Writers in the Storm

Chuck Sambuchino

GIVEAWAY: In two weeks time, Chuck will pick a random commenter from this post to win any of his 3 new books. Simply comment to win. Good luck!

In celebration of my three new books released in the fall, I’m doing a lot of special lists of agents seeking queries right now. I’ve already done lists on science fiction agents, picture book agents, thriller agents, fantasy agents, horror agents, women’s fiction agents,  and agents seeking diverse kidlit books. Below find a list for 14 agents seeking Southern fiction NOW.

1. When Clowns Attack: A Survival Guide is an anti-clown humor book that teaches you how to defend yourself against these red-nosed bozos who plague us. It’s a perfect gift for that clown-hating friend in your life. (It almost makes a heck of a white elephant gift.) Find it on Amazon or through Barnes & Noble or anywhere else books are sold. Beware clowns.
2. The 2016 Guide to Literary Agents is a big database of agents — who they are, what they want, how to submit and more. Find it in the Writer’s Digest Shop or anywhere else books are sold.
3. The 2016 Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market has oodles of markets (agents, publishers, etc.) for writers & illustrators of children’s books — from picture books to middle grade to young adult. Find it in the Writer’s Digest Shop or anywhere else books are sold.

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All the 13 agents listed below personally confirmed to me as of late 2015 that they are actively seeking Southern fiction submissions for adults NOW. Some gave personal notes about their tastes while some did not. Good luck querying!

Jenny Bent (The Bent Agency)

How to submit: E-query queries [at] thebentagency.com. Include the title of your project in the subject line of your email. Then paste the first ten pages of your book in the body of your email (not as an attachment).

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Stephany Evans (FinePrint Literary Management)

How to submit: Send queries to Stephany [at] fineprintlit [dot] com. Send a query letter and include the first two chapters or so (no more than 30 pages) of your book pasted in the body of your email. No attachments.

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Sarah Joy Freese (Wordserve Literary)

How to submit: Please address queries to: admin [at] wordserveliterary.com. In the subject line, include “Query for Sarah: [title].” Sarah will contact you within 60 days if interested. Paste the first 5 pages of the book into the email below the query.

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Julie Gwinn (The Seymour Agency)

How to submit: E-query julie [at] theseymouragency.com. Send a query and the first 5 pages of your work pasted into the email.

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Stacy Testa (Writers House)

How to submit: Please submit your query, including the first five pages of your manuscript pasted into the body of the email (no attachments), to stesta [at] writershouse.com. Please do not query multiple Writers House agents simultaneously.

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Sharon Pelletier (Dystel & Goderich)

How to submit: E-query spelletier [at] dystel.com. Paste up to 25 pages in your email below the query.

 

 

 

(Hi, everyone. Chuck here chiming in for a second. I wanted to say I am now taking clients as a freelance editor. So if your query or manuscript needs some love, please check out my editing services. Thanks!)

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Carly Watters (P.S. Literary)

Notes: “Not overly literary, but rather seeking upmarket/commercial with Southern themes.”

How to submit: E-query query@psliterary.com with “Query for Carly” in the subject line. “Do not send attachments. Always let us know if your manuscript/proposal is currently under consideration by other agents/publishers. If you don’t receive a response to your query within 4-6 weeks it means a no from the agency. In my women’s fiction, I look for an external hook other than the love story (career, family, personal history etc.)”

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Carrie Pestritto (Prospect Agency)

How to submit: "We request a query letter, three chapters and a brief synopsis. If you are submitting a picture book text, please submit the entire manuscript. Illustrators should provide a link to their URL. We only accept submissions through our website. Please go to our SUBMISSIONS page to upload your materials. Please do not send submissions via email or mail. Responds in 3 months if interested. Illustrators and author-illustrators should refer to the guidelines in PROSPECT PORTFOLIO regarding submissions." (Please do not submit to Linda Camacho [also on this list] if submitting to Carrie.)

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Laura Bradford (Bradford Literary)

How to submit: queries [at] bradfordlit.com. Put "Query: [title]" in your subject line. Please email a query letter along with the first chapter of your manuscript and a synopsis. Please be sure to include the genre and word count in your cover letter. (If you submit to Laura, please do not submit to any of the other Bradford Lit agents on this list -- Monica Odom or Sarah LaPolla.)

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Linda Camacho (Prospect Agency)

How to submit: "We request a query letter, three chapters and a brief synopsis. If you are submitting a picture book text, please submit the entire manuscript. Illustrators should provide a link to their URL. We only accept submissions through our website. Please go to our SUBMISSIONS page to upload your materials. Please do not send submissions via email or mail. Responds in 3 months if interested. Illustrators and author-illustrators should refer to the guidelines in PROSPECT PORTFOLIO regarding submissions." (Please do not submit to Carrie Pestritto [also on this list] if submitting to Linda.)

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Alison Devereux (Wolf Literary)

How to submit: Send a query letter addressed to Allison along with a 50-page writing sample (for fiction) or a detailed proposal (for nonfiction) to queries [at] wolflit.com. Samples may be submitted as an attachment or embedded in the body of the email. More information can be found on the agency submission page.

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Laura Biagi (Jean V. Naggar Literary)

Notes: “Only in a literary or mainstream vein”

How to submit: Follow the instructions on the agency’s submissions page.

