LET'S DANCE! A Kidlit Holiday Dance Party

Hello friends! Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was relaxing, fun, and rejuvenating and that you're ready to jump back into writing/revising/editing/querying/etc. Speaking of relaxing, fun, and rejuvenating, I have some super exciting news! Valerie Bolling and Kaitlyn Sanchez have teamed up to bring to you a virtual Kidlit Holiday DANCE PARTY!! I mean, how incredibly fun does that sound, and I haven't even shared the details with you yet! Let's start with the basic details:

What: A Virtual KidLit Holiday Dance Party

When: Saturday, December 12th, 7:00-8:00 PM Eastern Time

Who: YOU are invited as Valerie Bolling and Kaitlyn Sanchez share their favorite dances and talk inspiration in both writing and agenting.

Why: Because we could all use a little more connection! And who doesn't love to dance?

Now for some more details...

Upon the suggestion of one of Kaitlyn's clients, Valerie and Kaitlyn got to talking about how much fun it would be to connect the KidLit community through dance. Valerie's amazing book, Let's Dance! is all about that... connection through dance. Dance brings people together in a way that nothing else does. I absolutely adore this book. The simple, fun, and brief text pairs amazingly with gorgeous, bright, energetic illustrations to make a story that is truly special.

Valerie has teamed up with one of her favorite Black-owned indie bookstores to offer signed copies of Let's Dance! You can purchase a signed copy HERE.

As Valerie and Kaitlyn talked more, they came up with the fun idea of hosting a virtual KidLit Holiday dance party. The idea was to gather via zoom, dance together, and discuss their inspiration in writing and agenting. I was thrilled when they reached out to me to host the event! I love opportunities to connect as a community, and this sounded like so much fun! This is going to be a fairly relaxed event, and more about connection and fun than anything else. We'll spend a good chunk of the event dancing and having a great time. But we will also be chatting a bit about Valerie's inspiration behind Let's Dance! as well as Kaitlyn's inspiration when choosing clients in agenting. We'll also hold a Q&A at the end to answer your writing related questions. We'll try our best to keep the event to 1 hour, as we know that everyone is so busy this time of year (and always).

While this is a free event, we would love to encourage each of you to donate $5-$10+ to a favorite charity, especially at this time of year. If you need some help selecting a cause, we'd each like to share one of our favorites (though it was so hard to each choose just one):

Equal Justice Initiative:

https://eji.org/

The EJI is one of Valerie's favorites. It is committed to ending mass incarceration and challenging racial and economic injustice in the United States. Which we need now more than ever.

Danielle's Gift:

http://daniellesgift.org/donate-or-volunteer/donate/

Danielle was one of Kaitlyn's best friends growing up. Danielle always wanted to help others when she grew up, but when her life was cut short, her family started a foundation to keep her dreams of helping others alive.

The Florence Immigration and Refugee Rights Project:

https://firrp.org/

This project is close to my heart as immigration rights are so important to me. My husband has had opportunities to do some pro-bono legal work for them. This organization provides legal representation for detained immigrants to help them out of wrongful convictions, and is so very needed as about 86% of detained immigrants go unrepresented due to poverty.

We hope that you will take the time to consider donating to one of these extremely worthy causes, or to one that is close to your heart. Feel free to share in the comments more of your favorite nonprofits.

Space is limited, so make sure to register soon! Register here:

LET'S DANCE! A KIDLIT HOLIDAY DANCE PARTY REGISTRATION

And now... what would an awesome event like this be without some GIVEAWAYS!!? During the event, we will be offering two amazing prizes.

1. One PB Manuscript Critique from Author/Agent Kaitlyn Sanchez

2. One Signed Copy of Let's Dance! by Valerie Bolling

Prizes will only be available to participants who attend the live event. If we're able, we will draw names during the event! But if not, we will absolutely announce the winners by Monday, December 14th on Twitter.

To enter:

Register for AND ATTEND the live KidLit Dance Party On December 12th

Like and Retweet THIS tweet for a bonus entry!

