Molly O'Neill
@molly_oneill
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Literary agent & builder of bookmakers @RootLiterary . Collector & connector of words + art + people + stories. Shameless sharer of cat pics. @MarquetteU alum
Brooklyn, NY by way of Texas
Joined January 2009
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Alert to querying writers + illustrators : I will be closing to submissions as of Sept 1, 2024, and anticipate re-opening in January 2025.
✨ Submission guidelines, my agenting wishlist, & answers to many questions can all be found on my website:
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🤯 Also missing from Betsy DeVos’ math: the potential deaths of teachers, librarians, janitors, bus drivers, admin/support staff, coaches, aides, lunch workers, counselors, principals & assistant principals etc + the mental anguish on school communities experiencing these deaths!
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Long shot, but do any of my followers get a physical edition of the Sunday Pittsburgh Post-Gazette? My sweet Grandma was in today’s paper & I’d love to get this picture in hard copy.
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Wrote a letter to my erstwhile employer
@HarperCollins
; sharing it here in solidarity. I don’t often post about the work I did there over a decade ago, as the editor of a bestselling global YA phenomenon, but light of week 2 on strike for the
@hcpunion
, it seemed quite relevant.
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@ClinOncDoc
PS I find one of the hardest bits is the exhaustion of having no one to talk/logic thru the infinite number of extra decisions & considerations & problem-solving that much of daily life now requires. I’d love to occasionally be able to shift the weight of making all the choices!
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Yes, the world is in chaos, but today I got to call a client & tell them that their very first book is going to be published & we can’t share the full details yet but the author wanted me to share here so that their moment of joy could inspire all of you right now. 😭
#amagenting
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@ClinOncDoc
Yes to all of this & thanks for saying it so honestly. P.S. A pet helps — certainly not a replacement for having another person to share the experience, but it’s another heartbeat in the house, and it’s good.
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A publishing hill I will die on as an agent is that one of the most meaningful things publishers could do to *truly* impact diversity (but that is not flashy or a PR-ready moment) is to hire more legal staff & empower them to overhaul & expedite this process.
Children's book illustration will never be a viable career for people from lower income backgrounds until publishers sort out their abilty to pay artists on time. I agreed to a job in Jan. still no contract (so no fee) but an expectation to deliver sketches next month.
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This Is Just To Say
that I am
giving you
back
the blue
checkmark
for which
you probably
thought I would
want
to pay
$11 per month
or $114.99 per year
saving thirteen percent
Forgive me but
no
thank
you
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PSA to comics-makers: if you're agented, please alert yr agent anytime you intend to include yourself in an indie published work like a Kickstarter anthology or art book or zine. These projects can conflict with book contracts; we can solve but only if we know you're doing it! /1
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IMHO, an under-discussed element of how we alter disparities observed in
#publishingpaidme
is the need for publishers to hire more BIPOC into key Sales roles, which have major impact on IF & HOW books sell + their financial expectations, from Acquisitions-point & forward. /1
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In the past 6 weeks: I’ve run 3 separate auctions resulting in 9 books sold + I’m trying to close 7 more deals-in-progress by year-end & I cannot tell you how happy I am for each of these clients & their spectacular books-in-the-making & also how ready I am for a nap.
#amagenting
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👇Thread. Related: I often tell clients who just got a deal that it’s also time to get a new hobby. B/c your old hobby just became your job.
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Of all the evolutions of my career, this might be my favorite yet. I'm ecstatic to be joining superb agents/humans
@hroot
&
@tayhaggerty
! 😍📚
We're overjoyed to welcome agent
@molly_oneill
& her clients to the (now officially bicoastal) Root Literary team today!🗽 + 🌴 = 📚
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@kaitfeldmann
Big Important Author speaking at event; great promo opportunity. ARCs of next bk were late so colleague & I had copy center make several hundred pseudo-ARCs of a 400 page bk w/decorative color art on every page. Forgot to specify b/w not full-color. Bill was 2x my annual salary.
