Brynn Barineau

Tag: We Need Diverse Books

  • Journey to a Book Deal: By the numbers

    Journey to a Book Deal: By the numbers

    “How long did it take you to get a book deal?” I’m rarely asked that question when I have enough time for a complete answer. Or when people really want an honest answer. Nobody at Thanksgiving wants to hear “Well Aunt Hattie, it took me thirteen years from first book idea to book deal, so if you’re think about a memoir, you probably want to get on that.”

    Full disclosure, I haven’t actually published a book yet. My launch date is November 22, 2022, and at the rate other debut releases are getting pushed back for production and shipping reasons, I might not have a book before Stacey Abrams is president. So the numbers I’m going to give are subject to change depending on the existence of paper nearer my launch date.

    These numbers are also specific to my publishing experience as a fiction writer. Publishing is different for non-fiction. Even within fiction, picture books have different practices and expectations than novels. And none of this is applicable in anyway for self-publishing.

    But for what it’s worth here are my numbers.

    2009

    I had my first idea for a novel and went so far as to write a detailed outline. I wanted it to be a graphic novel. Meaning totally illustrated. Basically a 200 page comic book. That I imagined a publisher would print in color. For my debut novel. Oh starry-eyed, sweet, naïve 2009 Brynn. That girl makes me laugh.

    Still I will love this story until I die because it’s the idea that made me a novelist. That idea became the first book I finished in…

    2015

    Six years form flash of inspiration to complete, edited manuscript. In that time I had a baby, and I’m convinced I would never have developed the self-discipline to finish a manuscript without parenthood. But that’s for another post.

    You know what, let’s summarize this or we’ll be here all day.

    Book 1 Completed June 2015: 2 editors hired, 3 full revisions, 62 agents rejections, shelved early 2017

    Book 2 – Started August 2015 completed March 2017: YA speculative fiction, 5 Beta Readers, 1 editor hired, 3 full revisions, 4 competition submissions, 54 rejections, shelved March 2018

    Book 3 – Started June 2016 completed March 2018: YA historical fiction, 4 Beta readers, 1 competition submission, 39 rejections, 1 Revise & Resubmit, 1 rewrite to change from YA to Adult, Signed with agent November 2018

    While signing with an agent is a huge deal if you want to traditionally, it is NOT a book deal. Because Book 3 still had to go on submission to editors at publishing houses. That’s a whole new level of rejection!

    Book 3 continued: 1 revision with agent, Sent on submission May 2019…

     

    Pause for a global pandemic, an international move and emotional havoc

     

    …Sold to Orange Blossom Publishing Sept., 2021

     

    Book 3 is Jaguars and Other Game. It comes out November 22, 2022.

    That’s how long it took me to get a book deal. Was anyone keeping count? That’s a total of 13 years and 155 rejections. I didn’t even include the editor rejections during Jaguars submission. I honestly don’t know that total. I just assumed every editor employed in the U.S. save one, but as everyone in publishing says “One ‘Yes!’ is all it takes!”

    Depending on the paper situation I will have an actual book this year. (I’m keeping my fingers crossed.) I just sent Book 4 to my agent, which I started during Nanowrimo 2018. Honestly wasn’t sure I’d ever finish it, but turns out I do have more stories in me.

    So Aunt Hattie, if you want to traditionally publish that memoir about growing up on a radish farm with your pet opossum, my advice is to start writing. Be patient. Get a thick skin and working knowledge of em dashes. Write something else. Repeat.

    Now I’m off to start drafting Book 5. I really feel like I’m starting to get the hang of this writing thing.

     

     

     

  • Review of Felpo Filva by Eva Furnari

    Review of Felpo Filva by Eva Furnari

    My second recommendation for this year’s Multicultural Kid Blogs Read Around the World Series is a charming and quirky picture book for kids ages 5 to 9: Felpo Filva by Eva Furnari.

    If you believe children Need Diverse Books #WNDB, then check out the series homepage at Multicultural Kid Blogs for recommendations ranging from picture book to YA! Or check out the Read Around the World Pinterest page with all the recs from the past five years.

