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So I'm going to do a little Q&A now about offers of representation. Obviously there are going to be a lot of permutations and probabilities of these scenarios so I won't be able to cover everything, but after asking for the main questions on Twitter, here we go:

MY END

1. How do I know when I want to offer?

 I know I love a manuscript when want to tell people about it the minute I finish reading it. But I don't always know if I want to offer until I talk to you. Sometimes the manuscript is great, but I have notes. Sometimes I want to make sure you're not crazy. Usually I get to the end of the phone call before saying, "So, I'd love work with you and offer representation."

2. Do I pass the manuscript around to the agency first?

Often enough. We're a small agency, so that's really only one other opinion. But it's nice to have a second thumbs-up, especially if I'm a little on the fence. If I'm 100% in love with it, I might just want Caren to read it so she can be equally excited about it. But we also work on different kinds of projects, so if I want to sign a picture book, or Caren is signing a new romance author, it doesn't make sense for us to share, since we're not really qualified to judge. Ultimately, my list is my own, and those are my choices.

3. Do I always revise before offering or revise after offering?

There is no "always." Sometimes I see potential but not enough to use up more hours. Sometimes I know the work isn't that much, so I should grab it. I go with my gut on this one. No hard-fast rules.

YOUR END

1. Can you query more agents if you have an offer on the table?

Well, this is a funny one. Suppose you're only part-way through querying and you start to get responses faster than you thought. But you still wanted to query a few more agents that you like. Can you rush a query out to them? The short answer is: sure. It's a free country. I've advocated before for letting even the agents who only have a query know that you have an offer--more options are always good.

But you have to do it understanding that those agents might not get to it in time. If I take 2 weeks to read, then I might not see that email until you've already made a decision. 

Now, agents sometimes do this with editors. We start to get interest, so we submit more widely to create MORE interest. But I have relationships with those editors. I can call and say, "Hey, can you read this quickly? It's going fast." Because you don't have a relationship with those agents, you can't exactly say that.

And you also have a problem of not wanting the offering agent to wait too long. But...if you think you stand a chance at getting more interest, do whatever you want as long as you understand the risks.

2. How do you go about talking to an agent's clients?

This is easy. You ask the agent who is offering if you can speak to his/her clients. They will likely say yes, and if they don't, then that's sketchy. In this situation, I will consider which client of mine would be the most helpful to speak to, based on what they write and their overall situation. (Every case is different after all.) Then I'd put you guys in touch. 

What you shouldn't ever do is go behind the agent's back and get in touch with clients without asking first. Those clients have their loyalty to me first, so they'd say "Uh, is this person legit?" And you also look like a creepy if you're looking for contact info through back channels. 

It's a different story if you already have a relationship with an agent's clients already. In that case, it's a little more fluid, and hopefully the agent knows about t

Another month, another stat blog post. I'm clearly a little farther behind schedule than I'd like to be also. But most notable in May was the drop in volume. It looks like it's perked back up now in mid-June, but...May is a mystery. Here are the full stats:

• Total: 261
• Requested: 9
• Categories of Requested:  2 picture books, 1 middle-grade fantasy, 2 contemporary YA, 1 paranormal YA, 1 dystopian YA, 1 YA fantasy, 1 adult non-fiction
• Queries with attachments: 10

So compared to last month, I got about 100 fewer queries. That's a big drop. Where did people go? I will say that there are 166 queries in the queue for June so far, so I should be back up to the 300+ level for this month. Yay.

Still, my request rate was up again. So qualitatively, things seemed better. And I had a few referrals of manuscripts that I requested as well, which don't really count as slush pile submissions.

Otherwise, I don't think there was anything truly notable worth mentioning. The usual array of misspellings, calling me the wrong name, derivative books...

If you have questions, definitely let me know. 