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I hate to say this, but authors & illustrators, if you are looking for a task that’s productively distracting, this is probably a good time to update your website.
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💡 BRILLIANT SIDE HUSTLE IDEA: a cleaning service comprised entirely of authors and illustrators on deadline and/or avoiding their revisions.
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The longer I work as an agent, the more convinced I become that a critical aspect of the job is the ability to add experiential depth, breadth, context, and nuance to any given publishing situation, without adding drama.
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@AdalynGrace_
(I’m an agent not an author but I’m playing anyway!) The size of your book deal has more to do w/ the state of the market at the moment you went on submission than your talent. Your worth/value as a writer—& as a human in the world!—has absolutely zero correlation to that number.
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The cheering & pot-banging has been going steady for at least 10 minutes. I love you, NYC. 🗽
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We make a mistake as bookmakers (authors/illos/publishers/agents/etc) if we stop at asking, "What do I/we want to say to readers w/this book?" The question that absolutely MUST follow is, "What do young readers see/hear when they read this book?" The latter *always* matters more.
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I've joined the
@WaxmanLeavell
team as a literary agent! Excited to read (& read & read!) & represent stellar work.
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Time's a flat circle but a happy realization: last week was my 3-year anniversary as a
@RootLiterary
agent! Appropriately, I celebrated by running an auction for an excellent MG novel; excited to tell y'all more about it soon. Meanwhile, grateful to work among such superb women.
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One of my favorite things about 2017? I got to add wildly-talented illustrator
@taryndraws
to my client list! I can't wait to watch her make books for years & years to come; don't you want to just befriend every one of these characters?
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@kaitfeldmann
Also once forwarded email to Boss, affectionately referring to its author as "The Anxious One" b/c it was one of many emails re: same topic. Boss replied to author on-thread; author wrote back, signed off as The Anxious One. Boss made me call & apologize (correct but mortifying)!
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Last one: proposed title for THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR. (Read the caption; this is why editors are important, yo.)
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Gentle reminder: "always" & "never" (& variations thereof) are largely pointless words in publishing. The market ebbs & flows & is different today than yesterday than tomorrow. Writing the story that is singing to you most strongly is still the truest road to a "sellable" book.
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#MSWL
MG, YA, or graphic novels with this mood / setting / ambience / evocative sense of the fantastical waiting-to-happen as a jumping-off point.
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Actual line from an email sent to me by an editor today: “Sorry I’ve not written back sooner, I am suffering from email hell syndrome.”
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Artists! Please RT & share with your networks: as an illustrator’s agent, my clients & I are receiving SO many scam art commission emails. Pls don’t fall for these! If someone asks you out of the blue for a minimal amount of work for easy $, alas, it’s likely too good to be true.
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Today I learned that many of the current crop of recent-grads-hoping-to-break-into-the-publishing-industry-as-assistants were 16 when DIVERGENT came out & as I described to them the experience of reading it as a submission on my Sony e-reader, I officially became Publishing-Old.
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Writers & illustrators: say you’ve just gotten an editorial letter/notes from your editor/art director. What are your next steps & best advice, both practical & emotional, for getting from “Yikes this means big work!” to “OK I have a plan for actively revising using these notes”?
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GENIUS. Teenagers are awesome. RT
@sairamg3
: Rick Rolled my physics teacher...
http://t.co/c0ga4sON9P
http://t.co/EF8jaSfHni
via
@Storybird
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Hello, if your literary agent owed you an email today and did not send it, know that it is probably because she was furiously canceling 83 different things connected to the postponement of the Bologna Book Fair, none of which was in her original plan for Monday. 😩
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Ohhh,
@Janet_Reid
. She was a ferocious cheerleader for me, early in my career, just as she quietly was for so many of us, & I’m grateful for deep talks & book swaps & long lunches of yore. Her Voice & presence will be so missed. The header from her glorious blog sums her up well.
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☀️ Some news for querying writers & illustrators seeking rep: I have re-opened to submissions!
