Today I’m thrilled to have agent Shannon Snow here. She is an associate agent at Creative Media Agency.
Hi Shannon! Thanks so much for joining us.
About Shannon:
1. Tell us how you became an
agent, how long you’ve been one, and what you’ve been doing as an agent.
I made a career switch from working in Finance and Marketing at Fortune 500 companies. I had spent quite a few of those years providing manuscript feedback and book reviews on the side just for the love of books and writers. Finally, I decided to participate in Creative Media Agency, Inc,’s internship program where I interned for a little over a year before becoming an associate agent. I’ve been an agent for nearly two years now and am actively building my list. I also manage the Audio Department at CMA as well.
About the Agency:
2. Share a bit about your
agency and what it offers to its authors.
CMA is a boutique literary
agency that has built an impressive list of clients who write primarily
commercial and upmarket fiction. We are always looking to expand however and
are also taking on memoirs, non-fiction, and other areas. CMA also
handles subrights for our clients as well as marketing and promotional
guidance. We want to represent the author’s career and not just the book.
What She’s Looking For:
3. What age groups do you
represent—picture books, MG, and/or YA? What genres do you represent and what
are you looking for in submissions for these genres?
I handle primarily adult and
young adult, but I am open to almost any subgenre under these two including
romance of all types, science fiction, soft fantasy, historical, paranormal,
horror, thriller/suspense, etc., and probably others I forgot to
mention. I’m a sucker for a good Greek myth
retelling! I’m actively seeking adult or YA romance with diverse
voices and those written by POC authors.
4. Is there
anything you would be especially excited to seeing in the genres you are
interested in?
I would love to see either a
rom-com or serious high school YA with diverse characters, perhaps featuring a
trans romance. I’m also looking for some dark boarding school
stories, especially if they feature a romance. An eerie, creepy horror in
either adult or YA would make me giddy!
What She Isn’t Looking
For:
5. What types of submissions
are you not interested in?
Unfortunately, I’m not taking
on any non-fiction or memoirs at this. Although that may change in the near
future.
Agent Philosophy:
6. What is your philosophy as
an agent both in terms of the authors you want to work with and the books you
want to represent?
One of the most important
things for me is to make a connection with a perspective client because I want
there to be trust and partnership in the relationship. I want my authors to
feel they can reach out to me at any time with questions, thoughts, concerns,
or even if they just want to brainstorm. My main motto is that I
want to represent the author and their career and not just the one
book. A solid relationship is needed, in my view, to make that
happen.
As far as philosophy for the
types of books I want to take on, I need to love them. I want to feel
passionate about a book in order to offer representation. I love to see a
well-plotted book with a unique style and voice but I also have to love the
characters.
Editorial Agent:
7. Are you an editorial agent?
If so, what is your process like when you’re working with your authors before
submitting to editors?
Absolutely. I generally make
some notes during my first read but then go back for a deep dive. Once I have
all my thoughts together, I’ll send an Editorial Letter to my author with all
of my suggested changes and thoughts. If they need to have a phone call with me
to brainstorm any points, or they strongly disagree with something I’ve
suggested, I always want them to feel that they can discuss it with me. If we
can find a compromise, great! But in the end, it is their book and I want them
to feel comfortable with what we will be putting out to editors.
Query Methods and Submission
Guidelines: (Always verify before submitting)
8. How should authors query
you and what do you want to see with the query letter?
Queries should be sent to
our query@cmalit.com email address. It’s always helpful if they put
my name in the subject line. As far as content, I want to see a brief and tight
summary telling me about the book, making sure that character goal, motivation
and conflict are present. A short bio is helpful, including any comp titles
that can give me an idea on the type of book. Lastly, I like to see
the first five pages pasted below the query. A query can be brilliantly written
but I want to see that the writing can deliver.
9. Do you have any
specific dislikes in query letters or the first pages submitted to you?
It’s always a good idea for
the person to address me or at least make certain I know the query is for me by
putting my name in the subject. On the actual query itself, some of the most
common problems I see are the lack of a title or genre, rambling queries where
the author spends too much time telling me why they wrote the book and not
enough time telling me about the book. Or perhaps it takes them so many
paragraphs to give me their summary so that the message and actual story are
lost. Lastly, with the pasted pages, make sure you’ve started your
story in the right place so it will immediately pull me in, and make sure
you’ve checked your manuscript for a lot of telling and not enough
showing.
Response Time:
10. What’s your response time
to queries and requests for more pages of a manuscript?
Generally, my response time is
anywhere between four to six weeks, but I will admit that during this time of
COVID, it has taken me a bit longer to meet that deadline since so many more
people have been at home and thus so many more queries are coming in.
Self-Published and Small Press
Authors:
11. Are you open to
representing authors who have self-published or been published by smaller
presses? What advice do you have for them if they want to try to find an agent
to represent them?
Yes, I am open to
self-published or small-press published authors. Just mention this in the bio
section. If these previously published books have been selling
especially well, it would be great for the author to mention that as
well.
12. With all the changes in
publishing—self-publishing, hybrid authors, more small publishers—do you see
the role of agents changing at all? Why?
I don’t necessarily see the
agent’s role changing but I do believe agents will need to have very good pitch
plans for submitting new works from previously self-published, hybrid or small-press
published books, especially if the prior books may not have a good sales track
record. A lot of the time, in those circumstances, editors at larger houses may
view these submissions as more like debut authors. I believe the agent and the
author should discuss this and have a good plan that they can both agree
on.
Clients:
13. Who are some of the
authors you represent?
In addition to some of my
amazing debut authors on submission now, I’m pleased to include some of my
published authors, such as: Tina Gerow, Lucas Pederson, Mary Beesley, and
Tricia Wentworth.
Interviews, Guest Posts, and
Podcasts:
14. Please share the links to
any interviews, guest posts, and podcasts you think would be helpful to writers
interested in querying you.
Duotrope Interview: https://duotrope.com/interview/agent/29466/shannon-snow
The Manuscript Academy
Podcast: https://manuscriptacademy.com/podcast-shannon-snow
Query Letters and Colds
Workshop from the Southwest Writers Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MFqf7xYQb4
Links and Contact Info:
15. Please share how writers
should contact you to submit a query and your links on the Web.
Queries should be sent to
our query@cmalit.com email address.
My CMA page: https://cmalit.com/shannon-snow/
Manuscript Wishlist:
https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/shannon-snow/
Publisher’s Marketplace:
https://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/ssnow/
Twitter:
Https://www.twitter.com/ssnow_lit_agent
Additional Advice:
16. Is there any other advice
you’d like to share with aspiring authors that we haven’t covered?
Write a book that you love,
and that passion will shine through the pages to the agent. Believe in yourself
and your work. Don’t let rejections get you down. If you’ve learned your craft,
received positive feedback from beta readers and people tell you they love your
work, up is the only way for you to go. That rejection just means that wasn’t
your agent, or the timing wasn’t right. The right one is out there waiting.
Don’t give up!
Thanks for sharing all your
advice, Shannon.
Shannon is generously offering
a query critique to one lucky winner. To enter, all you need to do is be a
follower (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar)
and leave a comment through January 29th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave
it in the comments to enter the contest. If you do not want to enter the
contest, that's okay. Just let me know in the comments.
If you mention this contest on
Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you
an extra entry. This is an international giveaway.
Have any experience with this
agent? See something that needs updating? Please leave a comment or e-mail me
at natalieiaguirre7@gmail.com
Note: These agent profiles and
interviews presently focus on agents who accept children's fiction. Please take
the time to verify anything you might use here before querying an agent. The
information found here is subject to change.