A few months ago, a lot of you guys yelled at me for switching things up on you by saying that I wanted to be notified of an offer even if you'd only queried me. The rational (I believe) for why so many people were pissed at me was that so many agents want things different ways, and how on earth can you be expected to get it straight? (I still think that's lame, by the way.)

Well, today I was contemplating adding another form rejection (I have a few I use for different reasons) that would be sent to all queriers who seemed to have missed the boat on how to submit to us properly to begin with. But I am hedging on this one. Mostly because I'm not sure it's my job to do your work for you.

I think I'm part of a group of agents who goes ABOVE AND BEYOND the call of duty in terms of educating the writer community. We blog, we Twitter...we go to conferences galore. But is this good will or genuine responsibility? I think it's a little from Column A, a little from Column B, personally. More from Column A though.

So I am going to ask YOU, my faithful readers, and hopefully some not-so-faithful readers who like having opinions to answer the following questions:

1. Whose responsibility is it to make sure you submit properly? Mine or yours?
2. Where does my responsibility end? 
3. And more specifically: should I bother with an extra form rejection for Those Who Do Not Seem To Get It?

Happy release day, PICKLE IMPOSSIBLE! To celebrate the release of Eli Stutz's debut, he's holding a contest over on his Facebook fan page. Want in? Yes you do! Because we're giving away these prizes:

• First Prize: A signed copy of PICKLE IMPOSSIBLE and a partial manuscript critique from me.
• Runners Up: A query letter critique from both me and Eli (who writes FANTASTIC queries--learn from the master!) 

All you have to do is...tell us about the prickliest pickle you've ever gotten yourself caught up in. How easy is that? Surely you've gotten stuck in a sticky situation of some kind. Now it can win you something! 

Rules:

1. Become a fan of PICKLE IMPOSSIBLE on Facebook.
2. Leave your pickle of a situation on the wall.
3. Contest closes on Friday May 28th at noon Eastern time.

Go forth!

This blog post has been brought to you by the power of Twitter. It can alternately be titled "If You Liked It, Then You Should Have Put a Ring on It."

Something that's been known to happen both between authors and agents, and then agents and editors is the revision request without a commitment of a representation offer or a contract. Mostly, the request for a revision is a good thing. It means the agent or editor sees potential and wants to develop it.

I myself have asked an author for an exclusive revision on a few occasions. What usually happens is that I'll see something promising, read it, know something's there, but not feel confident enough to take it on without fixing those nagging areas. Part of this has to do with wanting to make sure you're also taking on an author who is CAPABLE of revision. Part of it is just making sure you can make it fit the market.

Whenever I ask for a revision, I do it with the best of intentions. I WANT that project to work. More often than not, this has had good results for me. I have several clients who I did an exclusive revision with first, and then offered representation after seeing the finished product. Those have also gone on to sell to publishers. 

My process is usually to offer the writer this trade: I will give you my notes, and in exchange you will give me first look at the revision. And if I don't choose to take on the project at that point, you are then free to take that revision anywhere you like.

I like to think that's fair. Because I don't want to spend a lot of time giving you notes for you to take my effort and give it to someone else first. And I want you to be free to take a hopefully stronger project elsewhere too. I don't usually set a time limit on it, since I can't dictate how long your revision process should take. 

Sometimes it just doesn't work though. And these cases are always really tough. Sometimes the project can't evolve past "potential." Sometimes the author just isn't skilled enough to fix it. Invariably I feel a little guilty if I pass on a revision. The idea isn't to make the author jump through unnecessary hoops. It's to make sure we're getting the right projects signed. Our hope is always that even if the revision doesn't work, the project is still stronger and someone else might have luck with it. 

This happens on the other side of the table too. And I've admittedly been just as frustrated when an editor has asked for an exclusive revision on a client's book, loved it, and then declined to offer. That happens too. So I understand why writers might hesitate without us offering to make anything official.

But I think at the end of the day, someone taking interest enough to want to see where it can go is a good thing. And this industry requires such collaboration, that any input is inevitable and will help you. So just keep your expectations in check, and you should be in good shape.

