More on Literary Agents

I was prompted by a feature by Catherine Heaney in today’s The Gloss (The Irish Times magazine) to write about agents. The piece is mainly about Irish agents and I’ve often been asked why I don’t have an Irish agent. I’m represented by Lucas Alexander Whitley, LAW, and in particular Philippa Milnes-Smith and Peta Nightingale. They are based in central London.

Catherine’s piece mentions the Irish agents Faith O’Grady, Marianne Gunn O’Connor and Jonathan Williams who was the first agent in Ireland (he set up in 1986) and last year received over 2,800 submissions. He says ‘the standard hasn’t necessarily improved. I think the sad fact is that there are more people writing than reading.’

Claire Kilroy is also interviewed. She said she went to London to meet with several agents before deciding on Simon Trewin at United Agents. She says ‘I went with the one I felt I could speak most openly to, and who spoke most openly back.’ Simon also represents John Boyne.

Also mentioned are agents Peter Straus (who represents Colm Toibin and Hugo Hamilton), Ivan Mulcahy (Hugo Arnold and Domini Kemp), Ed Victor (Edna O’Brien and John Banville) and Derek Johns (Sebastian Barry and Paul Murray), all based in London.

So why, like many other Irish authors, did I chose an agent based in London?

1/ They represent authors who write for children and for adults (and who write for both). As I write across the age groups, this was important to me.

2/ They have an amazing stable of authors – Sophie Kinsella on the adult side, Chris Riddell and Paul Stewart on the children’s. Not to mention Justin Somper, Linda Chapman, Steve Cole and . . . you get the drift.

3/ Philippa used to be the MD of Puffin Books, London. She knows her stuff. As does Peta.

4/ They were recommended to be by an author I know well and trust. And he very kindly gave me an email intro to Philippa.

5/ They are based in London. My publishers are based in London. A lot of launches, meetings, and book fairs take place in London. It makes sense to have an agent also based in London if you want to make writing your career.

6/ I met Philippa and Peta in person before signing with them and really liked them both. And they keep me on my toes writing-wise. I’m working harder on my writing than I’ve ever worked before. Which is great.

What you need in an agent:

1/ Someone who knows what they are doing in Ireland, the UK and internationally.

2/ Someone who does not gush about your work and your ideas (unless they really are brilliant of course!). You need honesty. You need to be able to rely on their opinion and their opinion needs to be consistent.

3/ Someone you can trust. They will be dealing with your financial affairs after all.

4/ Someone who is in London a lot for business or is based in London. Or if your main market is New York, is based New York. Or someone who is willing to travel to all the major book fairs to sell your work and keep in touch with the larger publishing world.

5/ Someone with a track record of getting good deals for authors. Ask an agent who they represent. This will tell you a lot.

6/ Someone with proven experience in contract law – book contract law – this is a must.

But here’s the thing – it’s very, very hard to find a good agent. They already have a lot of writers on their books. They only take on people they know they can work with and are serious about writing as a career.

The good new is this – if you book is good enough and if you are dedicated to writing in the long term, and if an agent thinks there is a market for your book/books - you will find a good agent. And agents do take on writers who show great potential but haven’t quite got to the publishable stage yet.

So take heart – there is someone out there to represent you.

How to find a good agent:

1/ Ask any authors you know for a recommendation. A caveat – never use their name on a letter to an agent unless they have given you the go ahead to do so.

2/ If you write popular fiction, there are generally acknowledgements at the front or back of the book. This will tell you who the writer’s agent is – as most people thank their agent. Make a list of these agents, find out where they work - what agency - and approach them.

3/ Any up to date Writers and Artists’ Handbook will list agents – check out the websites and they will tell you how to submit. Only submit to agents who deal with your genre/age group. Otherwise you are wasting your time.

4/ Go to How to Get Published talks that agents are speaking at and approach them. Politely of course. Introduce yourself. Ask can you send them your manuscript. If you join Irish Pen (google it), they hold twice yearly getting published events for writers.

