GINGER CLARK and KARINA YAN GLASER GUEST POST W/ QUERY CRITIQUE and THE VANDERBEEKERS OF 141st STREET GIVEAWAY

Happy Monday Everyone! I am excited to have debut author Karina Yan Glaser here with her agent Ginger Clark to share about Karina's MG contemporary THE VANDERBEEKERS OF 141st STREET. It sounds like a great story with five memorable siblings trying to save their home. Before I get to their guest post, I have Follower News to share.

Follower News

I have two followers to shout out about today. Yay!

Stephanie Haight and Stephanie Robinson's new MG FAIRDAY MORROW AND THE TALKING LIBRARY is being released. Here's a blurb: The next case in the DMS files opens on October 23rd! Follow along with Fairday and friends as the mystery unwinds in the Talking Library. Anything's possible! 

A quote from the book: "Truth lies betwixt the lines."

Here are the book links:

Pre-order on Amazon

fairdaysfiles.com

willowpress.org

And Donna Weaver just released her new adult book SWING VOTE. Here's a blurb: Marc survived

an IED, but will his heart survive McKenzie?

And here's some links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076CFBKYR

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36053276-swing-vote-safe-harbors-3

Do you have good news to share? It can be a book for any age or genre except erotica, and I'll be glad to shout out for you. Just send me an email at natalieiaguirre7@gmail.com with a two-sentence blurb, your cover, and a few links. Please note this is for followers who visit on a regular basis and comment, so that I know that you have been here. No requirement that you stop by all the time, but you do need to be a regular follower. 

Now onto my guest post today!

Here's a blurb of THE VANDERBEEKERS OF 141st STREET from Goodreads:

The Vanderbeekers have always lived in the brownstone on 141st Street. It's practically another member of the family. So when their reclusive, curmudgeonly landlord decides not to renew their lease, the five siblings have eleven days to do whatever it takes to stay in their beloved home and convince the dreaded Beiderman just how wonderful they are. And all is fair in love and war when it comes to keeping their home.

Now here's Karina and Ginger!

Karina: Natalie, thank you so much for having us on your blog! I love Literary Rambles; what a great resource for writers!

Today we’d like to talk to you about the submission process: when an agent sends out a manuscript to editors. When Ginger took me on as her client a little over two years ago, I went through one round of revisions with her before we were ready to go on submission. Ginger put together a list of editors she wanted to submit to, and she sent me the list asking for my thoughts and asked whether anyone on the list was my sworn enemy. I have no enemies (that I know of!), so I gave her the green light. She replied saying that she would send The Vanderbeekers of 141^st Street out to them, then added this note at the end:

So now it's time to find a hobby that takes you away from the computer! May I suggest:
Rabbit grooming.
Archery.
Learning a musical instrument.
Rugby.

ANYTHING that takes you away from the computer.

Do you remember that, Ginger?

Ginger: Yes, I do. I usually tell all my clients when their book goes out on submission to take up some kind of interest or hobby that vacates them from the computer. Archery is often a suggestion! I know an archer and she is driven and organized, and I attribute that partially to the archery. Rabbit grooming was a specialized suggestion for you, because of Izzy (Karina’s rabbit, who I have met several times and adore.)

Karina: I didn’t take up archery or rabbit grooming, but I did do a lot of baking and knitting immediately after Ginger submitted the manuscript. I also did some more writing, and I twiddled my thumbs and only checked my email every two minutes.

Three weeks later, we got one response: a new editor who had just started acquiring had liked it, but

her boss was not one-hundred percent sold. The new editor offered to provide some comments for a “revise and resubmit”. While Ginger and I sat on that for a few days, we got another response. A “no” from another editor.

I remember sitting in the basement of a coffee shop when I got that email. That coffee shop was actually one of the main places where I wrote The Vanderbeekers of 141^st Street, while my kids were in preschool. I felt pretty terrible about myself—it’s never fun to get a rejection—but I think it was an hour later when we received a pre-empt offer from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers (HMH). I’ll let Ginger tell you what a pre-empt means.

