Dear Art Directors! I have a question about literary agents and getting published. Through a small grant I ordered 5 copies of a children's book I wrote and illustrated through Blurb. I'm curious if you have any tips for finding literary agents and knowing who would be a good fit. I'm trying to craft a list of 5 agents or publishers to send my book to but I'm at a loss of where to begin. Thanks so much for all your time and effort!
My advice to anyone looking to break into publishing is to go to a bookstore and find a whole stack of books that are as close to what you are trying to do as possible. Same genre, format, target age, etc. Then go to the acknowledgements/thanks and see who the agents were (usually authors thank their agents) or look on the author’s website, or as a last resort google “author name” + “agent” and you’ll get the agent name. Go to the agent’s website. There will be very specific submission guidelines. Follow them and submit. Be prepared to get a lot of rejections, but don’t be discouraged. You will either get offers or feedback from these agents, and eventually you will be picked up by one. Here’s some good links on pitching your book project:
How to Write a Book Proposal
23 Agent Query Letters That Worked
—Agent KillFee