Agent Talk at Story Studio

     This saturday I’ll be attending a workshop at Story Studio, a writing community space on Chicago’s north side. The workshop is called “Agent Talk” and it will focus on a variety of topics from current Children’s book trends to what catches an agent’s eye. The guest speaker is Jennifer Mattson of Andrea Brown Literary Agency. I’m excited about it, because I’ve just begun to look for an agent for my middle grade novel, The Adventures of Marcus Tuttle, and the topics are all interesting to me.             
     They’ll be reading a selection of first pages as well. That’s when attendees bring the first page of their manuscript to be read aloud. The pages are collected at the door and a random selection gets picked for Ms.Mattson to critique. I’ve been to a couple of conferences in which first pages were critiqued and it’s quite informative. Sometimes, though, it’s hard if your page wasn’t selected. You feel disappointed and unlucky. But I think that’s a part of searching for an agent that’s important to keep in mind. Sometimes it can be about luck as well as hard work and talent.
     I’ll post highlights and share information and tips that I gather from the “Agent Talk” next week.