Editor / Agent Spotlight

Agent Spotlight: Kristin Ostby from The Greenhouse Agency

By on May 30, 2022   /   Articles, Editor / Agent Spotlight  

Today, I’m thrilled to introduce our readers to agent Kristin Ostby from The Greenhouse Literary Agency. Now an agent, Kristin has been an editor, as well as a writer, of children’s books for many years. Check out the books she’s edited here and the books she’s written here.

Dorian: Welcome, Kristin!

Kristin: Thank you so much for having me at Mixed-Up Files! Middle-grade is the age category closest to my heart, and I’m so glad to have the opportunity to introduce myself to your readership.

 

Dorian: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your path to becoming a literary agent?

Kristin: I spent many years as a children’s book editor, most notably at Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, and becoming a literary agent always seemed like an interesting opportunity. During my time as an editor, a couple of agents indicated there was a place for me should I be interested in the job, and a former boss encouraged agenting at one point as well. I spoke to agent friends and gathered information, but the right opportunity didn’t come my way until Greenhouse came calling and everything clicked into place.

 

Dorian: Please tell us a bit about The Greenhouse Literary Agency?

Kristin: Greenhouse is an editorial agency. It was founded by a former publisher and is led by another former editor—the phenomenal Chelsea Eberly—so it was a fantastic fit for me, not to mention a golden opportunity. Greenhouse’s sterling reputation and remarkable track record speak for themselves. It’s a fabulous place to be an agent, and I’m really looking forward to what’s to come.

 

Dorian: What middle-grade books inspired you as a child?

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech is, for me, the gold standard, and I’ll always be looking for middle-grade novels that affect me the way that book did as a child. It’s lyrical, it’s off-beat, the voice jumps off the page, and the surprise ending sincerely pulled the rug out from underneath me when I first read it.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because I was a voracious reader as a kid, it’s hard to narrow down the books that inspired me, but I remember being impacted by the honesty of Judy Blume, the whimsy and weirdness of Roald Dahl, the grounded friendships of the Babysitters Club, the devourable mysteries of Nancy Drew, the delightfully trippy qualities of A Wrinkle in Time, and the depth and nuance of Number the Stars.

 

Dorian: What are some of your favorite contemporary middle-grade novels?

Kristin: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo, El Deafo by Cece Bell, and The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorian: All great books! What genres, subjects, or themes do you wish to see in your inbox?

Kristin: I would love to see high concept stories with hooky premises, preferably by BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and disabled creators. I would particularly love to see more stories from Native American authors. I’m a sucker for observational humor and wit, and I would love to see clever humor in all stories including mysteries, contemporary literary fiction, speculative fiction, magical stories, supernatural stories, horror or spooky stories, and light fantasy and sci-fi with a focused set of characters and minimal world building.

 

Dorian: Do you have any hobbies or special interests that most people don’t know about?

Kristin: I love to downhill ski. My guilty pleasure is celebrity gossip. I religiously write in a journal. I also enjoy reading tarot!

 

Dorian: Interesting! What tips do you have for writers in the querying stages?

Kristin: If you’re reading Mixed-Up Files, there’s a good chance you’re doing your homework as far as nailing a query letter. But I would still emphasize being sure to hit agents at the top of your query letter with an impactful elevator pitch, including your comp titles. This is the most important part of your query letter, so don’t be afraid to get right to it. Agents get so many queries each day that it’s important to hook them as soon as you can, and to demonstrate your knowledge of the marketplace.

Beyond that, good luck! What you’re doing is really hard, and I wish you all the best finding a great advocate for your story.

 

Dorian: How can people follow you on social media or query you?

Kristin: You can occasionally find me on Twitter at @kristinostby. Learn more about me at kristinostby.com and about Greenhouse at greenhouseliterary.com.

Thanks so much, Kristin, for taking the time out to tell us about yourself and Greenhouse!

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Editor Spotlight: Alison S. Weiss of Pixel+Ink

By on April 29, 2022   /   Articles, Editor / Agent Spotlight  

Today at The Mixed-Up Files I’m very happy to introduce our readers to Alison S. Weiss, who graciously agreed to answer some questions about herself, her work, and Pixel+Ink.

Alison has been in publishing for more than ten years. She’s currently acquisitions editor at Pixel+Ink (part of Trustbridge Global Media), a publisher focused exclusively on series publishing with transmedia potential. There, she’s worked on many series, including Twig and Turtle by Jennifer Richard Jacobson, The Great Peach Experiment by Erin Soderberg Downing, and the forthcoming The Curious League of Detective and Thieves by Tom Phillips. She’s run her own editorial consultancy, working with publishers including Simon & Schuster, Audible, and Arctis, as well as private clients, and was Editorial Director at Sky Pony Press, where her list included William C. Morris Finalist Devils Within by S.F. Henson, the Project Droid series by New York Times bestselling author Nancy Krulik and Amanda Burwasser, illustrated by Mike Moran, the Timekeeper trilogy by Tara Sim, and the Mahabharata-inspired Celestial Trilogy by Sangu Mandanna. In 2016 she was named a Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree. She’s been trying to live up to the title ever since.

