Monster List of Picture Book Agents - Natalie Fischer Lakosil of Bradford Literary Agency

Natalie Fischer Lakosil is an Assistant Agent at Bradford Literary Agency. She was formerly at Sandra Dijkstra Literary agency for four years. According to her bio she is looking for "short, quirky picture books."

You can learn a whole bunch from Natalie on her blog, Adventures in Agentland. In her post, What I Like And Why I Like It, from October 2011 she says, "The only kind of picture book I’m really looking for is along the lines of Square Cat by Elizabeth Schoonmaker – short, funny text, preferably character-driven (650 words or less) – and I’m being VERY very selective on PBs."

You can see some on Natalie's sales on her Publisher's Marketplace page.

Natalie says she does not want ABC or boy books, and gives lots of other great info in her interview at Mother. Write. Repeat.

Natalie's article, From Pitch to Sale, at Wovenmyst is about YA but you might gain some insights from it regarding her process.

Beware, I learned that she doesn't like potty humor in her interview at Beyond Words.

You can find Natalie on Linkedin and Twitter.

Natalie represents Rosanne Thong and Kitty Griffin.


This post is part of the Monster List of Picture Book Agents. If you have any changes that you think should be made to this listing, please contact me or leave them in the comments. Thanks!

Brainstorming a New YA... with my Daughter

My daughter, Ellamae, has been a book lover all of her life. I started reading to her when she was a baby. She started going to storytime at the library when she was around one. She would peek through the book return slot at the desk and have conversations with the librarian. She's gone through the progression of books from picture to chapter to middle grade, and young adult novels. She reads. A lot.

I started writing with an eye toward publishing when Ellamae was pretty young. She's watched me write, listened to my stories, and given me feedback. I've shared some of my writing frustrations and disappointments with her. She's celebrated my victories and been my biggest fan.

I've pushed nothing on her. Just shared with her when she was interested. I figure my kids will grow up to be whatever they want to be. She's seen how hard and frustrating it can be to write. I'm sure she's also noticed how much I've enjoyed it. Whatever the reason, it seems she's made her own natural progression from reader...to writer.

Today she asked my about an idea she has for a young adult novel. It's complex. It's challenging. It's good! The more we talked about it the more the outline came together. She's come up with some amazing twists and even a marketing hook. Needless to say, I am impressed.

So, will this come to fruition? She's written 130 pages of a novel before so she has the potential. Writing is hard, even for adults who have been doing it for a long time. I think she can do it, but I look up to her for even trying. And it sure is fun to have a brainstorming partner!

Garlic Scapes aka This Has Nothing To Do With Writing

As you may have observed if you care to pay attention to any of my online blathering, I do a strange assortment of things. First and foremost I am a children's book writer. That is what I always want to be doing. I work and volunteer at the library so I can be around books. But it's good to do something else. Something not book-centric. At least that's what my husband likes to tell me.

So what do I do? I ran a Cafe & Gallery this winter. We serve food. We sell art. We hold concerts. It's fun. We're only open for special events right now though because the man and I are busy with our main venture--organic garlic. Yup, we're growing garlic. Lots of it.

Garlic has a long growing cycle. We planted the bulbs last fall. No, it's not time for harvest yet, but it is time to cut scapes. Scapes, incase you don't know, are the long curled flower that grow out of the top of the garlic plant.

They're pretty, and tasty! I make a lot of pesto with them, and I just put a bunch of fresh curly scapes straight onto pizza and they were super good. Oh! And beer battered scapes! I'll have to make some of those soon too. Anyhow, we have lots of scapes. So many that I looked up how to ship them (it's easy!) and we're going to start selling this year instead of next like we planned. So..if you're interested, I have scapes for sale. $3.50/pound. Shipping in the US is between $5.35 and $11.35 depending on order size. You can email me for more info or to order them.

You wanna know something weird though? I found a tube of glitter in the garlic field the other day. Seriously. I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP. One perfectly sealed, sparkly tube of white glitter. It's good to know that my family is completely safe from vampires.

Monster List of Picture Book Agents - Brianne Johnson of Writers House

Brianne Johnson is a junior agent at the well known agency, Writers House. I would assume that as a junior agent that Brianne is still building her list, which is always a good opportunity for writers on the agent hunt!

According to her Publisher's Marketplace profile she is open to, "truly delightful" picture book texts and she also says, "The one link I have throughout the many genres I'm interested in is humor. It doesn't necessarily have to be silly humor--sometimes it's more interesting to find humor in darker settings--but I do love a story can illuminate something about humanity AND make me laugh. Life is serious enough--reading should be a joy."

Added 9/7/2012: Mother. Write. Repeat. has a great Interactive Interview with Brianne.
I found posts from a couple of happy clients:
http://cinnamongirlbook.com/2010/07/08/my-jr-agent-got-her-first-deal/
http://margokelly.blogspot.com/2011/12/i-have-agent-wahoo.html

You can see some response time stats for Brianne on Querytracker.