  • Review of American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

    Review of American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

    It’s that time of year again! Time for Multicultural Kid Blogs’ Read Around the World Series 2018! I’m excited to be participating in this epic global round up of amazing children’s books for my fourth year. I’ve found many wonderful picture books for my own daughter through this series such as Tales Told in Tents, a collection of folk tales from Central Asia, and Pretty Salma, a Little Red Riding Hood tale set in Ghana. I’ve been able to recommend some of my personal favorite YA reads such as The Star Touched Queen and The Hate U Give.

    My first recommendation for this year is a Middle Grade graphic novel that can truly be enjoyed by any age: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang.

    If you believe children Need Diverse Books #WNDB, then check out the series homepage at Multicultural Kid Blogs for recommendations ranging from picture book to YA! Or check out the Read Around the World Pinterest page with all the recs from the past five years.

  • Review of The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

    Review of The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

    Today is my last recommendation for Multicultural Kid Blogs Read Around the World Summer Series, but the series keeps going through August!

    If you’re looking for amazing kid lit, from picture book to young adult, check out the series’ Pinterest page where you can read more than 100 recommendations of books from all over the world. https://www.pinterest.com/MKBlogs/read-around-the-world-summer-reading-series/

    Or check out the series’ homepage! http://multiculturalkidblogs.com/read-around-world-summer-reading-series-2017/

  • Review of Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

    Review of Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

    I’m back from vacation with another review for Multicultural Kid Blogs’ Read Around the World Summer series. Today I’m reviewing a historical fiction set during a time and event I knew nothing about: Stalin’s genocide against the Baltic states.

    If you want to see all the book recommendations, ranging from picture books to young adult, check out the series’ homepage! http://multiculturalkidblogs.com/read-around-world-summer-reading-series-2017/

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  • Review of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

    Review of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

    It’s time for Multicultural Kid Blogs’ Read Around the World Series, an amazing collection of kid lit recommendations from multicultural families around the world. I’m excited to recommend the first young adult novel of this year’s series: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.

    If you want to see all the books recommendations, ranging from picture books to young adult, check out the series homepage! http://multiculturalkidblogs.com/read-around-world-summer-reading-series-2017/

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  • O Gênio do Crime: A Brazilian Middle Grade Classic

    O Gênio do Crime: A Brazilian Middle Grade Classic

    I recently asked my husband what his favorite books were as a kid and without hesitation he said “O Gênio do Crime.” He couldn’t remember the author’s name, but he remembered in detail an ingenious system the kid detectives invented to tail a very tricky criminal. My husband remembered this book instantly after forty years, and it wasn’t about ancient Rome.

    I had to read it.

    Writing a story that stays with a child for the rest of their lives, that’s the dream for children’s authors. João Carlos Marinho solidified his place among Brazil’s greatest children’s writers with the 1969 publication of O Gênio do Crime. It became an instant bestseller and is currently #49 on Amazon Brazil’s fiction list.

    Before I go on, I regret to say that I can’t find an English or Spanish translation. A fluent Spanish speaker would have no problem reading the Portuguese text, but as far I can discover, there’s no way for a non-Portuguese speaker to read the 49th most popular book in Brazil. Which is a shame.

    The kids of São Paulo are on the verge of an uprising when the company manufacturing soccer trading cards stops awarding prizes for collecting because of counterfeit cards being mass produced in the city. (It’s possibly the most Brazilian crime ever.) The police have yet to find this “gênio do crime” (genius of crime), but Edmundo, Pituca, and Bolachão are determined to succeed where the police have failed and ensure the kids of Sao Paulo can continue collecting cards and prizes.

    It’s a thrilling adventure for three friends that takes them on chases and stake outs and even undercover as they try to discover the location of the illegal factory. The method the kids invent to follow one of street sellers, which my husband remember forty years later, is brilliant and how fun is it to read about kids outsmarting the grown-up criminals.

    But I don’t know if I want my daughter to read it for one simple reason, epic fat shaming.

    I know ever book is a product of the time and place it was written. I know that a group of ten-year old boys communicate and express friendship differently than a group of ten year old girls. I still cringed repeatedly throughout the book.

