Lara Perkins and Jennifer Mattson at Andrea Brown Literary Agency seek picture books, mid-grade and YA novels

Andrea Brown Literary Agency

http://www.andreabrownlit.com/

Andrea Brown is a mid-size literary agency headquartered in California, with offices in Chicago and New York. The agency deals exclusively in children’s literature – picture books through young adult.

Lara Perkins is the newest member of the team at Andrea Brown. She has been with the agency for three years, working with Senior Agent Laura Rennart, but she’s also building her own client list, and like all new agents, she needs new authors.

Lara is a fan of smart and raw young adult fiction, of character-driven middle grade fiction with an original, hilarious voice, and of “so adorable she can’t stand it” picture books.

She’s also looking for mysteries and is passionate for stories that teach her new things or open up new worlds. More than anything, she has a soft spot for the wonderfully weird, the idiosyncratic, and the entirely unexpected.

Lara has a B.A. in English Lit and Art History. Before joining Andrea Brown, she spent a year at the B.J. Robbins Literary Agency.

Query Lara at: lara@andreabrownlit.com 

Paste the text of your picture book or the first 10 pages of other fiction into your email. Author-illustrators should include 2 or 3 illustration samples (in jpeg format), and text of picture book, if applicable.

Jennifer Mattson is another relatively new literary agent at Andrea Brown. Previously, she spent five years reviewing children's literature as part of the staff of Booklist magazine. That adds up to close readings of around 1,000 books, lending Jennifer a wide-angle view of the tastes of individual publishing houses. Prior to Booklist, Jennifer was an Associate Editor at Dutton Children's Books.

In the picture-book arena, Jennifer is interested in authors and author-illustrators who bring a distinctive, well-developed point of view to their work; at this time, she is not acquiring illustration-only clients. She loves picture books that are story time-ready stories (no one-joke tales or mood pieces) that resonate with universal childhood experiences and concerns; fables and folktales aren't for her.

For the older set, she is drawn to richly imagined fantasies that depart from old-hat heroic quests (alternate realities, magical realism, and steam-punk are all styles/premises to have recently caught her notice). She has a special interest in dystopian fiction for middle graders and in sprawling, atmospheric tales with Dickensian twists and satisfying puzzles. But as much as high-concept novels pique her interest, the most mind-blowing premise can't hide a flat narrative that rarely reaches for unexpected descriptions, fully fleshed characterizations, or a zinging narrative voice.

Recent fiction sales include Tom Leveen's second contemporary realistic YA novel Mustardseed, following up Party and Zero (all to Random House); and Jenny Meyerhoff's comic middle-grade The Barftastic Life of Louie Burger (to FSG/Macmillan). Recent picture book sales include Peace, Baby! to be illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff (to Chronicle) and author-illustrator Gail Page's How to be a Good Cat, the latest entry in her picture book series about Bobo the dog (to Bloomsbury); and Ten on a Sled, a picture book written by Kim Norman (to Sterling).

Query Jennifer at: jmatt@andreabrownlit.com 

Paste the text of your picture book or the first 10 pages of other fiction into your email. Author-illustrators should include 2 or 3 illustration samples (in jpeg format), and text of picture book, if applicable.

Full guidelines for the Andrea Brown Literary Agency here. 

Martha Magor Webb

Brian Henry will lead a “How to Get Published” workshop with guest speaker Martha Magor Webb of the Anne McDermid literary agency in Burlington on Feb 22 (see here). He’ll also lead “How to Get Published" workshops in Thessalon in Algoma on March 23 (see here) and in London on April 19 (see here).

Also, Brian will lead a “Writing for Children & for Young Adults” workshop in Caledon at the Bolton Library on Jan 18 (see here).

Brian also has a number of weekly courses coming up in January. You can scroll through the details for all of them here. 

He'll lead a “Writing your life & other true stories” on Tuesday afternoons in Burlington (see here) and a “Welcome to Creative Writing” course on Tuesday evenings in Burlington (here).

Brian will lead “Next Step” courses on Tuesday mornings in Burlington (see here), Thursday afternoons in Mississauga (here) and Thursday evenings in Georgetown (here); and he'll lead “Intensive” courses for more experienced writers on Wednesday afternoons in Burlington (here) and Wednesday evenings in Mississauga (see here).

To register or for more details of any course or workshop, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian’s full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Algoma, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.