Easy as pie!

Also, make sure to be following me, Kaitlyn, and Valerie on Twitter so that you don't miss any exciting announcements about the event! You should also be following Kaitlyn's amazing clients!

So friends, we hope that you will all join us via Zoom on December 12th at 7:00 PM Eastern Time. Once you register, a confirmation window will pop up and you will receive an email within one week of registering to join the Zoom meeting. Again, please only register if you will be able to attend as space is limited and this will not be a recorded event.

Thank you all for joining us for such a fun event and for supporting our favorite charities this Holiday Season!

Register here:

LET'S DANCE! A KIDLIT HOLIDAY DANCE PARTY REGISTRATION

Can't wait to see you all soon!

Tuesday From The Trenches: Michelle Mohrweis

Happy Tuesday, KidLit friends! I have seriously had such a blast with these Tuesday From The Trenches interviews! Every interview is so unique and I love hearing about each journey. Plus, it helps me actually know what day it is because let me tell you... during this pandemic, I never know the day. That's normal, right?

Anyways... I'm so excited to be welcoming one of my agent siblings to the blog today!! Michelle Mohrweis is the first of a few agent siblings that I get to highlight and I am absolutely thrilled. Our interview just solidified for me how much I adore Emily Forney, our rock star agent. Seriously friends, if Emily is not on your radar, she should be. She's been nothing but a joy to work with. Watch her on Twitter to find out when she reopens to queries.

And now, join me in welcoming Michelle Mohrweis to the blog.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Michelle! I’m thrilled to share your query story with my readers. Especially since we are agent sisters and I adore Emily!

First of all, Can you share your query stats with us? (as far as you know/remember):

Of course! I do want to start by saying, this wasn’t my first time in the trenches, but it was certainly the most exciting for me! Before this attempt I had written and queried several other stories, including one I spent six years on. For the story that got me my agent, however, it was a short whirlwind of a journey.

Time Spent in the Query Trenches: 4 Days (18 if you count the 2 weeks I gave for agents to get back to me after my notice of an offer.)

Number of Agents Queried: 10

Number of Requests for Additional Work/Full Manuscript: 4

Number of Twitter Pitch “Likes”: 5

Number of R&Rs: 0

Number of Rejections: 9

Number of Offers: 1

Agent and Agency: Emily Forney at Bookends

Oh my goodness! I don't think I've ever seen such a quick turn around! This is beyond amazing. I also love your persistence. After 6 years, you didn't give up, you wrote another story, and you jumped back into the trenches. I bet many of our readers need that motivation to try again. The query trenches can really beat us up, but they are a necessary evil!

How did you keep track of it all? What was your method for organizing queries? Spread sheet? Query Tracker? Etc.

I used Query Tracker to keep track of my queries this time. Though in the past attempts I used a chart in a word document!

I loved Query Tracker! I was one of those who would stalk the "timeline" feature to see if agents had responded to others who had queried around the same time. haha. One of the reasons I started this series, actually!

How did you handle rejections? Did any sting more than others?

During my past attempts, rejections stung. A lot. I would usually try to follow a rejection up by doing something relaxing to distract myself, like playing a game, writing more, or taking a walk.

This time, however, my querying journey moved unusually fast. I didn’t get any time to stew on rejections. By the time I was getting rejections, I already had my call set up and I was distracted preparing for that. Then, after the call, the remaining rejections were from agents that kindly decided to step aside once I notified them off my offer. Those rejections were all so nice, and if anything, they made me more excited to be working with Emily.

That is so great. I love the advice to distance yourself from the rejections a bit. I think that's key. But how awesome that you didn't even need the coping mechanisms this time!

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

I started searching for agents to query when THE TROUBLE WITH ROBOTS was just a concept. In between writing sessions, I searched the #MSWL tag on twitter, looking for any agents interested in MG STEM books. I made a list of all the agents interested. Then, I searched for the agents that represented books I enjoyed. I would read a good MG book with a similar tone and similar themes, then check the acknowledgements to see who the agent was.

