New Year Announcements

I always love the start of a new year. It always seems so full of hope and promise. This year, of course, has a special bonus -- it's the start of a new decade as well.

The end of the year always brings time for review and assessment, for clean-up and catch-up. Looking back gives you the opportunity to see that "big" picture view which quite often gets lost during the year in the day-t0-day responsibilities. Assessment usually leads to the "what if" questions or the "how to do better" resolutions. And all the stored up energy from the relaxed holidays starts pushing for release, and redirecting actions for the new year.

So, this year the agency is off to a new and solid start. First, we have our new look for the blog and for our updated website. One of our multi-talented interns, Lindsey, has done all of this, and I think she has done a marvelous job! Cheers for Lindsey!!!!

Let us know what you think of the changes. Certainly give us feedback if anything is unclear or incomplete. We've tried to give more information in a better and easier to read format, so let us know if we've succeeded.

The second big announcement is that I'm taking a break in receiving queries for a 90 day period. Starting February 1st, I will not accept any new queries (via email or snail mail). If you send me something, you'll just get an auto response asking you to resubmit after May 1st. So, if you have something ready and you're really eager, make sure you get it in before February 1st.

I'm doing this because I need to catch up on reading that's already here in the office. For those who have already submitted partials or full manuscripts in response to my earlier requests, this is good news for you. It means that your wait is almost over. My backlog, unfortunately, has grown to embarrassing proportions. I also want to spend a bit more time with existing projects and working with my current authors during the next few months. It's also only a temporary hiatus. I'll try to blog about the progress I'm making and certainly will give notice when the doors are once again open for me to receive queries.

But Most Importantly, take note: Elaine's taking a break does NOT in any way affect Naomi's acceptance of YA queries. She continues to look for new YA projects and will continue to accept new queries for such projects throughout this period. The agency is definitely hoping to concentrate more in the YA area for 2010.

So, Happy New Year to all. We're already hard at work on our resolutions and hope you are, too!