Book Winners – Kudos – Industry Changes

BOOK WINNERS:

Erik Ammon won LOOKING FOR THE EID MOON BY by Sahtinay Abaza

Ashley Sierra won SCIENCE, MATTER AND THE BASEBALL PARK by Catherine Ciocchi

Maria Marshall won THE STORY OF AUDREY HEPBURN: An Inspiring Biography for Young Readers by Natasha Wing

Winner please send me your mailing addresses, Thank you!

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COVER REVEAL:

Lynn Marie, Brenda Reeves Stugis, and Nico Ecearro CONGRATULATIONS! This is so much fun to see the cover of your new book being published on September 3rd with The Little Press. I can’t wait to feature your book.

OPPORTUNITIES:

Tara Weikum Becomes Publisher at New Harper Children’s Imprint

Harper Children’s will create a new to-be-named imprint, with Tara Weikum serving as vice president, publisher. The imprint will launch in winter 2025 and will publish “fiction that sits at the corner of commercial and literary for middle grade and teen readers.”

Also working on the imprint are Sarah Homer, who has been promoted to editor, and executive editors Kristin Rens and Amy Cloud.

ABLA Second Chance Inbox

Andrea Brown Literary Agency has introduced a Second Chance Inbox for projects that certain agents at the agency have already passed on. They write on their website, “If a creator would like another opportunity to have their project considered by ABLA after their first choice agent passes, we invite you to submit your work to the Second Chance Inbox. All our agents have access to this inbox and will regularly look through it to discover new material! If an agent finds something they are interested in, they will reach out to that creator directly.”

ABLA agents themselves will not add projects to the inbox, so writers should submit themselves. For more information, see the agency website.

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KUDOS:

CONGRATULATIONS!  Ilona Bray has attend a few of Writing and Illustrating’s Virtual Writer’s Retreats and met Agent Kristen Terrette – Martin Literary Management. Kristen just offered Ilona a contract to represent her and her WWII MG novel, CALL ME MAGPIE CROW, and other works. 

Kimberly Wilson’s A PIGGY BANK SAVES THE DAY, a sequel to A PENNY’S WORTH, A DOLLAR’S GRAND DREAM, and A CREDIT CARD TAKES CHARGE, in which a hasty piggy bank learns the value of patience after his race to save fails to bring home the bacon, illustrated by Mark Hoffmann, to William Kiester at Page Street Kids, in an exclusive submission, for publication in fall 2025, by Victoria Selvaggio at Storm Literary Agency for the author, and by Jennifer Laughran at Andrea Brown Literary Agency for the illustrator (world).

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INDUSTRY CHANGES:

CANDLEWICK PRESS:

Martha Kennedy has returned to Candlewick Press as assistant art director. She was most recently an art director at Simon & Schuster.

Hayley Parker has been promoted to assistant art director.

GREENSTONE LITERARY AGENCY:

Tanera Simons and Laura Heathfield have launched Greenstone Literary Agency, which will specialize in commercial fiction and select non-fiction. Both were previously at Darley Anderson.

FINEPRINT LITERARY MANAAGEMENT:

Christine Goss has joined as an agent. She was formerly at the Purcell Agency.

THE RIGHTS FACTORY:

Julia Kim joins as an assistant agent. She was previously an assistant editor at Dundurn Press.

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CAN YOU DONATE?

Today, I received the yearly bill from WordPress for the space Writing and Illustrating takes up on their servers. Last Year, I asked for help keeping Writing and Illustrating up and running; some of you donated and helped me. I hope I can count on you chipping in to help again.

It seems I have too much content on Writing and Illustrating, and the only way to keep it up and going is to pay for a Business account, which is hundreds of dollars a year. Over the year, so many of you told me how following Writing and Illustrating has helped you find an agent, sell a book, hone your skills, and how the site helped you keep up to date with what’s happening in the industry. Some of you have won books, some of your books have been featured, some of you found illustrators to create the art for your books by visiting the wonderful Illustrators featured on Illustrator Saturday, and many of you have taken advantage of the monthly first-page critiques. If you can make a donation to assist in keeping Writing and Illustrating rolling, it would be much appreciated.

USE PAYPAL – kathy.temean@gmail.com (send money using send to a friend)

Or mail check to:

Kathy Temean
203 Stowe Ct.
Mullica Hill, NJ 08062

Thank you for supporting Writing and Illustrating!

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy