 Andrea Somberg loves variety in her reading and in the genres she represents. As a literary agent for Harvey Klinger, INC., her clients include writers of nonfiction, science fiction, romance, picture books, middle grade, and young adult. Andrea's clients have nominated for The Edgar Award, The Governor General’s Award, the Lambda Award, and named best books of the year by NY Public Library and Book of the Month Club.
She is on the look out for nonfiction that look at the world in a new, unusual way, or that give her insight into a topic that she's not familiar with. Nonfiction Ninjas are excited to have a conversation with the incredible Ms. Somberg. Why did you become a literary agent? I’ve always loved to read — it’s my one, true passion in life — but it wasn’t until college that I realized it could become a career (before that I thought I might go into social work). I interned for a literary agency and loved everything about it — advocating for authors, working in a community where everyone loves books, and helping projects find their way out into the world. What excites you most about working in publishing? I love the excitement of reading a new proposal or manuscript, of thinking that this could be something I fall completely in love with or that could change my perspective on things. But I really love all aspects of my job — pitching projects, negotiating contracts, forging relationships with others who love books. I also love how the publishing industry is constantly changing — it keeps me on my toes! -- and I'm always on the look out for new opportunities for my clients and their work. What are you looking for in nonfiction projects? I love books that shine a light on topics in a fun way or that teach readers something they didn't know, especially if there is an interactive element. I also love books that engage the reader in someone else’s life, that give them a window into what it's like to live in a different place or time, and that helps to expand their world. Are there specific topics that interest you? I am very interested in OwnVoices projects and books that help the reader better understand an experience that might not be their own. I am also particularly interested in books that encourage kids to get involved in the world around them, to engage with their community and their environment, and to follow their passions. What trends are you seeing in the industry? Years ago it was hard to get books published by underrepresented voices but I’m happy to say that that’s changed. The Own Voices movement continues to gain momentum and we have been seeing this reflected on publishers’ lists. Who is your ideal client? Someone who is passionate about books. Are you more interested in PB, MG, YA, or all three? I tend to do more MG and YA, however I would love to find more OwnVoices PB. What do you want to see in a nonfiction proposal? The competitive books section is very important — I want to know what other books are out there, and how your book is different. Why is there a need for it? I also want to know more about you. Who are you and why are you interested in this topic? What is your background, your credentials? Do you have a promotional platform? (In other words, why are you the best person to be writing this book?). For children’s nonfiction, promotional platform isn’t necessarily as important for adult nonfiction, however it can certainly help. For more narrative-driven books ,such as memoir or biography, .the more sample material you have, the better. What are some of your favorite kidlit nonfiction books? There are so many I love! But if I have to name a few: for MG I love Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s Hey, Kiddo and Ben Brooks’ Stories for Boys Who Dare to be Different; for YA, Dashka Slater’s The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives and Joanna Spathis’s Wake, Rise, Resist: The Progressive Teen's Guide to Fighting Tyrants and A*holes; and for PB, Jacqueline Woodson’s When You Begin and Ibram X. Kendi’s Antiracist Baby. What advice can you give to people who want to break into the nonfiction market? Do your research. If you are interested in a topic, learn what else is out there. Make sure that your book is different, that it fills a hole in the marketplace and that there is a need for it. And then make the best case as to why you are the best person to write it. And last but not least – are you a dog person or a cat person? And do you have a pet? Both! Growing up I had several dogs, but when I married I inherited two cats (who have unfortunately passed away). No pets at the moment but I’m sure that will change soon. Do you think Andrea might be the perfect agent for you? Email your submission to andrea@harveyklinger.com Please send along a query letter and the opening five pages of your manuscript.
