Andrew Karre of Carolrhoda Wants Books with Inventive Characters

Inspired by the myth and reality of Steve Jobs's adolescent years, Andrew Carre has opened for submissions of MG and YA novels about the young entrepeneurial and inventive spirit:

"So, I’m open to novels with main characters who personify this spirit. YA or older middle-grade. No biographies, no thinly-veiled novelizations of biographies. No books that extend into adulthood. Standard genre rules apply. Offer ends 11/7/11. Void where prohibited."

Guidelines are here. This is another very specific "want", but maybe someone has something that's nearly ready to go.

What Carolrhoda Doesn't Want in This Round of Open Submissions

For the month of September, Andrew Karre of Carolrhoda is opening for submissions. Unlike his previous special requests, in which he said, "Bring on your bastards and your unresolved romances," this time his request includes what he is not looking for (because he already has books under these categories):

"Until the end of September, I will be accepting electronic submissions of YA novels with the following exceptions (based not on prejudice so much as on what I've got brewing in the lab already):

1. I'm not considering dysto/post-apocolypto books.

2. If your book can be sung to the tune of a song by The Police, please make sure it's not “Don't Stand So Close to Me.”

3. If your books is more than 60,000 words, please don't send it.

4. Unlike that little kid in the movie, I don't read dead people. No narrators from beyond the grave.

5. If you have superpowers, I have kryptonite. Stay away.

6. I don't do high fantasy. Here there be no dragons."


So if your YA novel fits outside of one of those categories, take advantage of this momentary opening of his mailbox! Good luck, all!

Carolrhoda Books is Looking for Open-Ended YA Romances

Don't forget--he was only accepting manuscripts until June 24,2011, so you'll need to wait for the next open period. But it's still useful to get his take on romance in YA by reading below:
Andrew Karre had some interesting things to say on the Carolrhoda blog about romance in YA. It's a long (but insightful) post, so I picked out a few pertinent bits for what he's soliciting now for YA manuscripts:

"I’m increasingly interested in the romantic arc of YAs where there is a central romance. Specifically, I’m concerned with the end of that ARC. Do YA romances tend unswervingly toward a marital apotheosis, whether actual or implied?

Marriage is a powerful force in our storytelling traditions. A marriage is the formal ending of almost any Elizabethan comedy. . . So it’s no surprise it comes up in YA, but I’m wondering if there is unexplored territory here due to to the overwhelming pull of The Wedding on our stories (I’m looking at you, epilogue to Deathly Hallows).

I think one of the trickiest things about YA is that it is fundamentally anti-ending, despite all the ceremony we associate with the end of high school. . .Teenagers make their peace with uncertainty as they end adolescence, but they don’t resolve that uncertainty. This applies to relationships (what is a marriage if not a resolution of uncertainty?).

I’ll take queries for existing manuscripts that address this theme. I’m interested in YAs with central romances that know they’re doomed (and not for extraordinary reasons—fatal illnesses, galactic cataclysm, etc.) and how they cope. Go here for how to send queries. The query offer is good until 11:59 PM on June 24, 2011."

And by existing manuscripts, he means finished and polished. Don't waste this chance with something you've pulled out of a dusty drawer--he doesn't open to submissions all that often!

P.S. Sunday June 19 is the last day to enter to win a signed copy of Through Endangered Eyes: a poetic journey into the wild. If you know a child who loves animals (even if it's your inner child), you want this book!

Take That, You Bastard

Andrew Karre occasionally opens up Carolrhoda for unsolicited submissions, and it seems that he's had his fill of Pollyanna narrators.

He says: "I’m going to ask that you all send me your bastards (of all genders, naturally). Send me your problematic narrators, your cousins of little 6655321, your children of Humbert. In short, heroes need not apply. I’m not looking to like your narrators, but I’m hoping to adore your prose.

I don’t want really care about cover letters, so you can cut and paste this into the body of the email to which you attach your complete ms:

Please find attached a book narrated by a loathsome brute. Take him or leave him, but don’t like him.

In addition, if you’re inclined, I would welcome a brief note about your favorite unsympathetic narrator and why he or she won you, in spite of it all."

So if you have one of those books that all the crit partners kept saying, "I don't really like your MC," then send it in by March 25. I'm thinking along the lines of some of Saki's works, or possibly some of the stuff that shows up in Crow Toes Quarterly.