I really love your tips. I heard that you don’t have to live in the same place as your literary agent. But my question is, if a literary agent from another city likes your script, how do you know they would not steal it or in general, how do you know what they are doing?
I’m worried of agreeing with a literary agent, signing of a contract, and never hearing from them again. Also, long distance communication was never really my thing, so how do author’s do it and how do they know what the literary agent is doing if any, or do they in general keep in contact a lot?

thanks

It’s sorta true. Finding an agent who will rep strictly picture books is pretty hard to do. If you have a track record (hopefully a recent track record), that works in your favor, but if the new manuscripts you’re pitching to them don’t interest them, you might as well be back at square one.

At any rate, a lot of agents find that picture books are 1) very hard to sell because there is so much competition out there when compared to novels and 2)to the agent’s point, the “take” is a lot lower for picture book authors unless the agent is repping an author/illustrator. The advances also tend to be lower for picture books than for novels. And since most books don’t earn out their advances, the agent’s time is probably better spent looking for novelists instead.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t get representation! If no agent is biting at the work you’re submitting, pitch those manuscripts to editors directly and try something else with the agents. Getting an agent off of a picture book is possible! It’s just a lot harder than if you are a novelist. So going into it with the right expectations might help lessen your frustration.

Here’s a link to a related article I wrote that addresses this subject as well.

http://www.cynthealiu.com/2006/05/23/42/should-i-find-an-agent-now/

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