In January 2021, I moderated an Ask Agents panel for the Florida branch of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. On a whim, I asked, “What do you wish writers knew that would make your job easier, happier, or better?” They had answers. A lot of them.
For this article, I decided to greatly expand the pool of agents and then ask them all that same question. Here are their answers. Taken together, it provides a pretty handy pathway to success as a writer.
FINDING AN AGENT
“If an agent offers to sign you and you think they’d be a good fit, then sign immediately. Don’t play games and say you want to hear from other agents first. If they show enthusiasm and desire, why wait?”
—Victoria Sanders (Victoria Sanders & Associates)
“Treat your agent search like a job search. Write a concise query letter. Take on a professional tone. Deliver your pitch as precisely and compellingly as possible. It’s not that we want you to jump through hoops for us; it’s that we get a lot of queries and we need to make decisions quickly. Being cute or friendly doesn’t help.”
—Howard Yoon (Ross Yoon Agency)
“If you send your query and then notice a typo, please breathe easy. Agents are looking for good books we can sell. We’re not going to hold a misplaced comma or one misspelled word against you. A dozen errors in a query might signal a larger problem to us, but we want you to succeed and won’t reject
