agents - Middle grade

HH Johnson

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You have finished a Middle Grade novel.

Now, to query literary agents.

Your first couple of queries will go to these agents . . .
 

regdog

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It depends if you are strictly writing for children/middle grade than you could start with agents that only rep those there are a lot more of course but a few are
Pippin Properties
Rosemary Stimola
Andrea Brown Agency

If you write in other genres as well it will open a much larger pool of agents.

Several very good places to compare agents, their query preferences submission requires etc is here at Bewares and Backgrounds, Preditors and Editors, and Agent Query-Agent Query will not give you an agents reputation or warnings but will list what they represent their query preference and many times a link to their site. If you find an agent there that sounds like one you would query cross references them here at Bewares & Backgrounds and P&E
 

Danthia

A lot of agents just say YA on their lists as well, so don't rule those out. Often it's the martketing department that decides if something is MG or YA. Some other good agencies include:

Nelson Literary Agency
Firebrand
Donald Maass Lit
 

MsJudy

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Querytracker.net and Agentquery.com let you do a search of all their listed agents by genre=children's. You'll find over 100, though some are closed, some have very limited interests and some are multiple agents at the same agency. All told, I think I have more than 60 on my list to query, though a few that I've already contacted turn out not to rep early middle grade.

In addition to those others have mentioned, I would add:
Writer's House
Curtis Brown
Barry Goldblatt

But the ones we've named are just the Big Ones. There are many, many others, and new people do start up every year.
 

slhastings

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I'd also really research the agents- what they represent, their likes, etc. Check out their pages on Publisher's Marketplace. Just don't send out queries all willy-nilly. (haha did I just write that).

Think about what you want in an agent. For example, some give hands-on editorial advice, some don't. Google that agent. Find out what types of authors they rep. What are they looking for? Perhaps, you?

In addition to agentquery.com, you can also check out litmatch.net

Most importantly, make sure you've enlisted beta readers to read your novel. Post a listing here. Join up on verlakay.com and post there too. (I had four beta readers, five including my husband- but you need to get outside feedback. It's uber important).

You only get one first impression!
 

RLB

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A lot of agents just say YA on their lists as well, so don't rule those out. Often it's the martketing department that decides if something is MG or YA. Some other good agencies include:

Nelson Literary Agency
Firebrand
Donald Maass Lit

I asked this question in another thread today! Some agents say "YA" but I'm wondering if I can query them with MG. I don't want them to think I'm a moron who can't read guidelines, but on the other hand, I suspect there is a trend to lump YA and MG into one "YA" category, because a few agents who say YA have MGish-looking sales. But I don't know if that's the case with all of them.

Some even say "YA but no picture books" so I'm thinking they'd look at MG.

So I'm not going to look like an idiot if I query YA agents?

That'd really open my query list up (though I've already got about 90 MG agents, though I'd probably stop after about the fifty top ones).
 

slhastings

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Rachel-

I'd start with really researching the MG authors. If you feel that your book is a cross-over (i.e) upper MG/lower YA, or TWEEN if you will, and your book reads like a check list for a particular YA agent's wants/needs, there's no harm in trying. I've noticed some agents list YA and Children's and don't list MG, however, if you do your research, you just may find an MG title on their list. Hope that helps.

samantha
 

scope

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If it were only so easy.

One word for which there's no substitute -- research, research, research. We could all give you lists of agents which you could easily find--and I believe should--but none of us know such basic things as what you story is like, who it's appropriate for, the target audience, what you want from an agent, and more. If you do the heavy loading it will pay off. Be assured that all at AW are here to help you whenever needed.
 

SheilaJG

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A couple more:

The Greenhouse Literary Agency - reps just children's fiction through YA
KT Literary - MG, YA, and women's fiction

But I agree with scope, you need to find a match for your story. If you check the websites of these agents, they list some of their clients, and that might help.