TRANSCRIPT

As you build your list of agents to query, you also want to vet them to make sure that they’re legit.

Definitely consider the following as warning signs…

First, no website. I would not query any agent that only has an @gmail.com address. Agents should have an email address that aligns with a domain for a literary agency.

Second, asking for a payment. Legitimate agents don’t charge anything up front. Real agents get paid a commission when their clients get paid. That’s it. Run away from any agent who asks for a reading fee, or a fee to promote your book or any other type of fee. No money should ever leave your wallet.

Third, no authors repped or titles sold. Now agents starting out may not have a long list of clients or sold any titles. And this is okay – as long as they belong to an established literary agency. They wouldn’t be there if they weren’t qualified. However, if an agent has no clients listed on their website and doesn’t name any titles they’ve sold, and they're off on their own, I would steer clear of them.

Finally, receiving an email from an agent. Getting a response from an agent to your query is amazing. Getting an email from an agent out of the blue saying they’re interested in representing you... that's a scam. Legit agents get hundreds of submissions a month. They don’t need to go hunting for manuscripts.

Do you have any other tips for vetting agents? Let me know in the comments. And as always, thank you so much for watching. If you got any value out of this video, like it, subscribe to my channel and share the video with other aspiring picture book authors.