Editor / Agent Spotlight

Editor/Agent Spotlight: Editor Rachel Stark of Disney-Hyperion

By Meira Drazin on December 29, 2023 / Articles, Editor / Agent Spotlight

I’m so excited to welcome Rachel Stark, editor at Disney-Hyperion, to the Mixed-Up Files!

Rachel (they/them) is an editor, marketer, and activist with almost a decade of experience in children’s and young adult publishing at houses including Disney-Hyperion, Macmillan, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Bloomsbury, and Sky Pony Press. The award-winning and bestselling authors they’ve edited include Alexandra Bracken, Erin Bow, Jason June, Pablo Cartaya, Jen Wang, Rainbow Rowell, Faith Erin Hicks, Ben Hatke, John Patrick Green, Zach Weinersmith, and more. Books they have edited have been #1 New York Times, Washington Post, and Publishers Weekly bestsellers; been longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature; won the Goodreads Choice Award, Asian/Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature, and Christopher Medal; been shortlisted for the Schneider Family Book Award; received multiple starred reviews; appeared on the Kids’ Indie Next List and myriad state award lists, and been listed as best books of the year by NPR, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and more. Not only that, but (unbeknownst to me when I first reached out to them) they were the editor for our very own MUF member Natalie Rompella’s novel Cookie Cutters & Sled Runners!

MMD: Hi Rachel, thanks so much for coming onto the Mixed-Up Files.

RS: Thanks so much for having me! I’ve been reading this blog for so long, it’s kind of wild to actually be featured.

MMD: What was your path to becoming an editor? Did you always represent children’s books?

RS: I was a big reader as a kid, and I always knew I wanted to work with books—I just didn’t realize that there were ways to work with books other than writing them. As a freshman in high school I picked up Betsy Lerner’s The Forest for the Trees, which is an editor’s advice to writers. Reading about what Betsy herself did as an editor was a lightbulb moment, and in the way of a fourteen-year-old gifted kid who’s pretty sure they know everything and can do anything, I set my sights on editing then and there.

My actual path to the role I’m in now was, of course, far more complicated than my fourteen-year-old self imagined. After several internships I worked in textbook editorial and then children’s book marketing, and by the time I started editing full time I’d been in the industry five years already.

And no, my path wasn’t always aimed at kids’ publishing! At fourteen I wanted to edit adult literary fiction, but one of my first internships was at Scholastic’s former Arthur A. Levine Books imprint, and after I moved on to the next thing I found I couldn’t stop thinking about the books I’d read and the community of optimistic, brilliant creators I’d discovered there. I dove into kidlit and never looked back.

MMD: What were some of your favourite middle grade books to read when you were growing up? Would you say that has influenced what you look for in terms of representing MG books?

RS: This is always a fun and slightly embarrassing question to answer, because though I was a huge reader as a kid, what I liked to read then is only a fraction of what I love to edit now. As a kid I read almost exclusively books with unicorns, horses, or wolves on the cover. I loved Jean Craighead George—I still want to train a falcon like Frightful in My Side of the Mountain, and if I could trade everything to go back and be raised by wolves, I would. Joanna Campbell’s Thoroughbred series made me dream of being a jockey until I grew way too tall for it. And I treasured Bruce Coville’s Into the Land of the Unicorns and Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher; if I branched out from horses and wolves, it was usually to fantasy.

I had to go back as an adult and read a lot of the classics that came out when I was younger, but I’ve since fallen in love with a much wider array of genres, and my list reflects that. I do think my childhood reading influences me; my taste leans literary and layered, and quote-unquote animal books sometimes get excluded from that category—but I still have a soft spot for the stories I know I would have loved. Cookie Cutters & Sled Runners is a great example of a book I’d have picked up for the dog on its cover, and then fallen in love with for its wonderful characters and impeccable representation of neurodivergence. And if you keep your eye on PW you’ll someday hear about a series I just acquired that perfectly marries the kind of story I loved as a kid with the kind of empowering narrative I want the kids of today to have.

MMD: What are some favorite middle grade books you’ve worked on in the past? And what are some you’ve worked on recently that our readers should look out for?