📚 More news: I am now using Query Manager.
✨ Answers to many questions + submission guidelines + my agenting wishlist can all be found on my website:
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Agency feline assistant Captain Von Smooch wants to know if you have hit your daily word count/drawing goals today.
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Just putting it out into the Universe/Zoomiverse that I’m completely willing to become half of a couple whose meet-cute backstory is “fell in love thanks to a Twitter mutual who intro’d two lonesome souls while we were all collectively bored on the internet during a pandemic.”
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Just got an emergency phone alert about our curfew tonight. Yet the entire time our city was under highest alert due to Coronavirus all thru March & April we never got a single emergency alert. The disparity is striking. The priorities are distressing.
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Casey was one of the best colleagues I've ever had. She was gleeful, brilliant, had the snappiest wit of maybe anyone in the industry, & rode style circles around us all. I'm beyond crushed that we won't get to collaborate on world domination (again) for decades more to come. 💔
a note to my friends: if you’re reading this I have passed away. I’m so sorry, it’s horseshit and we both know it. The cause was stage four ovarian cancer.
I loved each and every one of you with my whole heart and I promise you, I knew how deeply I was loved.
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My Photos app just reminded me that a year ago today I took a debut author to meet the editor who’d just bought her book & we had a delightful celebratory lunch. Today I sat in a makeshift medical tent in Brooklyn while a US Air Force medic vaccinated me during a global pandemic.
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This is magical
happy birthday Mister Rogers. here's every color of cardigan he wore on the show presented in chronological order
#rstats
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Industry folk sometimes ask what my ideal client list would look like. Finally found the perfect graphic to explain.
#clientgoals
#agentlife
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DEAR PUBLISHING: I HAVE AN IDEA FOR US. Since none of us can go anywhere anyway & there’s no need to stagger time away for in-office coverage, WHAT IF we all collectively agreed to take vacation at the same time? And we all just had…calm & quiet for a week?
#publishingvacation
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I could not be happier for
@adibkhorram
, his editor
@chidiaqian
, and Darius himself, who is one of the most wonderful & true book characters I've ever had the joy of knowing. Joyous thanks to the Morris Award Committee!
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Free startup idea: Why we haven’t yet invented a place to live where it’s perpetually Autumn weather? I’m talking year-round sweaters & fall colors & crisp air (but never too hot/cold) & look if the Pumpkin Spice lobby wants to underwrite this utopia I could even be OK w/ that.🍂
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Real talk: I’m going to honestly be shocked if I don’t come out of 2020 owning, like, at least 9 more cats. 😸
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Dear Kidlit/YA world, especially my fellow agents & editors, an essential reminder: it is critical that we cite Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop EVERY! SINGLE! TIME! we use her metaphor, or even part of her metaphor, about books being "mirrors, windows, & sliding glass doors" for readers.
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Agent (noun): a constantly-reading set of eyeballs who is otherwise made of equal parts sekrits, hustle, and squee. 🤗📚
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Not long after
@MrSchuReads
& I met 13-ish yrs ago, back in our editor & educator days, respectively, I asked if he’d ever thought of writing books himself. I’m grateful for our evolving & enduring friendship since & that he was brave enough to say yes, when his heart felt ready.
I learned at 3:47 p.m. MDT that Louder Than Hunger debuted at
#7
on the New York Times Best Sellers List. I sobbed in a rental car in a school's parking lot. A big THANK-YOU to everyone who supported Louder Than Hunger last week. I’m beyond grateful!
@skeetermeeter
@molly_oneill
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Another day, another dude pitching me his 26 different literary masterpieces via a dating app.
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And in the 11th month of the pandemic, I finally caved & bought a whole slew of houseplants. Countdown to me becoming a plant murderess starts NOW. 🪴👻
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Not the most important thing we’ll be fixing, but I’m so glad to have actual speeches full of thoughtful, thought-provoking words back.
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Me: Works in publishing for 20 years.
