Amber Caravéo has spent her entire career working in children’s books. She is the co-founder of Skylark Literary – www.skylark-literary.com – a boutique and specialist literary agency that seeks and supports the very best in Children’s and YA fiction and non-fiction. Prior to founding Skylark, Amber spent many happy years working for major publishing houses. She was the Editorial Director for Orion Children’s Books, where she was privileged to work with a host of prize-winning and bestselling authors including Caroline Lawrence, Juno Dawson and Holly Black. Before that she was Senior Commissioning Editor for Random House Children’s Books after wonderful years at Working Partners, where, among other things, she edited and developed the million-copy-selling series phenomenon, Rainbow Magic. She knows the children’s publishing industry inside and out and brings this experience to all her work with writers, seeking to build happy and collaborative relationships between authors and publishers.
After so many years working for major trade publishers, Amber is ideally placed to negotiate with them on behalf of her authors. Skylark specializes in offering a bespoke service tailor-made to each client’s individual needs, and Amber is particularly looking for high-concept novels and talented new voices.
What I’m looking for in a novel opening. . .
I always think the best openings are ones that are surprising or intriguing, because you want to hook your reader with your very first sentence! Starting a book in the right place in the story is key. I want to be thrown straight into whatever it is that makes your particular novel stand out – whether that’s laughing at the central character’s cheeky voice, feeling intrigued by a mysterious incident, or fearing for life and limb in a perilous situation. If the opening can immediately give a sense of the book’s ‘USP’ so that the reader wants to read on and find out more, then it’s a winner! I actually blogged about novel openings here – http://www.skylark-literary.com/blog (you may need to scroll down the page) – which might be useful.
You can find more details on Amber’s website: http://www.skylark-literary.com/
Twitter: @SkylarkLit
Twitter: @AmberCaraveo