RS: Cookie Cutters & Sled Runners is the first book I ever acquired and will always hold a special place in my heart. I recommend Jen Wang’s Stargazing constantly—it’s such an empathetic, sweet, and funny story with wonderful characters. Ben Hatke’s Mighty Jack & Zita the Spacegirl and John Patrick Green’s InvestiGators were both so much fun to work on, and I love cheering for those creators and series as they keep finding more fans. The middle grade I’m most proud of by far is Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow, which came out in January and has gathered a host of award nominations and fabulous reviews. It’s a wildly ambitious, laugh-out-loud funny and heart-wrenchingly timely novel about a kid finding himself, his friends, and his voice again after surviving gun violence at school. It sounds like a downer but it’s full of heart and levity thanks to Erin’s genius for finding light in darkness and using it to keep on going. I could talk about it forever.

MMD: What is your top advice for writers?

RS: I’m struggling to come up with one single piece of advice because that’s so dependent on each writer’s strengths and needs. But I’ll share something small that goes a long way toward building goodwill at your publisher: When writing your acknowledgments, ask your editor to send you a list of the people in house who worked hard on your book but who you may not have known were involved. It takes a village to make a book, and you likely don’t realize how many people have poured their energy into yours. Editors and publicists are often the people whose work is most visible to authors and so they’re used to being thanked, but for the sales assistant who really rallied behind you, the marketer who handsold your book at every con, or the managing editor who saved everyone’s butt when it came to making printer deadlines, it means so much to have their work seen and valued.

MMD: What advice would you give to a debut author? Both in terms of working with their editor and in general?

RS: Broadly, I think my biggest advice is to focus on the things you can control. There’s so much that’s out of your hands, that’s out of even your publisher’s hands. You can write an award-worthy book that happens to publish in the same year as many award-worthy books, or in a year where the award committees are interested in something other than what you’re doing. Market conditions and buying practices can change in a heartbeat, budgets can be slashed or imprints consolidated, key cheerleaders could move to other jobs, delays or paper shortages or pandemics or any number of unpredicted obstacles can suddenly topple the best-laid plans. . . .

You’ve likely been dreaming for years about what your debut experience will be like, and now that it’s here you’ll want all the stars to align just right. But remember that you can’t control the stars.

What you can control is writing the best book you can write, and then writing the next one, and the next one. That first book is just the start of what for most writers is a long and winding career, where the models for success are as many and varied as the books on your shelf. If it doesn’t go the way you hoped? Get to work on the next one.

MMD: After the high of having sold a book to a publisher, many authors I know, myself included, have a big cry when they receive their editorial letter. I think that as much as authors know that however many drafts they’ve done on their book it kind of gets set back to zero once they begin the editorial process, seeing that letter can be demoralising no matter how gently it’s written. Whether it’s a debut author or an author working with you for the first time, do you find that the relationship requires managing expectations and building trust?

RS: The editor-author relationship requires a huge amount of trust! It’s intensely vulnerable to receive critique, and I find that the process of digging deep into a story to make it the best it can be often demands that the author and I dig deep into ourselves. It takes both trust and care to create a space where we can do that.

With regards to that initial shock you feel on receiving feedback—it’s incredibly hard to write a novel and incredibly hard to revise one, and of course cresting one mountain to realize there’s another ahead is going to be daunting! Whatever you feel in that moment, it’s understandable. But remember that your editor chose to work with you on this project, and feedback is a show of our investment in your work reaching readers and being well received. We wouldn’t be putting so much time and emotional energy into your work if we weren’t wildly in love with your writing and excited about the story you’re working to tell.

MMD: That is really helpful advice, thank you.

I loved this interview with you at Kirkus. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/rachel-stark-freelance-editor/. What are some pros and cons for being a freelance editor vs being in-house?

RS: An interesting question, and my pros and cons are pretty specific to me. For context, I didn’t initially choose to go freelance; I mysteriously found myself lacking a job after supporting a union drive 😊. But it was exactly what I needed after that experience. Being able to choose my projects and clients, working with people who enthusiastically wanted to work with me, and having enough flexibility to reinvest in other hobbies and give myself breaks from thinking about work were all wonderful. I was lucky to have a lot of opportunities to use my freelance work to get firsthand experience in genres and formats I’d always been interested in but not yet exposed to—the expertise I gained in graphic novels has proven invaluable in my job at Disney-Hyperion—and to work with editors and authors I’d always admired. The down side, beyond the obvious stuff like lack of benefits and the potential for the work to dry up, was that I wasn’t getting the opportunity to build a list and a reputation of my own. By the time Disney-Hyperion offered me a role, I was ready to take what I’d learned and start building a reputation for the books I acquired and ushered successfully to market.

MMD: What kind of projects did you/do you work on as a freelance editor—for example are they projects where an author is trying to get their book to the level needed to get an agent, or are they at other stages? What are some reasons someone might be interested in a freelance editor?