Ginger: Before I do, it was a real whiplash moment to receive a rejection on VANDERBEEKERS and then 60 minutes later get an email from Ann Rider, an editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, saying “I really like this book” and not have the email continue “but I can’t offer on it.” I was thinking as I read the email “Oh great another rejection on this book I love, this day is going WELL.” No, instead she laid out her offer, and included a second, higher offer that was a pre-emptive offer. A pre-emptive offer is what an editor makes when she doesn’t want the agent to take the book to auction. The offer has to be high enough for the agent and author to decide they want to take it, rather than risking going to auction (and not getting an offer as high as that pre-empt). There’s the “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” argument behind it. You can potentially be leaving behind a lot more money from the open bidding situation that develops in an auction. But, maybe you don’t want that risk.

Figuring out what the best decision here is why an author needs an agent. I can usually figure out if going to auction is going to lead to more money than an attempted pre-empt. I can also use the threat of an impending auction to raise the pre-emptive offer a bit.

Karina: See why I’m so glad to have Ginger as my agent? While her brain immediately went into business and strategy overdrive, my brain was going haywire after finding out that someone actually wanted to buy my story! My hands were shaking and my heart was pounding so hard. I don’t remember feeling that excited/nervous/scared ever. But Ginger knew just what to do. She contacted the other editors who hadn’t responded and many of them agreed to read the manuscript overnight to see if they were interested. By the next day, another publishing house wanted a chance at The Vanderbeekers of 141^st Street. I had a chance to talk to Ann Rider from HMH on the phone, and once I spoke to her I knew she was the editor for me. Ginger did some more negotiation, and we ended up taking the pre-empt offer.

Ginger: Interestingly, that second editor who wanted the book has now left the business. That happens a lot at a certain level of publishing. But I’m very glad we wound up with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. They have treated Karina very well and the book is clearly beloved by the whole staff there.

Karina: It’s been nearly two years since the submission process, and I couldn’t be more happy to be with HMH. The whole team there is amazing and super smart and kind, and Ann is the perfect editor for me and this book. The author-editor-agent relationship is so unique, and I feel so lucky to be working with two of the best people in the industry.

Ginger: I am so honored to have worked on this book. It’s the kind of book that 8 to 12 year old Ginger would have devoured in one sitting. I grew up an only child in the suburbs, and I dreamed of having a lot of siblings AND living in the city. The Vanderbeekers are the kind of warm, loud family that readers will love. Also, there’s a rabbit who is clearly a genius and a cat who is a real jerk. The pet characters have just as vivid personalities as the kids and their parents and their neighbors do.

Karina: Aw, thank you Ginger! And thank you for having us on your blog, Natalie. This was so much fun! 

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Karina and Ginger.

You can find Karina at:

www.karinaglaser.com

Instagram: @KarinaIsReadingAndWriting

Twitter: @KarinaYanGlaser

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarinaYanGlaser/

And you can find Ginger Clark at:

Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Twitter: @Ginger_Clark

Karina is generously offering a copy of THE VANDERBEEKERS OF 141st STREET for a giveaway and Ginger is offering a query critique for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment through October 28th. If you do not want to be included in the critique giveaway, please let me know in the comments. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter either contest.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. The book giveaway is U.S. and the critique giveaway is international.

Here's what's coming up:

Monday, October 23rd I have an agent spotlight interview and query critique giveaway with agent Molly O'Neill

Monday, October 30th I have an agent spotlight interview and query critique giveaway with agent Quressa Robinson

Wednesday, November 1st I have a guest post by author Dusti Bowling and a giveaway of her MG contemporary INSIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF A CACTUS, and my IWSG post

Monday, November 6th I have an interview with debut author Jodi Kendall and a giveaway of her MG contemporary THE UNLIKELY STORY OF A PIG IN THE CITY

Hope to see you on Monday!