Tuesday From The Trenches: Gabriela Orozco Belt

Hello wonderful readers and welcome to another Tuesday From The Trenches! I am so excited to be here and can't wait to share Gabriela's story! Before we dive in, have you seen that I'm gathering data about the submission process? I'll continue to share weekly stories about the query trenches, but I am super interested to share more about the submission process... because it is really not super transparent and I would love to shine some light on the submission experience. There is no "normal" on sub, but I'm hoping to gather some data that helps people know they are not alone. If you have ever been on submission (sending manuscripts to editors/publishers with or without an agent) please consider filling out this anonymous form HERE.

And now, please join me in welcoming Gabriela to this week's Tuesday From The Trenches!

Hi Gabriela! Thank you so much for joining us today! I’m thrilled to share your story with my readers, so let's jump right in. Can you share your query stats with us?

Time Spent in the Query Trenches: One year, three months

Number of Agents Queried: 25ish?

Number of Requests for Additional Work/Full Manuscript: 1

Number of Twitter Pitch “Likes”: 3 #DVPit 2 PB Party

Number of R&Rs: 2

Number of Rejections: 24ish

Number of Offers: 1

Agent and Agency: Alyssa Jennette at Stonesong

Wonderful!! Huge congrats on signing with Alyssa! How did you keep track of it all? What was your method for organizing queries? Spread sheet? Query Tracker? Etc.

I had a notebook that I would write down each query and the date and I was keeping a tally sheet for the rejections when a friend asked why I did that. She pointed out that if any of my children kept a rejection tally, I would tell them not to keep track of rejections but just keep trying, so I took it out. I did move all my query emails into a folder so I could look back, just in case I had to.

That's a really great perspective. I like the idea to keep moving forward rather than keeping tally of the rejections. But event though you learned to not tally them, how did you handle the rejections? Did any sting more than others?

We have a 24-hour rule in our house, you get 24 hours to throw your pity party and then you have to get over it and/or do something about it. I had a few of those 24-hour pity parties. The query rejections never stung as much as the mentorship rejections did. Those hurt!

That is a fantastic rule. Give yourself space to feel your authentic emotions but then get yourself up and move forward. And that's a really great point... those mentorship rejections do sting.

How did you find agents to query/how did you decide who to query?

Query tracker, #MSWL, Twitter.

All wonderful resources. I think those MSWLs are really great so that you make sure your work is a good fit for a particular agent. So how did you ultimately connect with your agent? Did you cold query? Participate in a twitter pitch event? Or connect in some other way?

For my 40th birthday, I gifted myself Ten Minutes With an Expert with The Manuscript Academy. I poured over the agents and chose Alyssa. Our chat was amazing! We talked about the manuscript that I submitted for the meeting and she asked if I had other manuscripts. We talked about one that I was working on and she loved the concept and asked that I send it to her when it was ready.

Oooh! That's an exciting story. I love unique ways to connect. Goes to show you that you should put yourself out there as much as possible. And what an amazing birthday to you!! So tell us a bit about getting that manuscript ready and then prepping for the call... how much time passed between officially querying Alyssa to getting “the call”?

I worked on that manuscript for a few more months and sent it to her in June. She asked for some revisions to that manuscript plus the one I sent to her for our Ten Minute meeting, which I sent back to her in July. Early August, my husband and I dropped off our first born at college and we were on our way to our final meal with him, my email notification pinged and there it was! I’m not sure if leaving him at college kept me from being so nervous about the call or if the call made me more nervous than leaving him at college but either way it was a lot of emotions!

Wow, that is definitely an emotional time! Things seem to happen all at once, don't they? I love that you took your time getting the MSs ready and then again on the R&R. Sounds like you've really honed your craft and I love that. Can you tell us more about “the call”? How did you know Alyssa was the right choice?

Since we already talked before and she knew the stories so well, it was such an easy conversation. I knew Alyssa was the right choice because of her love for the stories and the characters.

That is so wonderful. That feeling of comfort and confidence is everything. Could you tell us a little about your book that landed your agent?

It’s a bilingual picture book about family, trust, and learning how to appreciate all the fun differences that come with a new place.

That sounds fantastic! I love bilingual books and yours sounds wonderful.

If you could give querying authors a piece of advice, what would that be?

