RESEARCHING COMP BOOKS

Do you know what books are comparable to your WIP?
Do you know your target audience?
Do you know if your book has already been written, and if it has, did the book sell well?
If yes, why? If not, why? Was it recent? Is that comp book out of print? Why did it go out of print?
Is there room in the market for your WIP?

These are questions I ask myself when I look at a submission, especially a submission I am considering representing. These are questions you should have fully researched before you send out queries, and perhaps even before you spend years writing a book.

Why? Because there is an opportunity cost of time and money for consumers, agents, editors and publishers for every book we read. My choosing to rep your book means I will not be repping a book by a person who happened to write the same plot/characters/unique twist that your book has. Perhaps that book is better, perhaps yours is. BUT, if that book is already out on bookshelves and is selling well, or not selling well, I/consumers/editors/publishers will not spend their time and money buying your book.

Below is a short list of sites I compiled for the SCBWI Agent Workshop I held in Bakersfield, CA last fall for researching comp books. I am sure there are many more, and I am sure my readers will help fill in the missing gaps in my list.

Websites for researching comp books

Perma-Bound (Accelerated Reader)
Publisher, year, reading level, interest level (age), # pages, # words, reviews. For example, here is the entry for my client Julie Williams' book ESCAPING TORNADO SEASON.

Amazon Advanced Search , Indiebound, B&N online, etc.

Publishers Marketplace $20/month. Also shows which editor bought the book and which agent sold it.

Website with catalog from every publisher: Early Word. Scroll down and find the catalogs listed on the right side. Lots of other great info here.

Here's to all of your publishing dreams coming true in 2010!

Photo Credit: William Wegman (American, b. 1943). Reading Two Books, 1971. Gelatin silver print. Collection of Robert and Gayle Greenhill, © William Wegman

RESEARCHING AGENTS

I am often asked, how does a writer go about finding an agent. Here is a short list of sites I compiled for the SCBWI Agent Workshop I held in Bakersfield, CA last fall:

Websites for researching Agents

AgentQuery : http://www.agentquery.com/default.aspx

Absolute Write: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/

Verla Kay’s Message Board: http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php

Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents Blog http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/

Literary Rambles (Agent In-Depth Reviews) http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/
Agent Research parts 1,2 & 3
http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/2009/05/researching-literary-agents-part-i.html
http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/2009/05/researching-literary-agents-part-ii.html
http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/2009/07/researching-literary-agents-part-iii.html
me: http://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/2009/08/agent-spotlight-jill-corcoran.html

Preditors and Editors: http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubagent.htm

Lots of agent interviews, vlogs, blogs, twitters, etc all over the net. Google them and have fun researching.

Here's to all of your publishing dreams coming true in 2010!

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

From April 28, 2009
Dutton author Tina Nichols Coury--“Hanging Off Jefferson’s Nose, Growing Up On Mount Rushmore”--created a fab video at the recent SCBWI LA Writer's Day. I'll bet you'll recognize lots of wonderful kidlit folk, including me and my client Charlie Cohen.

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? video

Check out Tina's blog, Tales from the Rushmore Kid, for lots of great

• Editor Interviews
  
• Children's Book Author Interviews including Neil Gaiman, Sherman Alexie, Lisa Yee, Sonya Sones, Jerry Spinelli and many others.
• Tina's other fun YouTube Videos

12/30/09 Midway through THE ADVENTURES OF NANNY PIGGINS by R.A. Spratt, illust by Dan Santat and loving it.

How about you?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

May you receive what you need

and give with your heart.

Here's to a healthy, happy, and successful 2010!

Q&A WITH ME ON ICL

Click http://bit.ly/7Q2KCV to read.

Jan Fields kindly asked me to answer questions Dec 9-11th. Only Jan knows this, but my life on the 9-11th was nuts. The days before--calm, happy, easy. Come the morning of the 9th and all heck breaks loose in my personal life--sick kids, kids having accidents, etc. Of course, on the 12th--back to calm, happy, easy.

Life is funny. Grab joy and happiness at every turn because you never know when all heck will break loose.

