Sheldon Fogelman founded the Sheldon Fogelman Literary Agency in 1975, and represents many award-winning authors and illustrators. Notes from his words of wisdom and expertise are written below.
1. Publishing is a business where agents and publishers are looking at books to generate income.
2. Keep writing and be persistent.
3. Keep learning. Attend conferences, read organization materials, find information on the internet, find who does good critic work and find those who doesn't.
4. Get a good agent. SCBWI has a list of agents. Talk to people who are satisfied with their agents.
5. You can’t work effectively if you have financial burdens. Make sure you get a good agent so they can help you with your business and so that you can focus on what you do best – writing and/or illustrating.
6. If you’re in the industry, look out of the industry. If you’re new to this industry, look into the industry and learn.
7. Find a good critic group who can provide you good feedback on your writing and who can be your support group.
8. You must have a plan. Know what projects you want to pursue. Go beyond having an idea and put it on paper!
9. Write a prose or manuscript and give it to your critic group and others to read it. This helps you get more ideas from the feedback you receive.
10. If you’re an illustrator and not a great writer, rewrite stories from the public domain.
11. You need to be open to new ideas.
12. Don’t be distracted by others and keep doing what you are doing.
13. Be open to criticism.
14. Your work speaks for itself. You don’t have to tell an agent what you can do with your writing as in; telling them you can make your manuscript into a film, video games or toys. Your work speaks for itself and the agents will know what to do.
Great notes. Very clear too. Thanks for sharing. Sure wish I could have been there. But this is almost as good.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I actually thought about you when I heard his speech. You might want to query him.
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