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by Michelle Medlock Adams  You might have heard that “Rhyme is a crime,” and that editors don’t like rhyming board books and picture books. That’s not exactly true. Editors just don’t like BAD rhyme. They like rhyming board books and picture books that are written well. It’s just that they have seen so much bad rhyme over the years, their hearts might be a bit hardened toward rhyme. But if you can write good rhyme—then go for it! Most of my children’s books are written in rhyme, and I continue to sell rhyming manuscripts. But, let’s write good rhyme! Don’t be a rhyme criminal!
Let’s take a look at the top rhyme felonies I see when judging contest manuscripts. Felony #1: Letting rhyme dictate the story. If your story has been kidnapped all to make a rhyme work, then you’re a rhyme criminal. In other words, if your story is about a lizard who becomes a wizard simply because the rhyme worked, then it’s probably not a very strong story and if you wrote the same storyline out in narrative, you’d soon realize that the rhyme is really the only thread holding it together, and that’s not enough.
Felony #2: Using odd sentence structures to make a rhyme work. #justsayno For example, in the song you might’ve sung in Vacation Bible School, “Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man” (Remember that one?), the lyrics go: Zacchaeus was a wee little man A wee little man was he. (Why would we ever restate that he was a wee little man, and why would we say it in this odd sentence structure? Because we need it to rhyme with “see”.) He climbed up in a sycamore tree For the Lord he wanted to see. (Again, we would normally write, He wanted to see the Lord. But we changed the sentence structure so we could make an easier rhyme…)
Felony #3: Being a lazy rhymer and settling for near rhymes. For example, nursery rhymes and song lyrics get away with this lazy rhyme crime a lot, but it’s not going to fly with most of today’s picture book editors. Here's an example from Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. Baa, baa, black sheep, Have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, Three bags full. One for the master, One for the dame, And one for the little boy Who lives down the lane Though “dame” and “lane” have the same long vowel sound, they aren’t perfect rhymes. They are near rhymes. A perfect rhyme would have been to rhyme “lane” with “Jane”—see how that works?
Felony #4: Writing a poem and calling it a picture book. Just because it is a nice rhyming or rhythmic poem doesn’t mean it’s a picture book. It might just be a nice poem for you to sell to a poetry anthology for children or possibly a poem you can sell to a children’s magazine that features poetry. For example, I wrote a poetry book for kids called, “My Funny Valentine” for Ideals Children’s Books, and it has over 30 rhymes in it, but they are simply fun poems—not stand-alone picture books. “Secret Admirer” I see her every single day. I think she is the bomb. I’m making her a valentine. But please, don’t tell my mom. I think I’ll write: “You really rock! You’re very, very cool.” But if I say that mushy stuff. She might think I’m a fool. So I won’t sign my name to it. She’ll never know it’s me! I’ll tell her that she rocks my world, And makes my heart run free. I’ll sign it, “From your biggest fan.” I slide it in her locker. But if she finds out it’s from me. I’m gonna have to sock her.
Felony #5: Writing in rhyme and being the only one who can make it rhyme. This is maybe the worst felony of all. If you can only make your story rhyme while standing on one leg and holding your head just right, it’s probably not written in good rhyme and meter.
Felony #6: Writing in rhyme just for the sake of it. Sometimes stories can be told WAY better via narrative, not rhyme. You’re robbing yourself if you don’t try writing your story both ways. You might be surprised which version is stronger.  By Susan Kravlovansky I’d like to introduce you to Nina Kooij, editor-in-chief of Pelican Publishing. I have had the pleasure of working with her on How Fire Ants Got Their Fire, and my forthcoming picture book, We Really, Really Want a Dog. Both books are fiction with nonfiction elements.  Nina, what path led you to editing as a career? My mother was a freelance editor for organizations (not publishers), and I always excelled in English classes. I served as editor of my high-school and college literary magazines. I earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English and interned at a book publisher. After that, I was accepted to the Denver Publishing Institute, where I met the vice president of Pelican. I interviewed for an open editing position there and my career began.
