Jen Arena

@jenarena.bsky.social

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Kids book author and kids book editor (Kane Press)
Check out some of my books! Acorn Was a Little Wild (S&S), GIVE (Knopf), Marta! Big and Small (Roaring Brook), Besos for Baby (Little Brown)
jenarenabooks.com
agent: @jmattson.bsky.social, ABLA

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Jen Arena

Ask the Agent question of the day: If an agent leaves an agency, and clients are dropped … is that normal? Unprofessional? Let’s get into it. www.tumblr.com/literaticat/...

Ask the Agent:www.tumblr.com I know another writer who got dropped by their agent when said agent moved agencies. Apparently, the agent dropped all their clients that had not sold yet, citing limited bandwidth. They didn't make…

Feeling this a little personally today.

Had a draft that was stressing me out and today I finally finished it by just sitting down and doing the work. I will learn nothing from this.

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Jen Arena

Two days until the Fourth of July! You can read about how, when, and why fireworks were created in FIREWORKS, the newest addition to the Eureka series. This book is a fun, informative look at the development of an invention that sparks joy! 🧨🎇

Any Narnia fans out there? The Palazzo della Civilta reminds me so much of The Magician's Nephew, when Digory and Polly go to the dying world and ring the bell. Anyone else? It also makes me think of Piranesi. (Loved that book!)

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Reply to

Andrea Brown Literary Agency

Rounding out our agents, here's Jennifer Mattson, Jemiscoe, Paige, and our newest addition Sally! JM: shorturl.at/WXjt1, @jmattson.bsky.social JCB*: shorturl.at/I5Tan, @jemiscoe.bsky.social PT: shorturl.at/fZT7q, @pterlip.bsky.social SMK*: shorturl.at/nmn3K, @sallymkim.bsky.social

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Reply to

kidlitchat

The best writing career advice I got was to wait, to grow and learn and work on my craft before racing into publishing. The best publishing career advice I got was to lean into the joy and the present moment of my debut experience. #kidlitchat

Hooray, my super cool agent, Jennifer Mattson of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, is now on Blue Sky! Kidlit friends, you should give her a follow: bsky.app/profile/jmat...

bsky.app

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Jen Arena

This has been in the works for a hot minute and I’m DELIGHTED. This change will give more of us ABLA’ers the opportunity to consider your work — even the agents who are otherwise CLOSED to queries can get the chance to look! 😍😍😍

📣GREAT NEWS! We know it's hard to decide which agent to query, so we're excited to introduce ABLA'S SECOND CHANCE INBOX. Every ABLA agent has access to the Second Chance Inbox, and we'll go through it regularly to discover new material! New submission guidelines: www.andreabrownlit.com/submissions

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Jen Arena

Hey if you are interested in books and whatnot could you do me a favor and follow @andreabrownlit.bsky.social ? We are trying to migrate AWAY from Evil Empire type sites but we still get about a million percent fewer eyeballs here so it’s hard to leave — trying to boost BLUESKY! 💙🦋💙

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Jen Arena

Hey US freelancers, if you are the kind of person who does quarterly estimated taxes, they are due in a few days on June 15.

This week, two people emailed me for editorial services. One asked me to "edit" his work from over 5000 words to under 1000. The other's had clearly AI generated art. When I asked for the ms in Word, they sent a doc of gibberish. They didn't even bother to read it before sending. So discouraging.

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Jen Arena

Do you know a sequential artist that might be into illustrating the life story of a beloved and famous children's TV host? An artist who is of marginalized identity (LGBTQ, a woman, a Black artist, for example) is preferred. Point some portfolios my way and reskeet this?

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Jen Arena

Happy Book Birthday to two new titles in the Eureka! series, Video Games and Fireworks! Each book in the series focuses on one groundbreaking, world-changing discovery that millions of people use every single day. astrapublishinghouse.com/tax-series/e...

Kidlit friends, I feel like there's some way to find the word count on a published book. Anyone out there know how?

