Ask an Agent - with Gemma Cooper and Molly Ker Hawn, from the Bent Agency

Have a question you've always wanted to ask an agent? Or looking for a query critique from those in the know?  Each month, agents Gemma Cooper and Molly Ker Hawn from the Bent Agency will be offering just that.

  In this first post, they tell us a bit more about themselves and the Bent Agency, and how Ask an Agent will work.

We’re thrilled to have been invited to host a monthly ‘Ask an Agent’ feature on the new SCBWI Words and Pictures Blogzine. SCBWI is one of our favourite places for spotting talent—we both have clients that we signed after seeing their work at SCBWI events and through the Undiscovered Voices competition. Bringing outstanding new writing for young readers to a wide audience is our top priority, and we’re lucky to work with phenomenally talented debut authors. We’d love to find more!

Molly Ker Hawn

Molly joined the Bent Agency in 2012 to set up a London office, and was joined by Gemma later in the year. You can read more about us (and our recent deals) on the TBA website. But this feature isn’t about us – it’s about you! - your questions, anyway.

We’ll be running two different types of ‘Ask an Agent’ blog posts:

1) Questions and answers. Ask any questions you like (relating to publishing, please – we’re not talking about meaning of life here, although we’re sure it involves books in some way). Please send these questions to writers@britishscbwi.org. We’ll omit the senders’ names when we post our response, so don’t be shy!

2) Query letter critiques. We’re borrowing this idea from the legend that is Janet Reid, Query Shark, but we promise to be gentle. If you’re getting form rejection after form rejection and you’d like honest feedback on your query letter, send it to us and we’ll tell you what we think. Please only do this if you are happy for your query letter to be posted online. (Sorry, but we can’t give query-letter feedback privately.)

We can’t wait to dive into your questions. See you all next month!

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Gemma Cooper

Gemma Cooper and Molly Ker Hawn represent authors of books for children and young adults for the Bent Agency. You can find Molly and Gemma on Twitter - @gemma_cooper and @mollykh. For more about Gemma, Molly, and TBA, see the Bent Agency Website and blog.