I promised. So here we go...

• Total: 351
• Requested: 8
• Categories of Requested: 3 MG, 3 contemporary YA, 1 YA fantasy, 1 narrative nonfiction 
• Queries with attachments: 15
• People who wrote thank you notes: 18

So compared to last month, I saw a 22% increase in queries. My request rate also went up a little. But...it's still only just shy of 3%. (Isn't that scary?) And again, there were some spam queries that all the agents I know, and some I don't, were CCed on. I delete those right away, mark as spam, and don't count them. 

My thoughts...

Style

There were a few notable events in the query pile this month that show me how little people must research ahead of time. There was one email in a pink font on a flowery pink background. My eyes hurt just opening it, and I didn't even care what the content was. Had it been on paper, I'd have expected glitter and perfume. There were also several letters that barely qualified as letters. Either incredibly casual, like "Hey there, can I send you something?" or just reeking of "I don't know what I'm doing." Those are hard to deal with, but by and large I try to find what the book is somewhere (if it's there) and send a rejection.

There's also still that weird syndrome of a lack of sample pages. I really think every listing of mine says: please include the first 3-5 pages of the manuscript in the body of the email. If it doesn't somewhere, can someone let me know? 

I included the number of thank you notes I got for my form rejection letter. It's nice when people are polite. It's less nice when they also ask me if I can recommend another agent. I don't write back to these.

But at least compared the number of people who are still sending me attachments, there are more polite people than sloppy people. The number of unsolicited attachments I got DOUBLED this month. Probably a fluke, but it goes to the point that a solid 10% of people just aren't paying attention AT ALL. And many more just plain don't get it in the first place.

Requests

I seem to be on a middle-grade kick, which is good. I'm looking for good middle-grade, so my requests fit that bill. The concepts on each of these seemed promising, hence the requests.

Obviously the narrative nonfiction was an exception, since I so rarely do those books, but I loved the writing. 

As for the YA, the contemporary YA seemed to be stronger this month in terms of writing and premise. I may also be burned out of dystopian and fantasy. Bear in mind, I already represent 3 authors who have published or about-to-be published dystopian novels. As much as I love them, I'm going to be picky. I don't want to be a one trick pony.

And that's April! Time to dig into May...and I enjoy this now, so stay tuned for the next installment next month.

Another great book hits the shelves today, and this one is an odd twist for my usual areas of representation. A big happy release day to authors Ken McKenzie and Todd Harra for MORTUARY CONFIDENTIAL!

I may mostly do children's books, but who could say no to collection of true-life stories from undertakers? 

The authors also won me over with the way they met: doing a calendar, called Men of Mortuaries, that Ken started as a vehicle to raise funds for his breast cancer treatment foundation, KAMM Cares. Ken will also be donating a portion of the profits from the book to his foundation.

So run, don't walk, to pick up this awesome, heartwarming, and macabre collection of a profession you've always been curious in that morbid kind of way.

I promised a few weeks ago that I'd do an experiment. So instead of deleting after responding, I moved every March query and its accompanying response from me into a new folder, so I could do some analysis. Here we go:

• TOTAL: 286
• REQUESTED: 3
• CATEGORY OF REQUESTED: 2 YA, 1 MG
• QUERIES WITH ATTACHMENTS: 7
• CATEGORIES I DON'T REP: 24

Other items of note: 

Numbers:

The actual number of emails I received was a bit higher than 286. That number does not include anyone who emailed me a second time (almost immediately) with a correction to their prior query. I would guess there were a good 10 of those. And then there were a few cases where the querier CCed the entire industry on the email. I don't respond to those and they get deleted.

I should add also that while my request rate is always low, this month was very low. This is because I happened to sign 2 amazing new projects right in the middle of the month as I was beginning to read the March 1st queries. So as the ebb and flow goes, I was going to need to be really wowed to want to see something.