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Jen Arena

Here is my strategy to content creation: • When I can. • When it's fun. • When my book work won't suffer for it. I am so very tired of the algorithm putting "experts" on my feed who yell and scream that I should be posting multiple videos daily. #kidlit #yalit

This short (30-min) movie is amazing! It shows the last day the NYT used linotype to set the paper in 1978. I've seen a linotype machine, but the 40-pound, half cylinder lead plates were news to me. Thanks @literaticat.bsky.social and @brianlarossa.com for the rec! vimeo.com/127605643

Farewell - ETAOIN SHRDLU - 1978vimeo.com A film created by Carl Schlesinger and David Loeb Weiss documenting the last day of hot metal typesetting at The New York Times. This film shows the entire newspaper…

Blue Sky friends, does anyone have a restaurant they love in Brooklyn Heights? Something cool/trendy, but not crazy expensive.

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Jen Arena

This article is hilariously biting. Also… “Good children’s books have to satisfy at least four out of these six requirements. Anything less than three is failure.” …the six requirements she lists are pretty spot on. www.thecut.com/article/best...

Why Do So Many Celebs Write Children’s Books?www.thecut.com It’s not because they’re easy. Here are 15 of them, reviewed from worst to least bad.

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Jen Arena

Trivia for a good cause! If you are in/near Tampa FL can you share? Trivia fundraiser Friday May 31 6:30pm at Corner Club 1502 E Sligh Ave Tampa , $10 or more donation to Tampa Bay Abortion Fund. fund.nnaf.org/team/583245

TBAFund 2024fund.nnaf.org {{MetaTags.description}}

Yay!!

In the past nine months, flamingos have appeared throughout Florida in places where they haven’t been seen in decades — what scientists hope marks the return of one of the state’s most celebrated symbols.

How Florida is getting its pink backwww.washingtonpost.com Flamingos had mostly disappeared from Florida after a century of hunting and mass development. That changed last year when Hurricane Idalia blew in — bringing with her several flamboyant flocks.

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Jen Arena

The Massachusetts "millionaires tax" has vastly surpassed projections, bringing in more than $1.8 billion in revenue so far this fiscal year — with the prospect of a surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on transportation and education

State’s ‘millionaires tax’ has already generated $1.8 billion this year, blowing past state projections - The Boston Globewww.bostonglobe.com The estimated haul is already $800 million more than what Governor Maura Healey and state lawmakers planned to spend from its revenue in fiscal year 2024.

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Jen Arena

The cat design was created by Vera Zvereva, art director at Depot, using her own cat Brunhilde as inspiration. Milgrad Milk, Bryansk Dairy

How come I never knew before now what a cool Art Deco building the Berkeley Public Library is?

So what did everyone do for Independent Bookstore Day yesterday? I went to Bookends Ybor, bought a book, got one of their delicious chocolate chip scones, and talked with the owners as chickens strutted around us. I can't wait for their brick and mortar location to open!

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Jen Arena

Advice from Stephen King that could be written across certain pages of 90% of the first drafts I’ve ever seen, including my own: “The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.”

I went on a home tour and they had a bed made out of a printing press! I knew all my book friends would want to see it. 😊

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Jen Arena

Surprised at how hard it is to get sponsors for the Philly Bookstore Crawl this year. Really looking for folks who want to sponsor with giveaway books, totebags, etc. Publishing friends, those boxes of leftover totes at the office? Books about to be remaindered? Hi. Yes. Me. 👋🏽

Just for fun: Shakespeare or Taylor Swift? florida.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/rom...

Shakespeare or Taylor Swift? | Great Performances: Romeo and Juliet | PBS LearningMediaflorida.pbslearningmedia.org Test your ability to identify if a line is from Shakespeare or Taylor Swift in this video from the National Theater. Cast members from Great Performances: Romeo and Juliet are presented with quotes an...

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Jen Arena

🚨 TONIGHT at 8pm ET! Instagram Live! 🎥 Join me & awesome #kidlit illustrator Kaly Quarles @kalyquarles.bsky.social to talk about art and everything else while we make some aht! ❓What should we make? 🗣️ Ask us anything! 👀 How to watch an Insta Live? Read (2/2) ⬇️ . #kidlitart #illustration