©DON TATE
ILLUSTRATION
Agents: How the right one came at just the right time
A few weeks after receiving the manuscript for SURE AS SUNRISE, I find myself giving a speaking presentation at an illustrators event for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. I had just discussed the importance of finding a good agent even though I had lukewarm feelings about my own experiences with them. On my way home, I stopped at our subdivision's group mailboxes to find a letter with a return address of SHELDON FOGELMAN AGENCY, INC., New York, N.Y. I immediately threw the letter at my wife, "Open this, somebody is suing us!" The letter was from Linda Pratt, a literary agent with the Sheldon Fogelman Agency. Exciting! She went on to say that she had discovered one of my books at a recent American Library Association convention. The main thing I remember about her was that she was very enthusiastic about my work. She mentioned that James Ransome, Bryan Collier, and Brian Pinkney were also clients of theirs.
I had never heard of this agency, but merely mentioning the name to others in the business caused mouths to drop. I'm very excited. I called James Ransome to get his insight and he spoke very well of the agency.
The problem, I was already working with two other agents. Suzanne Cruise Agency in Leawood, Kansas and Tammy Shannon and Associates in New York. I liked Suzanne Cruise Agency. She had represented me well for the past six years. She called me frequently with work from educational publishers and greeting card companies. Once while closing on my home, I found myself $1,000.00 short of what I needed for closing. Suzanne forwarded me the money and found work for me to pay it back. She's done this a few times. This is a good agent, so do I just sever that relationship? But I felt that Suzanne's location in Kansas might hinder her ability to get me the kind of work I really wanted from publishers in New York. I'm not an exclusive sign-on-the-dotted-line illustrator for either agency, so Linda Pratt with Sheldon Fogelman Agency was open to signing me on exclusively with them. I still work with Suzanne and Tammy for educational or general illustration, but Sheldon Fogelman Agency now handles my tradebook work.
I handed off the SURE AS SUNRISE project to Linda who did all the negotiating with Houghton Mifflin. The folks at Sheldon Fogelman Agency have been really nice. "Nice? That's a strange description," you're thinking. But, I have found that many agents can be terse and downright rude. They can act irritated when you call with questions and treat you like you're a bother. So its great when your treated fairly, like you are important, and your questions and concerns are answered in a timely manner. Your agent is someone you have to trust and how can you trust someone who treats you like some kind of pesky art groupie?