Free Fall Friday – Featured Agent Deborah Warren

It is my pleasure to announce that Deborah Warren founder of East West Literary Agency has agreed to be our Featured Agent of the Month.

Deborah Warren founded East West Literary Agency in 2000. After 17 years at Harcourt, she has a strong background in sales and marketing. She is a strategist, incorporating long-term goals to help E/W clients not only grow their career, but to flourish within that career. With over 35 years’ of experience in the publishing industry, and over 16 years at the helm of the Agency, Deborah not only represents authors and illustrators of picture books including Jim Averbeck (One Word for Sophia), Anna Dewdney (of the Llama Llama franchise), Kimberly and James Dean (of the Pete the Cat franchise), Gianna Marino (Night Animals) and Antoinette Portis (Best Frints in the Whole Universe), she represents authors and illustrators—both debut and established–in the board book, concept, novelty, multicultural, non-fiction, middle-grade and young adult markets.

Deborah’s looking to fall in love with character-driven stories with heart, enhanced by a hook, told in a unique, fresh or distinctive way. Her sweet spots: short, quirky picture books and smartly layered, memorable and insightful MG and YA fiction. And she LOVES finding debut talent – in fact, it’s a bit of a specialty for the Agency.

As an example, we’re thrilled to have helped launch and grow (among others) the careers of authors Kwame Alexander, whose debut MG, The Crossover (HMM) was awarded the 2015 Newbery Medal and the 2015 Coretta Scott King Honor; Dave Butler, whose debut MG, The Kidnap Plot (the first in a trilogy), has recently been released by Knopf/RH; NYT-bestselling Alethea Kontis and her debut YA Fantasy novels launched by the YALSA nominated and Gelette Burgess Award winner Enchanted; and author/illustrator Sarah Aspinall, whose debut picture book, Penguins Love Colors, has recently been released from Blue Sky Press/Scholastic, with a companion volume, Penguins Love Their ABC’s, to come.

She’s particularly drawn to author/illustrators and appreciates a wide range of illustration styles. Deborah also connects with the look and feel and concept of classic “Star Trek” and “Twilight Zone” episodes … so she’s up to see anything in that genre. OH; and re-imaginings of fairy tales, too, like Beauty and the Beast and The Princess Bride.  And anything that offers diverse points of view.

Foreign Rights Partners:

Whitney Lee of The Fielding Agency aggressively pursues UK and translation rights in all the major territories on behalf of our clients.

Hollywood Partners:

We have a number of co-agents in the entertainment industry to sell or license film, television, stage, and merchandising rights for our clients.

East/West is committed to the business of selling. The agency’s comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of the Children’s book market and relationships with top publishers and editors—both East coast and West and around the world–are a key asset to this sales process; as such, E/W puts enormous energy into understanding the capabilities, requirements and strengths of all factions and players in the market. Understanding the in-depth process of acquisitions, sales, and marketing helps the team attain the stated goals for each of the agency’s clients: to close the best possible deal with the best possible editor at the best possible publishing house. Negotiating “the deal” is simply the short-term goal, however. The most successful publishing plan incorporates the essential sales and marketing processes that help create market share, author/illustrator visibility, recognition, and off-the-floor sales. Ms. Warren and her colleagues are strategists, incorporating long-term goals for the agency’s client partners also. East/West Literary Agency, aiming at all times to maximize sales, offers invaluable resources to help our clients not only grow a career, but to flourish within that career.

Check back next Friday to read the interview I had with Deborah.

PLEASE NOTE SHORT DEADLINE:

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES For FIRST PAGE CRITIQUES:

In the subject line, please write “February 2017  Critique” and paste the text in the email, plus attached it as a Word document to the email. Please make sure you include your name, the title of the piece, and whether it’s a picture book, middle grade, or young adult, etc. at the top on both the email and the Word document (Make sure you include your name with the title of your book, when you save the first page).

Your First Page Word document should be formatted using one inch margins and 12 point New Times Roman font – double space – no more than 23 lines – only one page. Send to: kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com.

PLEASE FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES: Your submission will be passed over if you do not follow the directions for both the pasted email and the attached Word doc. This is where most people mess up.

DEADLINE: February 16th

RESULTS: March 3rd.

Please only submit one first page a month, but do try again if your first page wasn’t one of the pages randomly picked. Thanks!

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy