Congrats to Amy Leskowski on persevering and continuing her agent search after parting ways with her first agent. It can be scary to take a leap like that, but Amy did it with grace. 

Congratulations, Amy!

How long had you been writing before seeking an agent, and what made you decide it was time to look for one?

I started writing toward publication in 2016. Not long enough after I started writing, I was preparing to pitch a non-PB project and signed up for an author critique. She generously offered to critique a second piece, but I didn’t have anything else. I’d been sitting on my PB idea for eight years, so I put it on paper. Two months later (at the conference), I pitched both projects (the non-PB one and the PB) to an agent, who signed me the next day. I shifted to focusing on writing PBs, feeling like I’d found my sweet spot, but over the course of two years, I realized that my agent wasn’t a great fit. I worried—had that been my only shot?

Parting with my agent, though, led me to find the writing community. I realized, that being repped by my agent had limited my work, as I hadn’t focused on developing my craft or connecting with other PB writers. I’d been riding the tails of my quick “success,” and my agent had seemed happy with what I was sending. When I found myself suddenly in the querying trenches (summer 2019), I wandered into the Twitter writing community, 12 x 12, and tons of SCBWI events and eventually got the courage to start querying.

What kind of research did you do before submitting?
I was a bit overwhelmed. Having gotten my first agent without querying, I had no idea where to start. I made a spreadsheet of agents of writers I admired and anticipated those agents lining up to sign me, the next greatest thing to hit the PB scene! 😉 I had such confidence from how quickly my first agent signed me that I had no idea how difficult of a process querying truly was.

As I heard of agents (through 12 x 12, Twitter, SCBWI, other writers, research), I added them to my list. I did a LOT of research on each agent before submitting, sometimes watching hours of interviews and reading blogs in order to choose what manuscript to send and to know how to personalize my query. While my amount of research was probably over the top, I learned a lot about the industry by researching agents and attending events they presented at. The majority of my time querying aligned with the world shifting to virtual events, so I benefited from being able to hear many agents present virtually. I usually researched a handful of agents, then focused on one agent at a time while preparing the actual query. I usually had about 10 queries out at a time.

The dreaded questions: How many queries? How many rejections?
112 queries, 69 rejections, 40 no-responses

Was it difficult to find an agent who wanted to represent an author focusing on picture books?
At times, it felt difficult to find an agent who wanted to represent an author-only (as opposed to an author-illustrator), and there were a few PB agents who seemed more interested in MG and YA, but there seemed to be a lot of agents who were enthusiastic about picture books. I think the bigger challenge was finding the agent who wanted to rep MY work in THAT moment given THEIR client list.

Who is your new agent? Tell us about getting the news.
My agent is Keely Boeving at WordServe Literary! I couldn’t ask for a better partner in this industry. I owe finding her to Kathy Temean, who writes a monthly agent interview series, featuring the interview in three parts and then selecting four manuscripts, usually across multiple genres, for the agent to critique on the blog.

In September 2021, she featured Keely, so I added Keely to my list of potential agents to query. I’d been submitting first pages to Kathy’s agent feature for several months in the hopes of being chosen as the PB critique, and I decided I’d wait to query Keely until after I’d submit a first page, in case I got chosen. I was elated when one of my critique partners messaged me that my manuscript had been chosen and critiqued by Keely on Kathy’s blog! Not only that, I could tell from Keely’s critique that she really connected with the manuscript and saw potential in it. I also really connected with her feedback. I used that feedback to revise the manuscript further and queried her with it that same day. I was shocked to hear back from her within hours AND that she requested a call.

How did you know your agent was “the one”?
Having been down the agent road before, I knew what was important to me in an agent way more than I had the first time around. Keely was easy to talk to, and while our conversation was very professional and focused on my work and her process, I felt at ease talking with her. That was one of the most important boxes I wanted to “check” when it came to a good match. I could tell she was knowledgeable and connected, which were important to me, but I needed to feel the partnership factor, and I definitely did. Her communication style was another important piece that checked the right boxes. I’d gotten a taste of her feedback style, thanks to the first-page critiques she provided her on Kathy’s blog that month. Oh, and she wasn’t scared off by me being a rhymer–that was another must! She was also very understanding about giving me time to tie up loose ends with other queries I had out.