Children's books 2009: It's all good! says Jon Scieszka -- latimes.com

Children's books 2009: It's all good! says Jon Scieszka -- latimes.com

A must read, and smile....and then go out and buy and read all the books mentioned:)

Inside the Secret World of Literary Scouts

Inside the Secret World of Literary Scouts Part 1 & Part 2

By Emily Williams..."publishing is a marketplace. Agents almost always submit a manuscript to more than one editor, and if that manuscript is good the editors who want to acquire it have to compete for it, both financially and by reputation. The same is true among international publishers—and film studios—who want to buy rights to the best American books. It’s competitive, and we help make sure the companies we work for know about the books that might interest them. In the best cases we can even position them so they have the first shot at something and get to read and make an offer before anyone else. The easiest way to understand it is as a consulting role—we’re our clients’ eyes and ears in New York, looking out for their best interests, keeping our finger on the pulse of the book world."
Click link above to read full article.

THE ART OF WRITING

I was thinking today about the art of writing. About how writers choose their words and how they decide what order to place them on the page.

I find myself turning away manuscript after manuscript not because the concept is weak---a lot of writers have fascinating concepts and intriguing plots. However, the writing--be it underwritten, overwritten, choppy, flowery, stagnant, slippery, etc--does not draw me in and make me lose myself in the story.

I was looking at one of my old posts that I wrote before I was an agent. When I was like most of you, struggling with the art of writing. At the time, I was writing poetry so my post focuses on words and making every word count. I understand that novels are 30k, 60k, 90k words long. But what if you can make every one of those 90,000 word count?

Here is the post I am referring to: HOW DOES THAT WORD FEEL?
Be sure to read the comments by a couple of the best poets writing today: Douglas Florian and J. Patrick Lewis

Also, for those of you who missed it, The Intern had a great post on copy editors: HAIL TO THE COPY EDITOR

And one more, THE COPY EDITORS' SURVIVAL GUIDE, INCLUDING DEALING WITH WRITERS:) which features THE SUBVERSIVE COPY EDITOR. This is the book Oprah would write if her vocation were saving writers from embarrassment, rather than saving the whole world.

So next time you let the words flow, next time you go back to revise, next time you submit your manuscript to a critique partner, to an agent, to an editor, make every word count. How do those 30k, 60k, 90k words feel?

GETTING YOUR BOOK ON B&N's, BORDERS', ETC. DISPLAY TABLE

The closer a table is to the front of the bookstore, the more expensive the real estate--and each book on each table costs publishers anywhere from $3,000 to $30,000, and even up to $50,000 depending on placement. [Viral Loop Chronicles Part 6]

You all know this, right?!?

Actually, I think most consumers do not know that publishers pay to have their books placed on tables, end caps and displays. I know this because I worked in cereal and in the supermarket you pay to play. Publishing is not so different.

"If you took everything out of a supermarket that was bought and paid for promotions, it would look like Soviet Russia," says Lorraine Shanley, a principal of Market Partners International, a consulting firm. "Books have a kind of halo effect because they are advertisement-free, but they are not promotions-free."

Barnes & Noble monetizes only a scant 3% to 5% of a store's total space, far less than supermarkets. The miles and miles of shelves crammed with books with only their spines showing don't cost publishers anything. But because Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Borders control distribution, they have immense clout, deciding which titles stick out when customers browse their stores and Web sites. They are empowered by a scarcity of space: There are so many books but only so much square footage available in stores.

Read the full article here: Bookstore Baksheesh: The Real Estate Deals That Sell Books | The Penenberg Post | Fast Company

So the next time you find yourself wandering into a Barnes & Noble and stop at a table to thumb through a book that catches your eye, remember that a publisher paid to put it there, hoping you would do just that. It's not that you've been punk'd. You've just been marketed to.

WHAT I AM CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR

1. Young Adult realistic romance with authentic dialog that makes me yearn to be the main character.

2. Paranormal MG or YA that keeps me at the edge of my seat and has a fantastic payoff at the end.

3. MG that captures the reality of Middle School with an intriguing plot plus authentic emotion. 7th and 8th grade =hormonal roller coaster where kids strive to be independent yet are still such babes in the woods.

