From Publishers Lunch:

Celeste Fine will join Sterling Lord Literistic on January 30 as an agent, focusing on health, science, food, business, and lifestyle topics. She will also manage foreign rights for the agency’s children’s and young adult list. Previously, Fine was svp, subsidiary rights director for Folio Literary Management.

(Note that Celeste is not representing works for children, just managing foreign rights for those properties)

At Random House Children’s Books, Dana Carey has been promoted to assistant editor at Wendy Lamb Books. Earlier, though not announced to us, Jim Thomas stepped down from his managerial position as editorial director of Middle Grade and YA to focus exclusively on his editorial projects and authors as an editor-at-large. Jennifer Arena took over that managerial role and was promoted to editorial director of Chapter Books (Stepping Stones, Middle Grade, Young Adult).

 

 

Not going? Me either, but here are ways to follow along:

The  2012 Conferfence hash tag is #NY12SCBWI

Conference blog: http://scbwiconference.blogspot.com/

From Publisher’s Lunch:

At Random House Children’s, Kristen Depken has been promoted to associate editor (she has been working on their Golden Books line) and Caitlin Flynn has joined the sales department. Flynn was a marketing assistant at Palgrave Macmillan.

The New England SCBWI Conference Registration Opened Yesterday (Jan 23rd)

It takes place Friday April 20-Sunday April 22 in Springfield, Mass.

I’ll be presenting a two-hour workshop on Beginnings and another workshop titled: Pitch to Synopsis.

You can get more information here. http://www.nescbwi.org/conferences/spring/

Just a reminder that the NJ SCBWI Conference Registration opens today. The conference will be in Princeton, NJ, June 8-10.

I’ll be speaking, leading a four-hour intensive for folks new to writing for children, and a Beginnings Bonanza workshop.

Kathy Temean’s website is a good spot to check for info about the conference.

Registration will be available at some point today (the company handling registration decided to upgrade their server starting last night) and will be available at: www.regonline.com/njscbwi2012conference .

Ouch. This is a sobering. A publisher’s thoughts on Amazon. “They’re going to kill us.”

Confessions of a Publisher

Here’s some interesting information. From Publishers Lunch:

The Bent Agency is opening a UK branch, run by Molly Ker Hawn, who will be representing authors of YA and middle grade fiction exclusively for both the UK and US markets.  She has had editorial roles at Chronicle and Dial and was national programs director for the Children’s Book Council.

I have been both a finalist and a judge for this contest, and it’s a great one (for unpublished works.)
Contest Categories:

1. Mainstream 2. Historical 3. Romance (electronic only) 4. Mystery/Thriller 5. Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror 6. Young Adult/Middle Grade

7. Nonfiction/Memoir/How-To 8. Screenwriting 9. Poetry 10. Short Story 11.  Children’s Picture/Chapter Book 12. Adult Short Topics (Article/Essay/Short Memoir)

Awards and Benefits:

• The eight finalists in each category will be notified June 2012 prior to the PNWA Summer Conference July 19 – 22, 2012.
• Award Winners will be announced at the conference.
• Every entry accepted in the contest will receive two –critiques—a useful tool for any writer.
• Finalists who attend the PNWA Summer Conference will receive a Finalist ribbon for their name badge, giving them high visibility to the agents and editors at the conference. Finalists’ manuscripts will be made available to agents and editors during the conference.
• In addition, finalists entries are read and judged by an agent or editor to determine the top TWO in each category.
• Winners are given the opportunity to attend the Agents and Editors Reception at the PNWA Summer Conference.

Awards will be given as follows:

• First Place: $700 and the Zola Award (The Zola Award honors founding member Zola Helen Ross for her vision in creating a writing community more than 50 years ago.)
• Second Place: $300

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Entries must be RECEIVED BY February 17, 2012.

Details are here: http://pnwa.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=13

The registration form for the New Jersey SCBWI Conference should be live on Friday (fingers crossed.)

I will be conducting a four-hour intensive workshop for new writers. We’ll cover genres, formatting manuscripts, word counts, querying, finding an agent, and so forth.

I will also conduct a one-hour workshop on Beginnings. Participants will submit their first page and the talk will revolve around those first pages. We’ll discuss how to improve first pages.

The conference is June 8-10. The registration is different this year. It will be done online, and registrants will choose the editor/agent they would like to work with, so it is important to sign up early!

Talcott Notch Literary has a new associate agent: Rachael Dugas.

She is seeking:  cookbooks and young adult, middle grade, and adult fiction in the contemporary, paranormal, women’s, and romance genres. She would love to receive more cookbooks (especially with a unique perspective, distinct voice and sense of place, and stellar marketing platform), beautifully written historical and/or literary fiction, really terrific memoir, and fun, contemporary YA or adult fiction, especially pertaining to food or the performing arts.

More Info from Guide to Literary Agents.

website: http://www.talcottnotch.net/