Once I had a good list, I then went on Publisher’s Marketplace to research the agents further. I checked out their agent websites to see what they were interested in and searched for their twitter accounts. I used my research to refine my list, sorting it by who I would be most interested in.

By the time I was ready to start querying, I had 3 lists, one for each of my planned rounds of querying. My plan was to send out about 10 to 15 queries at a time. Then, in between each round, I would revise my query and first pages as needed before starting the next round.

At the time I had no idea how fast things were going to go, or that my first round of queries would become my only round.

Wow, that is an awesome tactic. I love the research and thought you put into the process. I think that's so key... really looking for an agent who will best connect with your work.

How did you ultimately connect with Emily? Did you cold query? Participate in a twitter pitch event? Or connect in some other way?

Emily was on my first-round of agents to query. I knew about her from seeing my friends query her, and I knew that she was enthusiastic, quick to respond, and very kind. However, I never did send her a traditional query.

When I was ready to query, it was a few days before PitMad (a contest where you pitch your story in a tweet, and agents who want to see more like your tweet), so I decided to start my journey by taking part in PitMad. Emily liked my very first pitch, and I was thrilled! She wanted a full manuscript from anyone whose pitch she liked, so that night I sent it off. I also responded to the four other agents that liked my pitch and sent out the rest of my round one queries (which ended up being 5 queries). It was very exciting.

So exciting! I know exactly what you were feeling there... Emily and I also connected at that PitMad event! What a whirlwind day!

So how much time passed between officially querying Emily to getting “the call”?

I heard back from Emily two days later. I was stunned at how fast she moved! After PitMad I had seen her tweet about enjoying one of the manuscripts she got, but I hadn’t imagined it could be mine. Then I woke up in the morning two days later with that email sitting in my inbox. We scheduled the call for two days after, and just like that, my querying journey ended. Only four days had passed since I started.

WOW! That is absolutely incredible, Michelle! I can't even imagine what that must have felt like. Major congratulations!

Can you tell us more about “the call” with Emily? How did you know she was the right choice?

I was so nervous leading up to the call! I kept telling myself that maybe I was wrong. Maybe it would be a revise and resubmit and not THE call. Maybe Emily just wanted to talk about the weather. Maybe Emily would change her mind. Maybe…

Yet the moment I hopped on zoom with Emily, she was so kind and calm and welcoming. She put me at ease and got so excited talking about my story. I was still nervous (I’m pretty sure my face was bright red for the entire zoom call!) but I was also excited now. We talked about THE TROUBLE WITH ROBOTS. We talked about my future project. I asked about her plan for my book, her communication style, her view of my future, etc. And by the end, I knew that I would be in good hands with Emily.

That is wonderful! Isn't Emily just amazing?? I feel like I could have written the exact same things (including wondering if this would be THE call or just A call). I love how calming and yet completely excited Emily is!

Could you tell us a little about the book that landed your agent? I see that you write and teach about robotics? That’s so awesome!!

THE TROUBLE WITH ROBOTS is a MG contemporary story about two girls in STEM. These girls hate each other, yet when their middle school robotics team is at risk of being cancelled, they must work together to save it.

I started the story because I couldn’t find many books dealing with modern day robotics. I teach engineering and robotics at my own school, and I wanted a story I could read with my students. Yet most books where the kids interact with robotics are either historical fiction style books, or scifi like ones with robotics that walk and talk. I wanted something showing kids interacting with current, modern day robotics.

So, I decided to write it.

Of course, THE TROUBLE WITH ROBOTS became much more than just robotics. It’s a story about coping with grief, about loss of family and friendship. It’s a story about determination and forming new friendships, about overcoming differences to accomplish incredible things. It’s a story about finding the art in all things, even robotics. And it is the story of my heart. I am so glad I got to write it and I hope someday I get to share it with the world.

Oh my goodness, it sounds absolutely incredible! I am certain you will find the perfect home for it, and I can't wait to read it myself!

