Steps I Took to Find an Agent, Part 2

As I mentioned in my previous post, there came a time when I wanted an agent to just represent one or two of my picture book manuscripts. This time around I didn’t want someone to rep my entire career. And I wanted someone in New York, but I wanted someone who still had a hand in the Christian market as well.

So I went back to the same way I landed an agent the first time. I went through the Writer’s Market and called the first place. No. So I called the second agency that interested me. No again. I called and called agencies listed in the Market Guide as having headquarters in the New York City area and asked them basically 2 questions: Are you open to just representing one or two picture books, not someone’s career? And do you rep books in the Christian market? Everyone I called said, “No” to either one question or the other…so it took me a bit of calling.

Finally, I called an agency who answered Yes. But her answer was a conditional yes. She said she only represented books for adults and had never represented a children’s author. But she said she was willing to take a gamble to see if our relationship would work if I was. I was! She was a delightful gal to work with, but after a year she wasn’t able to sell my picture books so we mutually agreed to cancel our contract.

Once again, I worked for a number of years without an agent again, just marketing my stuff to smaller houses.