The Query Cupcake with Kayla Cichello

Kayla Cichello is an agent with Upstart Crow Literary, she's open to picture books through YA and illustrators. Some of her clients include Ana Otaru, author of the upcoming picture book Masquerade for Grandpa (Atheneum/S&S, 2023), as well as author-illustrator Kirbi Fagan, illustrator of Summer of the Tree Army (Sleeping Bear, 2021).

Kayla wants your query to an agent to be as irresistible and delicious as a cupcake is to a toddler. Like a well-made cupcake, a query has a couple of important parts: Intro; Summary; and a Bio.

A quality query starts with the email subject line: For Kayla, please put the title of your story in the subject line, not just "children's book" and include the genre for extra appeal.

The Intro should contain the manuscript's basic info like genre and word count, as well as why you are querying that particular agent. Intros should also include a one or two-sentence pitch summarizing your manuscript (see Eddie Gamarra's session for a whole session on how to craft a pithy pitch), and HOOKS.

Kayla uses Dragons Love Tacos as an example showing what on the surface seems to be just a funny silly book still has deeper themes, something editors are looking for in all picture book manuscripts.

Kayla also covers pitches, bios, and gives examples of excellent summaries for both picture book and MG/YA queries in addition to this handy breakdown of what to include in your summary: 

Agent Panel: Alexandra Penfold

Alexandra Penfold is an agent at Upstart Crow Literary. She represent everything from picture books up, with some select adult titles. She's also an author.

In books, Alexandra is a seeker of beauty and truth and light.

At an annual SCBWI conference in NY Alexandra met Jessixa Bagley when Jessixa thanked her following a breakout session. After the conference Jessixa sent Alexandra a picture book dummy. When Alexandra read it, she cried. She signed Jessixa, and together they worked to refine the story. They created changes with small word choices, in order to hit the emotional target. That book became Boats for Papa which won last year's Golden Kite Award for picture book text.

Another SCBWI success story happened at the LA summer conference when Alexandra met illustrator Suzanne Kaufman through friends. This relationship was first one of friendship but then Alexandra had a chance to see Suzanne's work and she later signed Suzanne as a client.

They are now collaborating on a book together called All Are Welcome.

"Work on the things you are afraid to work on."

In terms of submitting, the plan is formulated based on the book. Sometimes Alexandra might take it wide or target in on the perfect person. As agents, they are match makers. 

Publishers are asking agents to see "own voices" stories. 

Using an Outline as a Safety Net: Michael Stearns, Upstart Crow Literary

Michael Stearns is the founder of Upstart Crow Literary, an agency specializing in children's literature. A former editorial director for HarperCollins, he has edited hundreds of best-selling, award-winning novels and picture books for children, including A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly; Gone and Hunger by Michael Grant; Whales on Stilts! By M.T. Anderson; the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane; the Chet Gecko mysteries by Bruce Hale; and a whole slew of books by Bruce Coville, Jane Yolen, and others. He also runs a book packager called the Inkhouse, where he co-created the #1 best-selling series Fallen, the international best-selling Bliss bakery trilogy, as well as a dozen other titles. Under the pen name Carter Roy, he is the author of the award-winning middle grade fantasy adventure trilogy the Blood Guard. www.upstartcrowliterary.com

Are you a "pantser" or an Outliner?

Michael Stearns says authors tend to identify as one or the other -- writing by the seat-of-his-pants, or the kind of writer who doesn't write a word until the entire story is mapped and structured. He equates creating an outline to building a house, but not decorating it or filling it with your stuff. He argues that an outline can allow you to solve problems before you begin. Paraphrasing his words: "You *will* wrestle with story problems, and it's easier to look at those when you have it structured over a couple pages rather than at the scale of a full book."

I think this logic applies to both picture books and longer form writing: planning what you're trying to accomplish for the reader can make it easier to decide *how* you're going to accomplish it.

Michael suggested -- after you have your characters, premise, and snippets of dialogue and personality -- try breaking your book into chapters, and plot the arc, dilemmas, and character growth of your book starting at the end with your tidy conclusion.

He suggested drafting on a whiteboard so chapters and moments can be moved around to be cohesive and fluid, and demonstrated this by taping a possible way to play with your outline on the wall!

I took a lot of notes. (see below)

I was thinking, even if you're not an author, this kind of panel -- although not specifically annotated for illustrators -- could also be used to map an evolution of the mood of your images as the book progresses.

So, are you a pantser? I might not be in the future!

Michael's a "former editor and editorial director, agency head, book packager, writer of novels for middle grade and Other Things" -- His approach seems useful across industry to look at our storytelling from a different angle.

Alexandra Penfold: Sparkly New Agent at Upstart Crow!

Putting great books into the hands of young readers is something Alexandra Penfold has been doing for the last decade, and now she’s doing it wearing a new and very dashing hat.

Alexandra’s career trajectory is a bit different from most editors, she was a business major in school and did a bunch of different internships including interning for the writers' office of All My Children. From there, Alex enjoyed working with Tracy van Straaten, who at the time was in publicity at Simon & Schuster. And Tracy’s awesomeness inspired Alex to jump into a career in children’s book publicity at S&S. Alexandra then transitioned into the editor role at S&S with Paula Wiseman, and for eight years she had a blast there.

Now she’s a newly minted agent at Upstart Crow Literary and her afternoon session is excited to hear what she’s looking for as she starts to build her client list of picture book makers, and middle grade and YA authors.

Alex wishes there was a magical formula to tell us what makes an irresistible book, but there isn’t one.

Which is bad news, but because there’s no magic formula, good news! Alex doesn’t like to poopoo any genre or category, she's open to being surprised by books she never imagined she’d acquire or represent. The only exception to that is high fantasy, she’s still not into it, no matter how much Tolkein her husband reads to her, sorry, Bilbo.

Not only can Alex relate to the editors she’s pitching, she can relate to her clients, too. Alex and a friend co-wrote a flipping awesomecookbook (that will be out in April!) and Alex remembers well her anxiety while on submission as an author.

Alex explains to the group the ins and outs of acquisitions from an editor’s point of view: an editor is putting their reputation on the line every time they bring a book to an acquisitions meeting. It's an investment on all levels and as an agent, Alex will still only represent books she loves wholeheartedly and will fight for.

One of the many lovely tips Alex left us with was the paramount importance of great characters in your work, knowing them inside and out. If you see Alex this weekend and want to get into a heavy discussion, just ask her if Scarlett and Rhett eventually get back together after The End of 

Don't forget to follow Alexandra Penfold on Twitter @AgentPenfold