4. Laugh-out-loud, fast paced Chapter Books, MG and YA.

5. Books that organically combine illustration with prose--MG and YA

6. Characters that reflect the popular kids, not just the loners, geeks, etc....I was asked on FB, 'If main characters are popular, healthy, athletic, gets straight A's, gets all the girls, has a perfect family, etc., where's the story?

The story is: who the world perceives we are, how we think about ourselves, and who we really are is usually not the same. I just read The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart. I loved the part where the mc realizes that the boys she thought were confident and had it all were actually self-conscious and insecure about 'issues' the mc never considered.

Some new favorites not on my original list: Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree/Fell in Love by Lauren Tarshis, The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart, Forever by Judy Blume, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, What is Goodbye? by Nickki Grimes.

For now: no high fantasy.

Bridget Zinn KICKS CANCER AUCTION!

BRIDGET ZINN KICKS CANCER AUCTION!
go to www.32auctions.com
Auction ID: bridget
Password: rules
(as in: Bridget rules!!)

BID NOW!

1) I donated a QUERY + 10 PAGES MG or YA CRITIQUE
2) EDITORIAL ANONYMOUS donated a PB CRITIQUE
3) Agent Micheal Stearns donated a QUERY + 10 PAGES MG or YA NOVEL
3)Agent Jennifer Laughran donated QUERY + 10 PAGES MG or YA CRITIQUE
4) Author April Henry donated a 20 PAGE MS CRITIQUE
5) Author Jennifer Cervantes donated a MG CHAPTER CRITIQUE
6) Authors Jo Whittemore, P.J. Hoover, and Jessica Lee Anderson donated a QUERY LETTER, SYNOPSIS AND 1ST 3 CHAPTERS CRITIQUE--3 critiques for your work:)
7) Foot in the Door Critique Package
Critique of your whole novel, synopsis, and query letter by Through The Tollbooth-9 wonderful writers/9 critiques
8)Picture Book Critique from Picture Book Author, Jean Reidy
Detailed critique of a fiction picture book manuscript up to 1000 words
9)Proofreading services for one query letter and synopsis
By Martha Brockenbrough, Punctuation Activist
10) lots of signed books by many of your favorite authors and more!

Browse, bid, and win for a good cause at this online auction to raise money for Bridget Zinn and Barrett Dowell. Bridget is a 32-year-old writer and librarian who is currently being treated for stage 4 colon cancer – and her "healthy young person between jobs" health insurance does not cover many of her expenses. Read Bridget's blog at http://www.bridgetzinn.com/blog for more information.

Bidding will begin on Nov. 27 and continue through 9 p.m. Central time on Dec. 11.

Auction items can be viewed at http://www.32auctions.com/view_auction?id=bridget&pwd=rules - or just go to www.32auctions.com and use the Auction ID: bridget and Password: rules (as in: Bridget rules!!) . You will need to create an account on the site in order to bid on auction items. (Creating an account simply requires your name, email address, and a password, and it is required so that the organizers can contact you if you win an item.)

The auction opened today with 59 items listed. More items will be added through Monday, so if you or someone you know would like to donate, please email me and I will connect you with the wonderful and generous Cailin O'Conner.

Please help. Contributors have donated manuscript critiques and proofreading services, signed copies of books, unique works of art, yummy food and drink, fab baby gifts, beautiful jewelry, and more. Many of the items would make lovely gifts, just in time for your holiday shopping. Take a look – you may find just the thing you’re looking for!

TITLES & COVERS-YOUR BOOK'S BILLBOARD

Some great blog posts in the kidlitosphere on titles and covers today:

First up, EDITORIAL ANONYMOUS answers every writer's burning question--Do I have to come up with the perfect title for my manuscript when I know if I ever sell the darn thing my editor will probably change it?