You can follow her on Twitter @alioop7 and learn more about Pixel+Ink at www.pixelandinkbooks.com.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorian: Welcome Alison! Please tell us a bit about your path to becoming a children’s book editor.

Alison: I started out interning for Delacorte Books for Young Readers as part of Random House’s summer internship program when I was still in college. I knew on my third day that being a children’s book editor was what I wanted to do when I graduated. It didn’t turn out to be quite so easy, though.

After a year of job hunting, I joined Egmont USA as a Sales and Marketing Assistant. Egmont’s a big international media company, but they were just starting their U.S. division. They hadn’t even launched their first list when I started! What that meant for me was that I got to learn a little bit of everything that goes into making a book. About six months into my time with Egmont, I moved over to Editorial, and was there for another six years.

After Egmont closed, I moved to Sky Pony Press to help grow their fiction list, and ultimately became Editorial Director. Then I ran my own editorial consultancy for a couple of years, including doing work for Pixel+Ink, and that turned into me joining the company full-time in August 2020.

 

Dorian: What middle-grade books inspired you as a child?

Alison: Oh, this is so hard, because I feel like I was always hopping around, going from a Betsy-Tacy kick to only reading Goosebumps and Bonechillers. I remember having a deep love of The Castle in the Attic and The Battle for the Castle by Elizabeth Winthrop. I can still remember pulling them from the bookstore shelf. I loved E.B. White, especially The Trumpet of the Swan. Anne of Green Gables and the other Anne books—I dragged my parents all over Charlottetown to find the perfect Anne doll. I still vividly remember reading The Westing Game, and I think that, along with a lot more mysteries (I had a whole shelf dedicated to The Boxcar Children), heavily influenced the kinds of books I’m drawn to now.

  

 

 

 

 

All About Pixel+Ink

Dorian: Can you tell us a bit about Pixel+Ink and what type of books you’re looking for there?

Alison: Pixel+Ink is a pretty new publisher. We’re part of Trustbridge Global Media, along with our sister companies Holiday House, Peachtree, and Candlewick. What makes us different from those other companies and a lot of other publishers is that our focus is on series publishing with transmedia potential. We’re looking for properties with a lot of story to tell that we can develop across platforms, especially TV and film. Our list is pretty commercial, and we focus on projects that kids will love getting lost in.

We publish fiction for ages 3-13 (picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and graphic novels across those age levels). Our definition of series is pretty broad. It can be a series with lots of books, but they don’t necessarily need to be read in any particular order, like Magic Treehouse. It can be a defined arc, like Percy Jackson. Or it can start as something that might be a really great stand-alone, and we’re just lucky to get to go on more adventures with the characters.

 

Dorian: What middle-grade books are out or are coming out from Pixel+Ink that our readers should be on the lookout for?

Alison: I’m very excited for my first Pixel+Ink book to hit shelves at the beginning of June. The Curious League of Detectives and Thieves 1: Egypt’s Fire by Tom Phillips is, in the words of Kirkus, “a tale for which the word madcap might have been invented.” It’s about an orphan who makes his home in the ceiling of the Museum of Natural History (Mixed-Up Files vibes, anyone?), who finds himself accused of stealing a rare ruby and teams up with the greatest detective you’ve never heard of to clear his name. If you’re a fan of A Series of Unfortunate Events or Enola Holmes, this one’s for you.

I’m also thrilled about launching middle grade series Plotting the Stars by Michelle A. Barry this fall. The first book, Moongarden, is a Secret Garden retelling set in space with definite Divergent/City of Ember vibes. It’s gorgeous and exciting, but also very of the moment with themes of climate change, social pressure, and exploring feeling like you don’t fit in. It’s going to be stunning.

 

All About Series Books

Dorian: What tips do you have for series writers as far as writing them and/or querying them?

Alison: When you’re planning a series, I think it’s important to have a sense of the kind of series you’re aiming to write so you can ensure you have enough story to sustain it. If you’re tackling something like our Twig and Turtle, will you have lots of different stories you can tell with these characters that make sense within their world? If you’re planning something with a defined ARC, is there enough at stake to get you through two or three or four books, where each one still feels satisfying on its own? Also, consider how you might grow your characters and evolve them over time. As you spend more time with them, they will inevitably show you surprising new things? Be open to that.

When it comes to querying, I’m often asked if you have to have all of the books written. My answer is no. But you do need to have ideas and enough of a sense of where you want to go that you can clearly communicate your vision. I think it’s also important to have flexibility. Plot elements will likely need to change over time as you come up with some new twist that makes something else you’d planned no longer a good fit. You might have envisioned five books, but it becomes apparent you’re going to need to wrap it up in three. Can you shift gears to make that fulfilling for your reader? Or you might need to suddenly come up with brand new plot ideas because there’s more demand than expected! Are you going to want to stick with the characters beyond what you’d originally planned for them, and can you expand their story in a way that does justice to what you’ve already created?

