture or it can set the stage for a corresponding visual story. Sort of the difference between
… and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day…” (Where the Wild Things Are)
and
In the great green room there was a telephone …” (Goodnight Moon).
The first one paints a mood that the art alone can’t tell. The second one creates an image that accompanies the text. Both are good for the story they are telling, both create a visual without taking over for the artist.
The trick, as a text-only picture book creator, is to realize that you are a visual artist. Your text needs to create moods and images word by word, sentence by sentence, and it has to do it page by page and beginning to end.
One way to set yourself up for success in this area is to storyboard. Storyboarding your text will give you visual feedback on how your text works on each page. If you have a text-heavy page, you’ve either stepped into the artist’s area, or you have too many words, or your story may not be best suited as a picture book. You also need to be aware of your page turns.
A picture book text can paint a picture or it can set the stage for a corresponding visual story. Sort of the difference between
… and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day…” (Where the Wild Things Are)
and
In the great green room there was a telephone …” (Goodnight Moon).
The first one paints a mood that the art alone can’t tell. The second one creates an image that accompanies the text. Both are good for the story they are telling, both create a visual without taking over for the artist.
The trick, as a text-only picture book creator, is to realize that you are a visual artist. Your text needs to create moods and images word by word, sentence by sentence, and it has to do it page by page and beginning to end.
One way to set yourself up for success in this area is to storyboard. Storyboarding your text will give you visual feedback on how your text works on each page. If you have a text-heavy page, you’ve either stepped into the artist’s area, or you have too many words, or your story may not be best suited as a picture book. You also need to be aware of your page turns.
I had a writing routine before we picked up and moved last year. I haven't quite recovered it, what with trying to learn a new language, adapt to a different country and move things in all over again. We acquired a few distractions within the past year as well: a dog we rescued from an abusive home; and a kitten (pictured above) stranded in a gutter outside our house. I can't sit in my chair to write without her snuggling behind me or climbing on my lap. If I even look cross ways at my chair, she'll hop up inside and snuggle on in. All this to say, distractions exist, but this week, I decided to take charge of them instead of them taking charge of me. I set a goal for myself, 10 submission-ready picture book manuscripts by the middle of November. Why November? I signed up for a writing conference I will get to attend in person. Besides the two mini-conferences I helped organized through my last writing group, this will be the second in-person writing event I've been able to attend. I may not get my manuscripts truly submission ready in that short of a time. I've revised "submission ready" stories many times over based on feedback from the agents who've commented on them. But I'm getting close to my goal already. I pulled out some promising old drafts and started revising them today. Fresh eyes on an old story are one of the best tricks to revising I've found. I can see where I've improved. I can also see the nuggets of voice I started to lose after letting too many voices dictate the tone of my story. It's a fine balance between taking in suggestions without twisting your story into someone else's. As of now, I have nine drafts I've started revising and another two in mind to add to the list. That's a lot of critiques to swap for and a lot of time making every word count. But I feel energized having a goal and a plan in place. And a deadline with an excursion attached. I'm finally getting my groove back. Now if I could just get my chair back. Have a great week.
My son's illustration for one of his stories. It appears I'm being hit by an airplane, or maybe an alien invasion.