Celebrate the small victories, a champagne rejection, a positive critique, great feedback, all of those victories will lead to greater victories.

That is fantastic advice! I love your focus and that goes right along with your earlier advice of not tallying rejections... I think as authors we can be so hard on ourselves and often focus on the negative. But you are so right. There are many "small" victories along the way that should truly be celebrated. I love that.

Before I let you go, Where can we connect with you online?

I am @thegreatgabsie on Instagram and Twitter and at my website gabrielabelt.com

Fantastic! Thanks so much for joining us today. I’ve had a blast chatting and learning more about your journey. Best of luck on the submission path! I can’t wait to see your books in the world.

About Gabriela Orozco Belt

Gabriela Orozco Belt is a children’s book author who lives in a small town in the Mojave Desert. She was born in San Pedro, California, to Costa Rican immigrants. Raised in a Hispanic community, she was one of a handful of people from Central American descent. She never realized how different her Spanish was from other Spanish-speaking regions until she unintentionally used an inappropriate word while talking to her best friend’s mom. Since then, Gabriela has been fascinated with the differences in Spanish that exist among Spanish speakers.

Gabriela received a B.A. in English Literature from California State University, San Bernardino and an M. Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of California at Riverside. She has taught high school English for fifteen years and loves to bring her love of picture books into the classroom.

Gabriela is a wife of twenty years and a mother of three, whose oldest is in his first year of college, whose middle child is in her first year of high school, and whose youngest child is living her best life in fifth grade.

When not writing, teaching, or chauffeuring children to activities, Gabriela can be found directing the high school play. Giving them some crazy twist like an ’80s themed Wizard of Oz or a Dia de los Muertos Alice in Wonderland. She can also be found checking off a destination from her travel bucket list.

About Kailei Pew

Kailei Pew is a wife, mother, and children's book author represented by the amazing Emily Forney of Bookends Literary. Kailei's debut Middle Grade Book, KID MADE will be coming to you from Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan Summer 2023

The Submission Process: Request for Data

Hello wonderful readers! I have been agented for exactly one year!! And it has been an amazing experience and an absolute whirlwind. In the past year, Emily has sold multiple books for me (only one announced so far) and we have plans for more to come.

If I have learned one thing in the past year, it's that the submission process is not super open. I get tons of questions about how long I was on submission before selling, if my first book to go on sub sold (spoiler alert: it didn't), how long it took for editors to respond, if my R&R resulted in an offer, how many books on sub never sold, etc.

So in an effort to make this process more transparent, I'm hosting a completely anonymous survey for any authors who have been on submission so that we can get a good idea of the submission process. For any authors who have been on sub, please consider filling out this form. If you have not yet been on sub, please retweet and help me gather this data. I'll keep the form open for 2 weeks and will share the data in a few different posts after I analyze what I learn.

Form here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScCdl9ye1RxRBqUBJZG8oBSY8akJf0HFGAJlXlbzn386nF6Hg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Thank you to everyone for your help! I am so excited to learn and share more about this process.

About Kailei Pew

Kailei Pew is a wife, mother, and children's book author represented by the amazing Emily Forney of Bookends Literary. Kailei's debut Middle Grade Book, KID MADE will be coming to you from Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan Summer 2023

Tuesday From The Trenches: R.G. Spaulding

Hello wonderful readers! How is everyone doing?? The last two weeks in writing world were A-N-X-I-E-T-Y inducing for me. Beyond majorly. And I couldn't pin point exactly why, but it seemed to be all the things. So I tried to really simplify my life, especially my social media presence, and that actually helped a lot on the mental health front.

So just checking in with you all... how are you doing? Are you taking care of you? Are you doing what works for you? Do you need a listening ear? Please feel free to reach out any time if you do. This industry is not for the faint of heart, as they say.

Anyways... I digress. I am really excited to welcome Ramya (R.G.) Spaulding to this week's Tuesday From The Trenches! Her story is amazing and I am really excited to share this two year journey on the blog today!

Thank you so much for joining us today, Ramya! I’m thrilled to share your story with my readers! I have loved learning about your story and I know it will inspire readers to really hone their craft and keep at it!

Can you share your query stats with us?

Time Spent in the Query Trenches: Almost 2 years. But did not actively query.