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Carlie Webber (CK Webber Associates)

How to submit: To submit your work for consideration, please send a query letter, synopsis, and the first 30 pages or three chapters of your work, whichever is more, to carlie [at] ckwebber.com and put the word “Query” in the subject line of your email. You may include your materials either in the body of your email or as a Word or PDF attachment. Blank emails that include an attachment will be deleted unread. E-mail queries only.

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GIVEAWAY: In two weeks time, Chuck will pick a random commenter from this post to win any of his 3 new books. Simply comment to win.

About Chuck

Chuck Sambuchino of Writer’s Digest Books edits the GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS and the CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET. His Guide to Literary Agents Blog is one of the largest blogs in publishing.

His 2010 humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK, was optioned by Sony Pictures.  Chuck has also written the writing guides FORMATTING & SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT and CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM.

Besides that, he is a freelance book & query editor, husband, sleep-deprived new father, and owner of a flabby-yet-lovable dog named Graham.

Find Chuck on Twitter and on Facebook.

Whether you make New Year resolutions or set goals, January is the perfect time to look forward. Over the last few years, I’ve been doing something a tad different. I think of one word that will guide me for the year. And then I make sure that what I take on meshes with my guiding word.

I challenged the WITS crew to do the same …

Here are ours.

Orly
My word for 2016: Refocus

The last few years have been chaotic on both the personal and professional front. A few amazingly wonderful things—signed with my brilliant agent and sold my debut book; great first retreat for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association—but to be perfectly honest, I let a lot of the chaos trip my forward momentum. So for 2016, I’m committing to refocusing. I’m committing to my writing, and I’m committing to me.

Laura
My word for 2016: Choice

Fae
My word for 2016 is: Publish

Jenny
My word for 2016: Discipline

Now I’m challenging you guys. Add yours in the comments. :-)

Every writer, whether they're starting the journey or standing atop the bestseller lists, feels like a hack at some point. Like an imposter, a phony, a gigantic fakeball loser. It might happen once a month or once an hour. The point is, it will happen.

If Woody Allen is correct and “80% of success is showing up,” the other 20% of a writer's success must be correlated to their stockpile of courage and the strength of their underpants.

[Y'all know about my obsession with the Undie-verse, right?]

I'm sure we're all well-acquainted with the tricks our writer's brain has up its sleeve. The torturous, defeating messages it sends out when we sit our butts down.

• I'm too tired.
• I'll do this after [fill in the blank].
• This book is crap.
• No one will buy this.
• No one will read this.

And the #1 favorite from the top of the post:

• I am such a hack.

These messages are where those titanium underpants come into play. Your courage and your willingness to make mistakes is what will keep you in that chair, even when you're squirming against whatever doom and failure happen to be chasing through your psyche that day.

Neil Gaiman posted this wish for his readers a few New Year's Eves back:

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

Isn't that awesome???

All the great minds of our time embrace mistakes because they embrace learning. They dare to suck, and that's a beautiful thing. That means if we get in the habit of just showing up, we will eventually achieve excellence, right?

Well...yes.

If you don't believe me, look at our pal Laura Drake here at Writers In the Storm.

When I first met her, she was clawing her way through her first full-length novel with a cardboard hero and a plot that resembled Swiss cheese. It didn't matter. Because she had tenacity. She had a dream, a strong work ethic and underpants just like those glittery babies up above. (Okay, maybe she wore cotton, but it was strong cotton.)

Laura showed up every day before dawn, facing down that "You Suck" voice because she had a dream. She attended her monthly writing meetings and took every class Margie Lawson offered.

Seven books and several years later, she is about to publish the book of her heart because all that chair time and effort and classes were about this book. THIS was the book she wanted to be good enough to write, because this book is for her sister.

There's a lot to be said for just showing up.

Elizabeth Gilbert's (incredibly amazing) TED talk references these two elusive ideas - the concept of "showing up" and the creative muse.

Gilbert believes the importance of showing up is this:

Whatever creative gorgeousness there is in your universe needs your fingertips to help it into existence. If you don't show up to the page, that beautiful cranky bipolar muse is going to go show up for someone else who is doing the work.

She expressed it this way:

"And what I have to sort of keep telling myself when I get really psyched out about [writing] is don't be afraid. Don't be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be.

"If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed, for just one moment through your efforts, then Olé! And if not, do your dance anyhow. And Olé! to you, nonetheless. I believe this and I feel that we must teach it. 

"Olé! to you, nonetheless, just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up."

Just showing up can be an act of great courage. Even if the only thing coming out of your fingertips is crappy writing and hangnails - especially if that's where you are - showing up is an act of defiance that will pay off. That kind of iron will is what forges successful writers.

Sometimes you have to channel social psychologist, Amy Cuddy, and fake it till you make it.

In fact, at the end of the snippet below she says, "..don't fake it till you make it. Fake it till you become it. Do it enough until you actually become it and internalize."

Note: Cuddy's entire TED talk is here, and is worth your twenty minutes to watch (and the two minutes afterward  you will spend pretending to be Wonder Woman).

Here's hoping you show up to your writing in 2016, in some cute-but-mighty underpants, in time to catch the gorgeousness and get it to the page. At the very least, I hope you make some incredibly grand mistakes. 

Olé! 

Do you make New Year's resolutions? What are they for 2016? What is your greatest writing challenge? And do you have any inspirational quotes to share?

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About Jenny Hansen

By day, Jenny provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. By night she writes news articles, humor, memoir, women’s fiction and short stories. After 18+ years as a corporate software trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

When she’s not at her personal blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Twitter at JennyHansenCA or at Writers In The Storm.