Literary Agents and Artist Representatives can often open doors for Authors and Illustrators in the Children’s Book Industry…
But is having an Agent essential for building your career?
In today’s episode, publishing experts Giuseppe Castellano (Art Director: Penguin Random House), Julie Olson (Author/Illustrator: Discover America: From Sea to Shining Sea) and Russ Cox (Author/Illustrator: Far Away Friends) share insights on:
- What makes a good Agent?
- How to find the right Agent for you.
- The difference between Literary Agents and Artist Representatives.
- Why you need to know the business of illustration, no matter what.
- What to do when things don’t work out between you and your Agent.
Listen to ‘Stories Unbound’ Episode 15:
Awesome Links:
Music by Ryan Keith and Wes Cepin
Helpful Resources:
The Book: The Essential Guide to Publishing for Children (SCBWI)
Children’s Writers and Illustrator’s Market 2017 (Shawna’s Amazon Affiliate Link)
What Do You Think?
Today we had an in-depth view of an Agent’s role in the Children’s Book Industry. What is something you learned about Agents that you didn’t know before?
Tell us about it in the comments below!
Thanks for inviting me to do this, Shawna. You, Chris, and the team just keep on being awesome.
We were happy to have you! Thank you so much for joining us! Your insights are amazing, as always. We love having you on the show! Happy Holidays to you!
Thank you *so much* Giuseppe for being part of the show 🙂 Your insights are golden <3
Thank you Shawna and Thank you to Russ, Julie and Giuseppe!
So much great advice about agents in this episode. To be honest, I have spent years preparing myself for a career in Children’s Book Illustration but have hardly thought of being represented (except every time Giuseppe has been interviewed or posted advice on twitter) As I am nearing being ready to submit my first dummy book and becoming more consistent in my work I see now that it may be time to begin planning ahead. Knowing ahead of time that this may be a long process is helpful. Hopefully all the great advice here will help me and others to make good decisions and avoid troublesome issues in the first place. Thanks again!
Hi Misty,
Thanks for your comment! I’m so glad you found lots of helpful information in this episode! For sure, come back to it and listen again when you need a refresher on the information. I really do hope it helps people avoid certain issues and situations. Good luck to you as you move forward in you career goals!
Thanks Shawna!
As usual… Stories Unbound delivers. It is really helpful for those of us who are just staring this journey to wrap our brains about the do’s the don’t and why’s. For me, I wasn’t really clear on the differences between art reps and literary agents and understanding where to start researching. I also am a “rah rah” kind of person who would probably leap before I look, so hearing Giuseppe counsel “patience, grasshopper..” is a mantra I need to keep reminding myself. Thanks so much you guys!!!
Hi CartoonCatalyst!
I’m so glad you found helpful information in this episode. Yes, I really love Giuseppe’s advice- Practice Professional Patience and Persistence. I’m still working on that all the time! I’m glad we also cleared up the difference between Art Reps and Literary Agents for you. I don’t think I really understood the difference until I was several years into my career. Thanks for stopping by!
Shawna, I love this episode! I keep going back and forth about an art v literary rep, so Julie’s insights were especially helpful… Thanks!
Hi Gaia,
I’m so glad you enjoyed the episode! I’ve had both kinds of agents, and I still go back and forth on what I want next. Thanks for listening and stopping by to comment!
Shawna, this is one of my favorite episodes so far, thank you for all the amazing information! I also didn’t know the difference between Art Reps and Literary Agents <3
A question I have. You mentioned to not take an agent if he/she has too many clients.
How many clients would you consider too many?
HUGS!
Hi Ania!
Thank you, I’m so glad you enjoyed the episode and learned a few things too!
I think for one agent who is representing by themselves, I think around 25 clients is a good stopping point. There are some really big agencies who represent hundreds of people, but there are many agents helping out. If it is one agent by themselves, and they have 50 clients, I would say that is too many!
Thanks for the question, Ania. And thanks for all your help, as always in overseeing everything to get the episode out! You rock!