5/ Try some newer or up and coming agents. Find this info in The Bookseller magazine – you can find it in your local library - or google it – it has a website and news pages. If you write for children join Children’s Books Ireland and go to some of their events. Ditto Irish Pen. Talk to other writers – find out a little about the publishing world and new agents that way. (As always, the writers who do their homework win in the end!)

And do meet an agent in person if possible before you sign with them. And don’t be afraid to ask them questions. Be yourself but your best self when you meet them! (And yes, it’s nerve wracking - I was very nervous when I met Philippa and Peta for the first time – it’s natural to be nervous!). You need to know you can work together. You don’t have to be best friends, but you do have to get on and like each other!

15% is the standard rate agents charge. And yes, it is worth it. I often hear quibbles about this from (funnily enough) unpublished writers. Good agents earn their money many times over – believe me.

Best of luck finding a good agent!

Yours in writing,

Sarah XXX

Approaching the Page with Joy

I'm reposting this from 2009 as I'm just back from tour and wiped out to be honest. But I have lots to tell you on the writing front, lots to share - so back soon, I promise!But until then . . .

Approaching the page with joy

I’ve been having some slow writing starts these mornings. Christmas is looming near and I’m not at all on top of things. No cards sent, few presents bought – apart from the kids’ stuff on Amazon – toys and Xbox games. All Jago, 3 wants is a rubbish truck, bless him. Amy, 6, a bike; Sam, 15, horrible gore-fest X box games. Books I buy from my local bookshops – as a former bookseller I feel it’s really important to support them always and forever but especially when things are a little tough.

Every morning I’ve been taking a walk, an attempt to shake me out of the Munch funk – feeling a little down and slow and sluggish and not all there mentally. I try telling myself how lucky I am, how thousands, millions would give their eye teeth to have one book contract, let alone several.

And I do feel lucky, really I do. But I must admit that now and again it all seems a little overwhelming and I feel swamped with work and scared at what I have to do.

So I have to take a step back (after moaning to some of my fellow writing friends of course, I’m only human), calm the voices in my head (you can’t write, it’s all nonsense, one day someone will realise how rubbish you are . . .) and just get on with the business of finishing the darned book.

I have to stop thinking about deadlines and start concentrating on my plot and my characters. And most importantly, as my lovely and very wise London editors told me, give my story room to breathe. I have to strip back all the unnecessary scenes from the book and let the main characters shine through.

I was at a talk by Carlo Gebler on Monday and he said something very interesting. He said that he only got published (after trying many times) when he started telling his stories simply – going from A to B to C with embellishment. It’s as simple at that. If you get that right, you can add a little sparkle to the writing later. It’s excellent advice.

A to B to C.

I’m currently rewriting Amy Green book 3, Bridesmaid Blitz. It’s set in Dublin and Paris, and Mills (Amy’s best friend) was the star of the Paris scenes. But I see now that Amy was being sidelined and it wasn’t quite working. Yes, even my carefully researched rapping scene starring Clover will have to hit the editing floor. And it’s hard. But it will be a better book for all the cutting and rewriting.

I have to stop worrying about deadlines and reconnect with the joy of writing – the reason I started writing in the first place. Write for the sheer love of it. The privilege of sitting down at my desk and losing myself in a story for hours and hours. You know the feeling you get when you’re lost in a brilliant book and you just don’t want it to end, ever? That’s the feeling I get on a good writing day.

Sometimes it takes days to get to that feeling, sometimes, if I’m lucky, minutes. But today I’m feeling lucky . . .

Back to the blank page . . .

May the joy of writing (and reading) be with all of you.

Sarah XXX

What's in a name?

A quick post today on picking names. I was giving a writing workshop over the weekend and one of the things we talked about was choosing the right names for your characters. Sometimes I read books and some of the names just doesn't suit the characters. Other times they are just perfect. For eg last night I finished The Perfect Proposal by Katie Fforde, a charming, compelling romantic comedy. The main character is sweet, funny, and put upon by her family who think she's an idiot (she proves them wrong!). Her name is Sophie Appley. It suits her down to the ground.