Genres:

If you think about how many queries were not categories I rep in relation to the total number received, that's about 10%. 10%! The bulk of them were for memoirs. I don't really do those. The remainder were largely for some non-specific type of adult fiction. And a minority were still for...vampires! Is there a listing for me anywhere that doesn't say "No vampires"? If there is, please let me know. 

Addressing problems:

• ADDRESSED TO "Dear Agent": 3 
• ADDRESSED TO "Ms. Johnson": 3
• ADDRESSED TO "Elana Johnson": 2
• SPELLED MY NAME "ELENA": 9

We're a small agency, peeps. There are 2 of us that work here. And only one of us is even open to submissions right now. That would be me. So these 17 queries that just didn't even know who I am are kind of annoying. And look how the misspelling of my name trumps the letter being addressed to someone other than me. Please read carefully. Double-check spellings of names. For your own sake. You look sloppy otherwise.

Miscellany:

This was the first month I got a query sent from an iPhone. Yep, "Sent from my iPhone" signature at all. And it was one of the categories I don't rep. So that person's tactics probably need some re-evaluation.

I also got a decent number of thank you notes and/or people asking me who else I'd recommend they query. Needless to say, I don't reply to those either. A rejection isn't an invitation to conversation, unless I indicate as much. You're responsible for your own research. I'm not doing it for you.

And then of course is the ever-rising syndrome of "just plain unprofessional" letters, that show me people are querying somewhat casually. Several other agents have commented on this on their blogs this week, so I'll just reiterate their points. Whether it's just that the internet blew the lid off the filters, or that people are lazy, it is definitely too easy to send off those letters. Whoever I'm railing against probably isn't reading this post, but at least I can hope that those of you who are will be better prepared.

Should I do it again for April? I think I might. I'd like to see if there's a rise or fall in any of the numbers.

Just a quick note from the trenches today, to send you over to Twitter to follow a great thread: #whatitmeanstobeanagent

Started by superstar Jason Ashlock, many luminaries and minor luminaries (i.e. me) have been contributing our thoughts on our job, from the sublime to the mundane. 

Go enjoy! And learn something. Back to reading for me...

~Elana

Dear readers,

After the balagan (Hebrew for "utter madness") that arose this week after I suggested it might be nice to let agents with queries know you've gotten an offer, I thought it might be helpful for me to give you a rundown on how I tackle my query pile. Especially because several people mentioned that my 2-3 response time on queries just isn't fast enough if I want to stay on top of the hot projects. (I think that's totally unfair, by the way, but I'm not arguing with you anymore.)

So the first thing you should know about how I read is: I read everything in the order it comes in.

There are almost NO exceptions to this rule. It's the only way to make it fair and democratic, and to keep myself organized. This way I don't lose track of requests, I can easily label things, and clear things out by date. (Sidenote: We here at CJLA use Google Apps, which has the BRILLIANT label & filter system of GMail. I have distinct colors for QUERIES and REQUESTED. Every email with the word "query" or "submission" in the subject gets automatically filtered into the QUERIES folder. And emails are threaded, so I know if I have responded.)

  The only time I will jump ahead is if I see a name that is referral, or if someone is letting me know that they have an offer on the table. Those are special circumstances. Everyone else goes exactly in the order in which they came. Everyone gets treated the same.

When I had fewer queries coming in, my habit was thusly: every morning, over my cup of coffee, I would read the queries from that same day a week earlier. So on a Monday I would read last Monday's, etc. Now I'm a bit busier so this doesn't happen as often. But I'd like to get back to it since it kept me timeline. Now I most often read 30 in a batch, which is a little more draining. But I am still within 3 weeks on response on queries, and nothing exceeds that. If it does, then it got marked as spam because you did something silly like send it to me and 50 of my nearest and dearest agent friends. 