Number of Agents Queried: 21

Number of Requests for Additional Work/Full Manuscript: 0

Number of Twitter Pitch “Likes”: #dvpit-3 agents, #APIpit-3 agents, 2 editors, 1 small press.

Number of R&Rs: 0

Number of Rejections: 20 (including ones I never heard back from)

Number of Offers: 1

Agent and Agency: Elisa Houot of The Seymour Agency

That is wonderful! Huge congratulations! How did you keep track of it all? What was your method for organizing queries? Spread sheet? Query Tracker? Etc.

Hands down Spreadsheet! (I am an engineer, although not practicing now).

Team Spreadsheet!! I love a good spreadsheet as well. As that spreadsheet began to fill itself out, how did you handle rejections? Did any sting more than others?

Yes, the first few times, it stung because I was not used to rejection of my work or not getting replies because it doesn’t happen like that in the engineering field. But, I adapted to rejections pretty fast. I understood that it wasn’t personal. I also did not query actively.

This was my process: I would query a few agents, and then I would take time off from querying because as I was taking more writing and illustration classes and learning continuously, I felt like I was getting better and better and didn’t want to query the same stories. I felt like the more classes I took, the fewer polished manuscripts and dummies I had. Hence the small number of queries. Also, dummies take forever to make! So I just took my time. I was in no hurry.

That is really wonderful advice! I love your commitment to craft over everything else. And I can't even imagine how time consuming it is to be an author/illustrator. One of my lovely critique partners is A/I and the dummy making process seems to be so intense. You are amazing for plugging along that path.

So once you felt like you had something polished and ready to go, how did you find agents to query/how did you decide who to query?

At first, I looked at all the authors that I liked and their agents and started a spreadsheet with their names, websites, interviews, etc. Then I took note of all the new author/illustrators getting agents, and a lot of them were finding newer agents in established agencies. So I thought that would be a good strategy, so I added some of them to my spreadsheet. But then I discovered social events #PBpitch, #DVpit, #APIPit on Twitter. So I thought I should give it a try because that would provide the agents with a chance to like my work, and would help me cut back on who I should query. I also subscribed to Publishers Market Place and took note of agents who had diverse clients and who have sold diverse stories. I came across Pitch Perfect Live on Twitter, and knew that The Seymour Agency had agents with very diverse clients and have sold diverse stories.

That is a really great system, R.G.! I also went for a new agent at an established agency, and I think it's a wonderful path to take. So it sounds like the Pitch Perfect Live was a great opportunity for you... How did you ultimately connect with your agent?

I found my agent through a Twitter pitch event. Elisa Houot tweeted that their agency was doing a live Twitter pitch event called “Pitch Perfect Live,” and I thought, why not, so I told some of my CP’s. A few of us were lucky enough to get spots. It is always fun to do things with your CP’s as a group. My spot was with Joyce Sweeney and her intern. When you sign up, you get a chance to pick up to 3 agents to pitch live to. I got nervous about pitching live in front of an agent and their intern, but I made myself go through with it because...why not? I don’t lose anything, and it is good to see and talk to agents and get their reaction live. By the end of the live event, I had so much nervous energy, but the agents and interns were very lovely and made you feel good about pitching. Joyce is like a Godmother to PB authors :-)

She really does seem so lovely. All of my interactions with Joyce have been super positive! So after that event, how much time passed between querying to getting “the call”?

Pitch Perfect Live: April 15, 2021 (Joyce Sweeney, The Seymour Agency)

Submitted PB manuscript and Dummy: April 25, 2021

The Call: May 10, 2021 (Elisa Houot, The Seymour Agency)

The Seymour Agency is very collaborative. All the agents talk to each other and work closely in kidlit.

Since Joyce had clients with similar stories to mine, she shared my stories with Elisa, a newer agent building up her client list. Joyce then set up a meeting between Elisa and me so we can talk to each other. I found out that Elisa loved all of my stories also. She is very patient, sweet, and easy to talk to and work with.

Oh that's so exciting! I love when agents share MSs in an agency. That was probably a surprise to get a call from someone you didn't sub to, but what an AMAZING surprise! Can you tell us more about “the call”? How did you know Elisa was the right choice?

