Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/27/2014
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Category(ies)
Finding the Right Fit
What do you do when you send out a manuscript? Ask a writer friend for the names of some good publishers? Blast it out to every publishing company and agent listed in your market guide?
Those approaches may not be the best way to do what you want to do – which is to “find the right fit” and send your manuscript or query only to those agents or publishers most likely to be interested. Mr. Underdown will provide a market overview to orient participants and describe how to gather information all the time, so you won’t have to stop to research when you finish a manuscript. He’ll point you to the best information sources, discuss conferences and conventions, and share techniques for analyzing publishers’ catalogs. He’ll also lay out submission rules and etiquette and give insights into what editors and agents like and don’t like. There are no guarantees in publishing, and your writing will still have to be good enough, but following these “best practices” will at least give you a better chance of landing an agent or contract.
Presenter: Harold Underdown
Harold Underdown is an independent editor; he does critiques, helps to develop manuscripts, and provides other editorial and consulting services for individuals and publishers.
Harold enjoys teaching, and in that role wrote The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Children’s Book Publishing, now in its third edition. He founded and runs “The Purple Crayon,” a respected web site with information about the children’s publishing world at www.underdown.org. He speaks and gives workshop through the Highlights Foundation, SCBWI’s national and regional conferences, and Kid’s Book Revisions (offering online and on-site tutorials and workshops in partnership with Eileen Robinson). He also works as a contributing editor to Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market.
As an in-house editor, he worked at Macmillan, Orchard, and Charlesbridge, and has experience in trade and educational publishing. Among the books he has edited are Yumi Heo’s One Afternoon, Larry Pringle’s and Bob Marstall’s An Extraordinary Life, Lisa Rowe Fraustino’s Ash, Grace Lin’s The Ugly Vegetables, and Sneed Collard’s and Michael Rothman’s The Forest in the Clouds. He is also the editor for the Young Patriots Series, published by Patria Press.
Moderated By: Carrie Pearson is the SCBWI-MI Co-Regional Advisor. She lives in Marquette on the shore of Lake Superior. Her writing career began with hidden notes to her mother in which requests for palomino ponies and trips to Disney World were frequent topics. In a former life, she wrote business plans and marketing material, grants and RFPs, brochures and sound bites. She even wrote and directed an impromptu funeral for a visiting dignitary. Now she happily lives in the world of children’s books. She’s been an SCBWI member since 2005 and has won two awards through this organization that have bolstered her courage. Her first two books are lyrically written nature nonfiction picture books published by Sylvan Dell Publishing. In addition to nonfiction, Carrie writes funny fiction picture books and middle grade historical fiction.
This live event was awesome! If you missed it, you can still register for session one or all five sessions and receive a recorded version complete with the chat session, resource handout, and Q&A. The recorded version is available for viewing for three months from the time of the live event.
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