Monster List of Picture Book Agents - Kendra Marcus, Bookstop Literary

5/22/16: Closed to submissions until 9/1/2016. Please check the agency's submission guidelines for updates.

Kendra Marcus is an agent who knows picture books! She's the founder of Bookstop Literary and she represents some amazing authors. There is lots of information about Ms. Marcus online so you can decide whether or not she might be the agent for you.

There is a great interview with Kendra Marcus at Cynsations where Kendra tells the story of how she decided to be an agent and open her own agency. She also talks about what she looks for in a picture book. In an interview at SCBWI Bologna  Ms. Marcus talks about what qualities she thinks it takes to make a successful picture book.

Corey Rosen Schwartz, whose books The Three Ninja Pigs and Goldi Rocks are forthcoming from Putnam, is represented by Kenrda Marcus. You can read her How I Got My Agent post at Julie Hedlund's blog, Write Up My Life. You can also read the story of how Kristyn Crow came to be represented by Kendra Marcus at the Guide to Literary Agents blog.

D.L. King put together some interesting notes from a lecture Kendra Marcus gave at SCBWI Spokane. There's also a few good points from Kendra on Paul Greci's blog.

I really enjoyed this podcast at Just One More Book!! It was fun to hear straight from Kendra Marcus herself.

BookStop Literary has a Facebook page as well as a page at Publishers Marketplace.

Kendra Marcus accepts both mail and email submissions. You can learn more by reading Bookstop Literary's submission guidelines. Also be sure to check out the information page which gives a few tips on what Ms. Marcus is looking for.

Kendra Marcus represents:
Pam Muñoz Ryan

Megan McDonald

& Rebecca O'Connell 













This post is part of the Monster List of Picture Book Agents. If you have any changes that you think should be made to this listing, please contact me or leave them in the comments. Thanks!

Book Signing!

I did a book signing over the weekend. It's actually the first straight book signing I've done for Bedtime Monster. My two other events have been library presentations, so people come expecting a book. This signing was at a Spring Bazaar that promotes women in business. I suspect that no one's ever seen an author signing books at one of those in my little town. But, it was actually pretty fun.

The day started out with me winning the prize for being the last participant to register. My being last is really no surprise, but I've never gotten a prize for being a procrastinator. Now that's more like it. Awesome!

Someone from the city got my book for her kids and told me that she'd actually heard about my book! From where she couldn't remember, but I was just excited to know that someone who didn't know me had heard about Bedtime Monster and remembered it! (I know, little things can get me overly excited.)

There was a lady who was so happy to meet me. She is certain that I am going to be famous. She hugged me AND GAVE ME A PIE! Blueberry!!!

My favorite part...a little boy of around two years old was walking by my table, hand in hand with his grandma. She was looking straight ahead, headed somewhere else, but when he saw Bedtime Monster, he ran his hand across it, and let out a squeal of delight. Grandma stopped and bought him the book (grandmas are awesome like that) and I got to meet the sweetest little boy who is going to be reading Bedtime Monster over and over from the looks of things.

So, all in all, I sold some books, made some friends, and had a good time. Not too bad for a Saturday morning!

My Favorite Picture Books

I'm so excited! I'm featured on Sergio Ruzzier's blog today! I love Sergio's books. I can so relate with AMANDINA and I love, love, love THE ROOM OF WONDERS.

Sergio asked me if I would share my list of favorite picture books with him. Of course, I said yes! It was hard to narrow it down, but I got the list down to ten I really love. If you want to check out my list you can see it on Sergio's blog.

I'd love to check out some of your favorite picture books if you want to share them with me in the comments. I'm always up for new favorites!

Manuscript and Query/Cover Letter Critque up for Bid

The Children's Authors and Illustrators for Japan auction was organized by children's book author, Greg R. Fishbone, to benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. There are lots of great items up for bid from signed books to school visits to artwork.

Today my picture book manuscript and query/cover letter critique is up for bid. I should have added to my description that rhyming really isn't my thing although, like many before me, I have tried my hand at it a few times. I have done a ton of critiquing (and writing!) of both picture books and query and cover letters, have gotten a lot of good feedback on many a manuscript and *gasp* even sold a picture book! If you're interested you can check out my auction item at #kidlit4japan. The auction ends April 7, 2011 at 10 a.m. EDT.