I try to take great care picking my own characters' names. In the Amy Green books one of my favourite characters is Clover Wildgust. Wildgust is a real name, I found it on a gravestone (sorry, bit morbid I know, but I do love graveyards!). Clover is 'Wild' by name, wild by nature. I could have gone for just Wilde, but I liked the gust bit as it's different. And Clover - well she just is a Clover. Amy is Amy because it's one of my favourite names - my daughter is Amy - and it's also a name lots of girls can identify with - she's my everygirl character in the book. And Green - again is a common enough surname and sounds friendly I think. And Amy is above all, a good friend, to MIlls and Clover, and also to my readers too I hope.

Seth Stone is emotionally strong and together - even though he has to cope with a lot a home - hence Stone. Bailey Otis, who will appear in book 3 is a mysterious boy with a strange past - Otis, after a song I like and Bailey as again it's a little bit unusual, just like him.

The adult book I am currently writing - The Shoestring Club - well, lots of names I really like in there. Arietty Pilgrim is my favourite name I think - an eccentric girl who communicates better with animals than people but has great inner strength. She's an elephant keeper. And I also love Julia Schuster - always Jules or Julia Boolia to her family, or Boolie for short. She's a mess sometimes, and does daft things, but she has a good heart.

I even took great care naming my elephants - Beatrix is the matriarch, and her sister is Enid - and yes they are named after Beatrix Potter and Enid Blyton!

So there you go - think carefully about naming your characters and have fun with it. Make it mean something, to both you and your readers. Names count.

Yours in writing,

SarahX

Back in Business - Hello Again

Hi All,I'm back after my hols - apologies for the lack of posts recently. Over the next few weeks I will discuss the children's books market - with some news, interviews and general bits and pieces, focusing on the Irish market. If anyone has any questions on the current market do ask me - I'll be talking to booksellers and publishers in Ireland, so any queries are welcome. Yours in writing, Sarah

A Note on Word Count

Word counts – I’ll get straight into it, starting with books for grown ups. Popular fiction in particular. My first book, Three Times a Lady was roughly 100,000 words. Here’s how I worked out the word count - I literally counted the words in a Cathy Kelly book, a Sheila O’Flanagan book and a Marian Keyes book and figured that 90 to 120k was about right! This was in 2000. (When I say counted – I counted the number of words on one page and multiplied it by the number of total pages – I’m not a complete lunatic! But you knew that, right? Someone in a writing class I once taught thought I was suggesting they count every word – honestly!)

Some of my other books have been shorter – 85k, 86k, some longer. 126,000 is the longest – When the Boys Were Away. That year publishers were looking for longer books and my story luckily just naturally longer.

I have a feeling the next adult book will be shorter. It’s for a slightly younger age group – older teens, 20s, early 30s – and so far the story just seems to be zipping along and not getting sidetracked by sub plots, which can stretch a book out. So I’d say 80 to 90k.

I’ve asked a few of my friends who write popular fiction and they are mainly in the 90k to 110k category.

Children’s books are a little more complicated. I am constantly asked how many words should a children’s book actually be?

Now, this is a rather vague question. So I ask ‘What kind of children’s book?’ And they say ‘Oh, you know, a novel. Anyone would love it. I’d say age 6 to 80.’ My heart always sinks at this, as it means the writer hasn’t grasped one of the fundamentals of writing for children – and this is that you must know your audience.

Children of 6 do not read the same books as teenagers of 14. And yes, of course there are rare ‘crossover’ books like Harry Potter or The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, but in general different age groups have different tastes. And their stories need different word counts.

Knowing you audience and their needs is an interesting one – I’ll make a note to come back to it at a later stage. But for now – word count.

These are very much just guidelines, oh writerly ones!

Picture books are short generally, people, SHORT. Read some picture books, count the words and get a feel for it. Usually less than 400 or 500 words.

Early readers are also SHORT. My Emma the Penguin book in the O’Brien Panda series is 800 words long, and, I hope, not a word out of place. Most publishers will tell you what word count they need for their early reading series – contact then and ask. Just ring O’Brien Press – 01 – 492333 (Dublin) and ask them. They are very helpful. I’m not sure what they are taking on at the moment, but again, that’s useful to know too – again, just ask them. Friendly folk, the O’Brien gang.

