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Agent Spotlight: Meet Literary Agent Sally Kim

By on August 29, 2024   /   Articles, Editor / Agent Spotlight, For Writers   /   1 Comment

We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Sally Kim to the agent spotlight here at From The Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors. Sally is a literary agent with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency (ABLA). She represents fiction and non-fiction picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and graphic novels and is especially eager to see authentic explorations of underrepresented cultures, relationships, and identities.

Sally took time out of her busy agenting life to share more about her pre-kidlit career, what she loves about being an agent, and some cool books from ABLA to check out.

From The Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors: How did you become an agent? 

Sally Kim, literary agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency

Sally Kim: After 15+ wonderful years in children’s book publishing, I was looking for my next big opportunity and specifically, I wanted to return to working closely with individual authors and illustrators. At the advice of trusted colleagues in the industry, I sought out informational calls with a handful of well-respected literary agents and asked them what it took to be an all-around exceptional agent. What qualities were essential from Day 1 and what skills could be learned on the job? My goal was to objectively assess my potential before taking the leap. To my delight, all the conversations went very well and strengthened my resolve to move forward. In a few short months, I was thrilled to find a place with Andrea Brown Literary Agency. I haven’t looked back since!

 

MUF: Your pre-agenting background was in kidlit marketing and publicity. How do those skills translate in your current role? 

SK: My years working in marketing and publicity gave me broad exposure to the children’s book market and an understanding of how publishers work to connect books to readers, to adapt to the ever-shifting landscape of key retailers and sales channels, and to day-in and day-out launch new books and make each of them stand out from the crowd. As a marketer, I spent many years partnering with colleagues in editorial and sales to participate in heated auctions, build bestselling brands and series, and position books for long-term success.

I believe as a new agent, I am uniquely positioned to help my clients understand how their work, whether it be a lyrical picture book or a middle grade novel-in-verse, fits into the market and where it can find its target readership. And in my time in publishing, I particularly enjoyed collaborating closely with authors and illustrators on their launch campaigns–traveling with them to conferences, bookstore appearances, and just generally evangelizing about their talent. There’s a lot of great crossover to life as an agent.

MUF:  What does a typical workday look like for you?  

SK: There is no typical day! But I can definitely describe a typical work week. The first thing to note is that while I build my career as a literary agent, I am still working as an independent consultant for children’s book publishers around the world. I’m often on early morning Zoom calls with folks on France and late afternoon calls with folks in Australia.

Thankfully, my consulting work is very flexible and I still have plenty of time and energy for agenting. In a typical week, this includes giving clients feedback on their manuscripts, strategizing on the next project to go out with, researching potential editors for an upcoming pitch, having calls with individual editors to get to know their tastes and current wishlists, and of course reading queries! Always reading queries!

Also, I should say that the agents at Andrea Brown are incredibly communicative and collaborative. All day long, we’re chatting on Slack and over email, sharing feedback and suggestions with one another on any number of topics. I’m soaking it all in and eagerly learning from my peers and mentors.

MUF: What’s your least favorite part of your job as an agent?

SK: I think my clients will agree with me, but every time an editor passes on a project, it’s hard not to feel momentarily discouraged. But I like to tell myself (and them!) that it’s all part of the process. Upward and onward we go.

MUF: What’s your favorite? 

SK: That elusive moment when I’m deep in the trenches of queries, reading my twentieth manuscript of the night and suddenly I’m blown away by a project from start to finish. The good ones really jump out and grab you in the best, most exciting way. The thrill of discovery is real!

MUF: Book bans are on our minds. What should writers, readers, parents, librarians, and other do to support access to books for kids? 

SK: Great question. And as I type out my answer, I’m really talking to myself most of all. We should all try to keep up with the latest on book ban news. Learn which of your favorite authors are being affected and make every effort to support them through it. Speak up and speak out about the harmful effects of book bans to your friends, family, and your larger community. Use every opportunity to amplify messages that support the freedom to read.

And have you heard of Authors Against Book Bans? If you are a book creator of any kind, I encourage you to join. And please listen to Jenn Laughran’s Literaticast podcast interview with founding members Maggie Tokuda-Hall and David Levithan. The episode goes live this month (August 2024) and I will be first in line to listen and take notes.

MUF: Any kidlit books coming out soon (or just out!) from your clients that we should keep an eye out for?  

SK: Yes! While I’m about to go out on submission with my first MG project (fingers crossed!), I going to take the opportunity to recommend several exceptionally good books written by other agency clients. Please check them out!

Vega's Piece of the Sky by Jennifer Torres

 

MUF: Where can people find you online? (Social media, work website, other) 

SK: Let’s connect! Please query me at https://querymanager.com/query/sallyabla. Follow me online on Instagram @sallymkim and Bluesky @sallymkim.bsky.social. And to learn more about Andrea Brown Literary agency, go to our website:  https://www.andreabrownlit.com.