Be open. Be curious about the possibilities. And, most of all, have fun! At the end of the day, we’re working on projects that we hope will encourage kids to fall in love with reading. We want them to escape into our books’ pages. To feel seen. To explore new worlds and experiences. Your stories could be their tickets to becoming lifelong readers, open to immense possibilities. That’s a huge responsibility, but also an incredibly special one.

 

 

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Editor Spotlight: Chris Krones

By on March 30, 2022   /   Articles, Editor / Agent Spotlight  

Today, I’m delighted to introduce Clarion editor, Chris Krones, to Mixed-Up Files readers. Chris is a writer who has been a children’s book editor for more than a decade. They hold an MFA in Writing for Children from Simmons University. Chris has edited a wide variety of books–from board books and picture books to middle-grade novels and graphic novels. They are the author of Chill, Chomp, Chill and the upcoming picture book, The Pronoun Book. Chris lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Learn more on Twitter and Instagram.

Dorian: Welcome, Chris! Can you tell us a little bit about your path to becoming a children’s book writer and editor?

Chris: I’ve always had a passion for writing and language. When I started at Simmons University as an English and French major, French translation and poetry were my passions. When I landed in one of Cathryn Mercier’s classes, I found a different path to writing: writing for children. In this core course, we looked at children’s literature through philosophical lenses and thought critically about books for younger readers—something I’d never done before. Anytime we’d discussed books critically prior to this, they’d be considered a canonical work written for adults, like Beowulf. I thought this was novel and so subversive—and I wanted more.

When I heard that there was an M.F.A. in writing for children, I had a gut feeling; I knew I needed to apply. In this program, we visited the Houghton Library at Harvard University in Susan Bloom’s picture book class, where we got to see original prints of Randolph Caldecott’s Hey Diddle Diddle and Baby Bunting. I had opinions about the artwork and how it was reproduced and decisions that had gone into the publishing of the work. Susan recognized this and said, “You’ve got opinions! You should work in publishing.” I took this to heart—I’d never thought of working on books other than writing them.

At one of the Simmons Summer Institutes, I was about to read a picture book manuscript I’d written aloud. I was asking Cathie Mercier a question right when she was standing next to an alumna who was the Marketing Manager at Houghton Mifflin. Cathie asked her: “Why don’t you ask Chris about the marketing and publicity internship?” After that, I went in for an interview and interned with the Marketing and Publicity department at Houghton while I had a writing mentorship with an editor there. When an Editorial Assistant position opened up, I was encouraged to apply. I loved the people I worked with across departments and felt like I’d found a home at Houghton.

 

Dorian: What books inspired you as a child?

Chris: When I was very little, I remember having a collection of Beatrix Potter books, sliding them out of a slipcase, and holding them in my hands. I loved the tactility of them and how small they were, though I always worried about Peter Rabbit’s safety! In elementary school, I remember my librarian reading The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, told by A. Wolf by Jon Scieska and Lane Smith. I will never forget the pig butt surrounded by rubble alongside the text “Dead as a doornail.” Though a touch dark, I loved this humor so much and laid the foundation for my taste in picture books. I also loved Charlotte’s Web but was first introduced to the tale via the feature-length animated movie. My grandparents bought me the book and I absolutely adored it. I also loved From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, of course!

 

Dorian: Can you tell us about some books you’ve worked on, either as a writer or editor, that have come out recently or are due to come out?

Chris: The Pronoun Book is a cased board book I wrote that is publishing in early April. It’s a celebratory and vibrant introduction to people and their pronouns. Mel Tirado made magic with the illustrations! In terms of books I’ve edited, I am so thrilled for the first book in The Sparkle Dragons series to come out in mid-May. It’s a fun and young graphic novel featuring a core crew of spunky, sparkle-breathing dragons who fight for good in their queendom.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorian: Congratulations all around! Are there certain themes or subjects that resonate with you more than others?

Chris: Stories that feature strong protagonists who show up and persevere against all odds. Underdog stories. Hilarious stories. Joyful, character-driven stories told by underrepresented voices for underrepresented audiences.

 

Dorian: What advice do you have for writers who want to publish traditionally?

Chris: First, find your people! It’s important to have a writing group to keep yourself consistent, accountable, and have a safe space to bounce around ideas. Familiarize yourself with the books in stores, find the ones you love, and see who publishes them. Get to know publishers’ catalogs. Look to Publishers Weekly deal announcements or Publishers Marketplace to read the recent deals that have been made. Research the agents that represented those deals that feel closest to your work. Check out agency websites and follow their instructions on how to submit or query them. A lot of publishers do not accept unsolicited manuscripts these days, so finding an agent connected to the publishing industry might be a helpful path to traditional publishing.

Thank you so much for such great advice and for joining us here at THE MIXED-UP FILES!

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