RS: Because of the connections I had, I actually found myself in the position of working mostly on books that had already been signed up for publication, but that needed an extra perspective, someone to keep them moving while an editor was out, or just someone who could give that individual book more time and attention than the full-time staff who were torn between millions of priorities. So mostly I was being hired by publishers rather than by writers. I did take on a couple of projects from authors looking for an agent or a book deal, and I found that often they’d taken their manuscript as far as they could take it and still weren’t getting the responses they wanted, so they were looking for an outsider’s perspective on how they could keep developing their craft. Some writers reached out to me before even going on submission, just to have the benefit of feedback from a fresh set of eyes. The writing process is so solitary, it can be immensely helpful to have someone to bounce ideas around with and to help you see your strengths and areas to improve in.s

MMD: I know that in your long time in publishing you have also worked on the marketing side, including high profile campaigns for New York Times–bestselling books and series, as well as winners of the Caldecott Medal, Newbery Honor Medals, the Coretta Scott King Award, the Stonewall Book Award, the Walters Award, and more. Do you find that your experience in marketing influences your editorial work and style?

RS: For a lot of the time I spent in marketing I was dying to become an editor, and it was frustrating to not be there already—but in retrospect that experience was so valuable. It changed how I think about what I acquire and what I hope success to look like for each book. And having worked outside of editorial I have an even greater sense of empathy and appreciation for how hard everyone is working in all departments to make books shine. Something folks don’t realize about editors’ role is that a lot rests on the relationships we have with colleagues, and how and when we’re able to get them excited about what we’re working on, our ability to brainstorm and build alongside each other, and what we can learn from them—so the added camaraderie I get from knowing what it’s like to be in their position is invaluable. I think the effects of my marketing experience are more visible on the publisher’s side than in my relationships with authors and agents, but it has brought me great books! Simon Sort of Says actually came to me because I had marketed one of Erin Bow’s books and we had a mutual admiration from that time.

MMD: What genres, themes etc are you looking for at Disney and where can people find out more details about this?

RS: I acquire original novels and graphic novels for middle grade and adult readers, and I have a wishlist I update regularly here: https://rachelstark7.wixsite.com/home/general-1. Unfortunately Disney’s policy is that I can’t accept unagented queries, unless I’ve specifically requested them at a conference or convention. But I do find that sometimes after writers find an agent they remember that I seemed like a fit and point their new agent in my direction—I hope Mixed-Up Files readers who liked what I’ve had to say and write in these categories will do that!

MMD: What are your socials and/or the best way for people to keep up to date with you?

RS: The best places to connect with me are Bluesky (syntactics.bsky.social) and Facebook (@EditorStark, https://www.facebook.com/EditorStark/)/. I’m also (regrettably and half-heartedly) on the Website Formerly Known as Twitter as @syntactics.

MMD: Rachel, it’s been such an honor and education speaking with you, and I know our readers will get so much out of your responses. Thank you so much for joining us!

Agent Spotlight: Kaitlyn Sanchez + PITCH PARTY!

By Mindy Alyse Weiss on November 29, 2023 / Editor / Agent Spotlight, For Writers

I’m thrilled to have agent Kaitlyn Sanchez back at the Mixed-Up Files. I was beyond excited when she first became an agent and have loved watching her add clients and tons of sales. Kaitlyn has her finger on the pulse of the kidlit market and has endless enthusiasm and energy. She supports writers and illustrators through sharing her knowledge and running amazing contests. Kaitlyn is currently closed to queries…so this is a fantastic opportunity to see if your strongest MG pitch catches her eye. Please read all the pitch details at the bottom of the post before entering.

Kaitlyn’s Bio

Kaitlyn Sanchez (she/her) joined Bradford Literary in 2022 with two years of agenting experience under her belt. Kaitlyn is the proud co-creator and co-host of the Spring Fling Kidlit Contest and Kidlit Zombie Week as well as creator and co-host of the Kidlit Fall Writing Frenzy Contest. As a mom, wife, and middle school math teacher, Kaitlyn enjoys playing soccer, binge-watching TV shows, and, of course, reading, especially when she’s all cozied up with her husband and daughter reading together. Kaitlyn is an editorial agent and always works with her clients to make sure we’re putting out their best work. She’s highly communicative and invested in every aspect of helping her clients have a strong and happy career.

