TBA is looking for three new interns!

We are once again looking for remote (unpaid) interns, people who like to read books by authors like:

Tana French

Eleanor Brown

Jacqueline Sheehan

Jodi Picoult

Gillian Flynn

Lori Roy

Laurie Notaro

Celia Rivenbark

Elin Hilderbrand

Kristin Hannah

Jeannette Walls

Kate Atkinson

This is an eclectic list, so obviously you don't need to like everyone on it! But basically, you should like at least two of the following genres: humor, memoir, upmarket women's fiction and literary suspense.

You do not need to have any kind of publishing experience or even publishing aspirations. We are just looking for people who love books and love to read.  You do not need to live in New York, this is a remote internship.  Please note that it is unpaid.

Please send e-mail to nicole@thebentagency.com. Please put "generalist intern" in the subject line. Tell us why you want the internship, attach a resume if you have one although it's not essential, and list the last ten books you read and your ten favorite books.

Please do not apply if you are primarily a young adult/middle grade reader. It's fine if you do some of that, but we already have our young adult/middle grade specialists in place.

If you have applied in the past you are more than welcome to apply again.

We ask for at least a 10 hour a week time commitment.

Bologna Book Fair Meetings--a post by Gemma

In my last post, I talked generally about what goes on at the Bologna Book Fair, and how our preparations were going.  

Well today, I want to go into greater detail about a key part of our fair experience — meetings. A few times this week my clients have asked how we tackle the half-hour slots we have with editors, film agents, and foreign rights people, so I thought I’d share that answer with you all! 

Firstly, it’s worth remembering that half an hour isn’t a long time, so we need to be focused, organised, and have your pitches polished to perfection. Lots of preparation has already gone into this! 

Meetings take place mostly in the Agents Centre, or sometimes at the editor’s stand. After pleasantries — ‘How are you?’ ‘Did you have a good flight?’ etc. — we get straight down to business. There are two key things we want to know:

What sort of projects are you looking for at the moment?

What are you definitely not looking for?

Spin-off questions from these include:  

What is your dream project?  Some editors have a really specific type of book they are dying to take on. But often people are less specific about what they want, saying just good voice, great characters, a future classic, series potential, etc.  

What are you seeing too much of? This helps us gauge what trends are coming to an end and where the market is saturated. 

What have you bought recently? If the editor has recently bought a YA romance based around a team sport, chances are they aren’t going to want to buy another. 

What have you lost out on recently? If an editor bid for a book and didn’t get it, they might be on the lookout for something similar. 

The answers to these questions help us decide what projects on our submission list would be a great fit for that person. So we listen for the first part of the meeting, and then we start pitching our wonderful clients’ books. Sometimes people just like to hear about everything, and sometimes people just want to hear about one project. We keep pitches short and enticing and if a project sparks an editor’s or co-agent’s interest, we make a note, and send them the full manuscript.

It’s easy to get into a rhythm with meetings after you’ve done a few, but of course each one is slightly different. Some editors we’ve seen recently, so it’s more of a general catch-up, and some have books with us already, so we might take the opportunity to talk about those projects, how they’re going, or whether they are looking to commission more books from those authors. The above isn’t set in stone, but it’s nice to have a rough plan.

And now I really need to go and pack! Molly will be posting a roundup of our Bologna experience when we get back.

Middle-Grade Debut Deal for Shelley Tougas

I'm just back from Southern CA SCBWI Agent's Day, which was great, and wanted to announce TBA's deal for Shelley Tougas's THE GRAHAM CRACKER PLOT.  I knew I wanted to take Shelley's book on when I realized that I hadn't ever read a book that made me laugh out loud, that kept my stomach in knots and that broke my heart in just this way.  It tells the story of an eleven year old Daisy and her sometime-best friend, who plan to break her father out of prison and escape to Canada, in spite of a massive rainstorm, a mini-pony and other calamities.  

Look for THE GRAHAM CRACKER PLOT in Fall 2014, from Roaring Brook Press.  Congratulations, Shelley!

Children's: Middle grade

Shelley Tougas's middle grade debut THE GRAHAM CRACKER PLOT, in which an eleven year old girl and her sometime-best friend plan to break her father out of prison and escape to Canada, in spite of a massive rainstorm, a mini-pony and other calamities, to Nancy Mercado at Roaring Brook Press, in a very nice deal, at auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in Fall 2014, by Susan Hawk at The Bent Agency (World English).

Deal Announcement for Shannon Greenland!

March has been a very busy month for us here at the Bent Agency, and we are thrilled to announce a new deal for our very talented client, Shannon Greenland.

Children's: Young Adult

Shannon Greenland's KILLER INSTINCT, first of a chilling series featuring a brilliant teenage girl who studies and understands serial killers... because she might be one herself, to Patrick Price at Simon Pulse, in a good deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in Summer 2014, by Jenny Bent and Gemma Cooper at The Bent Agency. Film: Shari Smiley at Resolution

Check out Shannon's website - http://shannongreenland.com/ and follow her on Twitter to send your congratulations!

Preparing for the Bologna Book Fair--a post by Gemma

It’s March, which is just another month for most people, but for children’s publishing, it means one thing – the Bologna Book Fair, the date in the calendar with the most exclamation points around it!

Much as March always feel like a big panicked rush, we have actually been preparing for the fair for months. From the first meeting request that came in December, to booking flights/hotels and arranging schedules, a lot of preparation goes into these four days. 

Last year was my first experience of the fair, and just remembering the buzz makes me want to jump on the plane right now. From the mood in the airport – goodness knows what any non-publishing people must think – to the enthusiasm in the Agents Centre, this shared excitement by a group of people focused on children’s publishing is the really big takeaway from the experience. 

I’m lucky this year to be going with my colleague Molly Hawn, and that means shared planning, being able to chivvy each other along when not even Italian coffee is working, and having a great sounding board to decompress after the days’ meetings.

Over the next few weeks, Molly and I will be focused on preparing pitches for the debuts we are taking and planning how to approach our meetings. We will be seeing UK and US editors, and also foreign publishers to show off our fantastic rights guide. Most of our meetings will take place in the Agents Centre, which is positioned between the exhibition halls. The Agents Centre can feel a little like speed dating at times – a half-hour focused meeting to find out an editor’s personal taste and gauge what they are looking for and what they are not. Then we pitch projects that we think would be a good fit. 

Focused, repetitive pitching like this really makes a point about things agents often say when turning down submissions: ‘It just isn’t for me,’ or ‘I liked it, but I didn’t love it.’ We have read our clients’ books countless times, edited them and written pitches for them. Then we have to talk about them endlessly for four days. No wonder we have to LOVE these books! 

Bologna is non-stop. We take a taxi from the airport to our first meeting, and these meetings continue all day, with parties and dinners in the evening. Catching up with agent friends and publishers in these more relaxed social events was a big highlight for me last year. Publishing really is filled with some of the nicest people!

And so after four days we will return from the fair with new contacts, lists of manuscripts to send out to interested editors, and feedback for our clients. We will have seen nothing of Bologna itself, but we will have eaten a lot of pasta and maybe some gelato. We will be exhausted and feel the need to hibernate, but that will quickly pass. 

After all, we have London Book Fair three weeks later!