Elisa set up a date for the call, and I frantically started gathering all kinds of questions to ask her. I had three pages of questions which she answered patiently. She asked me what else I was working on and why I was looking for an agent. We connected well, and at the end of the call, she offered representation.

The right agent will love “ALL OF YOUR WORK” and is easy to connect with and is very transparent with how they do subs, keeps you in the loop every step of the way, and explains all this in The Call. Elisa is lovely and extremely hardworking. She was easy to talk to and explained how the agency works. She also encouraged me to nudge other agents to who I have submitted material, but I connected with her so well that I decided to withdraw from the others. Even though she lives in France, she is just an email away if I have questions, and by the time I wake up in the morning, she has already replied to my questions. So time zone difference works great for us.

That sounds like such a lovely call! And I love to hear about agents who love your entire body of work and are prepared to be your career agent. Could you tell us a little about your book that landed your agent?

Not sure if it is just one book. After I participated in Pitch Perfect Live, I also participated in #APIpit a week after, and I got 3 agent likes, 2 editor likes, and one small press. One of the agents was Joyce Sweeney, so I knew I was still in consideration.

That is so wonderful! Another testament that Elisa is in it for the long haul with you, excited about your full body of work!

If you could give querying authors a piece of advice, what would that be?

Use all the avenues available to find your agent. The dream agent will be the agent who can sell your work. Don’t hesitate to query new agents who are mentored at established agencies. They want to succeed as much as you do, and they usually have more time to answer your questions and guide you in this publishing journey. It is a partnership.

Also, while all those “No’s” are coming, keep improving your craft with classes and webinars and critique groups. My critique partners play a great role in helping me focus my story and making it better. There are also many mentorship opportunities available on Twitter for free, like #PBChat and #PBParty. I always took advantage of all the free opportunities available. I was placed in the #PBParty 2021 as one of the finalists in the illustration category. Even if it doesn’t lead to an agent, it is a big confidence booster to get noticed.

Don’t give up. This is just the first step into the publishing world.

That is all such wonderful advice! I love that your journey was really about honing your craft and taking every opportunity that came your way. I think that between those two things, everyone can make it in this industry. I love your reminder that a yes will come. It only takes one. Before I let you go... Where can we connect with you online?

@RGSpaulding on Twitter and IG

Website: https://rgspaulding.com/

Wonderful! Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?

Since I was relatively new to this field (my second career), I had a lot of learning to do, but I didn’t have time to go back to college full-time to write/illustrate. But luckily for me, I was able to find many classes online and connect with some great kidlit peeps.

Some of the classes that helped me are:

The Writing Barn classes (writing)

12x12 Webinars (writing & critique partners)

The Storyteller Academy (writing/illustrating classes)

The Society of Visual Storytelling (illustrating classes)

Don’t compare yourself to other authors and illustrators. Make your own path and help others along the way. My favorite quote from The Writing Barn-Courage to Create community, “Creativity is not a competition-Bethany Hegedus.”

Oh, that is so very good! I love that reminder. And what wonderful resources! Thank you for sharing those and thanks so much for joining us today, Ramya! I’ve had a blast chatting and learning more about your journey. Best of luck on this journey! I can’t wait to see your books in the world.

Thank you, Kailei.

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY!

R.G. Spaulding is offering one lucky winner a non-rhyming PB MS critique or one Dummy Critique.

To enter:

Follow R.G. Spaulding on Twitter.

Retweet THIS tweet.

Winner will be announced next week on Twitter.

About R.G. Spaulding

Ramya G. Spaulding (R.G. Spaulding) is an Indian-American author-illustrator. She loves to draw and frequently got into trouble as a kid for daydreaming too much. She spent most of her lunchtime at the school library, escaping into different worlds of the stories she read. Before she was an author-illustrator, she used to be an engineer because she also loved math and science. She feels extremely privileged to be making up stories with words and pictures. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family. She wants to make sure all children can see themselves in the books they read. She also loves to add a hint of STEM in her stories whenever possible. You can find out more about her by visiting https://rgspaulding.com/

About Kailei Pew

Kailei Pew is a wife, mother, and children's book author represented by the amazing Emily Forney of Bookends Literary. Kailei's debut Middle Grade Book, KID MADE will be coming to you from Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan Summer 2023