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You’ve Received an Offer from an Agent. Now What?

By on June 30, 2025   /   For Writers, Publishing & Promotion  

Receiving an offer of representation from an agent is so exciting…especially after all your hard work. Celebrate! Then take some time to come up with important questions to ask before saying yes. Because not having an agent is better than having the wrong one for you and your career.

First Steps

Hopefully, you researched the agent before submitting, but there are times when you’ve received a critique, won a contest or an agent passed you on to another interested agent where you may not know enough about the agent. When they offer, thank them and let them know you’ll need two weeks to respond.

If you have queries or full manuscripts out with other agents, now is the time to contact them. If you’ve communicated via e-mail, reply in the thread but change the subject to OFFER OF REPRESENTATION. If you communicate through QueryManager, there’s a button to press to notify them of an offer. Give them two weeks to respond (even better if you can give them a deadline at least a day or two before you need to make your final decision, so you won’t feel too rushed).

Deciding Between Agents

I’m a huge fan of keeping a pro/con list for each offering agent. You can add to the list by:

  • Researching them online, in places like Querytracker.net and Publishers Marketplace (if they’re a new agent at an established agency, you can research the agency itself and make sure they have a mentor and the support they’ll need).
  • Asking them questions.
  • Chatting with their clients (hint: one of the most helpful questions to ask a client is what are one or two things you’d like to change about working with your agent).
  • Reading our Agent Spotlights.

Potential Questions to Ask the Agent

There are so many great questions you can ask! Have a list ready…but before you dive into it, realize that some may be answered while you chat. THE CALL can be such a wonderful blur, it’s good to take notes.

Here are some questions to consider asking:

  • How many editors do you submit to each round?
  • How often do you believe I’ll go out on submission rounds?
  • If I receive an editor request from a critique/conference/contest, would you send it to them?
  • How do you let me know where my manuscript is submitted and responses you receive?
  • Do you have publishers in mind for my novel? (They may not want to say the editor’s names at this point, but it’s nice to see if you have similar taste in houses.)
  • What’s your preferred method of communication with clients…and how long does it usually take you to respond?
  • Are there times when your communication might be less frequent?
  • At what stage would you like to know about future novels (share the idea before plunging in, after the first draft is finished, or after I’ve revised as much as possible)?
  • How many projects can I send you throughout the year?
  • Are you an editorial agent…and if so, how long does it typically take you to send feedback?
  • Do you plan to have me revise before submitting…and if so, ask for details to make sure you have the same vision for your book.
  • Have you cut clients, and if so…why?
  • How many editors do you submit to before giving up on a book?
  • If you aren’t able to agent for a period of time, what happens? (I don’t like asking this question, but it’s important to know. The agency that represents me pairs each agent with another one who can jump in and help clients, if needed. I hope it never will be necessary, but it’s good to know I’m covered.)

Final Tips

This can be an exciting, confusing, and stressful time…especially if you receive multiple offers. It often helps to chat about the agent/s with trusted critique partners and writing friends. After examining the pros and cons, listen to your gut. Does this feel right? Is the agent someone you can work with as a partner, without being afraid to ask questions or worrying they’ll drop you?

If you have additional questions, you can e-mail the agent or ask for another chat.

After all this, I hope you’ll sign with the most amazing agent for you and your career. And then…CELEBRATE!

Do you have any agent tips to add?

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Notes of Hope when the world is too much

By on June 28, 2025   /   For Teachers, For Writers, Teacher Tips, Writing  

When it seems like the world is just too much for our kids, when we witness hurt, fear, loneliness, a middle schooler’s loss of family or friends, it’s time to spread some hope. This is exactly how Libby, who comes from a long line of bullies, fights her reputation after finding a stone painted with the words Create the world of your dreams, in Flight of the Puffin by Ann Braden. In searching for ways to create that world, Libby, a lonely and art driven middle schooler, sets off a chain reaction of notes of hope when she writes You are awesome on an index card and leaves it outside for someone else who might need a bolster to find.

My own decision to create Notes of Hope with my students came as a project at Mount Mary University to coincide a visit from Diana Chao, originator of Letters to Strangers, to speak about “the largest global youth-run nonprofit seeking to destigmatize mental illness and increase access to affordable, quality treatment, particularly for youth.”