Second, ANDREW KARRE, Editorial Director of Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Pub Group, shares the trials and tribulations of choosing a YA cover and why that decision is so very important in a two-part post: Why YA Covers are Hard & We've Been Busy.

And for the all important....do titles and covers affect book sales, let's go back to the PW article WHAT TEENS WANT?

What Motivates Them to Buy

Consistent with our 2005 survey, book copy was the most important factor that would make teens pick up a book. A stunning 91% saw this as the most important influence. The cover was important to 79%. The next most important influence, with 77%, was familiarity with an author's previous work; 74% were looking for the next book in a series. For 73%, the title was important. (See related post HERE)

As writers, you have little control over what your cover will look like, but you do have control over the title you stamp on your hot, new love-it-so-much-I-hope-every-agent-and-editor-who-reads-it-sees-why manuscript you submit.

When a submission hits my inbox, one of the first things I notice is the title. It is usually in all caps or italics or bold so it's hard for it not to be the first thing my eyes track to. Titles are not something to anguish over, they are your golden opportunity to attract someone to your manuscript. To make an agent or editor think....I have to stop what I am doing and read this query/ms now!

What I find interesting is that many writers think a manuscript title must tell me what your story is about. Let me make this clear...A book title's job is NOT to sum up your story. A book title's job IS to entice an agent/editor to request your full manuscript and/or move your full to the top of their reading pile.

Your book title is your whistle, your magnet, your bullhorn.

So, how do you write a title if it is not what you are good at. Ah, this is where the 'it takes a village' comes in.

Fee associate a bunch of titles. Type them out, double spaced, and eliminate the ones you hate. Send the list to fellow writers, friends, kids. These writers, friends, kids do not have to read your book first. Heck, the agent/editor you are querying hasn't read your book yet and that is who you are trying to attract. Ask 'which title would make you want to pick this book off the shelf?' Let each person only pick three and order their winning choices.

Don't pour years into a book and short change your title. You are just short changing yourself.

And yes, not every title of famous and super seller books are bullhorns. But that argument does not hold water with me. Don't look towards the mediocre and say it worked for them, aspire to the stars and look towards the neighboring galaxy.

IT'S RAINING QUERIES

Lots of queries are zinging their way into my inbox as well as every other agents' I know. Lucky us! Because some of those queries are the first step to the next bestselling children's books.

As I leave tomorrow to do a workshop on how to find an agent, I thought I'd link to a few helpful query and agent posts I've written in the past.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

1. HOW TO WRITE A QUERY LETTER

2. HOW I READ A SUBMISSION/QUERY LETTER+ A QUICK NOTE ABOUT QUERIES

3. HOW TO WRITE A QUERY LETTER, OH I MEAN FLAP COPY, A LA CHERYL KLEIN + SURVEY SAYS: JACKET COPY SELLS BOOKS

4. EDITOR TALK: SUBMISSIONS

HMH in $40M deal to provide high-tech teaching system to Detroit schools

I have 3 kids in the California public school system and while I applaud the innovations that schools are embracing, I wonder if our generation of children will truly be better educated or will their teachers' learning curve negatively effect how and what students learn.

The ramification for those publishers who 'lock up' school districts is much more far-reaching than many of may have realized. You can toss a textbook program and opt for a new one, not so easy to unravel your computer system from your publishing partner's software, especially when you've paid a $40 million dollar dowry. And in a few years when most school district have signed these long-term, high-cost contracts and a limited number of publishers dominate the field, will the lack of competition be a disincentive to further innovation?

In 5 - 10 years, high-tech teaching will be as commonplace as textbooks are today and students now entering preschool will reap the benefits. I just hope students currently in K-12 will be as lucky.


Read the entire article here: PUBLISHER ENTERS NEW CHAPTER IN TEXTBOOKS

Some excerpts:

Houghton will be providing a computer-based teaching system it developed with Microsoft that will connect teachers, students, and administrators. It’s a radical shift away from the classic textbook publishing model and represents an industry transformation, as technology supplants books.

“The textbook is no longer the center of the educational universe,’’ said Wendy Colby, a senior vice president at Houghton, which is based in Boston.