I recently finished the character development chapter in James Patterson's Master Class. Writing a believable and relatable character is key in engaging the reader, whatever the age. I find that the easiest characters for me to develop are the ones most similar to me, however, I love writing characters that I wouldn't normally relate to. In high school, I loved to play the part of the villain in our school plays. I think kids are like that too, characters that are a little bit, or even a lot bit, naughty are vicarious outlets for kids who feel like so much of their lives is controlled by overwhelming forces--namely parents. I think that's the appeal, in part, of Roald Dahl's characters. Pippi Longstockings is another and Curious George, to name a mere few. When it comes to more current children's authors, Mo Willems is one of the best in creating memorable characters with endearing foibles. We love Pigeon at our house, and we were lucky to find available tickets to the stage production of Elephant and Piggy at the Kennedy Center. My kids talked about that experience for weeks. Needless to say, I love the following videos, and I hope you'll find something of value from them too:
I obviously disappeared for a while. My only excuse is the furry little critter in the picture above, not the dog, although he's plenty distracting too. About four weeks ago, my husband took our dog for a walk and came back with a mewling bundle. He'd found a tiny kitten abandoned in a puddle in the gutter near our road. Our neighborhood has a collection of wild cats that hide in the gutter tunnels, so we assumed she must have been washed out. She was cold, hungry and likely to be smashed by a car if my husband hadn't found her he did. He's not a cat person, so it surprised me when he walked into our room and held her out to me. I grabbed her, cleaned her up and tried to feed her. Long story short, we got what supplies we could from the vet and started nursing her back to health. The vet guessed she was about three weeks old. She's now a sassy 6-week-old and growing kitten, fittingly named Catniss, who has managed to survive against the odds. Needless to say, my free time got usurped and working on my stories instead of blogging became a priority in my limited time. I'm still not where I want to be with the revisions on my historical fiction MG novel, but I'm pleased that I've got a working draft under my belt. I haven't touched the YA novel I started last year, but it's waiting for me. I've also got a fantasy middle grade novel I've character sketched but haven't yet outlined, which I'm dying to do after taking James Patterson's Master Class and seeing how effective an outline can be. I've also lost count at how many PB ideas I've collected, but I've drafted out about 28 of them. Two, almost three, I consider sub-ready and was able to work on those while tending the cat. I'm thinking, reluctantly, about moving a couple of my favorite PB rough drafts to chapter books since they appeal to a slightly older group and would be better told at a higher word count. All this to say, I've managed to get a lot done, except my blog, which I'm hoping to change to a personalized website soon. As soon as I figure Wordpress out...grrrrr. Here's hoping you're all doing well and plugging along with all your goals. Have a great week and enjoy some distracting video fun. Feel my pain:
My sides hurt. The above video is a celebration of bad Gaiman story knock-offs. The stories are deliciously terrible, and even better/worse with Neil Gaiman reading them. While they are fun, they're also great lessons in tiny packages. But I can't leave you just with that. Well I could, but the video below is too spectacular to pass up, but it's not short. Julie Hedlund interviews John Rocco about his Caldecott Honor book, Blackout and other events in his writing/illustrating career. Such fantastic info. Grab your lunch and settle in.
I've already mentioned that I completed Mira Reisberg's Children's Book Academy class on writing picture books. I loved it. I can't give you the whole class here obviously, but Mira analyzes various picture books in videos that she graciously shares on YouTube. With her knowledge as an illustrator and writer she's able to use the books as text books on how to write and illustrate. I've included a few of my favorites.
Mira has taught some stellar authors/illustrators, Kathryn Otoshi among them whose books are disarmingly intelligent in both design and message. And Yuyi Morales whose artwork and stories are exquisite as shown in the video below. It's a little longer than the others, but captivating if you have the time.
Hope you are all having a fabulous week and are ready to enjoy an even more fabulous weekend.
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.
I had the fortune of meeting some writers through PiBoIdMo, run by Tara Lazar, who lived in the same area as me, so we started a Facebook group to keep each other informed of writer's events in our area. Word of our group spread, and we grew from a handful of members to over 30. As I added the people requesting to join the group, I realized how many of them had amazing credentials. It made so much sense to pool that local knowledge, so we decided to have our own mini-workshop.
We had the first one, of many I hope, a week ago. About 13 of us, and the presenters, met in a library (the rooms of which you can usually reserve for free) and listened to award-winning author, Dianna Hutts Aston, talk about her inspiration, where her stories came from and how she got her start (She even talks about money in the full presentation for those who are curious about that aspect of publishing.).
We were then treated to a tour-de-force presentation, by Marcie Flinchum Atkins, on using mentor texts to guide your writing. I've heard Marcie speak on this subject before, but I still learned so much.
