The Day’s Schedule

This schedule is tentative and may change.

All times are Pacific Standard Time (PST).

• 9:00 - 10:00 am - Agent Basics 101
• 10:15 am - 11:15 am - Agents’ Panel 
• 11:15 am - 11:50 am - Lunch 
• 12:00 - 1:35 pm - Critiques for those pre-registered with Zoom consultation
• 1:45 - 2:45 pm - Roundtables for those pre-registered
• 3:00 - 4:00 pm - Editors’ Panel 

The panel presentations will be via Zoom webinar. The links will be emailed to all the registrants a few days before the event. They will also be posted in the “Meeting Info” button of this event under your “My Events” tab. 

The recordings will be emailed to all the registrants a few days after the event and will be available for viewing for 30 days afterwards. Query and submission information plus any links and handouts will be included in the same post-conference email.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS

Agent Basics 101 - presentation by the SCBWI SF/South Regional Team

This is a crash course in what an agent does and what to include in your query letter. We will go from “What is an Agent” to “Query Letter Basics” and “What to Do When You Get The Call”. Follow the formula for query letter success!

Agent Panel - “Behind-the-Scenes of a KidLit Agent: From Query to Acquisition” - Jim Averbeck, Stephanie Fretwell-Hill, and Courtney Donovan

Join our panelists as they delve into the intricacies of building and maintaining a successful author-agent partnership as you go from Query to Acquisition.

This line up of seasoned agents will share their knowledge and strategies on how to be an effective partner on your publishing journey. This panel will cover

• Strategic Agent Selection: For unagented authors, learn what type of questions to ask to make an informed decision.
• Effective Communication: Determine how often to connect with your agent and learn how to partner during the submission process.
• Career Goal-Setting: Discover how to set and achieve goals with your agent, from Intellectual Property work to anthology invitations.
• Submission Strategy: Gain insight into how agents come up with a submission strategy for a book and how they decide between exclusive submissions and going wide.
• Signing the Contract: Learn what kind of clauses agents look out for and options they try to have included in the contracts.
• Building Editor Relationships: Learn how to partner with your agent to craft meaningful connections with editors to amplify your work.

Editor Panel - “Behind-the-Scenes of a KidLit Editor: From Draft to Published” - Jennifer Thompson and Foyinsi Adegbonmire

We asked these editors to help demystify the editorial process.  Each editor will share examples of different drafts of manuscript they've worked on compared to the final published book. Join us in this exclusive behind-the-scenes panel!