    Bolachão is overweight, and his friends never let him forget it. The tease him relentlessly even after Bolachão asks them to stop. He’s repeatedly referred to by the omniscient narrator as “o gordo”, which I’d translate as fatty. The character is defined primarily by his size and then by his intelligence, because Bolachão is the genius of the group and the one who solves the mystery. But the reader doesn’t know how smart he’s until about six chapters into the book. Whereas his weight is made clear from the first sentence.

    I talked to my husband about it. As I did not grow up a boy in Brazil, I was curious how close the the friend’s banter was to reality. Very close is what he told. Pretty mild actually. There’s a saying in Rio, “The only people never booed in Maracanã (the soccer stadium) are the Pope and Frank Sintra.” Meaning those “super friendly” Brazilians the world hears about can be harsh. According to my husband, boys and men tease mercilessly. It doesn’t matter who you are, as nobody is perfect, your friends will find that not perfect thing about you and never let you forget it, but you’re expected to give it back to them. If you don’t tease or get teased, then you aren’t among personal friends.

    Ok. I get that. However, Bolachão is harassed to a much greater extent the either of the other boys. Even the adults refer to him as “Fatty”. It’s pretty clear that for the characters being overweight is a far more serious offense the any other flaw. And haven’t we learned more about the psychology of kids and come to understand behavior that was commonplace even twenty years ago is in fact really damaging and standards for behavior should be changed?

    Does that mean we never read books written in different eras or cultures because they might offend us? Do I deny a father-daughter bonding moment by forbidding my husband to share one of his favorite childhood books with her? When everyone else her age has read it because it’s the 49th most popular in Brazil, do I tell her no?

    So the simple review I wanted to write about a famous Brazilian kid’s book has turned into a complex analysis of how to judge a book written in a different time and culture when it is very problematic by my personal standards.

    The one thing I’m sure about is that I would NOT give this book to a child struggling with body image. Nope. Not under any circumstances. The fat shaming in this book is intense, and while it’s a fun story, I wouldn’t consider it required reading.

    As for our home, and this could change because I’m still in the midst of an active internal debate, I’ll apply the same policy for reading Huck Finn. When she’s old enough, I’ll read it with her and we’ll talk about it. I think it’s important for kids to know how people acted in the past and compare it to today, but this requires an adult to lead the discussion.

    What do you think? Have you read O Gênio do Crime? How do you feel about popular older books that are problematic by today’s standards? Like I said, it’s something I’m thinking about and would love to hear other opinions.

  • My Most Brutal Agent Critique & What It Taught Me About Diverse Stories

    My Most Brutal Agent Critique & What It Taught Me About Diverse Stories

    It happened. I finally got the brutal agent response I will talk about twenty years from now at book signings. I’m a real writer now. Yay!

    I wasn’t expecting an total take down of my novel considering I wasn’t querying. I took an online workshop on historical fiction that included a critique by the agent instructor of a log line, synopsis, and first 2 pages. I’d recently finished the first draft and was eager to get feedback on what needed to be improve. Here’s what I got back.

    “Unusual can be good, but in this case, Portugal may feel too foreign to American readers…I don’t know how interested American readers are going to be in this particular era and place. There is no precedent for it. That doesn’t mean you can’t start a new trend, but first it would have to be so spectacular that readers wouldn’t be able to put it down. Unfortunately, that is not the case here.”

    Once I recovered from not having my first pages recognized for their genius and obvious money-making potential, I reread the email more critically.

    My first thought was “Portugal, a Christian country in Europe full of white people, may feel too foreign for Americans?” I’m still trying to figure out what about US demographics gives the agent this impression. If Portugal is too foreign what countries will Americans read about? Great Britain, obviously. France, yes. Germany? What about Russia? They’re white, but their culture is pretty dissimilar to the US.

    I’m assuming the agent was thinking of white Americans. But maybe that’s unfair. The agent could have been thinking about Korean Americans. Portugal is different from Korea in so many ways from language to internet speed. Korean Americans probably have no interest in reading a story set there. I know I personally only read books set in places my DNA came from. Thank God Hogwarts is in England!

    Going off that thought, maybe the large percentage of Americans who have DNA from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, North or South America would be interested in reading a story set in one of those places. This would actually be a great thing for my story.

    Which leads to my second thought after rereading the email. See if you can spot the source of my confusion.

