Contact & FAQs

Frequently asked questions as an author:

How do I find out when you have a new book?

The best way to find out what I’m up to is signing up for my monthly newsletter – The Quacktory!

You can also follow me on Twitter and Goodreads.

I'm interested in the publishing rights for one of your books. Who do I contact?

Thank you for your interest! Please contact my agent, Naomi Davis, at BookEnds Literary.

I am interested in your editorial services for my picture book/middle grade/young adult novel. Are you still editing?

Unfortunately, I’m currently closed to editorial work in order to focus on my own writing and my BookEnds clients. You can join The Quacktory and follow me on Twitter to see if I open again or if I’m participating in a conference where you can receive a critique.

Frequently asked questions as an agent:

What does a literary agent do and how do I get one?

The short answer is that a literary agent works on an author or illustrator’s behalf to sell their books to traditional publishers and guide them in their long term career. For more, I wrote this series on working with an agent:

Working with An Agent: What does an agent do?
Working with An Agent: Step 1 – Writing your query letter
Working with An Agent: Step 2 – Researching agents and submitting
Working with An Agent: Step 3 – Getting the call
Working with An Agent: Step 4 – Responding to an offer
Working with An Agent: Step 5 – Your author-agency agreement
Working with An Agent: Step 6 – After you sign
Working with An Agent: Step 7 – If you decide it’s time to part ways…

I'm interested in the foreign, audio or film rights for one of your client's books. Who do I contact?

Please contact BookEnds Literary for more information on subsidiary rights.

What's on your current #MSWL (manuscript wish list)?

I represent fiction, non-fiction and illustration for children and teens – and am specifically looking for picture books, middle grade, young adult and graphic novels for the trade market. I’m open to both illustrators and author-illustrators, and am also still very much interested in looking at more non-traditional storytelling (verse novels, epistolary novels, etc.).

From previous #MSWL tweets, I’m still looking for:

Hitchcock-inspired pbs and mg
stories of women in space
a YA novel about Julie D’Aubigny, aka La Maupin – the bisexual fencing, opera singing and dueling badass
a YA set amidst the struggle for the passage of the ERA – whether in the 1920’s or 1970’s
deliciously dark picture books
a middle grade mystery series featuring a spunky female protagonist
more baseball, please! (I would love a middle grade about Negro league baseball and/or the AAGPBL – either historical fiction or non-fiction.)
secular holiday stories (that don’t involve Santa Claus nor focus on material gift-giving)

And I’ll always be looking for:

own voices stories in pb, mg, and ya – would love to see more neurodiverse, LGBT+ and/or stories from people (particularly women) of color. Intersectional stories always welcome!
picture books where the child has a non-traditional family structure (preferably where that isn’t the main plot point)
contemporary middle grade stories of friendship or family – potentially with a touch of magic
middle grade non-fiction that doesn’t flinch or whitewash history and/or the subject
middle grade and YA graphic novels
non-fiction stories of untold heroes and heroines

Some things I’m not a good fit for:

leprechauns
potty training books, or stories starring poop and/or boogers
angels
horses
stockholm syndrome love stories
YA romance with a huge age gap (e.g. a 400 year old vampire and a teenager – I can’t get past the difference in life experience. It creeps me out.)
stories about Santa Claus
picture books about household appliances
memoirs from adults about their teenage years

You can also find more about my wishlist on my Manuscript Wish List page and my blog, or find more about my current list at Publisher’s Marketplace or my list of announced client books.

Where are you in your queries? Do you respond to every one?

At BookEnds, we respond to every query and requested manuscript, as long as it was sent through QueryManager. You can query me at queryme.online/tmarchini. I’m currently looking for fiction, non-fiction and illustration across the children’s spectrum – from picture books to young adult, including graphic novel writers and/or illustrators.

As of August 1, 2020, I am closed to queries to catch up on the queries and requested manuscripts I’ve already received. You can get a monthly update of my query statistics and an update on when I will be reopening to queries by joining my newsletter, The Quacktory.

To get a sense of how many queries I receive in a year and how many I request, you can check out My 2017 in queries and My 2018 in queries.

I have a question about how to get published, can you help me?

Unfortunately, I don’t have the bandwidth to answer individual questions at the moment.

That said, there’s a good amount of advice on my blog for Writers and Illustrators, and I continue to add more as I can – so hopefully there’s something here that can either answer your question or send you in the right direction! (You can also check out the archives, once they’re up and running.)