Writing for Young Readers -
by Eugie Foster
September 2006
An Interview with Deborah Vetter of the Cricket Magazine Group
An Interview with Deborah Vetter of the Cricket Magazine Group
Deborah Vetter is a prominent children's book and magazine editor. Her illustrious career with the Cricket Magazine Group has spanned twenty years, serving as Executive Editor of both award-winning CRICKET, a magazine for ages 9-14, and CICADA, a literary journal launched in 1998 for young adults, as well as editing their book division, Cricket Books. She is also an instructor for the Institute of Children's Literature, speaks at numerous writers' conferences, and writes editorials, book reviews, and other magazine pieces.
What do you look for in submissions; what makes a manuscript really stand out for you?
I like a well-written story with style, voice, strong characterization, and an unpredictable, nonformulaic plot. You can take a common theme, such as friendship, but give it an unexpected twist. In Cricket Books' The Princesses of Atlantis, Lisa Williams Kline takes the familiar junior-high scenario of two friends growing apart and adds a novel twist (literally): the protagonists, Carly and Arlene, are collaborating on a novel about the final days of Atlantis. As they plot ways to help their twin princesses escape sacrifice to the rain god, they find themselves documenting the changes in their own relationship. The book has done well for Cricket Books because of its inventive mix of fantasy and contemporary realism. Mary Stolz also added a twist to Casebook of a Private (Cat's) Eye. Hers is a detective story that was first serialized in CRICKET and later expanded into a middle-grade novel for Cricket Books. All the characters are cats, and Stolz's writing sparkles with wit and sophistication. The cats are fully developed characters living at the turn of the 20th century, and the story is replete with period detail, mores -- and humor!
Is there any specific content that CRICKET, CICADA, and Cricket Books are actively looking for in fiction or nonfiction currently? What's really "hot" right now?
CRICKET receives, and publishes, lots of fantasy and folk tales. We love them just as much as our readers do. (If you read the kids' letters in "Letterbox," you'll notice that the books they recommend almost always fall into the realm of fantasy. They're wild about Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Tamora Pierce, Lloyd Alexander, Diana Wynne Jones, and Brian Jacques.) In fact, our September issue is a homage to the shared-world fantasy with original stories by several famous authors.
However, we also want to balance fantasy and folk tales with contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, outdoor adventure, and humor. Humor is definitely a five-letter word that we need more of.
CRICKET also needs well-researched, well-written nonfiction dealing with science and technology. We have plenty of nonfiction about animals and bugs, but would love to see more about astronomy, chemistry, meteorology, geology, volcanology, engineering, computers, etc. We're especially looking for authors who will get out there and talk with scientists who are doing cutting-edge work in a particular field. In November, we have an article by Nancy Tague with the lively title of "Look Out, Spider-Man! Here Comes Gecko-Girl!" She presents the research of Dr. Autumn Kellar, a biologist at Lewis & Clark College, who is researching the adhesiveness of gecko feet and the applications it holds for robot technology. If you think that sounds remotely boring, well, it's not! Dr. Kellar is passionate about the topic -- and he's a very funny guy.
CICADA, our magazine for teens, is drowning in angst, a five-letter word that we need much, much less of. We keep sending out rescue parties and keep our lines baited for lighter fare. We also receive lots of fantasy and science fiction, which we love just as much as our readers do. (Um, did I just say that? Well, in that respect teens aren't any different from CRICKET-age readers.)
In all fairness, I must speak up, briefly, in defense of angst. These "heavy" stories are often sensitive and moving and deal with the hard issues teens face: death, disease, alcoholism, drugs, and family dysfunction. Furthermore, these stories are powerful testimonies to the strength of the human spirit and the indispensability of hope. (We dislike stories that forget hope: the last item in Pandora's box.)
However, angst can take over before you know it. To cleanse the palate, we like to run contemporary realism that sidesteps death, disaster, doom, despair, drugs, drunkenness, devastation, and all those things that just make an editor want to curl up under her desk and go comatose at the end of a long week of reading manuscripts. I encourage (translate that as "beg on bended knee") authors to submit realistic, contemporary stories that deal with other aspects of teens' lives: cars (we have some quirky car stories coming up in January/February 2007), jobs, family relations, school life, romance. Light romance, off-beat romance, funny romance, endearing romance, and down-to-earth romance.
CICADA also needs humor. Humor with heart and substance, but humor nonetheless. The July/August issue has a crazy romance called "A Day in July" by Tony Lindsay. The story features a teen with attitude. He's a basically good kid destined for college (the whole neighborhood will see to that), yet he's not above running the lawn mower right outside the window when his father is trying to sleep. Hey, it's a hot day, and he shouldn't be the only one who has to suffer.
Dictum: "Even teens need their daily dose of humor." (This is straight from the mouth of a teenager.)
Cricket Books is currently focusing on chapter books (think Barbara Seuling's "Robert" series) and middle-grade fiction. We're not doing picture books or YA (as in teen) fiction right now. Nonfiction and poetry have been put on the back burner as well.
Are there any taboo subjects you don't want to see for CRICKET and/or CICADA? Or material you see so much of that it's a hard sell?
For CICADA, we want to avoid suicide and rape. In terms of language, avoid the f-word and be judicious in the use of other four-letter words.