In your current position, do you wear other hats besides the editorial one? Since we are a midsize imprint, yes. I am involved in production (cover decisions, checking interior layouts, monitoring inventory, etc.) and sales (recommending backlist titles for upcoming store promotions, for example). Are most of the projects you deal with fiction, nonfiction, or is it an equal amount of both? These days it is about 2/3 children's fiction. How is editing nonfiction material different from fiction? Sources are important, as well as vetting of the material by experts and potential buyers. What is the market for nonfiction like currently? The market is good, both for adults who are quarantining and for online classes with children. What advice would you give a writer about breaking into the nonfiction market? Build up some publication credits in nonfiction children's magazines, which you can then list in your submissions to book publishers. A huge thanks to Nina from the Nonfiction Ninjas for the helpful information!  By Wendy Hinote Lanier
During the month of August, my fellow Ninja Stephanie Bearce talked with agents who are looking for nonfiction. In the wake of these interviews, I thought it might be nice to include one from the editor’s point of view. Today we are joined by the Managing Editor from Red Line Editorial—an educational publisher. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Nick on several occasions and knew he was a great choice to give us a behind the scenes look into this particular nonfiction market. Here, he answers some questions and gives some good advice for anyone who hopes to publish nonfiction. Background: Nick Rebman is a managing editor at Red Line Editorial. He leads a team that produces nonfiction books for grades K–6. What path led you to editing as a career? I graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 2003 with a double major in history and art—which, it turns out, isn’t the most lucrative thing to have on your resume when you’re looking for your first real job. But somehow, I convinced a big software company to hire me as a technical writer. Twelve months later, I’d had my fill of writing instruction manuals, so I moved from Madison to Minneapolis with no career plan and no leads. I scoured the want ads (in an actual newspaper made out of dead trees) and saw an opening with one of the many educational publishers in the Twin Cities. Within a couple months of getting hired, I knew I’d found an industry I wanted to stay in. In your current position, do you wear other hats besides the editorial one? I wear the manager hat, but that’s pretty easy because everyone on my team is fantastic. I also wear the author hat from time to time. Most of the projects you deal with are work for hire. Is that correct? How does editing a work for hire project differ from a regular trade publication? Or does it? Yeah, I mostly deal with work-for hire projects. From my perspective, the best part about editing a work-for-hire book is that I can make any changes I want without asking the author. I’m sure that’s the worst part from the author’s perspective—but the reason it’s helpful for an editor is because children’s nonfiction books are usually produced in a series. For example, it might be an eight-book series on the Civil War, a six-book series on natural disasters, or whatever. In most cases, there’s a different author for each book, so the editor needs to make sure each book maintains a consistent tone and a consistent reading level. How is editing nonfiction material different from fiction? At the risk of sounding snarky, the biggest difference is that nonfiction has to be true. But finding the truth is often harder than it sounds, and sometimes it’s even impossible. From time to time, I have to cut a really interesting sentence because there’s simply not enough evidence to confirm it. Obviously, that’s not a concern when you’re editing fiction. Another big difference with nonfiction is that the author’s voice isn’t the star of the show. Broadly speaking, the whole point of children’s nonfiction is to convey information. That means the text should be concise and authoritative. If the author is doing a good job, you won’t even notice the writing style, because you’ll only be thinking about the content. In contrast, a novel might have an entire chapter that conveys no information whatsoever—but if it’s written with a compelling voice that evokes an emotional response, it would be totally appropriate. What is the market for nonfiction like currently? What’s the major difference between trade nonfiction and nonfiction for the educational market? Unfortunately, the pandemic has shrunk the market for nonfiction authors considerably, because publishers have postponed the release of hundreds of titles. This has led to a backlog of books waiting to be released, which means development of new titles