Bad & Good

Alas...usually any type of news seems like it's bad news in the world of a struggling children's author. I wish there was some way for me to stand out from the rest of the crowd. Not all children's authors are stay-at-home mom's that crank out 12 picture books a month! Some of us actually tell a detailed story...but oh well. First the bad news, then the good.

Bad, bad, bad

Got a rejection slip in the mailbox last Saturday. This one was from Allred & Allred Literary Agents. It was printed on a dot-matrix printed slip of paper that read:

Dear Writer:

We have reviewed your proposal and have decided this is not the agency to represent it.

Thank you.

Firstly, I didn't send them a proposal. I sent them a query and the first 25 pages. Secondly...oh, what's the point? I'm not sure a agency that can't even manage to emote a molecule of personalization is going to be worth the effort. So, I've crossed them off of the list as well. That's cool. Have it your way Allred & Allred. Who needs ya???

Good, very good.

Remember the children's author I mentioned in my last post? Well, Mr. Brian Selznick was good enough to send me a reply to my e-mail. In it, he gave me the name and e-mail address of a children's book agent her in Minneapolis. He said to send her an e-mail and let her know that he gave me her name, etc... Awesome. He also asked if I knew about www.scbwi.org and that there were some really good resources on there as well. As if that weren't enough...he also hooked me up with the e-mail address of a new author here in town that he thought would be helpful and friendly to the likes of me.

Not only that, Brian said to keep him up to date with how things go. Stay tuned...