Brianne has a couple of nice picture book sales by her authors (of course this is just what I can find online.) She represents Diane Murray Her first picture book, NED THE KNITTING PIRATE: A SALTY YARN will be published by Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan (Spring 2014). A note for rhymers, Diane's bio says her writing includes rhymes.

Added 9/7/2012: Read Diana Murray's guest post about how she got her agent along with an interview with Brianne here on my blog.

Brianne also represents Jacqueline Tourville whose book, ALBIE'S FIRST WORD, inspired by the true story of Albert Einstein's childhood  is scheduled to come out with Schwartz & Wade in 2014.

Brianne Johnson accepts email queries. You can find her email address on her Publisher's Marketplace listing. And don't forget to personalize that cover letter!

This post is part of the Monster List of Picture Book Agents. If you have any changes that you think should be made to this listing, please contact me or leave them in the comments. Thanks!

The Pressure of the Idea

In the past few weeks I have done a lot of things. I've weeded acres of garlic. I've thinned apple trees. Planted a garden. Run in a race and took first place. (It was a small race... very small. Don't be too impressed.) I've gone on long, lingering bike rides, been to the lake and had a run in with some leeches, read books in the sun. I've filled out a long, confusing application to get our farms certified organic. I've agreed to buy a rundown cabin. I've helped an art client get her social media up and running. I even dug out an old young adult novel I wrote a couple of years ago and started revisions.

One thing I haven't done? Come up with a new picture book idea. Why? Well, I like to think that my brain has been too busy doing all of these other things. On the one hand it bugs me. Why haven't I had an idea? I'm always full of ideas. On the other hand I wonder why I think I need a new idea. I have a bajillion in the filing cabinet, and many more lying around here and there. Really, I need more? Well, yeah. Of course I do! You never know when one will be great.

I do think that sometimes we picture book writers can put a lot of pressure on the idea and forget that the follow through is just as important. And honestly, for me, sometimes my ideas just need to sit a while until I figure them out. I recently finally finished a book whose concept I came up with at least a couple of years ago. I adored the concept but couldn't make it work. When I pulled the manuscript out a couple of months ago I finally figured out how the story needed to play out. It's nothing like what I had come up with at first save one major (and crazy!) plot detail. It's such a better story now and I believe it's ready to face the world.

So, I need to not worry. I know more picture book ideas will come eventually. They always do. I have plenty of other things to work on. And maybe with some focus I could even finish that YA. Now wouldn't that be something.

Patience, Grasshopper.

You know when you write a story and are really excited about it and you can't wait to finish it up so you can get it out into the world and see what happens? Well, that's me. A lot. But especially with the manuscript I've been working on lately. I want it to be done. NOW. But I know better.

I know that if I let my story sit I will come back with fresh eyes and be able to pick out things that don't work well enough. I know that if I wait I will come up with new and better plot twists, characterization, dialogue, and all that other stuff a manuscript needs to go the distance. I know that if I send my manuscript to my critique partner she will point out all sorts of things and make great suggestions on how to improve them. I know that if I just let my brain mull things over my story will get better. And it has.

Do I want to finish this manuscript and send it to my agent to see what she thinks? You bet. But I want to send her my work when it's at its best. I want it to be as ready as it can be. I want her to fall in love with it the way I love it. And to do that I must be patient. No matter how hard it is.

I'm getting close. At least in my opinion. But I'm trying to hold out a bit longer. One thing I found that has made the waiting easier? I'm working on perfecting the pitch. Maybe I'll go work on it some more now before I get too tempted to send the manuscript off.

Monster List of Picture Book Agents - Scott Treimel, S©ott Treimel NY

Update 11/7/2013 -  Scott Treimel has closed to unsolicited submissions but will still be accepting submissions from conference attendees and through references. You can find out all the details by reading the new Submission Policies page.

My last post featured author Ame Dyckman and her debut picture book, BOY + BOT. Ame is represented by Scott Treimel so there's no time like now to feature Scott on the monster list! Ame had two more books forthcoming. I can see why she refers to Scott as "super agent"!

At SCBWI Hawaii, they have a bit of what Scott said regarding craft, how he agents, and what he wants to see in a query. It's from 2005 but relevant. (There are two separate paragraphs. Scroll down.)

There is a nice list of Scott's sales at AgentQuery.

You can see Scott's amazing resume at Linkedin.

Board books through teen novels is listed under genres at Publisher's Marketplace.

Diary of a Children's Book Writer has some interesting notes from the SCBWI NJ 2009 conference.

You can see some response times at the Querytracker website.

You can learn a ton on the S©ott Treimel NY website. There is of course, an about us page and submission guidelines (be sure to use their submission form if you decide to submit). There's also a blog you won't want to miss. There is an offer to "try to answer any and all your STNY-specific or industry-related questions" in the sidebar. What a great opportunity!

You can also find Scott on Twitter.

Scott also represents: Barbara Joose, Maribeth Boelts, and Ellen A. Kelley.

This post is part of the Monster List of Picture Book Agents. If you have any changes that you think should be made to this listing, please contact me or leave them in the comments. Thanks!