When your agency closes its doors — literally shuts down the business — and your agent leaves the industry, would you flounder? Read on to see how this plotline played out for Marta Magellan. (Spoiler! It’s a happy ending.)

All the best to you, Marta!

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

For ten years or so. I had been having a smattering of success, but with very small publishers. Then, I wrote JUST WILD ENOUGH, about a former cheerleader who became a primatologist and helped save a new species from extinction. I thought it was good enough to attract an agent. So that was around 2019.

What kind of research did you do before submitting?

My “research” was really no more than querying agents that other writers had and querying those that showed up as open to queries.

The dreaded questions: How many queries?  How many rejections?

I am sorry to admit this, but I never kept count of rejections. Suffice it to say, many!

Was it difficult to find an agent who wanted to represent an author focusing on picture books?

They are out there. It’s difficult, not impossible.

Who is your new agent? Tell us about getting the news.

Sharon Belcastro of Belcastro Agency. She came to me in an unusual way. At a conference, I heard agents just starting out were more likely to take on new authors and provide them with more attention. So, I did a double: I found a brand-new agent working for a brand-new agency called Raven Quill. She took me on, and JUST WILD ENOUGH was published by Albert Whitman & Co. And wouldn’t you know it? A few years in, Raven Quill folded, and my new agent left the industry altogether. But my book had been passed on to the Belcastro Agency to manage. It was a book-by-book contract. Then, just this summer, Sharon Belcastro wrote to me offering full representation. I was thrilled.

How did you know your agent was “the one”?

Sharon Belcastro is a well-established agent with her own agency, so I felt comfortable that it would be around for a while. Plus, Sharon is super nice and so easy to communicate with. I really lucked 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 🙂 )

Through 12 x 12, I got together with a group of wonderful writers who also wanted to be part of a nonfiction critique group. I took JUST WILD ENOUGH to them, and they probably gave me the advice to make it publishable. Most of them have been published since then, too.

Has your writing process changed at all since signing with an agent?

I’m not sure it has changed. I still send my manuscripts to critique groups in 12 X 12 and my old in-person Miami critique group (meeting on Zoom since Covid) just as I always did. But instead of sending my work to small publishers, who take unagented authors, I am sending it to Sharon.

What advice would you give to picture book writers looking for agents today?

Be open to agents and even agencies just starting out. The ones I took on at first didn’t work out, but they led to Sharon and the Belcastro Agency.

Do you think your platform (blog, social media) helped you find your agent?

I found my first agent in a newsletter, Write for Kids, where she was interviewed. But I know more than one author who found agents through pitching on social media.

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 🙂 )

I want to go again to a Brazilian wetland called the Pantanal. It is full of wild animals, but I’d like to aim for the section where the cobalt blue hyacinth macaw has been thriving. I want to meet the biologist who was solely responsible for its removal from the endangered list. This segues into what I’m working on now: A picture book about that woman and that macaw. The illustrations alone would be stunning, wouldn’t they? I hope I make it there.