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

Don’t give up! I queried several stories before this one. I spent six years on my last story, writing, refining, querying, revising, and querying again. By the time I shelved that story, I was starting to fear I would never succeed. Then THE TROUBLE WITH ROBOTS got me an offer within less than a week.

Querying is an odd blend of skill, luck, timing, and more luck. You just need to keep trying. Keep querying, keep working on the next story, and keep trying!

What perfect advice! I seriously can't get over your persaverance. And to go from a 6 year journey to a one week experience is still just blowing my mind. I love this story so much! Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us, Michelle! I know you are inspiring readers like crazy! Before I let you go... where can we connect with you online?

I’m on twitter as @MMichelleAZ. I also have an Instagram account (@MichelleMohrweis) though I am less active there. And my website is https://www.michellemohrweis.com/

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

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY!!!

Michelle has generously offered TWO giveaways with this awesome interview!

1-Query Critique

1- 1st 5 Pages Feedback

To enter, retweet THIS tweet and follow Michelle and Kailei on twitter.

Best of luck!

Winner will be announced on Twitter on Monday, November 30th.

About Michelle Mohrweis:

Michelle Mohrweis is a middle school Robotics and Engineering teacher. She writes MG contemporary books about STEM Girls and loves to dive into MG and YA fantasy on the side. She is also a member of SCBWI Arizona chapter and a moderator at the Tucson Festival of Books. Michelle lives in Arizona with her husband and two dogs. When not writing, she can be found chasing her dogs around the house with remote control robots and launching paper rockets down the middle of her street.

About Kailei Pew

Kailei Pew is a wife, mother, and picture book author represented by the amazing Emily Forney of Bookends Literary.She is an active member of SCBWI, a 2019 Write Mentor Mentee, and a finalist in Susanna Leonard Hill's 2019 Holiday Writing Contest. She loves writing picture books that help kids see they can do anything they set their minds to.Kailei can't wait to get her stories into your hands.

Tuesday From The Trenches: Ebony Mudd

Hello kidlit friends and welcome to another Tuesday From The Trenches!! I hope you are enjoying these as much as I am, because I am seriously having a blast! I love hearing all of these different stories and learning about different paths to representation. We've had people in the trenches for years and years and others in the trenches for only a few weeks. It's all so different, but an overall theme is: It only takes ONE yes! So keep at it friends. And in the mean time, as your trudging through those trenches, help me welcome the amazing Ebony Mudd to the blog. She is an extra bright spot in the kidlit community and I have loved connecting with her. You can't help but smile when you interact with Ebony and I'm thrilled to be sharing her story today!

Thank you so much for joining us today, Ebony! I have loved connecting on Twitter and you are such a light and support to the KidLit community. I love how you are always encouraging others. Welcome to the blog today and thank you for taking this time!

Kailei! First of all, this is amazing. Tuesday from the trenches?! As soon as I saw that this was going to be a thing, I was like.....People. Need. This. So what I’m trying to say is, congrats on being a genius- haha! Secondly, thanks so much for even considering me and for being so kind/welcoming to me. I always refer to myself as the “new girl” in kidlit and so I really appreciate the fact that you want to know more about my journey! I truly just want all of the books on the shelves for kids and I love this community so much! (Ps: this whole interview is about to get real exclamation point heavy!!!)

I love a well-placed exclamation point (or three)!!! My CPs are always reigning me in. haha! And wow, thank you so much! These interviews have been such a blast. When I was in the query trenches, I was one of those people who would google the agents I had queried, desperately trying to find blog posts from their clients to see what average wait time was, when to expect a follow up, etc. So it's been so fun to create a whole series answering those questions. And you are just so lovely! You might feel new in the Kidlit community, but you have jumped in with both feet and have been so kind and "all in." It's been great to get to know you! So let's jump in...