Novels for age 8/9/10 - 30,000/35,000 is the norm. Of course some books are longer than that (Yes, yes, you don’t need to mention Harry Potter), but if they are going to be must longer they need to be pretty darned good.

Novels for age 10+ – my Ask Amy Green books are usually around 50,000 words which is quite long for this age group I am told. Judi Curtin’s are about 30,000, Cathy Cassidy’s about 30 to 40,000. But Amy just has a lot to say I guess!

Older teens – less than 60/70,000 would be the norm. But fantasy books do tend to be longer.

The best thing to do is always – ALWAYS – to read a hell of a lot of books in the age group and the genre you intend to write for. Get a really good feel for it and then with that in mind, write your own book. Won’t you get influenced by other people’s work? It’s a risk worth taking. If you are influenced by excellent children’s books – and note I said influenced, by which I mean inspired, I am not suggesting you write ‘like’ anyone else but yourself – surely this is a good thing as long as you stay true to your own voice and your characters and plot are wholly original.

Below I’ve posted a section from the blog of American literary agent, Mary Kole who has some darned good advice and comments on word count on www.kidlit.com – check it out.

She points out that these are just estimates gathered from her (wide) experience. And they relate to the American market in particular, but are also useful for the UK/Irish market: Word counts -

• Board Book — 100 words max • Early Picturebook — 500 words max • Picturebook — 1,000 words max (Seriously. Max.) • Nonfiction Picturebook — 2,000 words max • Early Reader — This varies widely, depending on grade level. I’d say 3,500 words is an absolute max. • Chapterbook — 10,000 words max • Middle Grade — 35,000 words max for contemporary, mystery, humor, 45,000 max for fantasy/sci-fi, adventure and historical • YA — 70,000 words max for contemporary, humor, mystery, historical, romance, etc. 90,000 words max for fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, etc.

And here’s more useful stuff from Mary: Now for the more practical, everyday truth. Personally — and this sounds extremely crass and judgmental of me, I know — the lower your word count, the more I like you, right off the bat. For example, right now, I’ve got about 150 queries and 8 manuscripts in my queue. And that’s from, like, the last couple of days. That’s a lot of words for me to read. When I get a query for anything over 80k words that sounds really cool, I groan a little bit inside. It’s not the word count, per se, because, if something sounds cool, I really do get excited to read it. It’s that I have so many other submissions on my plate, so I half-dread loving it a lot and having to read all those 80k words. And if I take it on, I’ll have to read those 80k words over and over again as we revise. It represents a big time commitment. I realize this is arbitrary and perhaps lazy of me but… welcome to the world of a very busy agent. Sometimes, we have these thoughts. There are times, though, (and these are the rule, not the exception, I find) when an inflated word count isn’t earned, isn’t awesome, isn’t because every word deserves to be there. I usually find that first-time fantasy, paranormal or sci-fi authors are the worst offenders. They craft a redundant manuscript full of lavish description that moves at a snail’s pace. Then they send it to me and proudly say that there are 155k words and that it’s the first in a trilogy. I read the writing sample and see paragraph after paragraph of dense text with no breaks for dialogue or scene. These are the high word count manuscripts that are problematic. Because, clearly, the author hasn’t revised enough. And if I tell them what really needs to happen — that they need to lose about 50% of their words — they’ll have an aneurysm. But, truthfully, if your word count is anything over 100k in children’s, it better be higher-than-high YA fantasy. And all those words better be good. Cutting words and scenes and “killing your babies,” as I like to put it, is one of the most hard-won revision skills any writer can have. And it usually comes after you’ve done lots and lots and lots of revision in your life. Many debut authors haven’t yet learned how to make — and enjoy — this type of word sacrifice. It shows.

Interesting, honest stuff! I'll be keeping an eye on Mary's blog from now on!

Yours in writing,

Sarah X Word count of this blog - 1, 318!

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Now and then I like giving you a heads up about fab books, and this is one of them. Published for teens, but I'm 41 and I LOVED it. So for everyone with a beating heart really! The official Inis magazine review is below but can I just say this is the most beautifully produced book I've seen in years for teens - textured cover with sky scene, stunning interior images - poems written on scraps of paper (part of the story), highly unusual blue print instead of stark black, it just looks amazing. As Sonya Sones said in her recent review 'I think I might even want to marry this book.'See http://www.theskyiseverywhere.com/ for more details of Jandy.