Also me: refers to a friend’s haircut as a revision. 😆
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Kids & teens at the center of the work we do, always & forever, full stop, amen.
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God bless the person on my block who faithfully brings the cowbell to their window every night for the 7pm neighborhood holler-and-cheer; at this point my response to its ringing is nothing short of a Pavlovian easing-of-dread at having survived another day & I am grateful. 🔔
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Welp now I’m crying.
After noticing that Ken slept with a photograph of his late wife Ada every night, one of the carers at Thistleton Lodge nursing home surprised the 94-year-old World War II veteran with a special gift.
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I’ve been thinking fondly about ALA Midwinter Conferences gone by all weekend long. Finally realized the name for what I’m feeling: it’s a touch of homesickness for all of you—all of us!—under one roof & united by bookishness. 📚❤️
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TFW Kevin Henkes tells you that he still has a note you sent him some 13+ years ago (back when you were a marketing associate whose job used to regularly involve sending him things via snail mail) pinned to the bulletin board in his office. 😭 What A Good Day. ❤️
#nErDcampMI
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Many thanks to all you kind folks; I now have lots of copies of this photo/paper coming my way, and I am grateful. When Twitter is good, it’s really good. 😊
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This week marks my 15 (!!) year publishing-a-versary, and my 2-year agent-a-versary, and I am profoundly glad & grateful & inspired & astonished by you all. *group hug*
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Guess what?? Mr. Schu Reads AND WRITES, TOO! Lots of fun book-building plans ahead!
#luckiestagent
Happy Monday! Here’s some fun news: I’m excited to announce I’ve signed with agent extraordinaire
@molly_oneill
! Hooray! ❤️📚❤️📚
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RIP basically every agent lunch I had as a young editor (on an expense account, but just barely). Also RIP to the best lemon tarts.
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I have a new client! 🥳 Please join me in welcoming
@JaimieMacG
& her wonderful work to
@RootLiterary
. I can’t get enough of her characters; they’re brimming with kid-emotion & story — can’t wait to watch her bring her magic to books! Art directors & editors, we welcome projects.
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Authors/illustrators: this is an excellent thread about the work that booksellers put into planning bookstore events & signings (& also how you can do your part in making them work, which benefits the entire book making/publishing/buying/selling/reading ecosystem!
So I talk about hosting author events a lot but some people don’t know all the work that goes into them, so I thought I’d share here!
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So so proud of
@LynneKelly
for her Schneider Award for SONG FOR A WHALE! Very fitting that a sign language interpreter was part of the announcement! 👏editor
@katert0t
& book designer
@MariaTMiddleton
&
@DelacortePress
&
@randomhousekids
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🥳 Awesome news: I have a new client! And she’s amazing! And she has made a comic to celebrate our partnership & I have never been turned into a comic before & THIS IS ALL SO EXCITING, yay
@sarahsaxart
! Welcome to
@RootLiterary
!
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Editors & social managers: as marketing plans continue to center social (in pandemic & beyond), can we talk about how publishers/houses are meaningfully growing their social accounts & constituencies? Many clients are being tasked w/ creating content for accounts w/ low reach!
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If you'd best describe yr YA/MG as the bk of yr heart, the one that only you could write at this time & in this way, I wanna read it.
#MSWL
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“But I had a wonderful teacher in elementary school, who told me, ‘Read, my child, read!” — and I tried to read everything.”
#RIPJohnLewis
.
@repjohnlewis
' unforgettable 2016
#NBAwards
acceptance speech for the Young People's Literature Award
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A lament for our times, in haiku:
Zoom call! Did my hair.
Turns out it is tomorrow.
...what even is time?
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Here is news that has been making me extraordinarily happy of late!
@Aluhnim
is *stunningly* talented & I’m humbled to have a front-row seat as they turn their wondrous skills toward the world of book-making!