Can you share your query stats with us? (as far as you know/remember. It’s okay if some of these numbers are zero):

Time Spent in the Query Trenches: 2 months :)

Number of Agents Queried: 18

Number of Requests for Additional Work/Full Manuscript: 5

Number of Twitter Pitch “Likes”: 26

Number of R&Rs: 0

Number of Rejections: I had 8 actual rejections sent to me from people who didn’t request more work. And of course some agents who have a no response is a rejection policy.

Number of Offers: 1 (Thankfully, the only one I needed!)

Agent and Agency: Lori Steel with Raven Quill Literary Agency

WOWZA! Only 2 months in the query trenches and 26 twitter pitch likes! That is amazing, and congratulations!! How did you keep track of it all? (Especially all those twitter likes!) What was your method for organizing queries? Spread sheet? Query Tracker? Etc.

I initially started off with a fancy excel spreadsheet that my husband spent so much time putting together. But, to be real.....I eventually just started updating things in the notes section of my phone. However, I did also use query tracker which was actually satisfying to update.

Gotta go with ease for sure! But bless your husband for being so awesome and involved in the process. I know your time in the query trenches was fast and furious, but you did still experience some rejection. So tell us... How did you handle those rejections? Did any sting more than others?

I’ve spent my adult life dancing professionally so I’m real acquainted with rejection. I also spend a lot of my time judging dance auditions. I have the perspective of the other side. Even some dancers that are super talented, won’t get a part. I think that’s helped me in the publishing world. Rejections don’t bother me. I get it.

With that being said, if I had to pick a rejection that was hard it would be all rejections that came after full requests. Not so much because an agent “got away”, but because those rejections fan the flames of your already brewing imposter syndrome. Because those rejections aren’t just about one manuscript that’s not a good fit so it was harder to swallow.

However, I truly wanted an agent who was in love with my work and passionate about it so I never stayed down for long.

I felt the same way about rejections. The hardest ones were the ones that were nos after the request for more. But you are SO right. You want someone who is completely passionate about your work.

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

I’m an information snob and absolutely love to research. This part was so much fun for me. The main resources that I used were query tracker comments, publisher’s marketplace, agency websites, the manuscript wishlist website, and agent‘s twitter accounts. Yes, twitter helped me. I wanted to make sure that the agents I chose to query seemed to be interested in the types of books I want to build a career with. Did they want all funny? Because your girl isn’t funny so that probably wouldn’t be a great fit.

I love that! I was a total twitter stalker while in the query trenches. I wanted to know everything I could about and agent. And I love how thorough you were in researching agents. So amongst all of those awesome resources, how did you ultimately connect with your agent? Did you cold query? Participate in a twitter pitch event? Or connect in some other way?

I’m actually a PBPitch success story! I participated in the June 2020 twitter event and Lori liked TWO pitches (different manuscripts) that day. That really showed me that she was intrigued by my body of work. After that, I did some research and then decided she was someone I wanted to query.

That's amazing!! I love twitter pitch success stories so much. And her liking two must have been such an amazing day! How much time passed between querying Lori after her "like" to getting “the call”?

Okay, so:

Query sent - 6/25/2020

She requested more- 7/8/2020

And we had THE (BEST) CALL- 7/21/2020

Less than one month!

Wahoo! That is really exciting! Can you tell us more about “the call”? How did you know Lori was the right choice?

So’m going to try really hard not to say, “when you know, you know” because I’m sure people want more than that.

The way Lori spoke about my work and her reasons why it needed to be in the world lined up with my why behind writing those manuscripts. It was magical. I was like this woman is surfing my brain waves! The two manuscripts she was most drawn to were the ones closest to my heart. They represented what I wanted to write throughout my career. She just got me and got my books. I felt really safe thinking about collaborating with her.

Then of course, I spoke to her clients. I found out what type of editorial style she had. I spoke to Lori about the challenges that will come up for me being Black in this industry and again, I felt very seen, heard, and safe. I definitely KNEW on the call, but as I dug deeper and took my time to think about it....it was further confirmed that Lori was my agent! I had a really unique situation because I got an offer very early into my writing and querying journey. So for me, I wasn’t necessarily in a rush to sign with whoever offered. I am only 29 years old and want a long career with one agent so I really wanted to be sure. And months later, I don’t know how I could ever have anyone else represent me besides Lori!

