Elana Roth at the Caren Johnson Literary Agency

(Elana's the one on the left)

I spent part of the weekend at the SCBWI conference here in Portland, Oregon, where Elana Roth was a guest speaker.

Elana is building her list. She is with the Caren Johnson Literary Agency. She accepts no snail mail submissions. She spoke about the Author-Agent relationship at the SCBWI Oregon Spring Conference.

She made a great comparison between looking for an agent and looking for a lasting relationship. Relationships begin with dating then it can progress—if you’re lucky enough to find a great match—to marriage. And if things don’t work out so well, there’s the breakup or the dreaded D word: Divorce.

This is like querying an agent, signing with the agent, and sometimes - yes - breaking up and moving on.

Elana added a lot of humor to her talk, dispersing words of wisdom along with a few giggles and smiles along the way.

She also talked a little bit about query letters and the three separate paragraphs each author should include:

1) The book
2) The hook
3) The cook

She explained, every query should tell something about your book, what makes it special and end with a bit about yourself as the author.