- Joined
- Sep 13, 2010
- Messages
- 1,212
- Reaction score
- 181
- Location
- Seattle-ish
- Website
- www.joymcculloughcarranza.com
Wow. That's like a one in a million shot. I guess it really does pay off to network with people.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get organized with this?
It does, Daniela, and it's worth noting that I don't have any connections - I met that client through Query Tracker. I wasn't thinking she could help me get to this agent or anything - I just noticed that she had a background as a playwright, as I do, and that she had traveled extensively in Latin America, as I have. So I wrote her just to make friends. And we did, and it ended up being beneficial.
As for getting organized with agent research, I don't use Query Tracker the way some people do - I just look things up there and occasionally read "How I Got My Agent" interviews. But some people love it.
For myself, I started out by looking up the agents of the authors I loved. And as I researched, I just kept Word documents with lists of agents I liked and their submission requirements. And then once I start querying, I just keep a Word document that tracks what I send to whom and when. (Some more organized people may use a spreadsheet, I suppose.)
I find the information at Literary Rambles hugely helpful - they're not interviews, but agent profiles and compilations of interviews and information from around the web on each agent - and I like that they have a specific list of agents who rep middle grade.
It's here: http://www.literaryrambles.com/
I also like the agent interviews at the blog Mother. Write. Repeat. They may not be exclusively kid-lit oriented, but the majority of them rep middle grade.
So yeah, it's mostly lots of sorting through lists and reading blog interviews and websites, and then keeping lists of agents who might be a good fit for your work! I'm a research fiend, so I think it's kind of fun.