When I open your letter, I usually do a quick eye scan for both format and keywords that look interesting. These are speed reading tricks. The more cleanly formatted emails are more pleasing to the eye and are usually more inviting for closer reads. The jumbled ones are less so. If there is an attachment, you are most likely going to get a rejection letter, because I explicitly say don't do that, and it's 2 extra steps for me to read what you sent, plus you could be trying to poison me or my precious laptop.

Once I kind of have that initial sense of what I'm looking at (and haven't seen that it's clearly not for me), I read the letter more closely. Unless it's a genre I don't handle in the slightest, I move down to the sample pages. (Unless there are no sample pages.) The sample pages are a real deal clincher for me. If the concept looks good, those first few pages better match up. And if there are no sample pages, well, that concept better be freaking AMAZING for me to request it. It has happened.

Every now and again, there's something interesting about a query, but I'm not sold, so I set it aside for a few hours or another day. But I hate seeing lingering things, so I get back to those quickly.

Now, once I request something, I smack that extra label on that email, so those are tracked also. And I tackle those by the same chronological order as the queries. The timeline is less strict here, because my request-rate varies, but if I see that a manuscript came in 2 weeks ago and I haven't looked yet, I'll speed up. 

I have a feeling you would probably like some stats. I do not have any at the moment. I am, however, doing the following: I am keeping all March queries and responses, and I will do a round-up of one month's worth of queries and detail stats in early April.

Cool?

~Elana

I thought I'd start this Monday morning off with a tidbit of both writing whimsy and food for thought.

courtesy of INDEXED (thisisindexed.com)

I think you can read this one of two ways:

1. The better the writing, the better the read.
2. The more you read, the better you write.

One of my English professors in college always said that if you wanted to ever be a writer you had to READ EVERYTHING. Read constantly. Fill your head with words, because the more you read, the more you know how to use them. The more ingrained the ebb and flow and structure and grammar of the English language seeps into your brain.

Even just the repeated viewing of printed words on the page teaches you what your written words should look like. And I think a few glimpses into the query pile would show you some examples where it's clear people aren't quite familiar with the basic LOOK of prose, let alone it's finer nuances.

So what do you think? And what are you reading these days?

The winners have been chosen! Thanks to everyone for participating in the DOUG-DENNIS and the FAT FIB contest! Darren and I had a great time today reading all your fibs, you fantastic liars, you. 

Before I get to the winners, I want to mention that there were a few funny trends in the lies, which lead me to believe you are all constantly thinking about the follow:

1. Chuck Norris
2. JK Rowling
3. Food

Seriously!

Also, after reading the fibs, Darren and I realized we couldn't stick strictly to our first, second and third place prizes. So we changed it up just a bit. There was actually a tie for the grand-prize, and we also liked a whole lot of them for third place, so we decided to a group of honorable mentions that all get BAH stickers. More winners!

And now, without further ado...

The GRAND PRIZE winners of a signed book and a partial manuscript critique are:

• @DelilahSDawson for: "I don't make snow angels. I make snow narwhals."
• @mistyprovencher for: "I did not eat the crayons. I just smile rainbows."

SECOND PLACE of a limited edition BAH poster and a query letter critique goes to:

• @LiteraryMouse for: "Just below the Earth's crust is a thin layer of chocolate pudding. Geologists don't talk about it because they want to eat it themselves."

And a whole batch of HONORABLE MENTIONS who are getting BAH stickers:

• @Donna_Earnhardt for: "I carved the faces on Mount Rushmore...with my toothbrush."
• @KeimComley for: "My homework ate my dog."
• @KCBooks for: "I did not eat brownies for breakfast."
• @YolaRamunno for: "I don't know what I really look like because every mirror I look into shows me someone different."
• @JaneLebak for: "Actually, Wednesday will be held on Thursday this Friday."

If you are one of the winners, please email me at: elana [at] johnsonliterary [dot] com. 

Congrats to everyone! And happy release day, DOUG-DENNIS AND THE FLYAWAY FIB!