Kaitlyn is looking for children’s books (picture books through middle grade) in all categories, including fiction, graphic novels, nonfiction, and illustration. She is incredibly eclectic in her tastes, with a great affinity for emotional stories as well as funny stories. Kaitlyn is always looking for diversity in all forms, including but not limited to BIPOC, neurodiversity, and LGBTQ+. Kaitlyn loves working with artists, so she’s always on the lookout for great author-illustrators and graphic novelists.

What do you want in middle grade novels, Kaitlyn?

For middle-grade stories (including author-illustrated graphic novels), I tend to lean toward fiction. I enjoy coming-of-age stories, friendship stories, adventurous fast-paced stories, mysteries, intergenerational stories, empowering stories, stories with a bit of magic (high fantasy isn’t generally my thing, but I always enjoy a little magic), and quirky stories. I love learning new things in non-didactic ways, and in humor, I run the gamut: from well-placed puns to slapstick to high brow humor. I’d also be interested to see some scary stories that aren’t gruesome. NOTE: I’m not seeking chapter books.

Check out Kaitlyn’s Manuscript Wish List here.

Is there anything else you’re seeking?

I’m currently focusing my list on picture books and middle grade. I’d love to add more funny stories to my list in both of these categories. I love adventure, heartfelt, and unique stories, especially from new perspectives and by underrepresented authors and author-illustrators.

What wouldn’t be a good match for you right now?

Great question! I’m not currently looking for MG NF or script-only GN, and though I do love historical fiction, it would only be a fit if takes place in a time that there’s not many stories about. I’m also not the best fit for high fantasy though I do enjoy some magic. I hope that helps!

Do you have any tips you’d like to share?

There are so many fun tips, but I’ll try to share something that I haven’t shared in an interview before. In writing, there’s a balance between the real world and the book world. Some things you need to include to ensure the story follows everyday logic for readers and other things you can leave out. Similarly, there are some things that wouldn’t necessarily happen in the real world but it helps to have them in a book. For example, in the real world, you may just come up with an idea seemingly out of thin air, but in a book, it helps to propel the plot forward, connect different parts of the story, and keep the reader intrigued if there’s something that shows the reader why this idea came about. From seeing a display in a window that reminds the character of something to a friend saying something adjacent that triggers an idea to your character literally tripping over an idea, it feels more satisfying to the reader if there’s a reason as to why they came up with the idea.

I’d love to find out more about some of the books you’ve repped that are out in the world.

I’m so proud to be a small part in the journey of all of my clients books. Here are a few with some extra special highlights.

Mushroom Rain by Laura K. Zimmermann illustrated by Jamie Green is an award winning, JLG selection, and starred review book.

Whatever Comes Tomorrow by Rebecca Gardyn Levington illustrated by Mariona Cabassa is being used for inspiration for a K-12 arts contest.

DK Ryland’s Giraffe is Too Tall for This Book is currently the Target pick of the month for picture books this November.

Huge congrats to you and your clients, Kaitlyn! I know you started super-strong with picture books and are actively building your middle grade list (and with MG in higher demand than it’s been in the past few years, I can’t wait to see all the sales you make…maybe one of them will come from this Pitch Party).

What are your favorite recent middle grade novels?

There are so many, it’s hard to choose! Some of my favorites are The Impossible Destiny of Cutie Grackle, What Happened to Rachel Riley, From the Desk of Zoe Washington, Front Desk, and Nevermoor.

Here’s more info about Kaitlyn’s contests!

Fall Writing Frenzy, which I started co-hosting with Lydia Lukidis, is open to all Kidlit writers (PB-YA) and instead of a hierarchy of winners, it’s a contest where each writer selected as a winner gets paired up with someone in the industry we hope they will work well with.

Spring Fling Kidlit, which I co-host with Ciara O’Neal, was the first contest created and is a blog contest for picture book writers to stretch their skills, create a community, and connect with industry professionals.

Kidlit Zombie Week: Are you ready to bring your dead manuscripts back to life? This is a revision week and pitch contest where you can work on manuscripts with tips and support of a wonderful community. It’s mainly for picture book writers because the hosts, which are a wonderful critique group I’m part of—six Ladies and a MANuscript—are picture book writers, but any Kidlit writer can participate.

Kaitlyn shouts out about these contests and other amazing opportunities on social media— make sure you follow her, so you’ll know the 2024 dates (and if you’re traditionally published, consider donating a prize!)

Twitter | Instagram | Bluesky

Rules for the Pitch Party

Before leaving your pitch in the comments, please read and follow all the rules.

