So you want to write a kids' book!
I only represent kids' books when my existing clients want to take a detour in that direction--and here's what I tell them when they do.
I’m not what you’d call a “children’s literary agent.” I only sell kids’ books when my clients—all of whom write primarily for adults—feel inspired to branch out mid-career.
Why don’t I sell much in this space? It’s not because I’m ignorant about the kids’ market; I know what’s selling. Although I spend most of my time cultivating editorial relationships elsewhere, I also know who’s buying what’s selling, and they’re always nice when I email them. I make sure to keep track of children’s market trends.
It’s also not because I pooh-pooh the cultural importance of children’s literature. My first job was at a B&N Jr. I have three elementary-age kids, all of whom are obsessed with Aaron Blabey, Dav Pilkey, Rick Riordan, and “Where’s Waldo.” In college, I wrote my senior thesis on the “His Dark Materials” trilogy. I lost entire days of my youth to elegiac yearning for Redwall and Prydain. Hell: just a whiff of a brand-new middle grade paperback can pull me to the edge of tears, entwined as it is with memories of innocent joy and limitless possibility.
I love kids’ books—truly. I just hate selling them to publishers.
The entire enterprise of selling children’s books drives me insane.
INSANE.
I am in awe of my colleagues who can occupy this capricious and arbitrary shrug emoji of a marketplace full-time without dissolving into a psycho-emotional goo ball.
Kids’ books are JUST SO HARD to sell. The uncertainty! The overcrowding! The slow response times! The sheer volume of deals you have to do to make anything resembling a viable living!
It’s all rather heartbreaking for me, really. Nothing is cooler than seeing kids’ eyes light up in wonder over a book you helped bring to market. There’s nothing like making the world more hospitable, open, and legible for small and tender people.
Yes, and: I also have three small and tender people of my own who need food and shelter, and those things cost money. And I like winning. And as hard as it is to get any book deal for a major publisher, it is much, much easier to get one for adults—for much, much more money.
Children’s books are just the hardest. Bleh.
If you’re interested in writing a children’s book, I don’t want to discourage you.
Plenty of people write and publish kids’ books to real and lasting success. Tens of millions of children’s books sell every year, in all categories. Kids still love to read, even with all of the devices and the social medias and Robloxes etc. Graphic novels are a particularly hot and growing sector.
It’s just…well, I believe that every successful journey starts with a realistic map of the challenges one must navigate to get to the promised land. And in this particular publishing subcategory, the rocks are large and craggy.
Walk with me. Here’s why children’s books are so hard to sell.