How I Landed a Literary Agent … TWICE!

Anyone who’s been in this industry for even a short time can tell you one undeniable truth – children’s publishing is a seriously competitive biz. The odds of being picked up off the slush pile are something like 1-in-one-hundred (personally, I suspect it’s less).

This article is going to cover how I went from being aspiring writer to published author, highlighting one of the most important parts of my journey – signing with a literary agent.  I’ll detail what steps I took to go from endless “No’s” to that coveted “Yes”, as well as some of the key advantages to having an agent in Australia.

So here we go!

My journey into the creative world started over 20 years ago. I studied animation at uni, but my real love was children’s writing. During uni I did a short course on writing for children and spent the next 10 years working on a middle grade fantasy novel while working in various admin and retail jobs. I don’t remember exactly how many rejections I received for my middle grade novel, so I’ll just say I received all of them. I ended up self-publishing the manuscript in 2011 (after a scary experience with a vanity press), as well as the book’s sequel, followed by another stand-alone novel and a picture book.

Self-publishing taught me a LOT about the publication business in general, as well as marketing, sales, and the importance of a fanbase. I spent most weekends at markets and book fairs selling a handful of copies at a time. It was a SLOG.

And while it worked okay when I was single, it certainly wouldn’t fit in with my 3-kids-plus-2-jobs life now. What I really wanted was traditional publication – I could do all the creative stuff, and someone else could do the selling.

In 2018/2019 I landed two contracts with traditional publishers to illustrate picture books. These weren’t contracts I sought out – rather, both publishers approached me after seeing my work online, and asked if I’d be interested in working with them (to this day I still don’t have a proper illustration portfolio!). Around this time, I was also working on a new idea for a chapter book that I felt was something of a winner. It had commercial appeal, was super cute, and was based on one of my favourite things – mermaids. While on maternity leave I re-worked the manuscript into what I thought was reasonable shape and sent it off to a few publishers. Cue chirping crickets, because that’s the sound of the responses I got – zero!

On the back end of (another) rejection I received an email from prolific children’s author Aleesah Darlison offering writing mentorships. I snapped one up and dove into that mentorship like my life depended on it! And holy mermaid fins, was it a game changer! What I thought was my best work was WAY off track. Having a mentor really helped steer me in the right direction and bring out the best of the concept. Although I was pitching MerTales as a chapter book for 6-9 year olds, Aleesah noted my writing was still geared towards middle grade. The themes, sentence structure, and voice were all too mature for a newly independent reader taking on chapter books for the first time. To help strengthen my skills I decided to enrol in a course specifically for writing chapter books through the ACW. I poured over dozens of titles aimed at a similar target audience and took notes on what I felt worked, and why. I counted page numbers and identified themes, and re-wrote my manuscript multiple times.

When I sent my revisions to Aleesah, she told me I was much closer to the mark. I finally understood what my audience wanted; simplicity, humour, sweetness, and a good story (I like to think I always got that last one right, at least!).

Not long after my mentorship with Aleesah wrapped up, I was awarded an illustration mentorship through the Australian Society of Authors. This one I undertook with Marjorie Crosby-Fairall, also prolifically published, and we worked on the illustrations for MerTales. Again, another game changer for me. We concentrated on compositions as well as some different rendering techniques. See below for some of Marjorie’s reworking of my compostions:

Although we chewed up the mentorship hours WAY too fast, one of the best things Marjorie did for me was to encourage me to continue my learning through online courses like SVS Learn. This was probably also the point I realised it’s not about studying something once and then just knowing what to do – creative arts, including writing, are a never-ending process of skill building, learning, experimenting and adjusting.

So after two bouts of insanely prosperous mentoring with two very talented creators, I had a beautiful little submissions pack all ready to send out to prospective publishers. And if you’re thinking, ‘Bec, this is supposed to be an article on AGENTS, not MENTORS, and you haven’t even gotten to the bit about agents yet’ … well, there’s a reason for that!

The reality is that signing with an agent is equally, if not more, difficult than signing with a publisher (in Australia, at least). What you submit truly has to be your BEST WORK. The common thread between agents and publishers is they both need to believe the same thing – that your book will sell. This isn’t to take the wondrously creative side of writing out of the equation, but it is essential to acknowledge that publishing is a business. Coming to grips with this early on in your journey is a BIG time saver.

