Preparing for Querying Success

A mostly true account of the time I queried my literary agent (Part 2)

Jan 19, 2024

This is from the cover of the submitted book dummy, *“You’re in the Circus?!”*

When I wrote last week’s newsletter on querying a literary agent and left you on a cliffhanger, you probably already knew I was successful in landing said agent or could look it up rather simply in my about page. Which negated the suspense entirely.

Sigh. I’m getting better at writing, everyone. Promise.

Then I had a flash of inspiration! I can make some stuff up! A semi-fictionalized account to add some suspense! So here is part 2. The italicized portions are a deliberate stretching of the truth because everyone knows fiction is better anyways.

When I last left you, I was on a very suspenseful cliff wondering if my book dummy was any good and was about half sure I would belly flop my way into children’s publishing obscurity. Not moving really wasn’t an option. I had no agent, a book dummy, some publishing success, a portfolio, and the ashes of a dead 13th century poet. Limbo.

The agents I had selected as my top three all had slightly different requirements for querying them. It’s really important to pay attention to these details! I had already checked and double-checked that they represented author/illustrators, were open to queries, and with as much info as I had access to, were good fits.

Here’s kind of what these instructions looks like:

Agent 1: A query letter introducing yourself and your book idea, a link to your portfolio, and a PDF version of your book dummy if you had one. Email is ok.

Agent 2: Using QueryTracker, submit your full book dummy (with 1-2 full color illustrations) in PDF form, a link to your portfolio, previous publishing credentials, a short bio, and contact info.

Agent 3: Using a dull and well-used butter knife, scrawl your name on a piece of driftwood (sea, not lake). Using magenta twine, attach a small bottle with an ancient (and quite cute) cork stopper to the wood plank. Inside of the bottle, place a QR code with a link to your website or, alternately, include a pre-paid return postage envelope with slides of your work. Set the whole thing aflame.

If you spend time reading the instructions carefully, you’ll realize that agencies must get bombarded with inquiries. By streamlining their process, they make it easier to shift through the many to get to the few quickly. I wanted to stand out for the quality of my work and not my inability to follow directions. Messing up here will mean you’re on a secret list passed among THE LITERATI™ and your chances and those of your kin will have dried up for eons.

I re-wrote my query letter a few thousand times.1 In retrospect, I think I over emphasized the importance of this a bit. I’ve helped a few illustrators in this same predicament and it seems like the quality of your art work, your portfolio, social media presence (Instagram mostly) and your published work stands taller on the whole. It’s not that it’s not important - it is. It’s just one of the things that you’re waving as you say “hello!” First time authors or illustrators with less of a track record may need to hit more of a home run. I did my best.

One thing I wouldn’t do is to go outside of the approved methods to get an agent’s attention, like show up at an agent’s yoga class. I did. In what was later labeled as “the incident” by the manager and in the official complaint by the feckless janitorial staff, I showed up with my book dummy in hand to plead my case for representation. How would I know the agent AND the yoga instructor were allergic to the blueberry in my smoothie?!

Here’s the query letter I sent to one of the agents via carrier pigeon. Like I said, short and to the point:

Dear AGENT’S NAME:

I’m an author/illustrator looking for representation. I adore many of the books you’ve worked on, like TITLE 1 and TITLE 2. <I MET ONE OF HER FAMOUS CLIENTS AND I SHARED A BIT ABOUT THAT ENCOUNTER HERE> I have multiple manuscripts and the following is in book dummy form:

“Mom, what is your job?” The colorful circus train and elaborate performers seem to point to an answer that would make his school mates swoon. What if after many excited questions turn to mounting frustration, a young and precocious Mouse discovers that Mom is cooler than he ever could have imagined?

YOU’RE IN THE CIRCUS?! (250 words) is a picturebook for 4-8 year olds, that celebrates single parents and the dignity of work. It’s a lively adventure filled with fun visual clues, humor, sparse dialogue (Mouse only asks questions), and an endearing crescendo filled with heart.

Download the book dummy.

I’ve illustrated over 12 picturebooks, including THE BOY WITH BIG, BIG FEELINGS (Beaming Books) and BUTTERFLIES ARE PRETTY… GROSS! (Tundra). My debut as author/illustrator, LITTLE BEE’S FLOWER (West Margin Press) was published in October, 2021. I am a member of SCBWI and served as our regional Illustration Coordinator. I was a 2020 SCBWI Portfolio Award honoree. My portfolio can be found here.

Thank you for considering my work.

Best,
Jacob Souva

Some things I learned writing the query letter:

Condensing your book idea down to one paragraph is a helpful distillation of the core themes and why you think it’s worth publishing. I think if I couldn’t do this, I’d be worried about the entire endeavor.
I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to share the encounter I had with her client, but decided to in the end. I didn’t have that kind of connection to the other two agents and it didn’t seem to matter.
I work hard at authenticity. I don’t want to be fake as you know if you read this newsletter. I banked on this skill here and I’m proud of not trying to put too much glitter on things.2
Listing your accomplishments out in a bio is tough. I tried really hard to not to imagine someone just like me with way shinier accolades swooping in to grab that last slot in my dream agents client list. Battle against that negative self-talk!
Taxidermy

As you now know, I sent the query letter and book dummy off into the void with an unmarked gold bullion brick as an enticement. In part 3, I’ll talk about “the call” and how the “porridge” was just right.

See you then, friends.3

Read Part 3

There a lot of great resources on writing these well - as always I’d start with SCBWI.

Plus, glitter gets everywhere.

I’m kidding! Ha! I love you all. This was fun.