SCBWI Meeting May 2017

The May SCBWI meeting in Columbus featured Juliana Lee.  Juliana is both a writer and a literary assistant at The Purcell Agency. She spoke with our group about her experience working with agent Tina P. Schwartz and offered advice on how to craft and submit a winning query letter.

Juliana decided that she wanted to focus on her publishing dreams when she retired from teaching.  She joined SCBWI and attended conferences, ultimately meeting Tina through a webinar.  They hit it off and Juliana became a reader for Tina, which led to her growing into the role of a literary assistant.  (And Tina eventually became her agent, too!) 

As a literary assistant, Juliana reads query letters and manuscript submissions, weeding out the bad submissions (i.e. those that don’t follow directions, are addressed to the wrong person, etc.), and passing along ones that she thinks have promise.  Juliana made it clear that Tina has the last say; she likened herself to a sounding board and trusted advisor. Juliana explained that agents have to make really tough choices, especially when many of the submissions they receive are GREAT. But Tina helped her think about “the best of the best” in a new way: pretend you're at the book store with $20.  What will you buy? Although there are many wonderful books, you can’t purchase everything.  You have to be picky and choose wisely, even if you really want to buy everything on the shelves.

So how can you make your submission stand out?  Juliana shared some great suggestions based on the fantastic submissions (and terrible ones) that have come across her desk:

1) Make sure you follow the agency’s submission guidelines, especially when it comes to attachments, accepted genres, and information they request to see in the query. Each agency has different policies, so be sure to do your research.

2) Make your query as short and to-the-point as possible.  Agents receive dozens—even hundreds—of queries a day. Remember that your manuscript will speak for itself, so keep your letter short and sweet so the reader can dive right into the good stuff!

3) If you met the agent at a conference or have some other personal connection, be sure to note that in the query.

 

4) If you’re querying multiple agents (which is the norm nowadays), DO remember to change the name in your letter! Agent Y does not want to receive a letter addressed to Agent X—and it happens more often than you think.  (Yikes!)

Lastly, Juliana reminded us all to keep submitting and never give up. The publishing industry is a subjective business, and just because one agent says, “No,” doesn’t mean that every agent will say “No.” (And remember that anytime you get personal feedback from an agent, it means they saw promise in your work and you’re on the right track!)  She sagely recommended listening to the Beatles’ song “Hey Jude” and thinking about the lyrics in terms of the submission and revision process:

 

Hey Jude, don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better  

     

A big thank you to Juliana for sharing her experience and advice with the group!  You can find out more about Juliana on The Purcell Agency’s website at thepurcellagency.com and her personal author website at julianaleewriter.com.

If you want to learn more about COSCBWI, be sure to visit the group website at http://ohiocensouth.scbwi.org/.  I hope to see you at the next meeting!

Note: Juliana Lee's photo is from The Purcell Agency's website: thepurcellagency.com