Editing to note — I simultaneously posted this first section on a kid-lit FB page, and got all my questions answered. 🙂 Part 2, I could still use help with, though.
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Kid lit conference / agent question. I have two picture books written, and am making good process through a draft of a middle-grade fantasy novel. (I also have a YA fantasy novel written, and an idea for a YA SF novel, but those could, in theory, be represented by an adult lit. agent, I think.)
The next step, I think, is to find an agent to represent my children’s lit. I was thinking about going to SCBWI’s annual conference (Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), but it’s in New York next week, which is short notice, and it’s also very expensive — I don’t think we can afford it right now.
Would love suggestions for other kid-lit conferences worth attending, and/or other recommended paths towards finding a kid-lit agent specifically. I have a reasonable sense of the general strategy for agent-hunting, but every field is a little different, and my impression is that kid-lit is very much its own thing.
Help?
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On a related but different note, I’m writing this book to work as a stand-alone, but I think it could make a great series. I could write more in the series myself, but for this particular project, I think it might actually work really well to have other authors writing the other books (as they’d be set in different countries around the world, and would be focused in part on their specific regional differences, esp. around ecological concerns).
Is that going to scare away agents / publishers, if I come to them with that possibility?
I think I already know quite a few great writers whom I’d trust to work in my universe and write such a book — I would love to see Nnedi Okorafor writing one set in Nigeria / America, for example, and Aliette de Bodard writing one set in Vietnam / France, but I’m wondering how publishers would likely react. It’d be sort of like the Wild Cards shared world (and I’d like to edit all the books and keep some artistic control of the project).
(If you’re wondering why Amirthi, it’s my middle name — I was thinking I might use that for my kid-lit, just to maintain more a separation from my adult lit, which is sometimes VERY adult…)