I have two finished MG projects--they have the same main characters and were expected to be a series.
I also have written a novel for adults--but I really want to concentrate on the MG books because I love to write for the 10-12 age group and have a grandson that age who likes to read (and have friends who have 10 year old children who also like to read).
I sent my first book to Mar*tin Mc*Clean although there were on the Beware list. I was thinking that PERHAPS they would read the book and actually consider it for agenting. I got the response that they are famous for: you're book has problems with tense changes and needs some grammatical editing. For $540 we know an editor. It is marketable and we'll be glad to look at it after editing is done. (They did say I could choose my own editor rather than theirs)
I wasn't about to chunk out $540, but I did re-edit my work pretty closely. In the first chapter, I did have my characters "remembering" something from the past. Several times I used past and past perfect interchangeably. As for the grammatical errors, the most that I found were some commas that technically should have been semicolons. I'm pretty good with grammar--my wife is an English teacher; I've written technical reports for the last 30 years.
There was a "has" that should have been "had"
I don't think that the mistakes I found would have been bad enough to bring the project to a complete halt. It wasn't that flawed.
My question is: Should I give MM another chance just to see what they say? I can say that I've had it edited (I have) and give them another shot. I'll just be out $6 for mailing it and loss of ink and paper for printing another copy.
Has anyone had a good experience with MM?
NOTE: MY second MG manuscript is being reviewed by Tal*cott No*tch. I am hopeful that they will want to handle it. If that happens, they may agree to handle the first MG project although they previously passed on it--my first query letters were pretty lame.
Maurice Sempine
I also have written a novel for adults--but I really want to concentrate on the MG books because I love to write for the 10-12 age group and have a grandson that age who likes to read (and have friends who have 10 year old children who also like to read).
I sent my first book to Mar*tin Mc*Clean although there were on the Beware list. I was thinking that PERHAPS they would read the book and actually consider it for agenting. I got the response that they are famous for: you're book has problems with tense changes and needs some grammatical editing. For $540 we know an editor. It is marketable and we'll be glad to look at it after editing is done. (They did say I could choose my own editor rather than theirs)
I wasn't about to chunk out $540, but I did re-edit my work pretty closely. In the first chapter, I did have my characters "remembering" something from the past. Several times I used past and past perfect interchangeably. As for the grammatical errors, the most that I found were some commas that technically should have been semicolons. I'm pretty good with grammar--my wife is an English teacher; I've written technical reports for the last 30 years.
There was a "has" that should have been "had"
I don't think that the mistakes I found would have been bad enough to bring the project to a complete halt. It wasn't that flawed.
My question is: Should I give MM another chance just to see what they say? I can say that I've had it edited (I have) and give them another shot. I'll just be out $6 for mailing it and loss of ink and paper for printing another copy.
Has anyone had a good experience with MM?
NOTE: MY second MG manuscript is being reviewed by Tal*cott No*tch. I am hopeful that they will want to handle it. If that happens, they may agree to handle the first MG project although they previously passed on it--my first query letters were pretty lame.
Maurice Sempine