I love everything about this so much! That feeling is something that's so hard to explain, but you nailed it. I especially love you feeling seen, heard and safe. How perfect. I cannot WAIT to see all that you and Lori accomplish together. I remember your pitches and they were fire. The world needs these books.

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

I’m going to try and limit it to three things, because this could be a whole separate interview, am I right?!

For reals! This is probably my favorite portion of these interviews!

First thing is, don’t query too early.....it’s not worth it. That manuscript that you think is ready? Put it away for a week and then look again. Do this several times. Get critique partners that will challenge you. Paginate it. Study it line by line. Really give it the time and care it deserves. There’s a difference between your work that won’t ever sell and your work that was queried too soon.

Don’t let other people’s query experiences be imprinted so deeply on you that it stops you from believing in yourself. Again, I’m an info snob. I love to know what all of the outcomes CAN be. I love to hear people’s experiences. But most stories that I’ve heard are nothing like mine. I started writing this year. I queried this year for the first time. And I got an agent this year. All from a pitch contest. It can happen. But the word on the street was that it could never happen that fast. I’m glad I knew that so I was mentally prepared for a marathon and not a sprint, but I’m even more glad that I didn’t use what other people experienced as law.

Lastly, make yourself a rejection care box and a “wins” box. Maybe it’s mini bottles of wine? A face mask? A gift card to your favorite restaurant? A coupon to watch a trashy tv show? A book on your TBR list you can start reading? A bath? A note to yourself? A copy of the first draft ever of your manuscript so you can be proud of where it is now? Maybe you should print out positive critique notes from critique partners and put it in there, too? Decide what you need. Figure out how you will celebrate each win and what you’ll do when each rejection comes in. And yes, celebrate EACH win. You get a full request? That’s a win. A nice rejection? Win. It all counts.

Love, love love this advice! Especially the note to remember that every journey is different and there is no "one right path" to representation. You had a whirlwind of a year, Ebony, and I am absolutely thrilled for you!! Thank you so much for taking this time to share your story. I have been inspired and I know that our readers will be too! Before I let you go, where can we connect with you online?

I’m on Twitter at @ebonylynnmudd and I feel super fancy saying this, but I have a website

https://www.ebonylynnmudd.com

Thanks so much for joining us today, Ebony! And THANK YOU so much for this insanely generous

GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITY!

Ebony is offering one lucky winner a complete PB submission packet critique! This includes a query letter and FOUR (4!!!) PB Manuscripts!

Don't miss this opportunity, friends! To enter, retweet THIS tweet and follow both Ebony and Kailei on twitter.

Winner will be announced next Monday on Twitter.

About Ebony Mudd

Ebony Lynn Mudd writes picture books for underrepresented kids who don’t see themselves in the media. She is intentional about the diversity of her son’s bookshelf, and now she writes to contribute to the diversity in children’s literature. Ebony spends her time fighting fiercely against inequalities, toxic masculinity, and gender stereotypes. As a former professional dancer and current owner of a tuition-free dance company, she is a bridge for underprivileged kids that hope to work in the arts. She appreciates the creative freedom that choreographing to a song gives her and often compares it to creating a story from a blank page. Her other interests include restaurants with all-you-can-eat sushi, quoting Phoebe from FRIENDS, and eating anything edible that she didn’t have to cook.

About Kailei Pew

Kailei Pew is a wife, mother, and picture book author represented by the amazing Emily Forney of Bookends Literary. She is an active member of SCBWI, a 2019 Write Mentor Mentee, and a finalist in Susanna Leonard Hill's 2019 Holiday Writing Contest. She loves writing picture books that help kids see they can do anything they set their minds to. Kailei can't wait to get her stories into your hands.