 

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STEM Tuesday — Oceans — Author Interview with Jennifer Swanson

By on August 27, 2024   /   Oceans, STEM Tuesday   /   1 Comment

 

 

I’m excited to welcome award-winning STEM author Jennifer Swanson

Jennifer Swanson

to the STEM Tuesday blog today.  She’s going to share her book journey with us.

 

 

 

 

 

Get ready to take a deep dive into the mysterious world of an underwater forest!

The Lost Forest book by Jennifer Swanson

The Lost Forest: An Unexpected Discovery Beneath the Waves (Millbrook Press, April 2, 2024)

A Junior Library Guild Selection

“A detailed, thought-provoking account of the work of scientists.”―Kirkus Reviews

“This book details the fascinating story of the dedicated scuba divers and their work to locate and preserve the area. No one has ever found such a unique habitat, and hopefully, no one will be able to disturb it as scientists work to keep it safe. Readers who enjoy earthly mysteries will enjoy this title. Reviewer Rating: 5″―Children’s Literature

“Swanson, who shadowed the scientists, documents their methods and discoveries in an appealing narrative, complemented by photos of the scientists in action. In the process, readers learn such amazing details as the dangers of diving, organizing experiments, gene sequencing, and finding new species.”―Booklist

 

 

ST:  Thanks for being here, Jennifer. What can you tell us about how your book, The Lost Forest, came to be published?

JS: Thanks so much for having me. I’m thrilled to share my story. Here goes:

This book was tons of fun to research and write! Why? Because I got to hang out with two amazing science teams and watch them in action as they researched an amazing discovery under the sea. My book journey is a lesson in making connections with people. I am lucky enough to be good friends with one of the scientists that was an expert on my Astronaut-Aquanaut book. His name is Dr. Brian Helmuth, and he works at Northeastern University and Nahant Marine Science Center. I’ve known Brian since 2016 when I reached out via email to ask him to be an expert on
my Astronaut-Aquanaut book and we have stayed in touch since then.

In April 2020, he was a member of a team of scientists from Ocean Genome Legacy
Center and the Nahant Marine Science Center at Northeastern University that had received a
grant from the National Science Foundation to dive on an ancient underwater forest discovered
off the coast of Alabama.

Introduction page from the book, The Lost Forest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the email I received from Brian in April 2020, he asked me if I’d be interested in writing a children’s book on the team’s research journey.My response was, “Would I? Absolutely!”
So, Brian talked to Dr. Dan Distel, the principal investigator of the project and suggested
that I become an ad hoc member of the team. They both agreed, and the rest, as they say, was
history. I got an inside view of how a real science team conducts their research. I was SO
excited!

Team of scientists from The Lost Forest book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why is this forest so awesome? This forest isn’t just any forest, it’s composed of cypress
wood. Cypress doesn’t normally grow in water, so it makes sense that this forest was once on
land. Researchers determined that the forest was approximately 60,000 years old. Talk about
As an adjunct member of the team, I was invited to go on one of their research trips into
the Gulf of Mexico—to go out to the real site (kept secret so that furniture companies wouldn’t
harvest it to make furniture).

Unfortunately, we all know what happened in 2020 (covid!), so the dive scheduled for September 2020 didn’t take place. Instead, the team had virtual meetings todiscuss what they had learned from their dive in late 2019. I was invited to participate in several of these meetings. It was so thrilling, seeing the photos, the videos, and hearing the team discuss their findings.
An underwater forest from the book, The Lost Forest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The team was awesome! I interviewed them all and they gave me access to all of their
reports, photos, and videos. It was so exciting to get an inside look at how scientists conduct
research in the field. The entire team helped to edit the book and were with me every step of the
way. They were SO great to work with!

 

QR codes to see the scientists actual dive video of the underwater forest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m beyond proud to tell their story.
So, I invite you all to check out the book! Millbrook Press put QR codes that lead the
reader to the actual videos that the scientists took while diving. It’s incredible!
Watch my  book trailer HERE

 

You can read more about the book and purchase it HERE 

To learn more about me and the rest of my books, please visit my website:
https://jenniferswansonbooks.com/
Also, check out my podcast for kids and families. We interviewed Brian about the
Underwater Forest https://solveitforkids.com/podcast/episode-1-mapping-underwater

 

ST: Thanks for sharing your story with us, Jennifer

JS: It was my pleasure. Science ROCKS!

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Interview – Christine Virnig, author of A BITE ABOVE THE REST

By on August 26, 2024   /   Articles, Author Interviews   /   Leave a comment

I had the great luck to get to read an early copy of Christine Virnig’s latest middle-grade – a Halloween themed adventure set in the very unique town of Samhain,Wisconsin. And, even though Halloween is still a few month’s away, I’m sure my interview with Christine is going to have you itching to break out the wax vampire fangs and your best monster lawn decorations.

