Agent Advice: Kevin M. O’Connor of O’Connor Literary Agency
The best way to get advice from literary agents is to go directly to the source. In this post, get agent advice from Kevin M. O’Connor of O’Connor Literary Agency.
Since his first job out of college at Sesame Workshop, Kevin M. O’Connor has always worked at the intersection of business and creative. He has hands-on experience in a variety of media: animation, live action TV, toys, live shows, music, educational apps, and books. In addition to Sesame, O'Connor worked for Fisher-Price, VTech, Kidz Bop, Barnes & Noble, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He inked deals with Chrysler, Nestle, Intel, and all the major publishers. He is a part-time grad student at the CUNY Grad Center, researching the book as a consumer product in post-War America through the 2010s. Follow him on Instagram and Facebook.
What made you want to be an agent? And what was your journey in becoming an agent?
At the age of 22, while working for Sesame, my boss took me to her country house and I met her now-wife, the super-agent Charlotte Sheedy. I thought Charlotte led the most interesting life—meeting artists and writers; working on interesting projects; telling great stories. In my mid-40s I was looking for a career change and Charlotte took me under her wing and taught me everything I know about agenting. The life of the mind is amazing.
What was the first thing you sold, and what is the most recent thing you've sold?
My first sale was Armstrong & Charlie by Steven B. Frank, a middle-grade novel about racial integration of an elementary school in Los Angeles. It sold in a pre-empted auction in less than a week to Margaret Raymo then at HMH. When it published, it earned starred reviews and an Amazon editor’s pick. How easy is that?
My latest sale is Who We Are: The History of Anti-Black Racism in the U.S. by lawyer Jeffery Robinson to Peter Gethers and Morgan Hamilton at Knopf. Tom Hanks will do the preface.
It’s been in the works for a while, but last week Lynne Polvino at Clarion/HarperCollins announced Pajammin’ written by Ziggy Marley and illustrated by Leticia Moreno. It’s about a family sleepover in the living room with pillow forts, midnight snacks, games and fun. A great family night. It’s based on Bob Marley’s song “Jamming” and Ziggy will record a version of the song with the new lyrics. It comes out in June.
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What are you looking for right now from writers that you're not getting?
I’m always on the hunt for a character-driven picture book where the emotional arc of the character maps on to the plot. Questions I always ask: What does the character want? What are they willing to do to get it? What do they learn along the way? Most books I get—whether they be memoirs or picture books—the action happens to the characters rather than the characters actively making decisions, causing things to happen.
What excites you most about publishing right now?
After a career in kids’ media, I love stepping up to the big kids’ table and being involved in smart adult nonfiction. Hidden histories, narratives, work by academics turned trade authors. I’ve been taking classes towards a masters in Biography and Memoir and have really begun to appreciate all the different ways a memoir can go. So many interesting experiments between autofiction, memoir.
What can writers do to improve their chances of a good first impression?
I love a short and snappy pitch that makes me want to drop everything and dive into a manuscript. For my own submissions to editors, I want to convey the excitement and promise of why this book, why now, in as few words as possible.
What's the number one mistake you see in queries?
I think it’s hard to do the research into what the agent has done in the past, what they have experience with, what they’re likely to respond to. Often times, I’m just not the right guy for the query—sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, thriller, romance, YA. I’ve never worked on them, I don’t read them. I couldn’t responsibly take one on even if liked it, because I don’t know the conventions, or have the connections to editors looking for them. It’s hard to do all the homework when there are so many agents out there, and publishing feels so impersonal and intimidating. I’m understanding that I’ll get a lot of misfires. It’s part of the job.
What's your best piece of advice for writers?
Read more. That was the advice I always gotten. I just found a quote by Samuel Johnson—something like it takes devouring a half of a library to be able to write one book. I think that’s how we prime our internal AI and train ourselves to understand the power of different grammatical structures, voices, plots, etc.
Submissions:
I’m open to submissions:
Short query letter with 10 pages in the body of the email. Looking for:
- Kids’ picture books (ideally as writer-illustrator)
- Middle-grade graphic novels
- Adult nonfiction in history, biography
Surprise me with something smart! But alas I can’t be of help with genre fiction.
Michael Woodson is the content editor at Writer's Digest. Prior to joining the WD team, Michael was the editorial and marketing manager for the independent children's book publisher Blue Manatee Press. He was also the associate editor for Artists Magazine and Drawing magazine, and has written for Soapbox Cincinnati, Watercolor Artist, and VMSD magazine. An avid reader, Michael is particularly interested literary fiction and magical realism, as well as classics from Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, and E.M. Forster. When he's not reading, he's working on his own stories, going for a run at his favorite park, or cuddling up to watch a movie with his husband Josh and their dog Taran.
