Thursday, February 7, 2013

Contact email for submissions!

Please send submissions to

fiona@transatlanticagency.com

Thank you!

New Laika film: The Boxtrolls

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paranorman-makers-announce-production-boxtrolls-419169

A very proud day! Back in 2000, a talented artist friend showed me the very first drawings for a book that was to become Here Be Monsters. It went on to be published by my colleagues at Oxord University Press in the UK and by Simon and Schuster in the US. Six years later, I showed the book to my new colleagues at Laika, the animation studio famous for making Coraline and Paranorman. Henry Selick, who was our Supervising Director at the time, championed the book and we went on to fight a close-run auction for the rights.

I was privileged to work with some talented screenwriters developing the story from a multi-layered illustrated book into the very different medium of an animated film. Today the movie was formally announced, with Tony Stacchi and Graham Annable directing. I cannot wait to see how it looks!

Exciting news!

I am delighted to tell you my news! I have joined the Transatlantic Agency bringing my clients with me. Transatlantic is based in Toronto, Canada, with branches in the US and the Netherlands. You can link to it here:

www.transatlanticagency.com

This is a wonderful opportunity: Transatlantic provide 20 years of expertise and international experience. It allows me to spend time doing what I enjoy most: encouraging and supporting writers and illustrators to do their best work creatively!

I am actively looking to grow my list, so please send submissions to me at

fiona@transatlanticagency.com

Monday, November 26, 2012

The times they are a changin'

As Penguin and Random House agree to merge, and HarperCollins and Simon and Schuster consider doing the same, an Hachette-Macmillan alliance can only be a heartbeat away. The landscape of traditional publishing is shifting more dramatically than at any time in the last 30 years. It's not all bad news - out of the mergers and consolidations of earlier recessions came the phoenixes of Bloomsbury and Headline - new companies started by gifted entrepreneurial publishers.

Much has already been written, but I particularly like Mike Shatzkin's blog piece today:

http://www.idealog.com/blog/peering-into-the-future-and-seeing-more-value-in-the-random-penguin-merger/#comment-719562721

Monday, November 5, 2012

CONGRATULATIONS!

My wonderful client, Kevin Crossley-Holland has a book on the Carnegie Awards long list, announced today.  SCRAMASAX, (published by Quercus in the UK and to be published by them in the US next year) is an extraordinarily compelling novel about a young Viking girl's journey to find her father. For my US readers, the Carnegie is awarded by British libraries to the best children's/YA book of the year, and is thus the equivalent of the Newbery. Kevin has previously won for a younger book, STORM. It is terrific that this outstanding book has been recognized. Fingers crossed for the shortlist!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Submission Guidelines

If you are interested in submitting your work, please send me your query letter with the first three chapters of your novel, a full synopsis of the rest of the book, and a short biography.

If you are sending a picture book, please send the full text. If you have artwork to show, please contact me in advance before sending any visuals. I am not currently taking on many picture books and am not accepting rhyming texts as these are more difficult to sell internationally.

This is a specialist agency and does not accept manuscripts aimed at adults, inspirational texts, short stories or educational work.

Please paste your work into the body of the email rather than sending an attachment.  If you submit by snail mail, send a photocopy as it will not be returned.

I personally read everything that is sent, and consider it carefully so my current response time is about 6 weeks. If you haven't heard within that time, feel free to email me a reminder. I'll look forward to hearing from you.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

A really nice article about the agency in today's Oregonian. So nice that it was a joint piece about my wonderful client Nancy Fischer.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/10/fiona_kenshole_launches_specia.html