The Boston publisher is selling some textbooks to Detroit, but most of the contract is for such software such as Learning Village - a customized, interactive classroom network....

The education publishing industry is being swept up in the swing toward digital products, which has accelerated in recent months, thanks partly to the availability of federal stimulus funds....

“It’s much more than just e-book versions of textbooks. It’s companion videos, interactive games, assessment, curriculum planning tools, and on and on and on.’

It’s also changing the relationship between schools and publishers. It’s one thing to discard a paper text; it’s more difficult for a school district to walk away from a computer system on which teachers and students depend.

A product such as Learning Village, Mickey said, “puts the publisher at the center of school action. It ties the school district to the publisher.’’ ...

The challenge, Johnson said, will be in training teachers on the new Houghton systems.

In a five-year study in the public schools of St. Lucie County, Fla., the publisher found that once teachers became proficient in using Learning Village, student performance improved.

“It took a while to get teachers trained on the system,’’ said St. Lucie assistant superintendent Owen A. Roberts. “But eventually, we were able to take advantage of the fact that everything was in one accessible place.’’

B&N: GROWTH OPPORTUNITES + CONSOLIDATION

Three interesting short articles in PW today. Man oh man, what will tomorrow, next week, next year bring?

1. Barnes & Noble Defends Its Turf
"...the nation’s largest bookseller held an investor conference this morning where it made its case for being well positioned to take advantage of its leading spot in traditional bookselling, its growing online sales and its expanding presence in the e-book market."

"Mass merchandisers sell only a fraction of the available titles, B&N said, noting that bookselling is a long tail business. Growth opportunities at the stores include the company's recently introduced educational games and toys as well as the entire children's and teen segment. "

2. B&N Sees Store Consolidation Ahead
"B&N is “highly confident” that the industry will consolidate over the next few years, COO Mitch Klipper said. “There are 1,500 superstores now, there won’t be 1,500 five years from now,” CFO Joe Lombardi added. (B&N has about 700 superstores). B&N estimates it has a 17% share of the bookselling market, a percentage that should increase as consolidation among competitors takes hold."

2. The Nook is B&N Top Seller
"The Nook has become the fastest selling single item at Barnes & Noble since the retailer introduced the e-reader October 20, company CEO Steve Riggio said in Tuesday morning’s investor presentation. Last week, Amazon reported that the Kindle was its fastest selling product in both unit and dollar terms. Neither company has disclosed the number of devices that have been sold and/or ordered, but B&N.com president William Lynch told analysts the company expects to get a “big chunk” of the 900,000 e-readers that some analysts believe will be sold over the holidays."

WHAT DO TEENS WANT?

By Carol Fitzgerald -- Publishers Weekly, 10/26/2009

In an industry without a lot of good news to report, the one consistent bright spot has been publishing for teens. While adult trade sales are expected to fall 4% this year, juvenile and young adult sales are expected to increase 5.1%, according to the PW/IPR Book Sales Index. Although it's impossible to completely break out juvenile from young adult (YA), it is possible to look at expected growth rates for different categories. In the fiction/fantasy/sci-fi segment, where most sales in the YA category fall, we expect nearly 13% growth in 2009, reaching $744 million. By 2013, sales in this segment are anticipated to hit $861 million, a 30.6% increase over 2008...READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

So many fascinating facts in this article like:

What Motivates Them to Buy

Consistent with our 2005 survey, book copy was the most important factor that would make teens pick up a book. A stunning 91% saw this as the most important influence. The cover was important to 79%. The next most important influence, with 77%, was familiarity with an author's previous work; 74% were looking for the next book in a series. For 73%, the title was important. (See related post HERE)

While we are not exploring results of those over 18 in this article, it is noteworthy that 89% of those over 18 chose familiarity with the author first, with the description on the back flap (86%) and the next book in the series (79%) all more significant than the cover (76%). There's likely a difference between the way that teens and adults make book choices.

Most reported that parents don't monitor what they read (55%), while 23% said their parents do weigh in some of the time, and 13% said they are monitored by their parents, but still read what they want. Only 9% follow parental monitors.