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Saw the sad news about Eric Carle; then went outside & saw this rainbow. Coincidence? I’m going with not. 🐛💔
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@AdalynGrace_
I’m a rebel so am also giving a 2nd answer: much of what happens for a book (reviews, awards, budgets,etc) is outside of your writerly control. Focus on the milestones that you DO control (meeting deadline; doing an A+ school visit; conquering revision) & celebrate them the most.
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Visited
@carlemuseum
today & couldn't get enough of early Robert McCloskey sketches. Look at this almost-title!
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I try not to vague-tweet often but y’all, I have so many clients (some you haven’t even met yet!) working on so many exciting, ambitious, just-plain-awesome projects right now that my agent-heart and creative brain are absolutely exploding & it is the best! 📚💗
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Was supposed to have an agent-client meeting with
@MrSchuReads
about Important Book Things but then he turned it into an impromptu field trip to meet up some friends.
#nErDCampMI
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Day 34 in Quarantine. Desperately needed a change in perspective, so instead of my office, today I worked from my kitchen table with a noise app set to the cafe channel in the attempt to trick my brain into believing that I’m working from a coffee shop.
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Got enthused about subscriptions to farms as an ethical, local $-spend. Signed up for a slew of nifty CSA-type programs. On Monday the veggie/dairy farm box came. On Tuesday the meats & bakery box came. Today the fish box came. I...live alone. Possibly I’ve made a tactical error?
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Last night my friends told their book-loving 9-yr-old that it’s my job to read books all day & I upped the ante by saying I sometimes get to read books by my fave authors before anyone else & just like that I’m pretty sure a future publishing professional found her calling. 😄📚
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Attention artist friends!
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Late-April Molly would like to applaud mid-March Molly for her foresight in recognizing that brownie mix was be an essential purchase. (May Molly will be sad that March Molly didn’t buy two boxes.)
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Am late to this convo but it’s a v. important one! Are/can we discuss for writers’ conferences where editors/agents speak too? I’ve spent months prepping presentations only to watch male colleagues show up with nothing prepared, just “charm,” & later learn they got paid more. 🤯
This is real. And important. When it comes to conference keynotes, men and women, if paid, should obviously be paid the same. The male bias is real, and I’m down to support however. If that means not keynoting, or working within the budget to make sure all is fair, I’m game.
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I've been a person of faith my whole life. As my understanding of the world in which faithful people exist & co-exist has grown & widened, so too has my faith. And of this I am certain: it is a despicable thing, to co-opt & distort people's yearning for God.
Breaking News: President Trump called houses of worship “essential” and ordered them reopened, without any clear authority to do so.
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Hands-down greatest kidlit publishing superpower: sending advance copies of books to your friends’ kids & informing them that they are one of the first kids IN THE ENTIRE WORLD who gets to read an author’s new book.
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I don’t care what you say, Pottermore, THIS is my Patronus.✨
Saiga are listed as critically endangered by the IUCN after hunting for their meat and horns... Photo Tim Flach
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So far this subway ride has included 2 groups of energetic preschool/daycare kids, a street preacher, a balloon delivery dude, a girl carrying a fish tank (alas no fish) and now a mariachi band. I am living my best inside-of-a-picture-book life today, y’all.
#NYCbingo
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Hey, remember this manuscript that made me cry? Reader, I signed its author. Please join me in welcoming
@adibkhorram
to
@WaxmanLeavell
! 😎
That all-too-rare-but-utterly-wonderful feeling when a manuscript unexpectedly makes you cry in public.
#agentlife
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It has been a gift to witness the courage + joy of longtime friend & client
@MrSchuReads
as he sought new ways to share his heart thru Story & in the process discovered that not only is he a writer of books, but that he is A POET! These new projects are both profoundly special.
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I am here for this, the superhero origin story of our times.
BREAKING VIDEO: WATCH: Massive lightning bolt strikes Statue of Liberty as storm passes over NYC
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The agent-in-training chose to skip out on today’s calls because priorities.
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Happy pub day to client Julia Sooy & illustrator Bonnie Pang on EVERY DAY, CHEMISTRY: a joyful celebration of the science in our daily lives!
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