Agent Spotlight: Amanda Lewis

This week's Agent Spotlight features Amanda Lewis of The Doe Coover Agency.

Status: Open to submissions. 

About: “Amanda Lewis handles primarily children’s books, including young adult and middle-grade fiction and non-fiction, picture books, and children’s reference. She especially loves a good adventure, mystery, or young adult love story with offbeat characters. Before coming to The Doe Coover Agency, Amanda was Director of Special Sales at Candlewick Press. She has been with DCA ten years now.” (Link)

About the Agency:

“THE DOE COOVER AGENCY was founded in 1986 by Doe Coover, previously an editor at Charles Scribner’s Sons and editor-in-chief of Addison-Wesley’s trade division. Early successes included Eyes on the Prize, the companion volume to Henry Hampton’s award-winning documentary series, and stock market legend Peter Lynch’s One Up on Wall Street. Other early projects included cookbooks, science titles, and biographies. COLLEEN MOHYDE joined the agency in 1992 and the list expanded to include fiction, gardening, current affairs, and humor.

“We are a small agency dedicated to working closely with a selective list of clients to produce works of distinction. Our goal is to foster the long-term value of an author’s work by contributing to every phase of the publishing process. We work collaboratively with authors to develop their ideas and edit their proposals or manuscripts in order to attract the best publishing partner—with the best possible terms. We have books with all major trade and academic publishers. After a book’s publication we continue to participate in the process by offering hands-on advice for the book’s marketing, working closely with agents abroad and in Hollywood to extend the life of the book through licensing ancillary rights.” (Link)

Web Presence:

Doe Coover Agency website.

LinkedIn.

Jacketflap.

QueryTracker.

What She's Looking For:

Genres/Specialties:

Children’s, picture books, middle grade, young adult, children’s reference.

Via E-mail (07/2011):

“I'd be excited to see a modern HARRIET THE SPY!  I love kids who spy!  I also have a passion for travel and love stories that explore an intriguing setting.”

From Her Bio (above):

“She especially loves a good adventure, mystery, or young adult love story with offbeat characters.” (Link)

What She Isn't Looking For:

Poetry, Screenplays, Adult projects.

Editorial Agent?

Yes. “We work collaboratively with authors to develop their ideas and edit their proposals or manuscripts in order to attract the best publishing partner—with the best possible terms.” (Link)

Clients:

Blue Balliett, Luke Jorgensen, Jane Sutton, Stephanie Strohm, and Jessica Tom, among others.

Sales:

As of this posting, Ms. Lewis does not appear to be a member of Publisher’s Marketplace. 

Query Methods:

E-mail: Yes.

Snail-Mail: Yes.

Online-Form: No.

Submission Guidelines (always verify):

“For non-fiction projects we like to see a detailed proposal, including an overview, table of contents or detailed outline, an author biography, and pertinent marketing information.

“For fiction we prefer to receive a query consisting of a detailed synopsis of the novel and the first 50 pages. Please include an author biography as well.

See the Doe Coover Agency website for complete, up-to-date submission guidelines.

Response Times:

The agency’s stated response time is 4-6 weeks.

Stats on the web show Ms. Lewis responding to queries within days to a few weeks, requested material within days to a couple months.  Both with occasional outliers.

What's the Buzz?

There isn’t an abundance of information on the web about Amanda Lewis or the Doe Coover Agency, but they appear to be well-established and respected.  Ms. Lewis specializes in children’s literature, picture book through young adult, and has been an agent for over ten years.  I think it’s safe to deduce that she has a lot more clients and sales than is represented on the web and is worth a shot.

Worth Your Time:

Interviews:

None I could find online.

Around the Web:

Doe Coover Agency on P&E. Amanda Lewis on P&E.

Doe Coover Agency thread on AbsoluteWrite.

The Road to Getting An Agent, client Jessica Tom’s agent story (06/2011).

Contact:

Please see the Doe Coover Agency website for contact and query information.

Profile Details:

Last updated: 12/16/11 – Added picture.

Agent Contacted For Review? Yes.

Last Reviewed By Agent? 7/25/11.

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Have any experience with this agent? See something that needs updating? Please leave a comment or e-mail me at agentspotlight(at)gmail(dot)com

Note: These agent profiles presently focus on agents who accept children's fiction. They are not interviews. Please take the time to verify anything you might use here before querying an agent. The information found herein is subject to change.