The pitch must be for a middle-grade manuscript or graphic novel (Kaitlyn isn’t currently looking for text-only graphic novels, so GN is only for author/illustrators).
The work must be polished and complete.
The pitch must be 60 words or less.
Only one pitch per person.
The pitch must be posted before Friday, December 1 at 11:59 PM (EST).
Please remember, only the pitches that Kaitlyn comments on should be sent to her. Let’s be respectful of her time and the fact that she’s doing a special event just for us, even though she’s closed to queries.
If you participate, please click the “Notify Me of Follow-Up Comments by Email” box so you’ll know if you received a response from Kaitlyn.

I’ll contact anyone Kaitlyn requests with info about what she’d like to see and how to submit to her. Good luck!

The adorable Team Sanchez logo is by Kaitlyn’s talented client, Maryam Khalifah.

A huge thank you to Kaitlyn for participating in this fun agent spotlight and Pitch Party! Now, you all know what she is and isn’t looking for. And I love her advice. 😊 To thank Kaitlyn for her generosity, please support her talented clients (Team Sanchez) by following them on social media and/or requesting their books from the library. You can find out more about her clients here.

Kaitlyn is such an amazing agent. I’m crossing my fingers and toes for lots of pitch requests—and an offer or two.

Meet Literary Agent Leslie Zampetti

By Susan Koehler on November 22, 2023 / Articles, Editor / Agent Spotlight

Leslie Zampetti is a former librarian with over 20 years’ experience in special, public, and school libraries. As a librarian, Leslie’s focus was always on the reader, on giving them the right book at the right time. She carries that focus over into her agenting work with a knack for matching client work to editors. Having negotiated with organizations from Lexis-Nexis to the elementary school PTA, she is able to come to terms that favor her clients while building satisfying relationships with publishers. And after cataloging rocket launch videos for NASA and model rocket ships for an elementary school, Leslie welcomes working with the unexpected challenges that pop up in publishing.

As an author herself, Leslie is very familiar with querying from both sides of the desk. Recently, she took the bold step to open her own literary agency, Open Book Literary.

Welcome to the Mixed-Up Files, Leslie! Before we talk about Open Book Literary, fill us in on a little bit of your background. What was your path to becoming an agent?

I had been a librarian for several years and was writing middle grade novels when I attended a NJ-SCBWI conference. At the conference, several of us were mingling and chatting with John Cusick. When he left, I commented that agenting seemed like a fascinating job, and one of the other writers – who was agented and published — replied that if I were an agent, they’d be my client. I laughed and thanked them. But once I got home, I started thinking… What skills do I have that would transfer? How can I learn to be an agent?

I was fortunate to get a place as a reader for Jenny Bent of The Bent Agency and then a part-time job with Jennie Dunham as her assistant. After working with Jennie for two years, I began representing my own clients.

And now you’ve opened your own agency, Open Book Literary. That is so exciting! Can you walk us through the experience?

It is exciting! But it’s much like starting any small business. If you mean you’d like to know more about how I decided to open my own agency, well, sometimes the path you’re on takes an unexpected turn. Working with Monica at Odom Media Management was wonderful, and without her mentorship, I don’t think I would have opened Open Book Literary. Her entrepreneurial spirit is contagious!

How would you describe the mission and vision of Open Book Literary?

As the name implies, I believe in partnering with authors, transparent and full communication, and welcoming under-represented voices into publishing, especially those voices centering on disability, poverty, women, neurodivergence, and Judaism, Islam, and non-western religions. I also advocate for work that explores the complexity of identity and the messiness of life.

We know that publishing is a highly competitive business, and as an agent, you have to pass on a lot of queries. What are the top reasons you might pass on a submission?

Sometimes writers send work of a type I don’t represent, such as work specifically for the educational market or high fantasy. (For the adult market, it’s often political thrillers.) Sometimes, the query or pitch is excellent, but the voice isn’t strong enough, or the voice is great, but I’m not especially interested in the premise. The worst is when I get manuscripts that are really well written, but I just don’t feel the spark necessary to offer representation. Usually, I haven’t continued thinking about the story after finishing or I just can’t put my finger on what it might need. That means I’m not a good fit for that author. The second worst is when I love something but I have a client whose work is very similar – I don’t like to have clients in direct competition, and it’s so hard to say no!

As you know, we are all about middle grade books. Tell us, what do you love most about middle-grade novels?