has slowed. From an author’s perspective, the major difference between writing nonfiction for trade vs. the educational market is that with a trade book, the author is generally pitching the idea and has much greater control of the end product. In educational publishing, usually the publisher is hiring authors to produce text based on their established specs for a book or series. What advice would you give a writer about breaking into the nonfiction market? I have lots of advice, so this is going to be a long-winded answer . . . First, I’d say you should read a bunch of children’s nonfiction because it’s important to familiarize yourself with the writing style and tone that publishers are looking for. Meanwhile, decide on a handful of topics that you’re most interested in writing about. Maybe it’s history, biographies, and social studies. Maybe it’s animals, the environment, and technology. As an editor, I’m suspicious of anyone who says, “I can write about any topic.” Next, make sure you have a basic understanding of reading levels (ATOS and Lexile, for example). A book that’s appropriate for a 3rd grader is not appropriate for a 6th grader, and vice versa, so you need to be able to write for your target audience. With that in mind, start thinking about things like sentence length, word choice, the reader’s background knowledge, etc. After you’ve read lots of nonfiction and familiarized yourself with reading levels, you’re still not ready to submit a sample chapter to a publisher. Before you write anything—and I can’t stress this enough—you should create an outline. Nobody else will ever read this outline, but it’s still important. One of the biggest problems I see, especially with new authors, is that ideas are poorly organized. So, when you’re making an outline, think about the main ideas that your sample chapter needs to convey. In a children’s book, each chapter might have three or four main ideas. Those main ideas will be the bullet points of your outline. Then, come up with a few sub-bullets for each main idea. The sub-bullets are pieces of evidence that support the main idea. While I’m thinking of it, I should mention sources. As you’re doing your research, make sure that your sources are reputable. (I hope this goes without saying, but Wikipedia is not a reputable source.) Also, don’t rely too much on a single source, because that can introduce bias. When you’re pretty sure that you have a solid outline, set it aside for a few days. Then look at it with fresh eyes and ask yourself some questions. Is everything in a logical order? Does each sub-bullet support the main idea? Can anything be cut? Chances are, you’ll need to do some tweaking. And that’s good! This is the best time to reorganize the chapter—not at the manuscript stage. Okay, now it’s finally time to start writing. The chapter will basically write itself if you have a good outline, because the information will already be in the right order. Then, when your sample chapter is nice and polished, it’s time to submit it to publishers. Remember, editors don’t have all day to look at submissions, so make sure your sample is relatively short . . . maybe 200 words for each level that you want to write for. For example, you might have a 200-word sample for grades 3–4, and another 200-word sample for grades 5–6. Your sample should not be work that has already been published. As an editor, I don’t want to see a published sample, because that means another editor has already worked on it. In other words, it gives me no indication of the quality I can expect when you send me your first draft. Finally, don’t get discouraged. Different publishers have different needs at different times. So, just because a publisher doesn’t offer you any work today, that doesn’t mean they won’t have something for you in six months. In the meantime, reread your sample chapter every few months. You’re always improving as a writer, so you’ll probably find things that can be fine-tuned. Whew, I think that’s it. I hope this has been helpful! A huge thanks to Nick from the Nonfiction Ninjas! Helpful indeed!  Congratulations Susan Wroble! You have just won a query letter critique from Nonfiction Ninja Lisa Amstutz.
Lisa is the author of over 100 books for kids including the new release Amazing Amphibians. In addition to being an award winning author, Lisa also offers editorial services for writers. If you would like to win a free query critique with a Nonfiction Ninja visit the blog and comment on the Savannah Brooks interview. The winner will be announced next week.  Agent Savannah Brooks packs a wallop! Whether she is making a book deal or teaching a boxing class, Savannah is always making an impact. She joined the Jennifer De Chiara team in 2018 as an associate agent and has been working to develop a powerhouse list of middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction authors.
