How I Got My Literary Agent

Getting an agent wasn’t easy. Although my agent querying time was brief, it took me years to improve my craft, combat health issues, and educate myself on the literary world to become the author-illustrator I am today. From being told my picture book style wasn’t marketable in agent critiques to getting five offers of representation from a pitch event, I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs.

A Chance New Year’s Encounter

Back in 2018, I was doing freelance design. After leaving an unfulfilling job, I enjoyed building a small business for myself with a steady income. Finally, I had control over what projects I took on and had the means to do something I always wanted to do: write and illustrate a book. At the time, I had no idea what I was doing; all I knew is that I wanted to be published and make a positive impact on the world through my books. It wasn’t until I met a guy at a party whose grandmother happened to be a picture book author that it felt like the literary doors were starting to creak open. After wooing her with caffeinated coffee and free brunch, I quickly discovered I was further away from publishing than I thought. Through that one conversation, I discovered I needed to:

1. Improve my writing. (Rhyme and meter? A lot more tricky than I thought!)
2. Read more books in the modern market (past 5 years). (Dr. Seuss isn’t as hot as he used to be.)
3. Find a critique group. (How do I even find people to look at my book for free?)
4. Network. Network. NETWORK. (SCBWI, 12x12PB, Twitter, etc.)

Jaw Surgery: When You Can’t Speak, Write

My friend’s grandmother recommended taking the “Crash Course in Children’s Book Publishing” led by Harold Underdown through the Highlights Foundation. The course altogether was steeper financially than I was expecting, so it took me several months and a better paying job to finally invest in the course. Not only this but I had jaw surgery for chronic pain during this time which put me out of commission for several months. Back then, I couldn’t talk or eat without being in pain so I did what I knew best when you can’t speak: I wrote and illustrated the dummy for my first picture book. I also set up a website and began working on a KidLit-specific portfolio. Doing Instagram events like #FairyTaleWeek, #Inktober, and #DTIYS were great ways to practice my skills, meet other artists, and build a portfolio.

In mid-2019 when I was finally in a better medical and financial state, I leaped like a ravenous lion into that Highlights Course. One of the best parts of that course was the one-on-one instructor critique. This was my first time getting a scansion (an analysis of stressed and unstressed syllables) which made me realize how far away from the final draft I was. From there, I checked out tons of modern-day reference books, courses like Renée LaTulippe’s – Lyrical Writing Lab, books on craft (“A Poetry Handbook” by Mary Oliver and “Writing Picture Books” by Ann Whitford Paul are two of my favorites), and hired two freelance editors. (If you’re looking for freelance editors, Elizabeth Deanna Morris Lakes and Rona Shirdan are absolutely wonderful!) I also participated in SCBWI pitch events to practice pitching to agents where I met my wonderful author-illustrator critique group, PONO. All it took was a single email of “Would anyone like to start an author-illustrator critique group?” after the pitch event to find what would become my first and longest-standing critique group.

Why is Nothing Working?

After all the edits and practice pitches, I was finally ready to take the next step: contests and mentorships! I submitted to PBParty, the PBChat Mentorship, and Queer KidLit but to my dismay, did not get any interest. I even tried several Twitter pitch events such as #PitMad and #PBPitch but was getting no likes except for one agent who loved the book, she just didn’t represent picture books. Not all was lost though because I met a lot of authors and illustrators through the events. One of the mentorships even invited me to their private Discord which was great because it allowed me to connect with others.

Although there was a lot of positivity around putting myself out there, this was the first time that I realized something might be wrong with my book or how I was pitching it. Everyone who read it appeared to like it, but why was it getting no agent interest? After several more critiques with agents and authors sponsored by SCBWI, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t pitching correctly and maybe my book didn’t fit the current market. Not only this but I was getting feedback that my style didn’t fit the picture book genre; it was too “graphic novel.” After several critiquers said my style would be better suited to a graphic novel, I took a pause. If so many people were saying my style worked best as a graphic novel…then maybe I should give graphic novels a shot?

As if Twitter heard my whispers on my dashboard that fateful day, I discovered Larissa Marantz’s OC Art Studios graphic novel course. One of the best parts about Larissa’s course was that every purchase gave a scholarship to a BIPOC creator. I was on the fence at first after spending so much money on other courses, critiques, and edits but the fact that my purchase would give someone else an opportunity to take the course is what sold me. This isn’t an understatement when I say that Larissa’s graphic novel course was life-changing. For the first time, writing and illustrating came easy. For years I struggled to write the perfect picture book, but graphic novels felt…natural. I could use my graphic design, illustration, and tech project management background together in a way like never before. Not only that but I was getting positive feedback from others in the class including the instructors, which made me feel like this transition was the right move.