At long last DOUG-DENNIS AND THE FLYAWAY FIB by Darren Farrell will be released into the wild this week!

It's a hilarious, wacky, and whimsical picture book, that introduces you to a compulsive little liar of a sheep named Doug-Dennis. The reviews have been great. Doug-Dennis has been likened to Homer Simpson, and Darren compared to Mo Willems and Jon Scieszka. You can't get much better than either of those! So I just know you'll fall in love with this book and its unlikely hero. 

So. We're running a brand-new kind of contest 'round these CJLA parts. A Twitter contest!

The task: Tweet us your BEST FAT FIB. That's right, we want a "140 characters or less" little white lie, fat yellow fib, or what have you. 

Let's start with the prizes to entice you.

• The GRAND PRIZE WINNER of the FAT FIB contest will receive:
  • A signed copy of DOUG-DENNIS AND THE FLYAWAY FIB
  • A partial manuscript critique, from me, Elana. 
  • The pride (and shame!) of knowing you are one fantastic liar!
• Second prize: A signed + numbered letterpress BAH Poster (250 limited edition! You'd be very special!) plus a query critique from me. 
• Third Prize: A pack of BAH stickers. This is official membership to the Doug Street Team! (Check out Darren's blog for places the BAH sheep has been sighted.) 

So you think you're a fabulous liar? Then you better participate. Here are the rules.... (Note: after the pitchslam last month, I am going to be more of a stickler about this one. You MUST follow all of them. I just don't care to make exceptions this time around. And if I change the rules? Deal with it.)

1. Follow the brilliant Doug-Dennis/Darren Farrell on Twitter: @HonestDoug.  
2. Enter ONE fabulous, fat fib on Twitter. (Fibs posted as comments to this blog post will be enjoyed, but not judged. For some ideas of how to fib, check out the Fib Factory.)
3. You MUST use this hashtag in your tweet: #fatfib (If you don't use it, we'll never see it!)
4. You may enter once, and once you may enter.
5. How do lies and fibs cross the globe, growing bigger all the way? By repeating them! Spread the word about the contest! 
6. Darren and I will be the sole judges of the contest.
7. The deadline for this contest is 9AM Eastern Time on Thursday, March 4th (release day!). Winners will be announced Friday morning. There are no exceptions to this! If any fat fib tweets are sent after that time, they will NOT be read.

Now get thee to Twitter and start fibbing!

~Elana

Agent Interview:
Elana Roth...

Elana Roth worked at Nickelodeon Magazine and spent nearly five years as an editor at book packager Parachute Publishing (where she worked on R.L. Stine’s Rotten School among other series) before her career veered into the world of agenting and she joined the staff of Caren Johnson Literary. Here Elana talks about her career, her agenting style, and more.

What made you decide to move from editorial work to agenting? How has that transition been for you?

I was really lucky to work at a packager for as long as I did. I think being an editor there was a perfect education, since my fingers were in every pot from of the book-making process from writing to production and I really learned the anatomy of the product. But after those five years, I realized I had learned as much as they could teach me, and having worked on books for pre-school through adult, I had winnowed down my tastes a lot. So, I realized I wanted to switch tracks and work on the kinds of books I loved the most. The transition has been fun and challenging. While it's a lot of the same skills as my old job (working with editors around town, dealing with contracts, and foreign rights), I'm really happy to get to be learning new things again. And just getting to fall in love with new books and new writers is amazing.

You're very hands-on with your authors. Is that more of a necessity in today’s children’s publishing world or is that just your particular style due to your background?

A huge part of it is just my training. It was my job to deliver a great, finished manuscript to editors that they could publish as is. So I can't look at a book and not think of what would make it stronger. When I read a book, I have to see what those editors will see. And yes, a lot of it is more of a necessity now that the climate is so tough. Editors have to be pickier and pickier, and it's in everyone's best interest to iron out any issues that might give an editor pause before acquiring the book. I know there are a lot of people out there who say "writers should write, agents should agent, and editors should edit," but being very editorially-minded gives my clients an edge. If I send out a book that's publishable as is, then the odds of selling it go up dramatically. Plus it makes editors trust the product I offer them, so there's really no downside.

