Agent for children's literature

c68zapdsm5i1ru

Could anyone recommend a good one. I have a draft of a book for kids aged about 4-6 that I would like to get an opinion on.

EileenG

There are no Irish agents that do this. But you can submit directly to O'Brien and Little Island without an agent.

However, a "draft" of a book for kids is not good enough. You need a fully polished book. Also, bear in mind that writing for this age group is quite specialised. You have to take into account what they are learning in the classroom and make sure your story ties in with that.

It's a very difficult age group to write for unless you are a teacher or have teaching experience.

Why do you think an agent will give you an opinion? That's not their job.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

EileenG wrote: »

There are no Irish agents that do this. But you can submit directly to O'Brien and Little Island without an agent.

However, a "draft" of a book for kids is not good enough. You need a fully polished book. Also, bear in mind that writing for this age group is quite specialised. You have to take into account what they are learning in the classroom and make sure your story ties in with that.

It's a very difficult age group to write for unless you are a teacher or have teaching experience.

Why do you think an agent will give you an opinion? That's not their job.

Thanks. I suppose when I said 'opinion' I meant whether they would take it on or not.
I am planning to polish up my text in the next couple of weeks before sending it out. I didn't realise that children's books had to tie in directly with what was going on in the classroom. I spend a lot of time with my nephews and niece who are in the target age group and kept in mind what they would like or understand or relate to while also trying to stretch their imagination a little bit.

EileenG

It doesn't have to tie in directly, but you have to be aware of a lot of different things when writing for that age. Is it for the child to read, or someone to read to him? The subject matter has to be suitable for the age group, and interesting to the child.

And you'd be surprised what parents can find to object to in books for this age group. If you have a baby in it, you'll find some who object to seeing babies being bottle fed and some who object to seeing breastfeeding, for instance.

There are no agents in Ireland who would handle this sort of book, and you don't need one. O'Brien accepts direct submissions. Go to their website and look to see what they are looking for and how to submit.

Agent Weebley

Zavier Black Washbowl wrote: »

I spend a lot of time with my nephews and niece who are in the target age group and kept in mind what they would like or understand or relate to while also trying to stretch their imagination a little bit.

Your book sounds pretty cool. My son liked the Franklin series, and we enjoyed reading them to him. Yeah, Franklin In The Dark . . . that was a good one . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIL_1nx3ulo

I guess the moral of that story was that if you understand fear, you also understand it is trumped by love.

What morals are in your book? Can you give us a little sampler?

c68zapdsm5i1ru

Agent Weebley wrote: »

Your book sounds pretty cool. My son liked the Franklin series, and we enjoyed reading them to him. Yeah, Franklin In The Dark . . . that was a good one . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIL_1nx3ulo

I guess the moral of that story was that if you understand fear, you also understand it is trumped by love.

What morals are in your book? Can you give us a little sampler?

Well, I suppose it's about accepting that people are different, but their differences are part of what makes them who they are. It's a very simple little book and will need good quirky illustrations. However, I understand that most publishers of children's books prefer you to just submit the text.

Agent Weebley

I like it already!

I think your biggest hurdle is to ensure that the book can be made into a series before you finish off the first book. People try too hard to come up with the perfect art form first, causing the one-hit-wonder effect, forgetting the 3M principle: it needs to be improved upon after release. Think: Warm Leatherette by The Normal. This is the Trent Reznor (multiverse killer) version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo7ONZlN5Zg

If you need a bunch of morals, PM me. I could think some up that are applicable to now . . . like yours is. Coming up with morals is the easy part. Making a story out of them is where the heavy headiness resides.

And you may want to consider explaining the pictures to an artist, cutting him/her in on profit, setting up a website, and using the site to sell PDFs cheaper than a book, as children's books get tossed after only a couple of years. You may start a trent, I mean trend.

You could market the site to daycare centres, friends and relatives, as well as, dare I say it . . . down in the park?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ci7lssNMRI

The video sales would also come easier when operating a site, and you could do some giveaways on YouTube to increase sales. My daughter said that there are tons of people taking "media" in college right now . . . a pool of people chomping at the bit to make your stories come alive in video. My deaf nephew is also really good at video, but I digress . . .

Monty Python DVD sales apparently went up 2300% when they posted clips on their YouTube channel.