But, I do also have to say, look at the quality of work an agent and the authors and illustrators put out. If the authors and illustrators are putting out quality work and getting published at the big houses, then even if the agent has a lot of clients, you will be able to tell that they can handle the workload they have. 🙂
Thank you so much for the reply!! 😀 HUGS!
Wow Shawna! What a great episode! This was my first listen in and learned SO much. I never knew what percentage reps get, or the difference between the two reps and now I know the questions to ask and what to look for. Thank you so much!!
Hi Saundra,
Thanks for stopping by! If this was your first Stories Unbound Episode, you should go check out the rest! We have many amazing episodes for your listening enjoyment! Russ was in our very first episode, and Giuseppe was in our second two episodes as well.
I’m so glad this episode was helpful to you, and that you learned about many things about agents that you didn’t know before!
Thank you Shawna! I’m catching up on the first episodes right now. So great! I did have a question though, when you were going over the percentages of what agents make I think you mentioned a start up fee? What would be a good limit to say woah, way too much? Or is any fee too much?
Hey Saundra,
I guess maybe I wasn’t clear on that part- I’ll have to go back and listen to what I said. haha! An agent shouldn’t charge you any start up fee. If they are asking you for money up front, I say run away. They should only get paid a percentage of what you earn if and when you get paid by a publisher. For literary agents it’s usually 15%, and for art reps it’s usually 25%. Although, the 25 percent came from when artists had a lot more printing fees and such… so it seems like they should lower that now that everything is done digitally.
Okay that answered my question. Thank you!
Thank you Shawna for letting me be a part of this great discussion. I learned a few things from listening to Giuseppe and Julie. Have a great holiday season and keep up the wonderful work!
Russ! I was so glad to have you in the show again! You brought great insights to this episode, and I really appreciate you being a part of this! I hope you have a wonderful holiday season as well! Cheers!
Great podcast!
I didn’t know about literary agents.
I also didn’t know about the submission procedure that Giuseppe mentioned. Very good info.
By any chance, do you happen to know who I should talk to for an agents for educational books, like the Eyewitness books?
Thanks!
Hi Sarah,
I’m glad you heard useful information and learned some new things from the episode!
Agents are usually pretty good and finding the best home for your work. If you want to do educational work, just have that kind of work in your portfolio, and tell your agent where you would like them to send your stuff. If you want to help illustrate an Eyewitness book specifically, just send stuff directly to that publisher (whether you have an agent or not).
I hope that helps. Thanks for your comment, Sarah!
Shawna, Thank you for another great podcast and for answering my questions. Also thank you to Julie,Russ and Giuseppe. I learned a lot from this one podcast. I wasn’t sure on what the reps/agents get for percentage and if you really needed an agent or rep to get your work in the door. I am working on my first dummy book and wasn’t sure if having an agent would be best. I am still a way out with it but hoping that 2017 might be a good year for my art. Thanks again to you all.
Hi Mark,
Thank you so much for your questions. Like I said, your questions helped me know what things to cover in this episode! Good luck on your dummy book! Whether you decide to go with an agent or not, I wish you every success!
I think ‘Practice Professional Patience and Persistence’ is going to become my new art mantra! Such good advice. I’m definitely writing it in the front of my sketchbook.
Thank you so much Shawna, Giuseppe, Julie, and Russ for this informative episode!
You really cleared up some of the questions I had about the whole agent process. I’m excited to use this as a starting point for my research.
Hi Veronica!
Yes, the Practice Professional Patience and Persistence was seriously amazing advice from Giuseppe. It’s definitely a must in this industry!
I’m so glad we cleared up some questions you were having about agents. Good luck to you as you move forward in your career!
Hi Shawna,
Thank you so much for this podcast! This whole thing with The Oatley Academy is getting better and better :). I stumbled upon it few years ago and listen every single episode while working as a freelance designer (loved those raw episodes when Chris was walking his dog! :D) Somewhere around that time I decided to leave graphic design and pursue the illustration path. I learned so much from resources like this one and just when I was wandering around and asking myself what to do and where to go, you started this podcast :)) Now I’m just learning about whole kid lit industry and you’re putting this great content from episode to episode.. Can’t thank you all enough! Just want you to know how much helpful you are to newcomers like me!
