Get Published Weekly Roundup: October 23, 2017

Book Barcode By Thepwnco [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Change made: from color to black and white.
Stranger Things Season 2 goes up in four days, y’all. We have our doubts about the creators being able to catch lightning in a bottle twice, but we’re excited anyway. Anyway, in this week’s roundup we cover agent & agency news, submission deadlines, Manuscript Wishlist highlights, and engage in a little Pooh bashing at the end.
 
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please let us know what you think in the comments and if there are certain types of information you would like to see in the Roundup. Also feel free to tweet at us (@freelancingrads) with any ideas or questions. Have a great writing week!

Agent and Agency News

Two promotions (according to PublishersLunch – they're not reflected on the agency websites. Hopefully we're not ruining any surprises!)

Saba Sulaiman has been promoted to Associate Agent at Talcott Notch Literary.

Seeking:

Fiction: Middle Grade; Young Adult; Literary; Commercial; Romance; Thriller; Cozy Mystery

Nonfiction: Humor; Memoir

And it finally hit me—working closely with writers to hone their craft; seeing a piece of writing from its inception through to its eventual publication; and advocating for what I believed was stellar prose worthy of recognition—this was my calling.”

Saba is accepting queries via email, at SSulaiman@talcottnotch.net. For submission guidelines, click here.

Sarah Bedingfield has been promoted to Agent at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary.

Seeking:

Fiction: Literary; upmarket Commercial

Nonfiction: Naught

A southerner at heart, she can’t help but love books set in the south, but she’s a die-hard for any world immersive enough to make her miss her stop on the train, cry in public, or desperately unable to sleep.”

Sarah is accepting queries via online form, here, or by email at submit@levinegreenberg.com.  Click here for the agency’s submission guidelines.

Submission Deadlines

Writers, you've got a week or four…

Prose Challenges: Sponsored by Trident Media Group—Submissions due in roughly a month (Sponsored writing challenge)

What: 1,000-5,000 word sample of your work. Winners will be approached by Trident (a heavy-hitter among literary agencies). 

To Submit: Submission online, here. For details and to see other entries click here,

Reed Magazine John Steinbeck Award for Fiction—Submissions due November 1st (Annual Contest—$$ Prize)

What: Short fiction of up to 5,000 words. The theme is “California.” Winner receives $1,000. Non-winners may still receive publication.

Reading Fee: $15 (includes one issue of magazine)

To Submit: Submission via Submittable. For more information, click here.

What Agents Want

Cheerleaders, ancient Egypt, and what not to send

Jessie Devine, Associate Agent at D4EO Literary
Jessie feels like iconoclasm in kids’ books is not so iconoclastic anymore: “I want MG where the MC is a girl who *is* interested in makeup and fashion and puberty and dances and significant others.” Source Tweet

Seeking:

Fiction: Science Fiction; Fantasy; Historical; Contemporary; Middle Grade; Young Adult

Nonfiction: Doesn’t seem like it 

How to submit: Jessie is accepting submissions via QueryManager, here

Follow Jessie @Jessie_Devine.

Kaitlyn Johnson, Agent Apprentice at Corvisiero Literary
Kaitlyn is looking for an updated classic (but probably not the Tom Cruise one): “In treasure hunting mood – also want a modern Mummy-esque story!” Source Tweet

Seeking:

Fiction: Middle Grade; Young Adult; New Adult; Fantasy; Romance; Historical; Contemporary; LGBT

Nonfiction: noooope

“Her favorite tv shows are Doctor Who, Buffy, Supernatural, Firefly, basically the nerdier the fandom the better.”  (I’m with her on Buffy and Firefly.)

How to submit:  Kaitlyn is accepting queries hereClick here to read the full submissions guidelines on the company website.

Follow Kaitlyn on Twitter @kaitylynne13.

Jennie Goloboy, Agent at Red Sofa Literary
Jennie’s going apophatic with her MSWL: “Tough sells for me right now: lone-wolf vigilante heroes. Dystopias in general.”

Seeking:

Fiction: Young Adult; Middle Grade; Science Fiction; Fantasy; Romance

Nonfiction: History

How to submit: Jennie is accepting submissions at jennie@redsofaliterary.com. Click here for full submission guidelines. 

Follow Jennie on Twitter @JennieGoloboy.

Ejusdem Generis

Last week we linked to an essay written by Chris Jackson, in which he talked about the importance of diversity in the publishing industry. The diversity he refers to is entirely socioeconomic and ethnic: he doesn’t mention gender at all. Maybe that’s because the industry is already overwhelmingly female (estimates put it at almost 80%): to get more diverse, there would need to be an increase in the number of men

But as a piece in Publisher’s Weekly points out, in spite of women’s dominant numbers, the power in publishing is largely concentrated with men. The fallout over the allegations against Harvey Weinstein has included soul-searching (or at least the appearance of said searching) in industries outside Hollywood, and publishing is no different. The article reports that sexual harassment is widespread in the industry, and that women consistently find that management and HR departments are indifferent to it. Just because 4 out of 5 faces on every agency and publishing house website belong to women doesn’t mean those faces are running the show. Or that they’re being treated fairly. Check it out here.

On a lighter note: how about that Winnie-the-Pooh? I loved Pooh growing up (well, Tigger, mostly. T-i-double guh-er!), but as the words mawkish and twee entered my vocabulary, my affections faded. A new biopic about Pooh’s creator, A.A. Milne, is out this week, and it apparently explores the family dysfunction and burden of fame that led to a never-resolved falling out between parents and son, the IRL model for Pooh’s Christopher Robin. Goodbye Christopher Robin has been receiving mostly meh reviews, so I feel no need to see it, which pleases me. On top of disliking things egregiously sentimental, I also dislike Milne for his treatment of one of my literary heroes, P.G. Wodehouse. Wodehouse had been captured when the Germans overran France in WWII, and had (foolishly, one must admit) agreed to a series of broadcasts on German radio, which he titled How to be an Internee Without Previous Training. Mostly comprised of humorous reflections on life as a prisoner, the broadcasts contained no pro-German or Nazi material, or any anti-Allied material, either. Nevertheless, this seeming collaboration with those orchestrating the Blitz enraged the British populace. Wodehouse’s old friend Alan Milne was one of a chorus of voices who condemned him publicly, which ultimately led to Wodehouse’s exile in the United States. But Wodehouse took his revenge, subtler and sweeter, if less tangibly damaging, when he wrote of Rodney Spelvin (a character in his series of golf-centered stories) turning to syrupy children’s fare when inspired by his son: “Timothy Bobbin goes Happily hoppity hoppity hop.” (There is considerably more material, and funnier, which I encourage you to read yourself in “Rodney Has a Relapse.” Here at GSF we have an intense aversion to infringing on copyright, so I will not quote more.) And while Disney has certainly made far more money off of Pooh than Wodehouse ever made in his ridiculously prolific career, it his P.G.’s work that has continued to enjoy the approval of his peers – other writers. For more on the scorn of writers for other writers, check out this piece over at LitHub. It includes Dorothy Parker’s famous takedown of Milne in The New Yorker.


Grad Student Freelancers (GSF) is dedicated to helping authors take care of the details of the publication process. Part of the process includes sifting through huge amounts of information to find important news, events, and tips that can give you an edge in the publication process. Every week GSF will provide three lists of curated information focused on helping writers get published. Our goal is to gather what’s important from the web in the past week, so you can focus more on your writing.  

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