Letters to Strangers, recognizing that it often takes one voice to raise us up, collaborates with student clubs on campuses to write anonymous, heartfelt letters to share vulnerabilities and offer support for others who fight through difficult times.

My class, a group of future teachers, social workers, art therapists, and communication majors, was studying Young Adult Literature. We focused that semester on the literature of mental health and hope. We created origami envelopes using craft cover stock and wrote and decorated notes with ribbons, drawings, and our messages. We wanted to spread the word that creating the world of your dreams, can happen one note of hope at a time. Our Notes of Hope were included as part of the centerpieces at the speakers’ lunch. But my students found the exercise so uplifting that they created over 100 notes and saved some for friends and family, and dropped many more throughout campus knowing the found notes would bolster someone’s day.

Notes of Hope created by students at Mount Mary University and St. Joan Antida High School in Milwaukee

I repeated this activity with a high school group at St. Joan Antida High School in Milwaukee, and again, the group experienced an amazing day of peaceful sharing as they designed their notes and wrote hopeful phrases. While I strongly encourage students to write their own words, they were allowed to share those of artists and authors. Although many students began with published words of wisdom, as they personalized their notes, they wrote their own words offering praise for strength and calm and supporting those who struggle with self- esteem and mental health issues. This is an activity that would surely be successful with all ages.

 

In preparing students for this activity, we read Braden’s novel and studied the work of Letters to Strangers. I also created a sample note with Emily Dickenson’s poem:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all –

Notes of Hope isn’t the only effort to stamp out loneliness and bullying and hate. Author Braden developed the Local Love Brigade where Vermont residents send out postcards to support Vermonters experiencing hate. In an interview for the vt digger, Braden explained her motivation. “Love can be seen as a soft and gentle emotion, but it can also be fierce and strong and powerful. That’s really what we’re channeling here.”

I’d love to see what you and your students create to spread hope and create the world of your dreams. Drop me a line and I’ll post your photos. (aangel@aol.com).

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Cozy Middle Grade Summer Reads

By on June 27, 2025   /   Book Lists  

Summer is the best time to find that perfect spot of shade under a large tree, or snuggle up with a comfy blanket on your favorite chair and read a good book. If you’re looking for something extra cozy to read this summer, here are a few cozy middle grade reads published in the last few years that will warm your heart.

 

A Spoonful of Time by Flora Ahn
A middle grade novel in which time travel, family recipes, and family secrets collide.

There’s something almost magical about the way Maya’s grandmother cooks–and although Halmunee may be losing her memory, she always knows how to make the most delicious gimbap. Maya doesn’t remember her family’s old life in Korea, but she learns new recipes and stories when they cook together–stories that Maya’s mom would prefer stayed in the past, especially if they involve Maya’s father.

One summer day, as Maya and Halmunee are making patbingsu, something unbelievable happens: a single delicious bite transports Maya and Halmunee back in time, into the memory itself. Halmunee explains that their family has the ability to time travel through food–and Maya can do it too, if she practices.

As she eats her way through the past, Maya tries to unravel the mystery of what life was like in Korea, and what really happened to her dad. She learns that time moves in ways she couldn’t imagine . . . and that sometimes, families keep secrets to protect the ones they love.

 

 

Just Gus by McCall Hoyle
A boy and his dog learn that they are better together.

Gus is a livestock guardian dog with one job—protecting his farm from coyotes and foxes. He likes keeping the sheep, the chickens, and his humans safe, and he’s very good at it.

One day, Diego and his dad come to visit the farm, and Gus immediately connects to the small boy. They both like to sit still and enjoy the quiet, and Gus can tell that Diego likes being around a gentle giant of a dog, that it helps relieve the boy’s constant worry.

When Gus detects the scent of a bear in the woods, he rushes to protect his flock, injuring his leg in a fight with the dangerous beast. Wounded, Gus needs to rest and heal away from his sheep, so he doesn’t risk reinjuring his leg. Diego suggests Gus come home with them to the North Carolina coast.

Suddenly, Gus is thrust into a new world of saltwater and sand and neighbors who don’t appreciate the presence of a large guard dog, like the neighbor who reminds Gus of his first owner—the junkyard man with the heavy boots.

Gus realizes Diego might need a friend as much as his sheep need a protector, but if he can’t learn to control his instincts, like barking and patrolling the neighborhood, Gus might lose his chance to stay in his new home. If he can’t protect the farm or his boy, Gus worries he might never find his place in the world.