If 12 x 12 helped you in any way during your agent search/development of craft, can you tell us how? (P.S. It is TOTALLY okay if the answer is no. I am not trying to “lead” you 🙂 )
This is a definite yes! I would be so lost in this industry if it weren’t for 12 x 12. From feedback in the forum helping shape and fix my manuscripts (especially when I had only a few critique partners) to all the conversations that happen in the Facebook group—plus the webinars, other resources I’ve found out about through 12 x 12, critique partners I found through 12 x 12, Friday dance parties (having a place to celebrate big and small!), the accountability to write a new draft each month, and more! Plus, 12 x 12 connected me with my writing BFF. The “best part about 12 x 12” for me has evolved each year of my involvement, but I recommend it as the single greatest PB resource out there.

Has your writing process changed at all since signing with an agent?
My process hasn’t changed, but my pace and focus have. I still run all my manuscripts through tons of critique partners and millions (it feels like!) rounds of revision before I send it off to Keely. I know she’s still just one person and the feedback I get from my incredible critique partners is still so valuable. I also want to prioritize the feedback I get from her on pushing a manuscript over the finish line. There have also been manuscripts that I’ve shared with her earlier on, to determine if it’s a good concept to put effort behind, and she’s helped shape the direction those manuscripts took, but for the most part, I wait until I consider a manuscript to be submission ready before I send it to her. I don’t feel the same pressure I did when querying, but I still try to view sending work to her as I would if I were querying. That mentality helps me push my work to be its best. Of course, she always has line edits, but I like feeling confident in the manuscript I’m sending her. I know agents put a lot of time into client work before seeing the payoff, so I want to make the most of the time I’m asking her to put in.

In terms of my pace, I’ve definitely slowed down a bit from writing new stuff. I’m still on the 12 x 12 plan, but I wrote 30 drafts in 2021, which isn’t a sustainable pace for me. I’m now able to focus on manuscript revisions without juggling querying at the same time. Querying takes up so much time! One thing that’s also helping me shift my pace is that my work feels more neatly categorized now. We have projects out on sub, projects we’re revising together (usually one at a time), projects I’ve sent her that we aren’t working on yet (but that I don’t need to tinker more with!), projects we’ve talked about and I’m revising accordingly and still connecting with critique partners on, WIPs she doesn’t even know about yet, and new drafts. Before, it felt like all those lines were so blurred, as I might still be tinkering with something that I’d submitted or queried. Now I’m able to focus on a project I’m revising with her (if there is one—there’s also a lot of waiting, since we can’t rapid-fire submit all my projects!) and a “top priority” WIP that I want to get ready to send to her, and I can leave the rest alone.

What advice would you give to picture book writers looking for agents today?
Persevere and, at the same time, keep learning. There are always ways to improve our craft, more PBs to read as mentor texts, more critiques to swap. It’s a lot to juggle, as querying takes a lot of time (and heart!), but getting work to the best possible spot AND finding the best possible agent to represent it are both worth it!

I also wouldn’t give up on an agent after querying with just one piece. I had several agents request more work the second or third time I queried them.

I would also ask critique partners which manuscript they recommend querying. Of course, certain ones will be a better fit for specific agents, but for a long time, I was querying the wrong manuscript. Once I shifted which one I was sending out (mostly), I started getting requests for more, and it wasn’t long before I had an offer.

And the last bit of advice I have is to recognize that an agent passing on your work means they truly aren’t the best person to champion it. You want someone who believes in it as much as you do. And it takes time to find that person. But once you do, you’ll be glad those others passed, because you really do want someone who can enthusiastically pitch it to editors.

Do you think your platform (blog, social media) helped you find your agent?
One of the first questions my agent asked on our call was about my website and blog. She’d clearly done her research and knew what I had out there, and she wanted to know how/if I was leveraging it. She recognized that platform isn’t as important for PBs as it is for authors writing for other age groups and different genres, but she also knows that it still matters. Also, if I hadn’t been active on social media, I might not have known about the blog where I eventually found my agent. I think staying connected over some kind of social media is key for being in the know and finding opportunities.

Tell us something that is on your “bucket list.” Something you’ve dreamed of doing all your life but have yet to accomplish (besides publishing a book, which is inevitable at this point 🙂 )
When my husband and I (both baseball fans) were dating, we started visiting all the Major League Baseball stadiums, aiming to get to them all. That slowed down a lot once we had kids and as we checked off the stadiums within driving distance to where we lived (we went from two to three a year down to one every ten years!). We have eight left to visit (plus those pesky parks that have been built since we started!), though we have visited eight spring-training ballparks with our kids, which has been an unexpected bonus!

What’s up next/what are you working on now?
I have a few irons in the fire, so I’m optimistically and mostly impatiently waiting! I’m swimming in revisions at various stages of the process, but I’m hoping to draft something new soon that I can get especially excited about.

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