ABA Asks for Government Investigation of Price Wars - 10/22/2009 4:30:00 PM - Publishers Weekly

ABA Asks for Government Investigation of Price Wars - 10/22/2009 4:30:00 PM - Publishers Weekly

By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 10/22/2009 4:30:00 PM

In a letter sent to the antitrust division of the Department of Justice Thursday, the board of directors of the American Booksellers Association requested that the government begin an investigation into what the organization believes is the illegal predatory pricing policies being carried out by Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target in selling 10 hardcover titles for as low as $8.98. The ABA requested a meeting with officials as soon as possible, arguing that left unchecked, the predatory pricing policies “will devastate not only the book industry, but our collective ability to remain a society where the widest range of ideas are always made available to the public.”

The letter charged that the big box retailers are using predatory pricing practices to “attempt to win control of the market for hardcover bestsellers.” By selling books below cost, Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target “are devaluing the very concept of the book. Authors and publishers, and ultimately consumers, stand to lose a great deal if this practice continues and/or grows,” the letter stated. Furthermore, the letter noted, the companies involved in the price war are not engaged primarily in selling books, yet their fight could result in the entire book industry becoming collateral damage.

The letter added that the price war over hardcovers was precipitated by Amazon’s decision to price e-books at $9.99. “We believe the loss-leader pricing of digital content also bears scrutiny,” the letter stated.

COME TO BAKERSFIELD, CA ON NOV 7TH!

November 7 - SCBWI-V/SB Workshop

Tips and Tricks to Hook an Agent

Fairview Baptist Church, 113 E. Fairview Rd., Bakersfield CA 93307.

Jill Corcoran will share insider tips on what an agent looks for in queries and first pages, as well as what turns an agent off. She’ll spill the beans on what The Herman Agency is looking for as well as answer all your burning questions.

FIRST PAGES OPPORTUNITY: Bring 2 copies of your query and your wip first page if you would like a critique plus help with revision.

CLICK HERE for more details and registration form.

P&W INTERVIEW WITH JONATHAN KARP

P&W INTERVIEW WITH JONATHAN KARP

Today there is probably no better expediter of literary dreams than Jonathan Karp, the publisher and editor in chief of Twelve, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group. In 2005, frustrated by his lack of freedom at Random House, where he spent sixteen years editing acclaimed best-sellers such as Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit, Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief, and Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club, Karp quit and founded Twelve with the objective of publishing no more than one book per month.

And his advice for writers:
"Aggressively seek the truth--forget about your ego--and do one more draft than your agent asks you to. The writers who I have noticed being successful are the ones who are making their agents wait for that next draft. It's the authors who don't pursue that next project until they're sure it's the right one for them. It's the ones who turn down the easy overture from the publisher for the quickie book and wait to do the book that they can really commit to."

The Intern: publishing observations round-up

The Intern: publishing observations round-up

You are all reading The Intern, right? She cracks me up but her observations are dead on.

“More serious, angsty literature is where girls are right now. Morbid, dead-girl lit.”

Alloy Entertainment and young adult books: newyorker.com

BOYS DON'T READ? THINK AGAIN...

'WIMPY KID 4'
PRINT RUN UPPED TO
4 MILLION

You hear it all the time....boys don't read. They bounce balls, they kill things in video games, they zombie-out in front of the tv....but they don't read.

One thing a 4 million book print run proves is if you give boys books they'll love, they DO read.

Click HERE to read more about the WIMPY KID 4 launch.

For more books that will make boys beg to visit their nearest indie bookstore check out GUYS READ, and be sure to visit their BOOK LIST page.

HA!

Letterman's Top 10 Sarah Palin Tips for Writing a Book. http://ow.ly/scTq

Hunger Mountain Announces Winners of Katherine Paterson Prize

Hunger Mountain Announces Winners of Katherine Paterson Prize

BOOK REVIEWS IN HAIKU

Emily Reads Blog
Captures books' essence, plot in
five-seven-five form.