Asian folk tales are something of a hard sell right now for CRICKET. We love them so much that we keep accepting them, but now our files are brimming over with folklore from China, Japan, and India. And until some of these stories appear in the magazine, we're being very selective in accepting new ones.
CICADA's submission guidelines state that "stories should have a genuine teen sensibility." Have you found that important issues have changed for teens over the years since CICADA began publishing, or that there are universal teen concerns that have remained essentially the same in that time?
There are universal teen issues that will always fall into the category of "coming of age": assuming adult responsibilities, fighting against parental or societal expectations, finding out who you are and then having the courage to be who you are, boy/girl relations, lesbi/gay issues.
Can you provide an overview of the consideration process a typical manuscript goes through when it is submitted to the Cricket Magazine Group?
If you've published with us several times, chances are good your manuscript will fly over the transom and land with a satisfying thump on an editor's desk. However, if you're new to our magazines, your manuscript will almost always go to a first reader. Our first readers are former editors or interns who know not to look for perfect manuscripts but for manuscripts with potential. Each manuscript is read and either returned with a form reject (I know: ouch!) or returned to the office for an editor to take a second look. We are committed to finding new authors, and if we think your manuscript has potential, we "set it up," which means we make up a file for you and route your manuscript around. Several editors will read and write short reader reports, and then Marianne Carus, our editor-in-chief, will make the final decision. Sometimes a final decision isn't clear-cut, and she'll summon the troops for a roundtable discussion. At that point, we'll either decide to reject the manuscript, ask for a revision on speculation, or accept the manuscript for publication. If we accept your manuscript, you will work one on one with a specific editor who may ask for additional revision before editing and copyediting the manuscript in-house. (Authors always get a chance to see and approve the final version.) Because we work far in advance of issue date (we're well into 2007 now), it may be a year or two before your story is assigned. CRICKET also has theme-related issues, which is another factor to take into consideration.
What do you think is the most important thing beginning writers need to focus on when writing for children?
Clarity of thought in combination with creativity and imagination. Writing for children is much, much harder than writing for teens or adults. I edit CICADA fiction very lightly; I'm much more stringent with CRICKET fiction. Writing must be clear, well organized, age appropriate, and tell a good story with style and flair. If you're writing nonfiction, be aware that kids aren't going to have the same ancestral memory of the Great Depression or the Great War that some of us adults do: it's not that we all experienced these historical events, but our parents or grandparents did, and they passed down their memories, which we absorbed almost through osmosis. Don't assume that a child really understands "nuclear forces" any more than you or I really understand them. (Let's be frank, Frank!) Provide a clear, clean explanation with clever and apt analogies and even provide hand-scrawled diagrams, which an illustrator can turn into art.
You've commented at ICL that characterization and voice are key elements for you when assessing manuscripts. Can you expound upon what a writer should strive for in order to produce a distinctive voice and evocative characterizations?
I have an acting background, and I was taught to add colors to my interpretation of a character, because colors add depth, nuance, and variety -- all the contradictory elements that make a character, or a person, so surprising and interesting. It is SO boring when a character is soooo noble that nothing would tempt him or her to do something unworthy. Let's face it, even good people can make poor choices or behave badly depending on the situation. It is equally boring when the villain is nothing but a one-note, evil-hearted villain. (J. K. Rowling knows this, which is why I'm still rooting for Professor Snape.)
In terms of voice, let your character's individuality shine out through the things he or she notices and responds to, and through his or her interior monologue and exterior dialogue. Does the kid have an attitude and lots of sass? Is your character shy and awkward in expressing himself and yet totally confident when tearing down a car engine? What makes the character's "mischief bubbles" rise to the surface? Is it running the lawn mower at full power outside his father's bedroom window? I've read a zillion stories about some jaded little kid who is all disgruntled about having to spend the summer on the farm with Granddad or Great-aunt Millie; wouldn't it be more fun if the kid went into the situation excited about the possibilities? Animals, machinery, room to run, places to explore . . . adventures.
Are there similar features in what makes a successful work of fiction versus nonfiction for young readers?
Definitely. History immediately comes to mind. It's become a cliché, but "story" is embedded in the word "history." Find the colors in historical personages, play up the human drama, provide a climax, and reach a conclusion. Think of all the voyages of discovery, the life-or-death rescues, the derring-do that outfictions fiction. As an example of the best of the best, I highly, highly recommend James Cross Giblin's new book Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth.
Have you found that the popularity of the Harry Potter series has created a greater demand for more traditional fantasy elements such as witches, dragons, and elves, and/or fantasy in general?
It may be that more fantasy is being published because it sells -- and because we all need something to tide us over until the next Harry Potter book comes out. But CRICKET readers have always loved fantasy, always. I truly believe it's something that is hard-wired into the human psyche: for millennia people have told and retold tales of sea monsters, sirens, magical pigs, fairies, and trickster spiders/rabbits/coyotes.
Eugie Foster is a short-fiction writer specializing in genre and children's literature. She has sold more than a dozen stories to the Cricket Magazine Group, including Spider, Cricket and Cicada, as well as to an assortment of other children's magazines including Dragonfly Spirit and Story Station. She holds an M.A. in developmental psychology, has co-authored a textbook on child development, and is a frequent speaker at Dragon*Con's Young Adult Literature Track. She is a member of the SFWA and managing editor of Tangent (http://www.tangentonline.com). Foster maintains a list of children's SF/F magazine markets at her website, http://www.eugiefoster.com.
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