SCBWI Conference Notes: Laura Rennert
Give me a shout out if these notes are still helpful even though I am posting everything weeks later. Laura Rennert is an agent at Andrea Brown Agency which has been around for 25 years, and I have to say I was totally blown away by her break-out session. I go to a lot of these conferences, and most of the spiels by agents and editors focus on submission policies and rarely go beyond what you can find on the company website. Laura Rennert prepared a real presentation with so much information I could barely write fast enough.
Ms. Rennert comes to agenting by way of academia. She has a PhD in English and was a professor for eight years. She got tired of working with dead authors and wanted to work with living ones. She gets excited about working with new writers and building a career with them.
What she likes & represents: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Ellen Hopkins' books. She enjoys books that can crossover into adult. She says the market right now is good for MG & YA. Fantasy is a bit saturated so the bar is high. If it's fantasy they are looking for something that hasn't been seen before. She enjoys humor and dark intimate stories with emotional power. Looking for books with multiple hooks, ex: historical romance.
Tough picture book market, looking for 4,5,6 year-old PBs that are 600-1,000 words, but still have full story. Can't be slight. Wants picture books that start with an intriguing problem from a child's perspective. Enjoys language play, repetition, humor. Looks for the universals of childhood--render the ordinary extraordinary.
Middle Grade for 7-12 year olds, 150 pages max. Looking for emotional uplift, preservation of childhood. Likes Penderwicks series. MG nonfiction like Lightning Thief. Voice--likes Lemony Snicket.
Young Adult, 12-up, 150-250 pages. 14 is youngest for protagonist. Warns authors to watch out for too much erotic material. Looks for an involved and passionate voice, strong characterization, dynamic and memorable change or transformation in the character. Likes vivid plots with a narrative arc and forward momentum. Books get episodic if they don't build situation upon situation. Must be external forces that create tension and internal obstacles. Climax is the ultimate expression of the forces of antagonism. Not looking for a gift-wrapped ending. Wants an openness where the character lives on after the end. With endings you must keep your promises. If there is sin, there must be redemption. Let main character be the one to resolve things.
If a scene doesn't advance the plot or develop the characters (ideally each scene should do both) delete or rewrite the scene. Use suspense, but nothing should be solved all at once.
Ms. Rennert comes to agenting by way of academia. She has a PhD in English and was a professor for eight years. She got tired of working with dead authors and wanted to work with living ones. She gets excited about working with new writers and building a career with them.
What she likes & represents: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Ellen Hopkins' books. She enjoys books that can crossover into adult. She says the market right now is good for MG & YA. Fantasy is a bit saturated so the bar is high. If it's fantasy they are looking for something that hasn't been seen before. She enjoys humor and dark intimate stories with emotional power. Looking for books with multiple hooks, ex: historical romance.
Tough picture book market, looking for 4,5,6 year-old PBs that are 600-1,000 words, but still have full story. Can't be slight. Wants picture books that start with an intriguing problem from a child's perspective. Enjoys language play, repetition, humor. Looks for the universals of childhood--render the ordinary extraordinary.
Middle Grade for 7-12 year olds, 150 pages max. Looking for emotional uplift, preservation of childhood. Likes Penderwicks series. MG nonfiction like Lightning Thief. Voice--likes Lemony Snicket.
Young Adult, 12-up, 150-250 pages. 14 is youngest for protagonist. Warns authors to watch out for too much erotic material. Looks for an involved and passionate voice, strong characterization, dynamic and memorable change or transformation in the character. Likes vivid plots with a narrative arc and forward momentum. Books get episodic if they don't build situation upon situation. Must be external forces that create tension and internal obstacles. Climax is the ultimate expression of the forces of antagonism. Not looking for a gift-wrapped ending. Wants an openness where the character lives on after the end. With endings you must keep your promises. If there is sin, there must be redemption. Let main character be the one to resolve things.
If a scene doesn't advance the plot or develop the characters (ideally each scene should do both) delete or rewrite the scene. Use suspense, but nothing should be solved all at once.