If you’re submitting work and it’s not being picked up, it might be time to ask yourself some big questions:

• If my book had been written by someone else, would I buy it? Would I recommend it to others?
• Is my idea truly original? Am I leaning too much on current popular tropes and themes?
• Would this idea translate well into other media? When I’m brainstorming concepts, I often ask; would this make a good movie/TV series/video game/line of merchandise? The odds of a book – even a published one – going down any of these paths is slim, but I find it’s a useful way to judge the commercial appeal of an idea.
• Am I submitting enough? You may need to write a dozen books (or more!) before you create one that sells. Publishing is a marathon, not a sprint.

The professional guidance I received from my mentors was paramount to signing with my first agent, who could not wait to represent the book. MerTales was sold within weeks.

Woah, back up here Bec – how did you sign with the agent?

Well, like publishers, many agents open their books to new clients only periodically, meaning they’re closed the rest of the time. But there’s a loophole! I submitted work to my agent via a manuscript assessment at a large writing conference – the CYA Conference, in fact, for which I’ve been a volunteer for many years (ever seen the little leaping crocodile in the logo? That’s my illustration). Yes, you have to pay for assessments, and there are no guarantees of agent representation or publication. Keep in mind the name of the game is ‘assessment’ – it’s not a pitch. That said, if the agent/editor/publisher sees enough potential in the work, they can sometimes make an offer.

Most conferences offer some kind of assessment program, so they’re definitely worth checking out.

Having an agent was a brilliant experience. Justine became my mentor, editor and advisor as I navigated the tricky world of traditional publishing offers and contracts. Having an agent gets you out of the slush pile and onto the desks of editors and publishers. And not just that, but the RIGHT editors and publishers. When it was time to submit, Justine knew who was most likely to be interested, and had direct contact details for each editor. There was no waiting around for select submission days of the week (or year!) – because submissions via agents are not unsolicited. Things also tended to move much quicker – responses were received within days or weeks, not months (or longer – I once received a rejection 18 months after I’d submitted the manuscript). This isn’t a rant against publishers – they are flooded with manuscripts to read, keeping in mind their job entails SO much more than simply reading submissions. But for me, having an agent definitely helped shuffle me up the pile.

So that’s how I signed with my first agent. Onto the next one …

A year after MerTales was sold, my agent sadly left the industry. I was devastated – Justine was my lifeline! But before she bowed out (and very gracefully; there are honestly no hard feelings at all), she did introduce me to a few other agents. I was about to sign a contract on my next book series, which helped me land an absolute dream agent, Sarah. The concept was solid, with lots of lively concept art and the first two chapters mocked up as a sample book. Sarah could see I was serious about my career and willing to put in the time and effort it takes to make it work. I signed up, and she’s still my wonderful agent now.

So, to reiterate, here’s how I landed an agent:

• First, I selected my most commercially viable idea (i.e., what would be most likely to sell).
• Next, I engaged the help of two professional, established mentors who knew the biz inside and out.
• From those mentorships came The Work. I wrote, I studied, I analysed, I re-wrote. I drew so much I had to start wearing an armbrace.
• I took the advice of my mentors seriously. It’s not enough to be able to ‘cope’ with criticism – you will gain success so much quicker if you learn to seek it out!
• Finally, I used a writing conference to book a face-to-face assessment with an agent.

And the second time around:

• I had another, equally commercial idea ready to go.
• I could show I had established relationships with publishers.
• I could show I was active on social media and enthusiastic about promoting my own work.

All this aside, it’s important to keep in mind that as hard as you may work, luck always play a part. You need to submit the right idea at the right time. I have heard many stories (and experienced this once myself, and painfully so) about work being rejected simply because it happened to be too similar to something else the publisher or agent had just signed. Or, maybe the no’s you are receiving are more like not yet’s. The industry may not be ready for your particular genre/idea/concept. Keep trying new things, put most of your effort into generating fresh ideas … and submit, submit, submit!

What are your thoughts on agents? Would love to hear in the comments.

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