STATUS: It’s almost 8 pm and I haven’t left the office yet. That pretty much sums up the day.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD by Tears For Fears
I have to say that all your comments on my last blog entry about the Best Query Ever made me laugh and laugh. Much needed when 160 emails in my inbox mysteriously disappeared during an email migration to the cloud.
Talk about cleaning up your TO DO list in one fell swoop. Luckily the emails were finally recovered. My tech person was much relieved too!
A children’s editor reconnected with me today. In her email, she outlined what she was dying to see. I LOVE when editors do that. Sometimes as agents, it’s easy to get tunnel vision just based on what we are seeing. So if you are an editor and you’re reading this, don’t hesitate to email me your current wish list. I love hearing from you and since I’ll be heading to NY for BEA and doing my monthly stay, now’s the time to ping me.
But back to what editors might want. From this email, it was nice to see that she was not looking for apocalyptic YA (she might be an exception there) but she’d love to see the following:
Southern-set novels
Novels with authentic characters that transform
Psychological thrillers
Mg horror (oh heck yes is what I say!)
SF (sweet!)
I have to say I’m on board with that. I’d be open to any and all of the above.
And as always, this editor would love a “stunningly-written book with a great hook.”
Rather goes without saying… *grin *
Tags: middle grade, young adult
How neat! It’s nice when they spell out what they’re look for. No hidden meanins just a great email with all the goods! I hope they find what they’re looking for! I always love to support my fellow writer!
Interesting, especially the psych thrillers. I wonder if dystopian will be a short lived trend? Time will tell I suppose.
Interesting to see that “novels with characters that transform” and “stunningly written with a great hook” aren’t genres at all, but a reminder that really, any genre, written excellently, stands a chance.
Nicely played.
MG horror = FUN TIMES! I’d love to see that in print. and to see what cover art they’d come up with. hehe
Okay, I guess I’m out of it, but Mg Horror?
MG Horror? Yay! R.L. Stine rocked my world when I was a kid!
SF! Yay. Better get editing . . .
I was also raising a brow at MG Horror, until FourDoorHeathan kicked my brain. How could I forget those summer camp nights with R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike!
Yay for SF! Thanks for the info and I’m glad you got your emails back. 🙂
Well I guess it makes sense, who wouldn’t want to read those if they were twelve?
I’ve got the novel with ‘authentic characters who transform’, but you already politely said no (though you said it was close).
‘Authentic characters who transform’…
…(see the little cartoon bubble with question marks appear over my head) …
I am not quite sure what this means. As in, they transform into … they change …? They … evolve? Hungh?
Love the fact that SF is on there. I find the transformation comment interesting. That really works for all genres and can be worked into both a stand-alone book and a series. I’m curious how editors and agents are feeling about single books versus series books at this point. Thoughts?
When I read Mg horror, I thought “what the F is Midget horror”! Rofl. Don’t blame me, I only just woke up!
I used to be a big fan of Goosebumps and Fear Street… What can I say, lol. Cool to see people are still interested in that kind of books 🙂
Woohoo for SF!
YAY to MG horror and SF. Been waiting for that:)
Transform = character arcs that allow a charcter to grow from turning points throughout the story.
How cool that editors send you wish lists! That’s really neat!
And I third or fourth love to MG Horror, and I will throw Bruce Coville’s name into the ring. We ate up “My Teacher is an Alien” and the other books like they were candy.
Also, if you have a chance, Coville has a book of short stories called “The Book of Magic” (he also has the Book of Ghosts and Book of Monsters) and man, did some of those stories blow me away.
Okay, I didn’t know what Mg Horror meant, but now that everyone’s thrown up examples, I feel like a big ‘ol dummy 🙂
I read all of those when I was a kid!
Darn! I write science fiction, but not for children. 😉 Still, I’ll be glad if more is acquired for young readers.
Like everyone else, I am having Goosebumps flashbacks right now. Kids need to scare themselves once in a while.
And I’ll second Kristin’s request, editors: send her lists of what you want! Us writers will appreciate it too, especially if we coincidentally happen to have something up your alley.
Great insight into what kind of YA material one particular editor is seeking. Thank you for sharing it with us. Now, it sure would be nice if another editor or two would let us know what kind of adult material is lacking.
I’m not sure if I misunderstood or if a bunch of other people did, but I don’t see where the editor said these categories were NOT for adult books. The only age category I see is MG horror. So adult writers, submit & good luck!
yay! I’m working on an MG Horror.
Thanks for sharing this. I hope you share soon that someone is looking for a MG high fantasy.
Oh my! I am so working on your MG horror novel right now. I can’t write it with the lights off 🙂
What great news.
No Northern-set novels? 🙁
Different spin on dystopian: Utopian under threat.
animaia.com
I love that editors tell literary agents exactly what they want in a book. It makes it so much easier for the agents. Agents are able to send editors manuscripts they know the editors want, instead of guessing.
I know the feeling of losing all those e-mails – almost a bit exhilarating. Then, I realized that I lost a letter from a long-lost friend…