Here's that review:

JANDY NELSON THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE Walker Books, £7.99 (PBK), ISBN 9781406326307

‘Gram is worried about me. It’s not because my sister Bailey died four weeks ago, or because my mother hasn’t contacted me in sixteen years, or even because suddenly all I think about is sex. She is worried about me because one of her houseplants has spots.’

From the quirky, direct opening lines of The Sky is Everywhere, you know this beautifully produced book is going to be a little bit different. When her vibrant, confident sister, Bailey dies suddenly, quiet music-geek, Lennie Walker is thrown into emotional turmoil. Despite her lack of romantic experience, she finds herself with two suitors, one of whom is Bailey’s ex, Toby who is struggling with his own feelings of grief and guilt, causing Lennie even more confusion. The other boy is Joe, a gifted musician who slowly makes Lennie feel that one day, maybe, she’ll be able to swallow down her sorrow and move on with her life.

The writing is lyrical and full of telling detail, capturing the heady highs and lows of one very special teenager’s journey from grief, to acceptance and, finally, redemption. Lennie’s voice is spot on, funny, poignant and crushingly real. In quiet moments I still hear her whispering hard won teen wisdom in my ear.

This is my very favourite kind of book, the kind of book you don’t just read, you live. I’d highly recommend it to anyone teenager or adult who enjoys heartfelt, magical, redemptive fiction with a touch of heady romance thrown in for good measure. [Sarah Webb]

Style Sheets for Authors

Style Sheets for Authors – a darned good idea! I’ve just finished doing a ‘light Americanisation/Americanization’ of my second Amy Green book and I was fascinated by the differences between the meaning of some Irish-English words and American-English words.

For example American readers have no idea what a ‘gooseberry’ is, ie ‘being a gooseberry’. They don’t have en suites – they have just plain old bathrooms. I guess in America en suites are probably the norm in hotel rooms and houses! And there were loads of other examples.

But there were loads of instances when the meaning of what I was trying to say was lost because – well, because it’s just the way I say it. And it would have been useful for my American editor to have some sort of heads up on these things as they often repeat in my writing.

Hence for the next book I’m going to type up a style sheet for her, a list of all the funny bits and pieces, strange spellings, place names etc – anything I think might be useful in working out what I’m trying to say on paper! Because these are things that are carrying on from book to book if you are writing a series.

You might like to try it too. It’s particularly useful for things like names that are spelt differently to American names – it means the editor won’t have to keep checking on the spelling for each book. In my case, the magazine Clover writes for is called The Gloss, but in the American book they call it the (small t) Gloss. It’s a small detail but it will make life easier for everyone next time around if I jot it down right now on my style sheet.

Anything that makes life easier for my editor and for me makes sense!

See the posting at Book Ends Literary Agency for more on this subject: http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2010/06/style-sheet.html

Let me make it clear. A style sheet is different from a series bible. A style sheet does not include the nitty-gritty details of your world or your characters. It’s for editing purposes. A style sheet should include spellings of names or stylistic changes you’ve made to the spelling of other common words. For example, if you’ve decided that "Prom" is capitalized throughout your book, that would be something you would include on the style sheet. "Prom" is not technically a proper noun.

Yours in writing,

Sarah X

So You Want to Write for Children?

Hi Folks, I'm back from Washington - where I spotted loads of people reading books on Kindles and other devices. This is an article that is currently running in Inis, the specialist children's book magazine in Ireland. Hope it's useful. I have more on children's books, writing a series in particular for you next week.

