How to Submit
We have specific instructions for submitting to the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Please make sure you follow the appropriate guidelines so that your work can be seriously considered.
The Andrea Brown Agency ONLY accepts email submissions and ONLY accepts children's literature submissions (picture books through young adult), with the exception of Laura Rennert and Jennifer March Soloway who are also accepting adult submissions. If you have consulted a guidebook that says otherwise, please note that our guidelines changed in 2007, and our website reflects our current policies.
The Andrea Brown Agency ONLY accepts email submissions and ONLY accepts children's literature submissions (picture books through young adult), with the exception of Laura Rennert and Jennifer March Soloway who are also accepting adult submissions. If you have consulted a guidebook that says otherwise, please note that our guidelines changed in 2007, and our website reflects our current policies.
Submission Directions
- Visit the agents' bio page and choose only one agent to whom you will submit your email query.
- If you are submitting to Jennifer Laughran or Kelly Sonnack, use the forms above their bios in lieu of submitting by email. (If submitting this way, you will receive a confirmation of receipt via Query Manager.)
- For all the other agents: Put QUERY in the subject field of your email. (This will ensure that you receive our autoresponder, confirming that your submission was received.)
- All submissions should begin with a short Query Letter to that agent introducing yourself, and including a description of your work, previous publishing credentials (if any), and publisher submission history.
- Following your Query Letter, depending on what you are submitting, include:
- Picture Book Writers: full manuscript text pasted below your query letter
- Illustrators: 2-3 illustration samples (in jpeg format), and link to online portfolio
- Illustrators with dummy: full dummy (in pdf format) that includes 1-2 color samples, and link to online portfolio
- Fiction Writers (chapter books, MG, YA): first 10 pages pasted below your query letter
- Non-fiction Writers: proposal and sample chapter pasted below query
- Graphic novels: 2-3 sample page spreads in jpg or pdf format, summary/synopsis pasted below query, link to website/online portfolio
- Please be sure to enclose a contact phone number as well as your email address.
- You are free to submit to agents at other agencies at the same time, but it is a professional courtesy to let us know that yours is a multiple submission. If you receive an offer of representation from another agent, please let us know immediately so we can respond accordingly.
Response Time
In the past, it has been our policy to respond to every query. We regret that, because of the high volume of queries we receive, this has become increasingly difficult for us. Within a week, our agency can receive close to five hundred queries and often times more than one agent is involved in the review process.
If we are interested in your work, we will certainly follow up by email or by phone. However, if you haven't heard from us within 6 to 8 weeks, please assume that we are passing on your project. We do understand and appreciate the effort that goes into getting your work out, and we wish we had time to respond personally to all submissions. Unfortunately, this is no longer a business reality given the amount of material we receive.
PLEASE DO NOT CALL TO FOLLOW UP.
If we are interested in your work, we will certainly follow up by email or by phone. However, if you haven't heard from us within 6 to 8 weeks, please assume that we are passing on your project. We do understand and appreciate the effort that goes into getting your work out, and we wish we had time to respond personally to all submissions. Unfortunately, this is no longer a business reality given the amount of material we receive.
PLEASE DO NOT CALL TO FOLLOW UP.
Suggestions
- Be professional and courteous in your approach to any agent. Agents do form an impression based on your e-query, and you want it to be a good impression. Do not write your query in a rush. Take the time to write it well. Make sure your query and manuscripts are polished and error free.
- Remember, no attachments, with the exception of jpeg or pdf illustrations from illustrators.
- Remember, a "no" from one of our agents is a "no" from the agency as a whole. If your work is rejected, please do not resubmit the same work to another agent at our agency. However, you may submit a new work to another agent, or to the same agent. And, if the work is significantly revised, you may resubmit it after 6 months.
- Please do not call to query us. It is not possible to gauge your writing ability by talking to you on the phone.
- Look carefully at our bios and choose the right agent for your work.
- If you receive an offer of representation from another agent before we have had a chance to respond to you, please email us to notify us of your time line before you make your decision.
Message to Authors
We understand that writing is a passion, an intensely personal calling, a long-time dream for many, and frequently a lonely endeavor. We have great respect for authors, and we share the writer's passion—that is why we are literary agents.
Unfortunately, publishing is a business that necessarily involves a lot of rejection, at every stage. One of the most difficult things for us as agents is to have to say no. Yet, we can take on only a small fraction of all the work we see, and this is simply a business reality.
We say no for many reasons—because of changing trends in the market; because we already have something similar on our list; because we know of similar published or forthcoming titles; because something isn't right for us; because although something may be strong, well-written and even publishable, we didn't fall in love with it.
Try to keep "No" in perspective. This is a highly subjective business and another agent may adore your work. All it takes is one "Yes." We wish you success in finding that "Yes," whether with us or another agent and publisher. We appreciate your thinking of us, reading our website and giving us the opportunity to see your work.
—Andrea Brown, Laura Rennert, Caryn Wiseman, Jennifer Rofé, Kelly Sonnack, Jamie Weiss Chilton, Jennifer Laughran, Jennifer Mattson, Lara Perkins, Kathleen Rushall, and Jennifer March Soloway
Unfortunately, publishing is a business that necessarily involves a lot of rejection, at every stage. One of the most difficult things for us as agents is to have to say no. Yet, we can take on only a small fraction of all the work we see, and this is simply a business reality.
We say no for many reasons—because of changing trends in the market; because we already have something similar on our list; because we know of similar published or forthcoming titles; because something isn't right for us; because although something may be strong, well-written and even publishable, we didn't fall in love with it.
Try to keep "No" in perspective. This is a highly subjective business and another agent may adore your work. All it takes is one "Yes." We wish you success in finding that "Yes," whether with us or another agent and publisher. We appreciate your thinking of us, reading our website and giving us the opportunity to see your work.
—Andrea Brown, Laura Rennert, Caryn Wiseman, Jennifer Rofé, Kelly Sonnack, Jamie Weiss Chilton, Jennifer Laughran, Jennifer Mattson, Lara Perkins, Kathleen Rushall, and Jennifer March Soloway