I put their full, well mostly full, presentations on YouTube (included at the bottom), but above are two very brief videos that showcase just a bit of what they talked about.
Besides learning how to improve my writing from these talented women, I also learned that a gathering of writers can empower an individual. We learned from each other as we exchanged ideas and knowledge, and offered suggestions and insights to those seeking ways to overcome a specific writing hurdle. I'd highly recommend forming smaller groups within your communities that you learn with and from. It's a more personal way to strengthen you in your writer's journey.
Have a great weekend and please see below for the full presentations.
I signed up for Julie Hedlund's 12x12 writing program this year. I've benefited immensely from all the resources Julie has offered, not the least of which was an opportunity to be selected as a beta student for award-winning author Emma Walton Hamilton's Middle Grade/Chapter Book course. I'm only one week into the 14-week course, but I feel like I've already had those light-bulb moments that I need to fix a languishing middle grade novel. Some of the tips that resonated with me were:
Each character needs to further the story. If not, the character needs to go or be combined.
Each chapter needs an ending hook to keep the reader wondering what's next.
Each page needs emotional or dramatic tension.
Don't preach. Let the story set up a scene that allows the reader to draw their own conclusions.
One of the exercise we were asked to do was to write down the dramatic question. What is it that the reader needs to learn or achieve by the end of the book? Keep that question in mind as you draft your plot. Emma also recommended a book on writing that intrigued me greatly: The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler. Vogler uses the mythic structure explored by Joseph Campbell to outline an effective story-telling method. There's much more, but that was enough to get me going in a direction I needed. I'll update as the class goes on. Emma has a picture book class and now a middle grade and young adult class she offers through her site, http://justwriteforkids.com. She is a faculty member for Stony Brook Southampton's MFA in Creative Writing and Literature, which means I'm basically getting a college course on my computer at my own pace with an award-winning author to teach me. I'm so excited to have this opportunity and so is my poor novel. Have a great weekend. P.S. The video is Emma and her mother, Julie Andrews talking about writing and how it links up with other art forms. I love it. Perhaps because of my own acting background, but I thought if ever I do a school presentation, a reader's theater would be a great way to get children to interact with your book.
Peter Brown has written or illustrated some of my favorite pictures books, including Children Make Terrible Pets and Creepy Carrots(written by Aaron Reynolds). The following videos all feature Peter Brown talking about the techniques, inspirations and tools he uses in writing or illustrating a picture book. They are ranged from shortest to longest, but certainly not by most valuable. If you have the time, each video is worth watching:
Mercer Mayer's video of him (or rather Reginald) reading Professor Wormbog in Search For the Zipperumpazoo, is a great study in how to write and read a story.
I've had the pleasure of listening to the WOW-Nonfiction Webinars. Kristen Fulton is the brains behindWOW and her fantastic websitehas all the links and info you need to get started writing nonfiction. And best of all, the Week of Writing Nonfiction is coming up. Here's a brief blurb:
"Welcome to Week Of Writing also known as WOW. For one week you are challenged to perfect, hone and produce great Non-Fiction Picture Books. This includes True Non-Fiction (Biographies and Historical events as well as How-To books and information or reference books), Faction (Facts presented in a fictitious way), and of course Historical Fiction (totally fictitious story based on real people, real events or real places)."
For more information, click here: http://www.kristenfulton.org/wow--nonficpic.html In fact, it was through one of Kristen's webinars where I heard Marcie Atkins' presentation on using mentor texts. Using mentor texts is essentially a self-taught class on how to write. You chose books or authors you love, dissect what works and use that to improve your own writing. Click here for more links to Marcie's website including the link to her presentation: http://www.marcieatkins.com/making-time-to-write/mentor-texts-writers-resources/ And just for fun, see the video above. Everything you need to know about writing picture books and getting rich off it from the horses...I mean elephant's mouth. Thanks Mandy Yates for putting it together.