Until then, yours in writing,

SarahX PS if you like this blog, please do send the details on to friends - thanks! I have a lot of readers now - thanks to each and every one of you. And do let me know if there are any subjects you'd like me to cover - sarah at sarahwebb.ie

So You Want to Write for Children? Some Advice for Unpublished Writers (Inis magazine June 2010)

By Sarah Webb

Recently I spoke to thirty six-year-olds about my new Panda book, Emma the Penguin at the Dublin Book Festival. It was my first foray into the world of the jitter bugs that are 1st classers, and as I watched fellow Panda-person, Gillian Perdue round up her herd of cowboys and teach them how to line dance, I realised just how much I still have to learn about entertaining younger children. But I’d like to share what I have learned with you, in the hope it will prove useful to other writers, especially to those starting out.

Firstly the bad news, it is no longer enough to write an amazing book. There are over 8,000 children’s books published annually, many of which are also amazing. Some of these amazing books will have a lot of money behind them, some of them will be ‘written’ by pop stars or models. Some of them will be written by authors with a long standing track record.

But do not despair. There is a lot you can do to build your profile or ‘platform’ (as the market-eers like to call it) as a children’s writer before your book is published or even accepted for publication.

I’ll start with some general points. It goes without saying that you should put most of your time and energy into your writing. Write for the child inside you, write remembering just how it feels to be 4 or 7 or 9. Dig deep and use your memory. In a recent edition of Inis (Spring 2010) Sophie McKenzie says ‘I remember exactly what it was like being a teenager . . . (I) can vividly remember the years between 13 and 15.’

Yes, modern children now have You Tube, Facebook, mobiles – but they are just different ways of communicating, but emotions don’t change. After all, your parents may not have had televisions or telephones growing up!

If you want to write for children or teens, talk to children or teens, ask them what music they like, what actors, what books, what telly shows. The average 6th class girl’s favourite show is Desperate Housewives – who would have guessed?

Take constructive criticism on your work from people who read a lot of children’s books. Teens make good critics, but younger children generally want to please. You might find an experienced librarian or teacher who will read your work – take on board what they say.

Write from the heart and don’t be afraid of strong emotion. In Jacqueline Wilson’s books siblings jump out of high towers, killing themselves (My Sister Jodie), mums have nervous breakdowns and take emulsion paint baths (The Illustrated Mum). Oliver Jeffers’s latest picture book, The Heart and the Bottle, features a girl whose father has just died. She does not know how to cope with the grief so she takes her heart out and places it in a bottle for safe keeping. Strong stuff!

If you want to write commercial children’s fiction, you must have an eye to the market. Read children’s books – especially in the age group/area you are interested in writing for – library/bookshop recommendations, modern classics, bestsellers and award winners. There are many good guides out there to help you pick fantastic books to read, my favourites being the Ultimate Book Guide series published by A & C Black, a must for anyone serious about writing for children or teens.

This reading will also help you be aware of what modern children like and are interested in – and what works in a book. And also it’s fun; some of the best books out there are children’s books. It will also help you work out what age group you are writing for: early reader, confident reader, teen reader. This is vital. Children’s books are categorised in most shops and libraries by age. Young readers are aspirational – they like to read about children older than they are. If your character is 11, your readers will probably be 7/8 to 11.

Are there any gaps in the market? In a word, yes. At a recent Irish Pen event called ‘New Kids on the Block’, Svetlana Pironko, Director of the Author Rights Agency, Siobhan Parkinson, Children’s Editor at Little Island (New Island’s imprint for children and teens), and Paddy O’Doherty, Children’s Editor at Puffin Ireland, explained what they were looking for. Paddy would like to see fiction for the 7 to 9 age group, but especially 8 to 12 fiction. She says ‘read Puffin books’ and see where the gaps in the list are – and try to fill the gaps. She is very interested in good animal and child stories like Charlotte’s Webb, humour for girls – Louise Rennison type books (she kindly mentioned my own Amy Green books as the type of thing she is looking for), and Fantasy. She said the books must be ‘well written, with original ideas and voice, and a real sense of control’. She wants to feel that the author knows what she (or he) is doing, that they have a sense of authority. And overall she is very keen on reading more manuscripts from new authors – all good news! Siobhan Parkinson is looking for novels for age 9+ and teens. She is personally not a huge fan of fantasy, she prefers realistic novels and she, like Paddy is looking for ‘originality, a strong voice, someone who is in control of their writing’. Svetlana, however is a big fantasy fan and finds this sells best to international publishers. She also likes teenage/crossover fiction and says universal stories are vital; she is interested in books that can travel. In the UK, the publishers are veering towards ‘brand’ authors, authors they can work with over a number of books. And this goes for the picture books as well as novels. Oliver Jeffers for example has just signed a four book deal with Harper Collins for his new picture book series, The Hueys. Cathy Cassidy’s new book, Cherry Crush, will be the first book in a new series for girls.