We all have an age we’re stuck at in our heads, and I’m 12. ;-). I love the middle grade audience, and I love that MG focuses on the first stirrings of independence and a young reader’s relationships, particularly with family and close friends. Even novels about dark or scary topics usually are suffused with hope, and that’s important for readers of all ages.

Which middle-grade book(s) influenced you most as a child?

That’s a great question! I don’t think middle grade was really much of a thing when I was growing up. It was all “children’s books.” I also learned to read very early and had free range at the library, so I often read books I probably wasn’t able to comprehend emotionally.

I loved LITTLE WOMEN, partly because my grandmother gave me her copy of the book and then the sequels. I’ve always loved mysteries and read all of Nancy Drew, though even then some of the stereotypes made me uncomfortable. ALL OF A KIND FAMILY and its sequels, Madeleine L’Engle’s books, and HARRIET THE SPY were huge favorites!

What are some of your favorite current middle-grade novels?

Tracey Baptiste’s JUMBIES books, Sheila Turnage’s Mo LeBeau mysteries, Rita Williams-Garcia’s Gaither Sisters trilogy, the amazing anthologies like YOU ARE HERE and COMING OF AGE, Ann LeZotte’s wonderful Mary Lambert books… and of course, my clients’ books!

Where do you think the middle grade market is headed?

I’m hearing from editors that it’s a little oversaturated, particularly with contemporary. But as I always say, what goes down must come up! 🙂 The reality is that publishers need to keep publishing, and middle grade readers have a pretty big appetite for books of all kinds. They’re wide-ranging, too — from tentative to confident readers, fans of non-fiction or graphic novels or scary books or verse novels, etc.

Which genres/themes/subjects are you drawn to/not drawn to?

I’m drawn to mysteries, historical settings such as Hawai’i or Puerto Rico, books that explore difficult topics with heart and humor and hope. I’d love a young YA about the Challenger disaster along the lines of PLANET EARTH IS BLUE… I also would love to see books about interfaith families. I’m not a good fit for hyper-commercial books, fairies or high fantasy (though I love fabulism and magical realism), or stories of WWII / the Holocaust.

Are there any current projects you’re excited about?

I’m very excited about Lisa Schmid’s forthcoming HART & SOULS, a slightly spooky ghost story with an anxious drummer as its hero. I’m working to find these wonderful client projects their publishing home: a fabulist story set in Florida, a contemporary about the heroine trying to use her grandfather’s stories to make sense of her own experience and fight his dementia, and a historical about two children who emigrate from Kyiv to America through Galveston, Texas, and find that the Golden Land has its share of heartache, too.

Leslie Zampetti (right) with author-friend Alyssa Reynoso-Morris after a trip to Harriett’s Bookshop in Philadelphia

Would you describe yourself as an editorial agent?

Yes! (With the caveat that I am not an editor.) My job is to polish your manuscript so its potential shines for an editor who will have the vision for shaping it into the brilliant gem it’s meant to be. I do love brainstorming and working out character/plot puzzles with clients. That’s the fun part of agenting!

What advice do you have for authors who would like to send you a query?

I’ve found nearly all of my clients through my slush pile. It can feel intimidating, but the query is really just a business letter telling me about your story and a little bit about you. I also advise writers to make sure their full manuscript is ready and polished. I don’t mind waiting to get requested fulls, but it’s so disappointing when the first several pages are wonderful but then the rest is obviously a very rough draft.

Do you respond to all the queries you receive?

I respond to all queries, but it often takes me some time, particularly if I’m considering requesting. Since I use QueryManager, it’s likely I’ll start being open to queries one week per month (and closed the other three) in the New Year, in hopes that I can be more efficient and timely in making and reading requests.

We’ve learned a lot about Leslie Zampetti, the agent. Now tell us about some of your favorite things to do that have nothing to do with being an agent.

Walking around the neighborhoods of Philly and admiring the murals and street art, discovering new bookstores (used or new!), and enjoying delicious meals or snacks as I wander. I also enjoy baking. I’ll never be a contestant on GBBO, but my cookies and cakes are yummy if not fancy.

Leslie, it’s been so great chatting with you today. Where can our readers learn more about you?

I’m @literarylesliez on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Twitter, and Facebook. I’d love to be able to stick with just one, but the writing community is all over the place! (I usually repost the same information on various platforms.) You can find a link to my MSWL and submission guidelines at https://www.openbooklit.com/submissions.

Leslie, thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you. Please know that we at the Mixed-Up Files wish you the best of luck with Open Book Literary!

Editor / Agent Spotlight