Thank you for being aaawsome :DD
Dragan
Hi Dragan,
(Awesome name, by the way!) Thank you so much for your comment! Chris’s podcasts have always been inspiring to me too!
I am so glad this podcast is so helpful to you! It really means so much to me to hear that this is helping you so much. This is really so helpful to me. It is comments like yours that keep me going. Seriously, it means so much to me. <3 Thank you.
(Thanks! :))
Well, this is the least i can do. I know it’s not easy to put a lot of work into something and not hearing back anything. It’s hard work and we all need support!
Can’t wait for the next one!
This really was good (and timely!) since I’m wanting to find an agent. Thanks so much, Shawna!
What I don’t understand is why Giuseppe encourages us to start with the agents at the BOTTOM of our list. Is there a reason behind this – it seems counterintuitive? Shouldn’t we start at the top? Any thoughts?
Hi Angela,
I’m glad you enjoyed the episode. I’m not actually sure about this myself. We will have to ask him! But I’m guessing it is to get practice with the ones you aren’t going to want to go with first before moving on to the agents you really want to sign on with. That way you can make mistakes and learn along the way.
Thanks you guys!!! I really enjoyed this episode and it came at the right time for me. I published two books on my own and wanting to find a publisher for the the others. I have been taken advantage of when I freelanced graphic design work so getting an agent for me would have to be someone that has been highly recommended. It sounds like it may be the only way if you want to eventually get in with a big publisher. Something I learned from your episode is that you may still want to get a lawyer to go over the agents contract. It sounds costly to me. One of my concerns that I experienced when working at design agencies, is missing information because there was a middle man that communicated with the artists. I am wondering how often this happens in the book publishing world where communication is lost because the agent is not telling the artist exactly what the publisher wants. Thanks so much to all of you for sharing with us.
Hi Melissa,
You’re welcome. I’m glad this episode was helpful to you!
Be sure and ask a potential agent and his/her current clients if they are good with contracts. If you can’t afford a lawyer, ask a friend who has been working in children’s books for a long time to read through your contract and let you know if everything sounds alright.
Ask some of a potential agent’s current clients if the agent is good about communicating all the details. Because yes, that can be a problem. When I signed on with my first agent, I didn’t know I was supposed to see all the contracts for each client. When I figured that out, I couldn’t believe that I never saw any contracts. So I think it’s just important to be aware of all that stuff ahead of time. And make sure you talk about communication. If your agent isn’t telling you all the information you need to know, it might be time to leave that agent and find someone who is willing to be more open and better at communicating!
You should also always be able to communicate directly with the publisher at all times. If that isn’t happening, make sure it is.
I hope that helps. Good luck in your search for an agent!
I’ve already heard this episode and I glad to started the year hearing it. Thank you Shawna, Julie, Giuseppe and Russ. As usual the episode was great!. For my all the advices and recommendations that you have gave us are valuable because here in my country we don’t have this kind of agencies, Is it possible that this agencies accept people from different countries?
I’ll be waiting for the next episode!!! Happy New Year!!! 😀
Hi Miscy!
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed the Episode! Yeah, for sure. I’ve heard of agencies representing people from all over the world. So yeah, I don’t think that’s a problem if you have great artwork and/or stories that an agent is interested in representing.
Happy New Year to you!!
Hi Shawna! Thank you for answer me
It is so nice to heard that there is an opportunity to find an agency, so that will be one of my goals for this year!!! 😀
Thank you Shawna! Its been hard finding agents that work with people that are both illustrator and author.
This podcast was SO SO helpful! Thank you for having three great guests and for being such a wonderful host. Looking forward to listening to more. 🙂
Wonderful advice. I appreciate the differentiating between agents and reps. Interesting what was said about picking the bottom of your top ten agent choices. Thanks to you and Chris Oatley for all the work you do helping artists achieve their dreams.