Please tell us a little bit about A BITE ABOVE THE REST.

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to interview me! I really appreciate it!

A Bite Above the Rest is about a kid who moves from California to Samhain, Wisconsin, a tourist town where it’s Halloween 24/7. Halloween decorations stay up year-round, people wear costumes every day, and the town hall keeps vampire hours, of all things. Being the new kid is hard enough on its own, but then a terrifying encounter with the mayor causes Caleb to wonder: Could there be more to his new hometown than meets the eye? Could real vampires and werewolves and witches be hiding amongst the fakes? He immediately sets out to uncover the truth, aided by his quirky new best friend, Tai.

The premise of this book is super interesting and super fun. What inspired you to write this story?

I was inspired to write A Bite Above the Rest from the moment the main character, Caleb, popped into my head one day. The poor kid was walking around with a wooden stake in his back pocket because he was terrified that he’d encounter a vampire or werewolf or witch at any second. But as scared as he was, nobody around him was frightened. They were all just going about their business as though nothing was wrong. I was immediately filled with questions—Who was this kid? Where was he? Why was nobody else scared?—and A Bite Above the Rest was basically my attempt to answer these questions.

You tackle some very real issues in this book. A parent’s death, a new town, bullying, and anxiety among others. What do you hope readers will take away from Caleb and Tai’s adventure?

I actually didn’t write A Bite Above the Rest with any lessons or take aways in mind; my only goal was for readers to have fun reading it. But despite this, I do hope that Caleb and Tai’s adventure will show kids that we can all be brave when we need to be, especially when we’ve got a good friend at our side.

Caleb and Tai do a lot of research on monsters. Werewolves, vampires, witches, and merfolk all play a part in this book. Do you have a favorite scary being? If so, what about them do you love?

Probably vampires?? I find their lore absolutely fascinating, and I love the idea of living f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

I have always been terrible at coming up with Halloween costumes/decorations. The thought of doing it every day is exhausting to me, so I really appreciated Caleb’s approach. What about you? Are you a Halloween superfan? Do you have a favorite costume from your childhood? Do you go all out decorating your house now?

Apart from the candy, I actually didn’t like Halloween that much when I was growing up. A large part of this dislike was the costumes; they always made me feel awkward and exposed. I still feel this way as an adult, so I’m a huge fan of Caleb-style punny costumes myself. This year I think I’ll go as a fork in the road!

And no, I don’t go all out decorating my house for Halloween. But thanks to the throngs of spiders that LOVE living by our front door, we’re at least bound to have a bunch of very authentic-looking spider webs hanging about 🙂

Will you tell us a little bit about your writing process? In particular how did you go about tackling this story?

My writing process for fiction is supremely inefficient. As soon as I come up with an idea—which might be a character, a setting, a theme—I brainstorm just enough so that I can start writing, and then I let the characters do their thing. This writing style is definitely fun (for example, I didn’t know if Caleb’s suspicions about his new town would end up being real or not until I was halfway done writing, which meant I got to be surprised too!), but it does mean I need to do a lot of revising and rewriting once I finally finish my first draft.

We know no writer is created in a vacuum. Could you tell the readers about a teacher or a librarian who had an effect on your writing life?

Yes! When I was first considering writing for children, I asked the youth librarian at the public library in Verona, Wisconsin to point me towards a few of their most popular middle grade titles. Among others, she grabbed How They Croaked by Georgia Bragg. This nonfiction book was my first introduction to the world of FUNNY nonfiction, and it inspired me to write my first two books: Dung for Dinner and Waist-Deep in Dung. I wish I knew that librarian’s name so I could thank her for unknowingly giving me the inspiration I needed to just start writing.

A Bite Above the Rest ends with Caleb getting some worrying information. Can you give us a hint about what we can look forward to next from you?

Of course! As much as I’d love to revisit the world of Caleb and Tai and Samhain at some point—and I already have some ideas!—my next book is another standalone that I hope fans of A Bite Above the Rest will really love. Slated to come out in late 2025, it features a cast of ghostly main characters who attend Phantom Academy, a school for underaged ghosts. I also have a picture book coming out sometime in the next few years, but those details are still hush hush.

 

Christine Virnig is a fan of books, candy, spooky stories, poop jokes, and coffee…in no particular order. As a former physician, Christine now spends her days writing books, reading books, and working at a library where she is surrounded by books. Christine lives in southern Wisconsin with her husband, two daughters, a ridiculous number of dust bunnies, and one incredibly lazy cat. You can visit her on the web at ChristineVirnig.com.

 

A BITE ABOVE THE REST is out now and available for purchase here or at your favorite bookstore. You can follow Christine on at her website or on Instagram.

 

 

Are you ready for some Halloween fun? If so, let us know in the comments.

 

 

 

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