Just Gus is a tender story of belonging and of two friends who learn they are better together than they were alone.

 

 

Unsinkable Cayenne by Jessica Vitalis
When her unconventional parents finally agree to settle down in one place, twelve-year-old Cayenne’s dreams come true—but the reality of fitting in is much harder than she imagined. Acclaimed author Jessica Vitalis crafts an unforgettable historical novel-in-verse about belonging, family, and social class for fans of Lisa Fipps’s Starfish and Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home.

Cayenne and her family drift from place to place, living in their van. It hasn’t been a bad life—Cayenne and her mother birdwatch in every new location, they have a cozy setup in the van, and they sing and dance and bond over campfires most nights. But they’ve never belonged anywhere.As Cayenne enters seventh grade, her parents decide to settle down in a small Montana town. Cayenne hopes that this means she will finally fit in and make some friends. But it turns out that staying in one place isn’t easy.

As her social studies class studies the Titanic tragedy (the wreckage has just been discovered and her teacher is obsessed), Cayenne sees more and more parallels between the social strata of the infamous ship and her own life. Will she ever squeeze her way into the popular girls’ clique, even though they live in fancy houses on the hill, and she lives in a tiny, rundown home with chickens in the front yard? Is it possible that the rich boy she likes actually likes her back? Can she find a way to make room for herself in this town? Does she really want to? Maybe being “normal” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Unsinkable Cayenne is a character-driven novel-in-verse about family, friendship, first crushes, and fitting in.

 

 

Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson, Niña Mata (Illustrator)
Ryan Hart loves to spend time with her friends, loves to invent recipes, and has a lot on her mind—school, self-image, and family. Her dad finally has a new job, but money is tight. That means changes like selling their second car and moving into a new (old) house.

But Ryan is a girl who knows how to make sunshine out of setbacks. Because Ryan is all about trying to see the best. Even when things aren’t all she would wish for—her brother is infuriating, her parents don’t understand, when her recipes don’t turn out right, and when the unexpected occurs—she can find a way forward, with wit and plenty of sunshine.

 

 

 

 

Ferris by Kate DiCamillo
A Heartfelt and Humorous Middle-Grade Coming-of-Age Novel About Family, Ghosts, and Growing Up
It’s the summer before fifth grade, and for Ferris Wilkey, it is a summer of sheer pandemonium: Her little sister, Pinky, has vowed to become an outlaw. Uncle Ted has left Aunt Shirley and, to Ferris’s mother’s chagrin, is holed up in the Wilkey basement to paint a history of the world. And Charisse, Ferris’s grandmother, has started seeing a ghost at the threshold of her room, which seems like an alarming omen given that she is also feeling unwell.

But the ghost is not there to usher Charisse to the Great Beyond. Rather, she has other plans—wild, impractical, illuminating plans. How can Ferris satisfy a specter with Pinky terrorizing the town, Uncle Ted sending Ferris to spy on her aunt, and her father battling an invasion of raccoons?

As Charisse likes to say, “Every good story is a love story.”

 

 

The Blossoming Summer by Anna Rose Johnson (Coming this July)
When English thirteen-year-old Rosemary is evacuated to her grandmother in America at the start of World War II, she uncovers the family secret—they are Anishinaabe and passing as white.

Life in England is all Rosemary has ever known. . . but as WWII changes the world, no one’s life is left unscathed. Suddenly, she’s sent away to escape the devastation of London. Her grandmother’s house on Lake Superior is safe, but unfamiliar, especially as she discovers her parents have kept a tremendous secret.

Rosemary and her family are Anishinaabe—and no one is supposed to know.

Far from home but newly connected to a once-hidden part of her family, Rosemary develops a warm, close relationship with her grandmother… and a local boy whose love of gardening helps her to see the beauty in her unexpected circumstances. As Rosemary grows into her new life like a flower in bloom, she realizes that maybe she’s not as far from home as she thought.

Tender, sophisticated, and sweet, this is a beautiful story about memory, family, and identity. Rising Ojibwe author Anna Rose Johnson addresses the trauma of World War II and the legacies of hidden indigeneity alongside coming-of-age milestones like first crushes, new schools, and beginning to imagine the life you want.

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