Once you have written your book, what next? While awaiting publication (or your manuscript to find a home), there are many things you can do to start building your profile. Of course, you must start working on your next book, that goes without saying. But you can also begin creating an on-line presence. A website, a blog or both. A Facebook, My Space or Bebo page. Down the line, your readers should be able to find out more about you online and contact you – it’s part of the job of a modern children’s writer.

Blog about what interests you – whether it be books, writing, music, fashion, the universe – as long as it’s interesting. Decide your blogging market – are you targeting parents, teachers, librarians, or children themselves? For blogging inspiration, check out David Maybury’s blog, the children’s literature blog of record.

Reviewing children’s books for Inis magazine is a good way of keeping in touch with current books and also getting your name out there. And it goes without saying, do join CBI and attend some of the wonderful events and workshops. Attend author events and hear other children’s authors speak about their work. Immerse yourself in the children’s book world and you will have a better chance of spreading the word about your book to the right people when it is published.

Start reading your work to children right now. Think about what you have to offer as a performer. If you want to write for children, these days you have to connect with them LIVE. Find your own special way of doing events – standing in front of children and reading is not enough. The first and only commandment of doing events is: Thou Shalt Not Bore.

I use a lot of show and tell during my talks. I show the audience photos, toys, books and clothes from my childhood and talk about what I was like as a child and teen. Then I use these stories to explain how I became a writer. Marcus Sedgewick uses powerpoint to illustrate his talk on ‘where he gets his ideas’, other writers like Patrick Ness use clipboards to demonstrate their points.

Finally, be optimistic and have a strong constitution. You will probably be rejected many, many times before you make it. Even after fifteen years and twenty-seven books some of my ideas are still turned down. Write because you can’t not write. Multi-award winning writer Patrick Ness says write with joy. I would go further, I would say write as if it’s your last day on this earth. Give 100% every time you sit down at your desk. And hopefully your joy, passion and dogged hope will translate onto the page. Good luck and keep the writing faith!

Sarah Webb is the author of the Ask Amy Green series for young teens, published by Walker Books, UK, Candlewick Books, US, and other international publishers. Her first early reader, Emma the Penguin has just been published by O’Brien Press. She is on the board of CBI and is the Children’s Reviewer for the Irish Independent. For more see www.askamygreen.com or www.sarahwebb.ie She also writes romantic comedy and her tenth novel, The Shoestring Diaries: Julia, will be published in 2011. She loves encouraging new, unpublished writers, and is a regular speaker at the Inkwell writing workshops and courses. She is delighted to report that many of the writers going through Inkwell’s doors are now published.

For marketing and publicity tips for published writers, see Sarah’s article on the CBI website – CBI Info section - www.childrensbooksireland.ie

The Mind of a 7 Year Old

Quick one today as I’m supposed to be writing my new Ask Amy Green book - book 4 - Party Drama-rama. I was flicking through my daughter’s school workbook this morning – Window on the World Activity Book B. She’s in Senior Infants and she’s just 7.

The book is fun, colourful and relevant. But the writer in me instantly thought how useful books like this are for finding ideas and stories to interest this early reading age group.

In the pages she had drawn things from her own life and things that interest her. Her favourite toy for example is her Nintendo DS. Computers are a big part of her life – lots of pics of those! (Draw things that need electricity). And boats. Lots and lots of boats! (Draw things from your summer holiday).

It’s a fascinating insight into her world – the things she likes, the colours she uses, the way she sees everything around her.

What a great way for a writer to get into the mind of a 7 year old. Grab your child’s (or rob your niece or nephews') workbook today and look, really look at what she or he is drawing and writing about. You may be surprised. I certainly was!

Yours in writing,

Sarah X