Agent, Editor, & Author Kari Sutherland On First Lines, Revisions, & Representation

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Author Tips, Kari Sutherland, publishing, SCBWI events

 

Agent and author Kari Sutherland joins this year’s LA SCBWI Working Writer’s Retreat faculty. She was a Senior Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books before joining the Bradford Literary Agency in 2017 and she co-writes the middle grade Menagerie series with her sister, Tui Sutherland. She’s worked with bestselling and critically acclaimed authors on projects such as the #1 New York Times bestselling Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and the #1 New York Times bestselling Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard. Needless to say, she knows a thing or ten or about writing, editing, and publishing books, and she’s here to share some of that knowledge with us!

Sarah Parker-Lee: You graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in English and Psychology. Why do you consider this the perfect combination for working with authors on character and plot development?

Kari Sutherland: I’d say both fields help me pinpoint when a character is behaving in a way that isn’t authentic or in a way that may produce a reaction in readers that the author is not intending. Having studied the way minds work, it gives me insight into personality and character growth. With my English studies, I know how to catch and keep a reader’s attention through voice, sentence structure, and plotting. Psychology classes also prepared me to be an excellent listener and to help coax out what a person really wants to say – in this case, through their manuscripts.

SPL: Your Bradford Lit bio says you’re passionate about helping to polish each manuscript and equip your clients for success. What does that entail?

Clelia Gore: Agent’s Perspective, 2017 Writers & Illustrators Day Faculty

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Adria Regordosa, authors, Bistra Masseva, Brian Russo, Cheryl Lawton Malone, Dustrats, Ignite Your Spark: Discovering Who You Are from the Inside Out, illustrator tips, Patricia Wooster, picture books, writing tips, Yoga Bunny

Clelia Gore is a lawyer-turned-literary-agent who heads Martin Literary Management’s kid lit division. She represents authors and illustrators in both fiction and nonfiction, from board books to young adult.

As faculty for SCBWI’s upcoming Writers & Illustrator’s Day, she will lead a session titled “The Interplay Between Art and Text in Picture Books.” She also will critique manuscripts and will be an illustration contest judge.

Erlina Vasconcellos: What do you want participants to take away from your breakout session at Writers & Illustrators Day?

Clelia Gore: I get two kinds of picture book queries: author/illustrators and authors only. For people who are authors only, they sometimes need a little help seeing how the art and writing can work together to tell the story. A lot of picture book writers who are early in their careers don’t understand how the two forms of art interplay in telling the story.

For authors who are illustrators, it’s honing in on things to think about when crafting their story…Hopefully people will leave inspired and it will lead to thoughtfully crafted books.

EV: What question are you asked often?

Bridget Smith: Agent’s Perspective

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agent, Bridget Smith, Dunham Literary, query, tools, writing tips, YA, young adult

Bridget Smith is more than an agent at Dunham Literary, Inc. She also studied anthropology and archaeology, worked as a radio DJ, fenced on the varsity team at Brown University, and helped design an experiment that she later performed in microgravity at NASA. So, she’s kind of awesome and you want her to represent your books.

Read on for Bridget’s insights into the kid lit community, how to include diversity in your books, and what happens after you get a full manuscript request.

Michelle Zeitlin and Jane Cowen Hamilton: Agent Perspective

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agent, agents, how-to, Jane Cowen Hamilton, Michelle Zeitlin, query, query letters, social media, writing tips

I sat down with agents Michelle Zeitlin and Jane Cowen Hamilton of More Zap Productions and Management to talk about their new literary division, discuss why an author must know their brand, and how children’s literature fits into their multi-media, and currently acquiring, agency. I was curious how an agency that represents dancers, directors, and other specialty talent got into the literary world and what their unique platform had to offer. Turns out, a lot.

Agent Jamie Weiss Chilton talks about SCBWI’s Writers’ Retreat

SCBWI’s interview with agent Jamie Weiss Chilton is filled with industry insight.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: What is an agent’s role at the SCBWI Writers’ Retreat?

JAMIE WEISS CHILTON: Each faculty member at the retreat facilitated several workshop groups (five writers per group). The writers read aloud from a work-in-progress and received feedback on those pages. I was so impressed by the participants’ openness to feedback, and I could see the revision process beginning during the group’s discussions. I enjoy giving feedback and especially love the great group discussions that develop during these workshop sessions. The revisions I heard on the last day, during the First Pages read-aloud session, were fantastic. Writers give each other great advice—it’s evident to me of what a great critique group can do for authors and illustrators, which leads me to your next question . . .

Agent’s Perspective: A spotlight on three agents at the SCBWI Summer Conference By Clare Di Liscia Baird and Beth Navarro

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agents, Alexandra Penfold, Barry Goldblatt, Brenda Bowen, conferences, SCBWI events, SCBWI members

The 2015 SCBWI Summer conference had an impressive line-up of agents including Alexandra Penfold, Barry Goldblatt and Brenda Bowen. There is a good amount of information out there answering questions about how to get an agent and how to write a fabulous (the ever elusive and tricky) query letter, but much less talked about is what happens once an agent’s interest is piqued. We wanted insider information on how these top of the line agents work with potential clients. They were kind enough to take time out of their busy conference schedules to talk with us.