What I do on a snow day when too fat and achy for sled riding.

[rockinlibrarian]

How is it I can go through an entire writing market guide, cross-referencing with websites, and not find a single book publisher that seems like a good fit for Ian, nor a single magazine that could use any of the article ideas I have? Ah well, I shall keep digging.

If you were wondering, which you probably weren't unless you are an older relative of mine,* I did not go to work today because the roads were indeed messy and I do indeed have too much pregnancy brain to drive properly. But it turned out to be a productive day-- a day when I neither had to go anywhere nor was too sick to do anything! So I got lots of laundry and market research done. Although the market research was actually more interesting than productive, since I didn't actually find anything I could USE immediately. But there's a few I might come back to....

So now I'm going to go do other things although I can't actually think of what they might be off the top of my head at this moment.

*People kept calling this morning and asking Jason (who had answered the phone) if I had gone to work, and then said, "Good!" when he said I didn't, and then they'd continue "so when are YOU leaving for work?" Not ARE you. WHEN. Which he did go to actually, because the roads got better just before he had to leave, and since I wasn't going anywhere, he got to take my car with the snow tires and anti-lock breaks. And he doesn't have pregnancy brain.

Comments

[majellen.livejournal.com]

Try looking (at the library, or if you have your own collection) of the publishers of children's books that fit Ian's age group. That should give you a start.

Also, look online for reputable writing contests and such. And maybe you need to find a magazine and then choose to write an article for it, instead of looking for a magazine to fit an article you already have in mind.

Sounds like a good reason to spend a day at the library!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Which I'd planned to do TODAY, except the roads are too bad to get there. :P I'm going to have to renew my library books over the phone, I think!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Oh, I should mention that it seems every book I've found so far that seems to match the style and age level of Ian, it either is a) an import published by a publisher that only publishes imports; or b) a publisher that only publishes established authors or agented materials (see my comment about finding an agent below). So while I did find publishers that fit style-wise from the guide, they all also contained the notice "Don't even THINK of sending us your stuff!" Nonetheless, looking for MORE similar books WILL be my next step, once I can actually get out of the house.

[majellen.livejournal.com]

Maybe you can call/write them and ask them which agents they prefer to use? Or a list of children's agents?

It is a good book, it should be out there!

[majellen.livejournal.com]

http://users.erols.com/veritas/ipm.htm

They find a publisher FOR you. Check them out. Of course, they may or may not be legit, I don't know.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Any agent or agency that doesn't charge you ahead of time-- that only takes a small percentage of whatever the publisher gives you ("There's no fee unless we get money for YOU!") is legit, though it's also possible they might not be all that GOOD. But finding an agent that matches is as hard as finding a publisher (especially in children's, because only a few agents even WORK in children's and YA!) . This one, for example, turns out to be looking for Latino works (in either subject or author's heritage), and I don't think 3 1/2 years of high school spanish qualifies me.

[majellen.livejournal.com]

ROFL - obviously I didn't look at that one very hard. I dunno...you certainly LOOK Latino ~ sarcasm~ ...

Why do they make it so hard? It should just be a few simple steps. Find someone to read it. They tell you if they think it's good or not. If they like it, they publish it. If not, they tell you to go away.

Really. Why do people make life so difficult?

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Why do they make it so hard?

Apparently it's because people send out a lot of really stupid crap to completely inappropriate places and it makes them testy... the publishers and agents that is. But even I have to admit that I think this book should be out there, SOMEwhere... I mean, sometimes I forget I wrote it and just feel like rereading it because it's one of my favorite books, just like my real favorite books. Not that it's the greatest book in the world by far, but the characters really are addicting. I went and made an oblique comment about Billy in a completely unrelated community this morning-- keeps coming up!

But in other news, apparently my library never bothered to open today. But they also never bothered to either post on their website or on their phone message whether this means all books that were due today get a reprive, and if so for how long. You'd think somebody'd be able to do that from home.