She revived her MFA from Hamline University and her area of concentration was creative nonfiction. That shows you how much she loves nonfiction!!! She also has a BS in marketing that comes in mighty handy when she is pitching her client's work. Nonfiction Ninjas were excited to visit with the talented Ms. Brooks. Why did you become a literary agent? I got my undergraduate degree in marketing, but after spending about seven months in the corporate world, I knew it wasn't for me. I decided to get my MFA in creative writing, and while I was doing so, I began pursuing a career in publishing as well. Originally, I wanted to be an editor, so I focused on editorial internships and positions at publishing houses, but after a while it became obvious I'd have to leave my beloved Minneapolis and head to New York, which I didn't want to do. In the meantime, I had gotten an internship with the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, and it showed me that being an agent is the best of both worlds: I get to edit manuscripts and I also get to work with and for incredible authors and editors. After interning for a year and a half, I was brought on board as an associate agent. What excites you most about working in publishing? When I was growing up in the 90s and 2000s, I didn't have any books that really focused on big topics like mental health, body positivity/autonomy, gender and sexuality, multiculturalism, identity, and non-nuclear family structure. I didn't have any books that gave me insight into how other kids lived—and it definitely showed when it came to my early understanding of the world. Working in publishing—especially in kid lit—is exciting because we get to give kids a more holistic understanding of the world around them, which will hopefully lead to them living more interconnected and empathetic lives. What are you looking for in nonfiction projects? I represent nonfiction picture book and middle grade projects, and for both, I'm really looking for the empowering, the bizarre, the unbelievable. I'm a big nerd all around, so anything that can teach me something that I'll immediately turn around and tell a friend—that's a manuscript I want to see. I love weird animals, uncommon sports, mythology and folklore, science, and incredible history and its players. I also love illustrated nonfiction, so if you think your project could be paired with beautiful, sweeping illustrations, send it my way. Are there specific topics that interest you? I think any topic could interest me if it's done right. As with my fiction, my nonfiction projects need to have a deeper theme running through them, whether it's opening a kid's eyes to a new culture or telling them they can go into a field where they don't often see people who look like themselves. Overall, though, the weirder and more intricate, the better. What trends are you seeing in the industry? The biggest trend is just that nonfiction kid lit is steadily on the rise for sales. Especially with COVID, there's been an uptick in parents buying educational books. Who is your ideal client? My ideal client is someone who's obsessed with their topic, loves to research, wants to inspire kids. and thinks about their career as a whole. The business side of my brain is always thinking about how to build a platform and how to use that platform to reach out to kids who want and need to hear what my authors have to say, so I want to partner with someone who's thinking about it as well. I'm also really interested in representing BIPOC writers. In pretty much all aspects of nonfiction and the fields they correlate to, we have a drought of BIPOC voices. I want the books I put out in the world to reach the kids who feel they aren't represented. Are you more interested in PB, MG, YA, or all three? I currently represent PB and both upper and lower MG. I'm open to seeing YA projects, I just haven't found one that speaks to me. What do you want to see in a nonfiction proposal? Along with all the normal information, I want a clear understanding of why the author is the person to write this manuscript, how this manuscript fits in with a projected career (a writing career but also whatever other career the author has that might inform their writing), and how the project might inspire kids. I'm also pretty particular about the writing level and style—I want it to be accessible but not speaking down, and humor is often your friend when it comes to my tastes. Anyone who can really capture the strange ways in which middle schoolers speak definitely has an in. What are some of your favorite kidlit nonfiction books? This question always stumps me, and I never have any good answers. I read way too much to have favorites. And last but not least – are you a dog person or a cat person? And do you have a pet? I have to say I'm both. I love dogs because they're so loving and happy, and I love cats because they're so grumpy and standoffish. I don't have either, though. I have two fancy rats, Hector and Boris, who are not really loving or happy or grumpy or standoffish; they spend most of their time eating, grooming, napping in their hammock, chittering in my ear, trying to sneak upstairs, and finding good hiding spots in the bookshelf, which is equally endearing. |
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Disclaimer: The Nonfiction Ninjas are a group of writers with diverse ideas . The views expressed in each post are those of the author and may differ from others in the group.
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