…So Pitch Events ACTUALLY Work?

When the course ended, several students and I formed a monthly graphic novel critique group which we have to this day. Through that critique group, I refined my pitch package and started pitching around mid-2020 to Twitter events such as Pitmad, KidLitGN, and DVPit. One of the things I learned through pitching that helped a ton was to include subgenre hashtags. Little did I know when I previously pitched that some agents only search for subgenre hashtags for pitch events which means if you don’t have them, your pitch is likely to get buried among thousands of others. Also, studying the pitches that got a lot of agent/editor likes (not total number of likes) helped a lot with how I should improve my pitch. Anna Sortino was an instrumental help in my Twitter pitching process so shout out to her! To my surprise, not only did I get my first like at these pitch events, but a whopping 15 combined agent/editor likes! I couldn’t believe it. My head, heart, and body were flailing about in excitement, but before I started to query, I needed to research the agents who liked my posts.

Detective Blair: The Agent Background Check

Publisher’s Marketplace can be expensive but is worth every penny when you’re deciding on which agent to submit to. Research every agent. Find out what books your agent has sold in the past, how long they’ve been in the industry, do they represent books in your genre or other genres you may want to break into, do they have an editorial background (if you want an agent that does), and whatever else is important to you. MAKE SURE YOU DO YOUR RESEARCH. There are fake agents out there so it’s always important to validate if the agent you’re submitting to is legit or not. In my case, I looked up every agent who had liked my Twitter post’s Publisher’s Marketplace, social media, and website (agency and personal, if they had one). Then I put a list together of my top 8 agents and began querying. 

Querying is a formula; once you have all the parts you need to include, everything falls into place. (A great resource I found for querying is this blog post by Jane Friedman called The Complete Guide to Query Letters.) Although I had finished writing my query and received great feedback from my critique group, I needed to first see how to query the agents on my list. Before submitting, I checked the agents’ Twitter page to see how they wanted people they liked for the pitch event to submit to them. A lot of times, agents will specify how they want you to submit to them for pitches. The reason why this is important is that sometimes, following the guidelines they put together could potentially (not always) bump you to higher on their list instead of submitting to them through their regular channels. It also helps them categorize their submission better when you mention the specific pitch event they liked.

Budding Interest

The day after sending my first several queries, an agent reached out to me! I couldn’t believe it; it felt like I was getting closer to my dream of getting an agent and eventually being published. Like a magical domino effect, ANOTHER agent came out of the woodworks, then another and another. In a matter of days, four agents had expressed interest in my book. Later that week, I got a private Twitter message where a FIFTH agent who I hadn’t queried reached out! Turns out she saw my illustrations on Twitter and wanted me to submit to her as an illustrator or author-illustrator. In the end, I had a total of seven interested incredible agents.

It felt like a whirlwind all at once after years of silence. It wasn’t until I had the first phone call that I got my first official offer of representation however, she wanted to know an answer ideally in a week. That day, I had to let all the other agents know of my pending offer and the tight week deadline which I was able to push back a week. One of the agents dropped out due to timing issues (they were away on vacation and couldn’t review my query in time) and another ghosted me. Something wonderful happened for the rest though…they all wanted to hop on a call!  

Anxiety: Choosing an Agent

The week of calls was riveting and nerve-racking at the same time. That week, I had 5 agent phone calls which resulted in 5 offers of representation. It was hard to be excited when the pressure of picking the agent who could potentially make or break my literary career was weighing on my shoulders. To help make my decision easier, I did in-depth research on all 5 agents. I looked at their full literary background on Publisher’s Marketplace, talked to author friends who knew someone represented by them, reached out to clients they referred, got advice from other authors, and asked follow-up questions. In some cases, I even scheduled a second phone call. I also made a ranking chart of each agent based on what I was looking for in an agent on a scale from 1-5. At the end of the day, both my gut and rank matched.

All the agents were talented, had clients that spoke very highly of them, and had a great track record but there were two things that made the agent I ended up choosing really stand out: 1) she pulled an entirely new book out of me in one meeting based on her editorial feedback and 2) she went the extra mile to message me the day of my final decision. To this day, I’m so happy to call Chelsea my agent and am thankful to #DVPit for connecting us!

The moral of the story is: don’t give up! Just because you don’t make a contest or get likes on a pitch event doesn’t mean you won’t find an agent. Sometimes it takes patience, a lot of hard work/research, help from peers, and a shift in your direction to get you to where you need to be.