Status: Leslie is
currently closed to queries but will reopen in late December 2024.
Hi Leslie!
Thanks so much for joining us.
About
Leslie:
I became an agent after having been a librarian for 20+ years. I’d been writing middle grade as well, and agenting sounded like a great career path. I was a reader for Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency and then assistant to Jennie Dunham at Dunham Literary prior to starting to represent my own clients in 2018. After time with Dunham Literary and Odom Media Management, I launched Open Book Literary in the fall of 2023.
I’ve been slowly building my client list, working with many
debut authors. My focus is on amplifying underrepresented voices and
championing our intersections of identity, with a special emphasis on
disability, poverty, Judaism and other non-Christian religions,
neurodivergence, and women.
In my membership and volunteer work with the Association of
American Literary Agents, I have been working towards equity in publishing,
making the business of representation more transparent to people seeking to
become agents and writers seeking agents, and helping foster community among
agents.
About the
Agency:
2. Share a
bit about your agency and what it offers to its authors.
Open Book Literary is a solo practice. I partner with a
contracts consultant, Jennifer Uram, and a subrights agency, the Rights People,
so my clients benefit similarly to being represented by a large agency with
staff. I provide editorial advice to my clients, career management and
strategies, and a collegial atmosphere in which I support my clients and they
support each other, as well. We celebrate everyone’s successes together!
I also encourage my clients to explore writing in other
genres and/or categories, to play in the service of their art, and to balance
writing with other aspects of their lives. As a “career agent,” I’m focused on
building long-term success over quick sales. Not that I don’t love a short
submission with an efficient negotiation leading to a good contract!
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 represent picture books through YA, primarily contemporary
fiction, mysteries, and historical fiction. Manuscripts that sit in the sweet
spot of the Venn diagram between immediate kid appeal and appeal to parents,
educators, and librarians. I love verse novels and picture book texts that use
lyricism, verse, and wordplay.
At the moment, I’m seeking more young YA and stories that are rich in character and setting, but
that make good use of white space and appeal to less
confident readers while still interesting to bookish kids like I was.
4. Is there anything you would be especially
excited to see in the genres you are interested in?
The longer I’m an agent, the more I love surprises. Because
execution is so subjective, I find it’s better to be less prescriptive. Nothing
is more disappointing to me - and the writer - than to get a query for a story
that checks the boxes for my MSWL but that ends up not being a fit.
On the other hand, it was delightful to get a submission
that was a YA mystery with a vampire twist I’d never have asked for - but
loved.
What She Isn’t
Looking For:
5. What
types of submissions are you not interested in?
I am not a fit for political thrillers, Holocaust fiction, high
fantasy, inspirational or Christian fiction, stories that use violence against
women as the primary or opening narrative hook, or hard sci-fi. I’m also not a
fan of historical settings for nostalgia’s sake, particularly for children’s
books. I like historical fiction where the history is directly tied to the
story - such as ONE CRAZY SUMMER, PLANET EARTH IS BLUE, or TORCH.
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?
See questions #1 & 2. ;-)
As an agent, I seek out books that entertain while holding
room for deeper meaning and engagement. Everyone deserves joy and to see their
joy represented on the page, to have fun while reading, and to explore the
wonderful variety of life.
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?
Yes, I am. While I do give edit letters and inline comments,
I love discussing clients’ work with them on calls or online chats. Often,
ideas or solutions appear in the discussion that might not have occurred to
either of us individually.
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?
I use QueryManager, and my link is https://QueryManager.com/Lzampetti. I ask for a short author bio and the first five pages of the manuscript (or complete picture book text or dummy) along with the query letter.
My practice is to open to queries the first full week of the
month and then close for the rest of the month. It’s been helping me respond
more efficiently.
9. Do you have any specific dislikes in query
letters or the first pages submitted to you?
I’m not a fan of query letters in the voice of a character,
though it’s not an automatic pass. People who are deliberately rude are
definitely an automatic pass.
Response
Time:
10. What’s
your response time to queries and requests for more pages of a manuscript?
I respond to all queries within four weeks, ideally sooner.
For requests, it’s usually 4-6 months - I request a lot, I don’t use a reader,
and there’s only so many hours in the day.
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?
I am open to them, but not in terms of taking an already
self-published book to trade publishers. I’m really looking for authors who
either wish to hybrid publish - keeping some work for self-publishing and some
for the trade - or to move from self-publishing to trade publishing.
Self publishing is its own market and requires strong
business skills as well as creative ones. I don’t advise using it as a “trial
balloon” to see how a book will do, because finding the sweet spot between
enough sales to attract a larger house and not having sold out the audience is
tough.
Traditional publishing is very collaborative; for authors
who want complete control over their work, self publishing enables that
control.
Clients:
12. Who are
some of the authors you represent?
All of my clients are listed on my website, https://www.openbooklit.com/home.
My currently published clients for kidlit are Kate Allen
Fox, Lisa Schmid, Wendy Cross, and Andrea Shapiro. (With more coming soon!)
Interviews
and Guest Posts:
13. Please
share the links to any interviews, guest posts, and podcasts you think would be
helpful to writers interested in querying you.
A few recent ones are:
https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/meet-literary-agent-leslie-zampetti/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJkPRweF2X0
Links and
Contact Info:
14. Please
share how writers should contact you to submit a query and your links on the
Web.
Please see above. My website links to my MSWL, my AALA agent
profile, and social media accounts.
Additional
Advice:
15. Is there
any other advice you’d like to share with aspiring authors that we haven’t
covered?
N/A
Thanks for sharing all your advice, Leslie.
Giveaway Details
Leslie 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 October
19th. If your email 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 follow me on Twitter or 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 email 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.
Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops
Monday, October 14th I have an interview with debut author Adrian So and a giveaway of his MG chapter book The Groundworld Heroes. He’s only 14 years old and a debut author so please stop by and leave him a comment to support him in accomplishing such a big goal at such a young age.
Wednesday, October 16th I have an agent spotlight interview with Samantha Wekstein and a query critique giveaway
Friday, October 18th I’m participating in the Silly Pumpkin Giveaway Hop
Monday, October 28th I have a guest post by author Abbi Lee
and a giveaway of her MG Ghost Town Treasure Hunt
Friday,
November 1st I’m participating in the Thanks a Latte Giveaway Hop
Wednesday,
November 6th I have an interview with author Jan
Gangsei and a giveaway of her YA Dead Below Deck and my IWSG post
Saturday,
November 9th I’m participating in the Super Stocking Stuffer Giveaway Hop
I hope to see you on Monday!