Gavin Bennett's Blog: 30 Literary Agents Seeking Diverse Books NOW — Young Adult, Middle Grade, and Picture Books (Part 3)

In celebration of my three new books released this September, I’m doing a lot of special lists of agents seeking queries right now. I’ve already done lists on picture book agents, thriller agents, fantasy agents, horror agents, and women’s fiction agents. Below find a list for 30 agents seeking diverse books for children/teens NOW.

(This post is so big I broke it up into 3 sections. This is Part III. See Part I here and then see Part II here.)

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All the agents listed below personally confirmed to me as of October 2015 that they are actively seeking diverse kidlit submissions NOW (young adult, middle grade, picture books). Some gave personal notes about their tastes while some did not. Good luck querying!

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21. Beth Campbell (BookEnds Inc.)

Genres: young adult.

How to submit: E-query bcsubmissions [at] bookendsliterary.com. No attachments. “If you haven’t received a response to a query after 8 weeks, we ask that you simply resend the query. It’s possible that it was eaten by a spam filter on either our end or yours.”

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22. Sara Megibow (kt literary)

Genres: young adult — all subgenres and categories.

How to submit: ”Please e-mail your query letter and the first three pages of your manuscript in the body of the email to saraquery [at] ktliterary.com. The subject line of your email should include the word ‘Query’ along with the title of your manuscript. No attachments. We aim to reply to all queries within two weeks of receipt. In addition, if you’re an author who is sending a new query, but who previously submitted a novel to us for which we requested chapters but ultimately declined, please do say so in your query letter. If we like your query, we’ll ask for the first five chapters and a complete synopsis. For our purposes, the synopsis should include the full plot of the book, including the conclusion. Don’t tease us.”

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23. Laura Biagi (Jean V. Naggar Literary)

Genres: picture books, middle grade, young adult.

How to submit: Follow the instructions on the agency’s Submissions page here.

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24. Sarah LaPolla (Bradford Literary)

Genres: young adult (contemporary, science fiction, urban fantantasy, supernatural, NOT high fantasy), and middle grade (contemporary only).

How to submit: E-query sarah [at] bradfordlit.com. Put “Query: [title]” in your subject line. Please email a query letter along with the first chapter of your manuscript and a synopsis. Please be sure to include the genre and word count in your cover letter. (If you submit to Sarah, please do not submit to an of the other Bradford Lit agents on this list — Laura Bradford or Monica Odom.)

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25. Jessica Watterson (Sandra Dijkstra Literary)

Genres: young adult romance.

How to submit: jessica [at] dijkstraagency.com. “If you have not heard back from us six weeks after sending your letter, you may assume that we have passed. Please send a query letter, a 1-page synopsis, a brief bio (including a description of your publishing history), and the first 10-15 pages of your manuscript. Please send all items in the body of the email, not as an attachment.”

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26. Elana Roth (Red Tree Literary)

Genres: picture books, middle grade, young adult.

Notes: “I seek books featuring under-represented voices and backgrounds. Non-Christian points of view, especially Jewish, would be especially great.”

How to submit: elana [at] redtreeliterary [dot] com. “Include the word QUERY in the subject field. (I suggest “QUERY: Book Title” as a nice model for a subject line.) Your query letter should include a short pitch, a short plot summary, and a short bio. Please also include publisher submission history and previous publishing credits, if applicable. After your query letter, paste the FIRST 5-10 PAGES of your novel into the body of the email. Your writing sample MUST be pasted into the email. I do not open unrequested attachments of any kind. And if there are no sample pages, I am far less likely to request material. If you are an author/illustrator and have not yet realized it’s a necessity, I highly recommend creating an online portfolio, which you can link to in your query instead of attaching sample artwork to an email. (Recommendation: If you like the way this site looks, then you’ll love Squarespace.) Please do not query me on a second, or third, project until I have replied to your first query.”

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27. Stefanie Von Borstel (Full Circle Literary)

Genres: middle grade fiction and nonfiction, young adult fiction and nonfiction.

How to submit: Contact Stefanie through the agency’s online submission form. (If you are querying Taylor Martindale of FCL [also on this list], do not query Stefanie.)

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28. Melissa Jeglinski (The Knight Agency)

Genres: young adult and middle grade.

Notes: “Diversity for me means characters with diverse religious, racial or sexual orientation backgrounds.”

How to submit: Submissions(at)KnightAgency(dot)net. “Your submission should include a one page query letter and the first five pages of your manuscript. Attachments will not be opened. Queries must be addressed to Melissa. The response time for queries is two to three weeks from the time of receipt. If you do not hear back after three weeks, it’s possible that our email security filter has blocked your email, so please send us a brief note following up on your initial query.”

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29. Alison Devereux (Wolf Literary)

Genres: picture books.

How to submit: Send a query letter addressed to Allison along with a 50-page writing sample (for fiction) or a detailed proposal (for nonfiction) to queries [at] wolflit.com. Samples may be submitted as an attachment or embedded in the body of the email. More information can be found on the agency submission page.

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30. Monica Odom (Bradford Literary)

Genres: picture books, middle grade, young adult.

Notes: “Genuine depictions of diversity, please.”

How to submit: E-query monica [at] bradfordlit.com. Put “Query: [title]” in your subject line. Please email a query letter along with the first chapter of your manuscript and a synopsis. Please be sure to include the genre and word count in your cover letter.” (If you submit to Monica, please do not submit to an of the other Bradford Lit agents on this list — Laura Bradford or Sarah LaPolla.)

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See Agents 1-10 on the list here.

See Agents 11-20 on the list here.

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