    Log Line: 

    Three young women form an improbable friendship in order to rescue the boy, find a murderer, and thwart a coup against the Portuguese monarchy. Madness & Diamonds is a girl-power Three Musketeers set in colonial Rio de Janeiro.

    My book is not set in Portugal.

    Here’s the first line of my synopsis.

    Victoria, a servant of The Mad Queen Maria of Portugal, evacuates Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro with the royal family and 10,000 members of the court in advance of Napoleon’s invasion.

    To clarify, Brazil is the big green one. Portugal is the orange dot.

    The synopsis goes on to mention Rio another nine times. The most generous interpretation of events is that the agent was pressed for time or exhausted or probably both, skimmed my material in a rush and latched on to the first nationality mentioned, Portuguese. Or the agent typed Portugal but was thinking Brazil? I also considered the agent may not know where Rio de Janeiro is. (At Christmas I had to tell a homeschooling mom what continent Brazil is on, so thinking Rio is in Portugal is totally possible.)

    Whatever the reason for the confusion, it’s just as well for me because if Portugal is too foreign, I can’t imagine what feedback I’d have gotten on a story set in Brazil.

    In fairness, the agent cited one problem with my pages and synopsis: clarity. I absolutely agree based on her feedback that certain aspects of the story need to be made more obvious. I also know that complaining about a bad critique can make me seem petty to unprofessional. All writers get bad critiques. Get over it. And I would have except for one fact.

    This agent is a Gatekeeper with a capitol G, and it was abundantly clear from the critique, this agent would never take a risk on a manuscript that was “too foreign.”

    Foreign too whom? White, Christian Americans.

    I joked about who the agent was envisioning when saying Portugal is too foreign for Americans, but it’s obvious what specific demographic she defines as American. What infuriates me is that the “Americans” this agent is considering will not even represent the vast majority of the population in a few years.

    The Census Bureas predicts that by 2020, the majority of kids in the United States will be members of a minority race or ethnic group. Every single person working in children’s publishing in any capacity should know this fact because while the demographics of American children have changed, children’s publishing is still overwhelmingly white. Last year only 28% of children’s books were by and/or about people of color. That percentage is actually big jump from only two years earlier. However there’s still going to have to be a massive increase in stories about POC in the next few years, if children’s fiction in the U.S. is going to reflect the diverse reality of the country’s kids.

    But how is children’s publishing going to change if the Gatekeepers think Portugal is too foreign for Americans?

    Literature is also a proven way to develop empathy for people different from ourselves. Only 11% of children’s books published in the last 23 years had multicultural content. In today’s globalized world, it is essential children grow up aware of the variety of people that exist in the world. Not to mention the foreign-born population in the U.S. is predicted to reach a record high in 2025, roughly 15% of all people living in the U.S. will have been born in another country. (That statistic doesn’t even include people like my daughter, who is an American born abroad.) Empathy and a global perspective are critical tools for success in today’s world.

    I’m going to end with a thank you to the agent who sent this critique. I had read the data and accounts from authors of color and those trying to publish books with diverse characters and settings. I was aware of the challenges these writers and books face but I wasn’t clear on the exact form they take. Now I know, and I’m more determined than ever to finish revising my story set in Brazil. I’m going to get it published. Then I’m going to sell it to Americans. Finally, I’ll send a copy along with the book’s sales numbers to that agent.

    Although even then, I won’t have any idea how Americans feel about Portugal.

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  • 5 Amazing Brazilian Children’s Authors

    5 Amazing Brazilian Children’s Authors

    When I first began shopping for children’s books in Brazil, I had a hard time finding books by Brazilians. It was crazy. I was in Saraiva, one of the major chain bookstores in Brazil, and I noticed the books I’d picked were all translations from American authors. So I began hunting for books by Brazilians. I picked up one book after another. Published in France. Published in the UK. Published in Italy. I picked up one with a Macaw on the front. Macaws are from the Amazon. It had to be Brazilian. Nope. Published in Columbia.

    There are of course many amazing Brazilian authors writing for children, but despite amazing native authors and children’s lit community, I had to research and order books by Brazilians. My local chain bookstore in Vitoria was no help, which is just wrong.

