Literary Agents View the Marketplace

These are my notes from the keynote /agent panel at the SCBWI LA Summer Conference, 2010.

Josh Adams – Adam's Literary

Ginger Clark – Curtis Brown

Lisa Grubka – Foundry

Ken Wright – Writer's house

Middle grade series are coming back. 8-12 y.o. have been neglected for a while. Market growing.

Ginger: Angels – editors bidding for these stories. Lots of angel submissions at the moment. Mermaid or Siren books desired. Dystopias, post apocalyptic stories wanted. Email query preferred. Aims for a paperless office.

Ken: Very young fiction wanted – a little older than first readers. Picture books 'tough' at the moment.

Josh: Picture books through to YA. Market strong. “Timeless” books wanted. High quality, worthy of markets abroad. www.adamsliterary.com for submissions. Receives approximately 8,000 per year.

Lisa: YA fiction / MG and books with an international focus. Expose kids to different world views. Likes storeis that are reality grounded / stories that relate to her own childhood. MG fiction: voice driven, strong characters, humour. Submissions – emails faster, but more focused attention when looking at hard copy.

Josh: Priority given to SCBWI members who have attended conferences where they've spoken, so put in subject line. Make sure your agent knows that translation is important. Has 19 co-agencies that represent their authors overseas. Bologna and Frankfurt. Auctions worldwide. Publishing series preferred for international market. Stand-alone books not so attractive to market overseas.

Tell your agent if you speak another language / lived in another country.

Multimedia rights – enhanced e-book rights. Want to animate picture books. Movie subsidiary rights - movie makers want multimedia rights or want to freeze them.

Mid-list authors are hard.

Agents are always excited to break out a new author.

Looking for a great new voice.

JA: Not an editor. Will help polish for submission, but that's all!