Have you changed anything about the way you work due to the effect the recession is having on the publishing world? Is there anything writers should be doing differently?

I haven't had to change anything yet. I am still going to be picky about the projects I sign, and then work hard to send the best book out the door. I set my bar pretty high on the quality of book I'll sign up, so if anything I'll just get pickier--but I think that's a good thing. If the number of books being published shrinks, hopefully the quality will increase. As for what writers can do, it's basically some version of the same. Work harder. Revise more. Read everything in your category so you know what's making it to publication. Spend more time on craft before querying agents. Don't waste time on conferences thinking that will get you in the door. Only query agents when you are sure your work is as strong as it can be.


You’ve got a lot of conference appearances scheduled this year. Is that the best way for you to find authors?

My dirty little secret is that I'm not necessarily going to conferences to find clients, though finding something can be a big bonus. I think conferences serve a lot of purposes, and one of them is certainly giving writers some face time with industry professionals. But the weekends are so overwhelming, and there are many writers at many different stages of readiness in terms of their work. I've found that a good percentage of attendees just aren't ready for anyone to see their work, let alone pitch an agent or editor with it, even though they do anyway. But I go because as a newer agent it's important for the writers out there to get to know me, my style, my tastes, my reputation. I also love being able to network with the other industry professionals, which is really valuable down the line. Anytime you get like-minded people in a room together, good things can happen.

Are you looking for anything in particular right now? What types of books for young readers do you really dig?

I'm a sucker for a big hook. If you look at my clients' books, you'll see that I can't get away from it. (Prime example and shameless plug: Pam Bachorz has her debut novel, Candor coming out this fall, and it's about a planned community where everyone is brainwashed to be perfect, but one boy knows the truth and works the system to his advantage. You can't get much bigger hook than brainwashing, and the book sucked me in from the first page.) I'm always looking for a new, great hook. I love alternate visions of the world we live in, or some strange "what if?" premise. I'm mostly really big on plot. Which doesn't mean I don't think voice is crucial. But on their own, really introspective, quiet books that are all voice and no story don't do it for me. And I have a lot of YA right now, so I'd like more middle grade, but I'm not picky about genre when it comes to falling in love.

Some of my favorite books I've read lately have been Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy, which I admire for being so entirely pleasurable and gripping. I haven't had that much fun reading a book in a long time. I also loved The Big Splash by Jack Ferraiolo. I'm jealous I didn't get to rep it. The humor is great, and I love Raymond Chandler, so this was such a fun read for me. And I thought What Would Emma Do? by Eileen Cook was charming and funny and a really refreshing contemporary YA. So if those books are any indication of my taste, then I think I'm in good shape.

Any advice for unpublished authors approaching agents at conferences? Through queries?

At conferences, sign up for critiques whenever you can. It's a better way to get feedback and let someone see a glimpse of your work than just giving them a kamikaze pitch at lunch or in the bathroom. I've also noticed that writers seem to avoid the agents and try to get straight to the editors, which I always think is funny. As soon as that conference is over, the editor wants the agent as his or her first line of defense. Agents aren't the bad guys...I swear. Just make sure your book is ready for viewing. I think a lot of people jump the gun before they're ready.

In terms of queries, just be as polished and professional as you can be. And polite behavior always wins out. I try to be sensitive and respectful of the fact that the writer is putting themselves out there to be rejected, so I would hope you'd be respectful of me as well. I hear a lot of complaints about queries, and how hard it is. But the thing hopeful authors need to remember is that you're applying for a writing job. Which means the query should read nicely. I know they are hard to write, but if you want me to think you can write a 250 page book...then I hope you can write a good cover letter. Just be succinct and polished.