Agent Friday: Laura Rennert

I love agents who blog. But not all of them have the time. Some of them are busy agents who are also authors. Like Laura Rennert.

A senior agent, at the prestigious Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Rennert considers herself a "literary omnivore", taking on projects from picture books to adult fiction and non-fiction. She's been with the agency since 1998, and her experience includes a Ph.D. in English Literature, along with nearly a decade of experience teaching as a faculty member in several English departments.

Her own books so far are picture books. The first, Buying, Training, and Caring for Your Dinosaur, was illustrated by Marc Brown, creator of the Arthur books and PBS TV series. The next to appear will be Emma, the Extraordinary Princess, coming in 2012.

While Rennert obviously has little time to blog, her author website has links to articles and interviews that share a lot of helpful information for writers. Check them out.


Rennert includes two fascinating lists on her website. One is a checklist for picture book authors. Picture books are far more difficult to write than they seem. The list Rennert provides tips on word count, word choice, and how to get the story going. She also has a .pdf article for picture book writers: Big Deals for Little Books.

The other list is advice for fiction writers. Rennert's tips cover fiction of all types. I particularly like this point: "External pressures leading to internal ones inherently make for a fascinating read."

Rennert also compiled a great list of do's and don'ts for how to find an agent. It includes some great links to other writers' websites.

On the CBI Clubhouse, Rennert has a podcast (which can be downloaded as a .pdf file) on What Writers Need to Know to Succeed.

Interviews with agents are a great way to find out more about what they're looking for and advice they share. Here are three of Rennert's interviews:

Check out the rest of the Agent Friday posts. Forty-nine and counting.

2 comments:

  1. Great addition to the Spotlight series!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Julie. Did you know she's married to Barry Eisler? Yes, the one that's been in all the publishing news lately.

    ~Debbie

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