    So I’d like to introduce five of my favorite Brazilian children’s book authors. I’ve included links for English translations when available. Based on what Spanish speaking friends have told me, a native Spanish speaker should have no trouble reading the Portuguese, but I’d love to get more Brazilian kid lit translated into English. I’ll add it to the list of life goals.

    ANA MARIA MACHADO

    Machado was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1941 and has written over 100 books for children. In 2000, Machado won the international Hans Cristian Andersen Award, which designated her one of the greatest children’s authors in the world. She began writing in 1969 and wrote specifically for children because during the military dictatorship in Brazil, children’s literature along with poetry and song, “were amongst the few literary forms with which, through the poetic and symbolic use of language, you could make the ideas of a joie de vivre, individual freedom and respect for human rights known.” Some of her most famous books include A Menina Bonita do Laço de Fita, about a white bunny who desperately wants to become a beautiful black like the little girl next door and the advice she gives him, and Bisa Bia, Bisa Bel, about a girl’s internal dialogue with her great-grandfather and her own great-granddaughter. A Menina Bonita do Laço de Fita is available in English on Amazon.

     

     

    CECILIA MEIRELES

    Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1901, Meirelles published her first work at the age of 18, and she was every bit the genius you’d assume based on that fact. She’s known in Brazil primarily as a poet, but she was also a professor, journalist, painter, playwright, and fiction author. There aren’t many types of writing she didn’t publish in. She could do it all. Meirelles was one of the first women in Brazil to be recognized as a great literary voice. Some of her most famous works for children are   “O Cavalinho Branco”, “Sonhos de Menina”, and “O Menino Azul”. The musicality of her lines is so strong, that “O Menino Azul” still sounded lovely when I read it aloud. (And as all adult learners of a second language know, nothing is harder to read aloud in a foreign language than poetry.) I haven’t been able to find any of her children’s works translated into English, but you can find many of her most famous poems translated in this anthology of Brazilian poets.

     

     

     

    EVA FURNARI

    Furnari is an Italian-Brazilian author-illustrator. I’ve been able to forgive her for hoarding so much talent (author-illustrators seem so unfairly awesome) because her characters are so delightfully quirky. Born in Rome in 1948, she moved to São Paulo at the age of two and has lived there ever since. She came to children’s books in the early 1980’s through art and initially worked exclusively an illustrator before creating her own characters and stories. One of her most famous characters is A Bruxinha Zuzu or Zuzu the Little Witch, who never quite seems to master the power of her magic wand.  Many of Funari’s books are textless, including our favorite A Bruxinha Zuzu e o Gato Miú, and can be enjoyed regardless of what languages you read. One of her most famous and award winning stories, Felpo Filva,  is available in English as Fuzz McFlops in both the US and UK.

     

     

    SONIA JUNQUEIRA

    Born in the state of Minas Gerais in 1945, Junqueira published her first book at the age of 37 and has gone on to write more than 100 children’s books. She worked as a professor and editor before becoming an author. My daughter and I discovered Junqueira through a book swap at school. My daughter, always the animal lover, picked up a book with a cute cat on the front porch. I was the first story in verse that was more poetry than story and I honestly wasn’t sure how well she’d like it. A Poesia na Varanda was a hit and inspired me to buy Where the Sidewalk Ends during our Christmas trip to the US. I haven’t found any English translations but many of her world are available outside Brazil in Portuguese through Kindle.

     

     

    VERONICA STIGGER

    Stigger is not really known as a children’s author. She’s a journalist, art critic, and writer primarily for adults known for challenging rules of genre and format in her work. Born in the state of Porto Alegre in 1973, Stigger began working as an essayist for radio and television. She then pursued a PhD in Art theory and Criticism and pursued research and various post-doctoral work before publishing her first collection of stories for adults in 2004. So not a career kid lit writer. However, one of her most recent books, Onde a Onça Bebe Água, Where the Jaguar Drinks Water, is one of the best books I’ve read for teaching empathy and seeing the world through a another’s eyes. In the story, Jaci is forced to consider the world from the perspective of the Jaguar he’s ends up dining with. Unfortunately, there isn’t an English translation of it or any of her books that I can find but several of her adults works do have Spanish versions available on Amazon.