Live Chat with Agent Tina Wexler - Thursday, June 26 at 7PM Eastern

aqcrew

Summer is here and we're celebrating the Solstice with the big kick-off of our new online cafe chat series with literary agents.

For this reason, we are very pleased to announce the arrival of our first cafe chat guest, literary agent Tina Wexler of ICM.

Ms. Wexler will be dropping by on Thursday, June 26 at 7PM Eastern to chat it up with the AQ Connect community. http://agentquery.leveragesoftware.com/chat_list.aspx

You can check out her AQ agent profile here.
http://agentquery.com/agent.aspx?agentid=627

Also, be sure to check out Ms. Wexler's responses to our AQC questionnaire (see below).

Between now and chat time next week, feel free to post any specific questions for Ms. Wexler in this group thread leading up to the live chat. Ms. Wexler will be reviewing these questions before her arrival on the 26th.

We're also pleased to announce that our very own AQ Connect member, Jean Oram, will be serving as the official AQC cafe chat moderator. She'll be in-charge of keeping chats friendly, informative, and a maximum of one hour!

It's going to be a great summer. Stay tuned...

tinawexler

1. Official Bio

Tina Wexler is an agent at ICM, representing writers in both the children’s and adult marketplace. Prior to joining ICM, she was with the Ellen Levine Literary Agency/Trident Media and the Karpfinger Agency. She is from southern Maine, holds an MFA in poetry, and lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband.


2. What types of works (genres) are you actively seeking at this time?

On the adult side, I am looking to acquire narrative nonfiction and up-market commercial fiction. I'm particularly interested in popular science, food (not cookbooks), pop culture, memoir, religion, art history, women’s issues (however defined), and modernized retellings of popular myths and legends. On the children's side, I'm interested in young adult fiction and middle grade fiction. I love mysteries, adventure stories with boy appeal, coming of age stories, tall tales, and paranormal fiction.

3. Submission preference regarding queries from AQ Connect members.

Please send a query letter via post or email. If sending a query via email, please paste any attachments into the body of the email; I won't open attachments or follow links to on-line queries. If sending a query via post, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for my response.

4. Names and title of a few of your current clients (and links to their blogs/websites) -- this is an opportunity to promote them as well!

Donna Gephart, AS IF BEING 12 3/4 ISN'T BAD ENOUGH, MY MOTHER IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT http://www.donnagephart.com/
Susan Runholt, THE MYSTERY OF THE THIRD LUCRETIA http://www.susanrunholt.com/
Anne Ursu, THE SHADOW THIEVES and THE SIREN SONG http://www.cronuschronicles.com/
Sanjay Patel's THE LITTLE BOOK OF HINDU DEITIES http://www.gheehappy.com/
Jeannine Garsee's BEFORE, AFTER, AND SOMEBODY IN BETWEEN http://www.jeanninegarsee.com
Helen Brenna's TREASURE; DAD FOR LIFE; and PEAK PERFORMANCE http://www.helenbrenna.com
Laurel Snyder's UP AND DOWN THE SCRATCHY MOUNTAINS http://laurelsnyder.com/

5. Thoughts or commentary about trends within the commercial publishing industry.

It's an interesting time to be in publishing. New business models are being developed--Bob Miller's HarperStudio, for one--and e-books continue to increase in popularity now that the technology is there to support them. I'm eager to see how these two developments impact the industry at large.

6. Words of wisdom or inspiration for new writers seeking publication with a major publishing house.

Do your homework: read what's being published in the area you aspire to be published in, research the agents who represent those authors, draft and redraft your query letter to send to those agents, and, most importantly, finish writing your manuscript. Revise. Revise. Revise. And read your work aloud.

jeanoram

Hello Tina. And welcome!

Your authors listed above all have beautiful websites! It has got to be very satisfying watching them come into their own as writers.

I was wondering what (if any) conferences you plan to attend in the next six months or so? As well, based on past experiences, how likely are you to find a new writer you are interested in representing at a conference compared to through a query?

Thanks and I'm looking forward to next week's chat.

elizabethmagill

Hello Tina,

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us--I really appreciate the opportunity!

I was wondering how important it is to have prior publications before approaching an agent. I've completed my first novel, and I have one short story published in a minor literary journal. Is it better to look for an agent now, or to wait until I've written and published some shorter works (short stories and essays) before approaching agents?

Thanks!

Elizabeth Magill

cianoh

Agents have often remarked that they've turned down manuscripts that they loved because there was no market for them. Given the current state of publishing, are you finding that editors are becoming more risk averse and sticking with the same old, same old, or are they taking chances with debut fiction that isn't a safe bet?

In that same vein, do you think that the major publishing houses need to use focus groups and the like to improve their sales? Do they have any means of determining what the reading public is after?

cacomixtle

I have written and published non-fiction (books, magazine stories and newspaper columns on food, wine, and travel) for almost thirty years without going through an agent. But I have just finished a novel, and almost completed a second one, and feel like I am entering terra incognita. Do you think I should continue working directly with publishers directly, as I have successfully done in the past or would I be better of working with an agent?

(The last of these books, by the way, was finished last spring and is at the printer right now.)

jeanoram

A big thanks to Tina for taking on the jumble of guests tonight! She did great and I know we all appreciated her replies.

aqcrew

Wow, if you missed the online chat, it was -- as our Spanish radio would say -- an espectácuuuulooooo.

Tina was fearless as our first agent guest. She answered questions from over thirty AQC members -- all in under an hour. She talked about her love of MG (middle grade books), her dislike for political thrillers, and the three main things she's looking for in ANY manuscript. And she named these key elements in their order of importance. She was professional, friendly, gracious, and witty. She was, in a word, exceptional.

And kudos to Moderator Jean, who was juggling AQC members along with balls, knives, plates, daggers. At one point, someone tossed out a goat. Jean caught it with one hand and tossed it around for a few turns.

Who knew goats could be juggled? Impressive is an UNDERstatement.

If you missed it -- goats and all -- be sure to check out the transcript by clicking VIEW TRANSCRIPT
http://agentquery.leveragesoftware.com/chat_view.aspx?id=463d3259549c4ec8baebe2685b52f183

Thanks again to Ms. Wexler for braving the den of AQCs. We're a wild and crazy bunch. Yes, we are.