I’m Jennifer Laughran. I’m a Senior Agent at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, representing great authors and illustrators of children’s and YA books. I’m also a life-long bookseller and sloth fan. Ask me questions!
Greetings from Iceland, where I’m currently on vacation! It’s come to my attention that some scam artist is impersonating me with a fake gmail account. Luckily a writer realized that it was unlikely that I would reach out to them cold using a non-work email addy, so they wrote to my real email to check, which is how I found out! ANYWAY, I’m sorry to say that there are a lotta scams out there, and…
Let’s take Death in the Jungle and compare it to another book on the same topic, Road to Jonestown, which was written for adults. RtJ is significantly longer — 500-some pages/17 hours audio vs DitJ at 300-some pages/9 hours audio. It’s been a long time since I read RtJ but if I recall correctly it was more comprehensive — trying to tell as much as possible about everything. To me, DitJ was more…
I mean it’s fiction. So… it doesn’t matter if you have Tweetie eating seeds from North Carolina that a similar bird would generally eat, or unicorn poop from Mars that doesn’t exist at all. Obviously for a *realistic* story you will want to do your research as necessary and hew close to what an actual bird of that kind would actually eat, because otherwise readers will get annoyed with you. But…
OK first of all, stop spinning out. It will all be fine. RELAX. -- Presumably you are writing children's nonfiction? it's OK to not have a huge platform for most kids nonfiction. (If you were writing adult nonfiction, that could be a different story). Don't worry about that right now. -- Similarly, you don't need to talk to your agent about this until you know what you are doing. They are much…
It isn’t unusual for things to take a long time, but it is a little unusual for you to have no clue whatsoever what is happening. (Well, okay, THAT isn’t that unusual either, silence is very definitely the prevailing sound in publishing — but you should at least be able to KIND OF find out what is going on!) Have you asked your editor? Not in like an ACCUSATORY way or anything, just a mild “Hey…
Hey there! As you might know, my agency puts on a Writers Workshop for Children’s Book and YA authors every year in California. For a while, we were also doing an East Coast edition in Cape Cod, but we stopped doing it a few years back. HOWEVER, due to popular demand, we decided to reinstate it this year! Annnnd… there are still openings for the Fall Cape Cod workshop, October…
If you missed it, this is the PW article to which OP is referring. For those interested in learning more about it, the AALA has provided a point-by-point breakdown of each change to the Canon of Ethics , including the old language, the new language, and the rationale for changing the language. (It's an excellent primer, far more thorough than I could possibly be, and I strongly suggest you read it…
I've seen authors step away from publishing, but I'm not sure if they would characterize their reasons for stepping back as being "unable to manage the emotional challenges of the job." (Maybe in some cases? Maybe partly? Maybe that combined with a lot of other things?) I'm NOT trying to be a downer, but the reality is: Publishing is challenging in MANY ways. There are LOTS of valid reasons to…
Kinda, yes, with caveats. In August I'd prefer to limit submissions to things that I have to submit for a specific reason. Like, say, an OPTION book, where there's a timeline involved. Or a book that for whatever reason is exclusive to one editor, or it's a very small group of editors, or the author and editor KNOW each other and the editor is EXPECTING this project, or it is time-sensitive so…
You are overthinking this. There are lots of books from the POV of animals. You call them the genre they are, just as though they were about humans, but if you want you can add "animal" to it. The ones that are fantastical, like Gaurdians of Ga'Hoole for example, Owls going to magical owl school, etc, are called FANTASY. (If you want to get more specific than that, "Animal Fantasy" or…
That's awesome, what an exciting milestone! As for "will it go back in the negative" - well, if you only earned out by like $2 or something, maybe ? But don't stress about it or anything. The bulk of front list returns probably happen like 6-12 months after pub, or when the paperback comes out, so if it has been over 1.5/2 years since pub, you've probably gotten well past that big dip already and…
It's kind of a combo situation: there's just a lot in the pipeline already, and publishers have come to some realizations about the reality of publishing GN. Like, the reality is, making a GN takes a LOT LONGER than people tend to expect. Beyond the writing of the script, the editing, and all that stuff, the publisher has to FIND AN ILLUSTRATOR. Which can take a while, because many talented GN…
this is what I would call "burning the option" - basically sending something bad so the publisher will turn it down and you are free from further obligations. I think it happens, but I don't think it happens as much as people might IMAGINE that it happens. First of all, because authors have egos; why would you want to put your name on something you KNOW isn't good or wouldn't be a good fit -- and…
I think you should nudge. (Gently!) I feel like the odds are high that they haven't gotten around to it? Because if they HAD gotten around to it, they would have responded. It's also possible they dipped in, got called away, thought "I'll get back to this soon" and didn't get back to it. It's also possible they read it, thought "I'll take some time and formulate my thoughts" and haven't finished…
Love: I love working with authors, I love giving authors good news, I love working with books and seeing the potential in something and watching it become real! Like: I like that every day is different, and every project is different, and there is always something new to think about! Dislike: I dislike all the paperwork and admin and spreadsheets. (I mean, whatever, it's all FINE, it's better than…
Not to brag or anything , but I think most editors at normal publishers would recognize my name or at least the name of my agency. So if this is a good publisher / imprint, and it really seems like a great fit, just for whatever reason I haven't come across that person before, I'm fine with introducing myself to them! First I'd ask my colleagues if any of them know the editor, in which case I'd…
Do you mean like attending ALA or Bologna or something like that? Some agents might have expense accounts where the agency pays for some of that kind of stuff? Like possibly agents who are not on commission, but are paid a salary? OR, agents who are doing something specific FOR THE AGENCY at the conference; for example, let's say they are selling foreign rights on behalf of the whole agency, the…
Short answer: Sometimes (kinda), and yah it's normal. Long answer: A Closing Date is, basically, a deadline: the date by which all interested editors should have their offers in. Whether or not to set a close (nice use of parlance!) depends on the likelihood that there will be multiple offers / an auction scenario. But I'm probably not even nudging other editors, let alone putting a deadline on…