Space City Scribes

Meet our new Self-Publishing Coordinator!  By  Margaret Lea If you are self-published or thinking about self-publishing, you need to meet our chapter’s Self Pub Coordinator, Tiffany Obeng. In fact, I recommend you go to her website right now at sugarcookiebooks.com . If you have some time (because you will definitely want to read many of these posts), click on “Blog.” You will learn much and also pick up money-saving and money-making tips.       For example, here’s a tip from her Dec. 6, 2021 post : If you’re selling at a vendor’s market event, give the customer the book they bought in a clear plastic bag, and they will be doing free advertising for you as they stroll the market!        The Jan. 5, 2022 post explains strategies to get your books into U.S. libraries. The Oct. 11, 2022 post is a “Cheat-Sheet for Creating a Fascinating Amazon Book Page that Captivates Buyers.” And the Nov. 17, 2020 post explains ISBNs. Did you know,...

  By Margaret Lea If you had met Deeba Zargarpur ten years ago, she would have been working in the medical field. Now, she’s a senior editor at a Big Five publishing house, finding herself in surreal conversations with the likes of Christopher Paolini (Eragon) or Malala Yousafzai (I Am Malala). What caused this dramatic shift? After growing up in Virginia, Deeba earned her psychology degree from Drexel University and began applying her knowledge to that field. But her passion for books—long kindled through avid reading, fan fiction writing, and even finishing a novel—eventually pushed her to pursue a career in publishing. Her family's protests of, “Are you crazy?” calmed when she got an editorial assistant job with a company they’d heard of—Disney Publishing Worldwide. She then spent several years working for a book packager, generating ideas for their projects. In March 2020, Simon & Schuster hired her, where she works as an editor for their Books for Young Readers imprint and...

  Interview by Margaret Lea Vicky Weber is a former elementary school teacher turned bestselling children’s book author and literary agent at Creative Media Agency. She represents commercial fiction—from board books to adult—but specializes in children’s literature. In every manuscript she represents, Vicky seeks intensity in the writing. She wants to be fully immersed in the moment, experiencing the story alongside the characters. If your book is high-concept, commercial fiction with beautiful, literary-leaning prose, it’s probably up her alley. We’re thrilled to welcome Vicky as our guest speaker for our February 3rd meeting ! To help you get to know her better, she answered a few questions we’ve shared below. Vicky, which of your roles do you most enjoy and why? Honestly, it’s hard to pick just one because all my roles—author, agent, coach, and entrepreneur—are so connected. They feed into each other in ways that make every day feel fresh and exciting. That said, my own writing ...

By Margaret Lea Sheila Fernley joined Storm Literary Agency in March 2024 as an Associate Literary Agent, and is an agented picture book author herself, as well as a former editor and special education teacher. If you are reading this before November 2024, and would like to hear her speak, register for our free Zoom meeting .  Here are her answers to some of querying authors’ most common questions. 1) Do you prefer a query salutation to be Dear Ms. Fernley, Dear Sheila Fernley, or Dear Sheila? I prefer query letter salutations to be personal – Dear Sheila, or even Hi Sheila.    2) How far do you read of each genre (PB/MG/YA) before you usually know it’s a pass? Do you represent all three categories?       I represent authors who write PB, MG, and YA subgenres, requesting a full manuscript for picture books and the first three chapters of a MG or YA. I also represent author/illustrators. I can usually tell by the end of the first page if the project wil...

By Margaret Lea        “Embrace your weirdness, take calculated risks, and interact with as many people as possible,” urges two-time NY Times bestselling illustrator Marissa Valdez.      Marissa has been drawing for as long as she can remember and loves illustrating everything, especially when she gets to convey expression and emotion. She grew up in Los Fresnos, a small town near Brownsville, TX, then got a degree in animation from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She had simply followed other’s advice, though, and didn’t enjoy animation.            After college graduation, she moved to the Houston area and got a job teaching preschool at a fine arts school in Fulshear. She loved this, especially reading picture books to the kids, but there was no opportunity for advancement, so she took a job as a graphic designer, where she worked for three years while pursuing h...

 By Margaret Lea The longest work meeting in the history of the world (at least it felt that way to Kacy Ritter) was when, as a behavioral health professional, she glanced at her phone and saw “Deal Memo” from her literary agent. When the meeting finally ended, she opened the email and confirmed— Yes, she got a book deal... from HarperCollins!  This debut Middle Grade, THE GREAT TEXAS DRAGON RACE, was not her first novel. Previously, she worked three years on a not-to-be-named-here, self-proclaimed “horrible” YA work. After crickets querying the first novel, she attended a conference put on by Andrea Brown Literary Agency. There she discovered flaws in her first novel— the biggest being that it was not unique but too similar to other published works. She decided to start over with a new project. When finished, she queried this new novel for only three months before receiving two offers of representation. One agent loved the book as is. The other gave many editorial comments, ...