Mary Kole: Raising Readers for YOU

    When Mr. Jobs declared, “Nobody reads anymore” (although my bet is that Stevie takes a peek at his own balance sheet once in awhile), many of us trembled.

    So it is worth noting that almost all adults who do love books will tell you that the romance began in childhood.  (My third grade teacher, Mrs. Ritter, was my matchmaker:  She introduced our class to Little House in the Big Woods.)

    Therefore, the way to prove Steve Jobs wrong is to expose children to books.  When I say “books,” I really mean stories of any length, and it doesn’t matter if those stories are on CDs, or Kindles, or straight from your head.

    To my mind, those who bring books to children are doing the Lord’s work.  I’m not blaspheming or being facetious, which I have to make a point of saying because I know it’s hard to tell with me sometimes.

    Mary Kole is doing that work by representing, as an agent, books for young readers.  As an associate with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, she is looking for: “young adult and middle grade novels and truly exceptional, funny, quirky and character-driven picture books (she especially loves working with author illustrators).” I have quoted from her bio at the agency website ( www.andreabrownlit.com) where you can read about what she’s looking for in more detail and also what she’s not looking for.  (A key part of finding an agent is querying the right agent.  And always follow the agency's submission guidelines precisely.)

    Mary also has a personal site, www.Kidlit.com.  Don’t be fooled by the url.  Kidlit features a blog that covers a wide range of writing-and-publishing topics.  Should you put the C-in-a-circle copyright symbol on your work?  (Hint: No.)  What do you do when you have multiple offers from an agent?  How do you structure a novel with more than one point of view?  Is it fair to expect an author to have lived through a situation (such as addiction in the family) before he or she writes about it?  You can e-mail her your own questions on “the craft of writing, agents, editors or publishing”at Mary@kidlit.com.  (Keep in mind that anything you send might be featured on her site.)

    When I discovered Mary’s blog I thought I’d discovered a hidden treasure, but I’m afraid I came very late to the party:  Kidlit has just been chosen by Writer’s Market’s Chuck Sambuchino not only as one of Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers but also as one of his choices for the five best agent blogs on the Internet ( www.guidetoliteraryagents.com).

    Books for young readers, on average, don’t command as much money as books for the voting age set.  The Harry Potter books and the Twilight series are two noteworthy exceptions.  If they’re part of a trend, that bodes extremely well for the future of the so-called dying publishing industry, because the teens and pre-teens who are loving those books will be loving more books twenty years from now.  Maybe ours.