Agent Interview: Joyce Sweeney

closed to submissions

First and foremost, all my fellow agents at Seymour. After that, I would say Kaitlyn Sanchez and Jen Rofe.

Steven King, Daniel Handler, Daphne DuMaurier, Mary Stewart, Peter Brown, Stacie Ramey, Mara Wells, Sherri Winston, Melody Maysonet, Kerry Cerra, Thomas More, Jan Eldridge, Maya Angelou, Lynne Kelly, Jack Cheng, Kate DiCamillo, Rob Sanders, Donna Gephart, Jonathan Rosen, Dan Santat, Patricia MacLachlan, Amy Dyckman, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Shannon Hitchcock, Caron Levis, Holly Black, Shirley Jackson, Julian Hector, Elizabeth Lim, Casey McQuiston, Shadra Strickland, and all my clients. And many more.

I get compliments for being a good communicator. I am very editorial. I really take into account the market but also my clients' unique visions and try to find the intersection of those two things.

I'm closed right now but when I'm open again I like queries that are information packed, straightforward and business like. And I like to know a little personal information too, whether it is relevant to the project or not.

Paragraph One: What the project is. Please lead off with word count, genre etc so I know what I'm envisioning.
Then give me a great summary with specifics..."the main character does something amazing that changes the world in unbelievable ways" tells me nothing. Give me specific actions and plot points.
And as I said above I enjoy a little wrap up paragraph about the author themselves.

Something fresh I've never seen before, something that fits into the current market, something that shows hard work and craftsmanship in the execution.

I think they believe with all agents that if they send good work, they should get the offer. An agent has to balance so many complex business decisions and think very selectively about taking on new clients. If I said yes to every good project I've ever seen I would have about a thousand clients by now.

As I said, I like to know a little something. It's a pleasant part of the transaction. Do they have seven kids? Do they teach the age level they are writing for? Do they adopt rescue animals? Do they have a background in theater? Getting to know the person makes me understand the submission better.

With a picture book, obviously all of it, several times. With longer pieces if the problem is a complete lack of writing skills, or obvious AI assist, I can make the decision to pass after about ten pages. If the writing is good, I usually read the whole thing. Some people have rescued themselves with their plotting.

If it's great work, I love it and I have a spot for it on my list, then I ask for a Zoom. I also have to feel it's someone I can talk to and communicate well with and I like some back and forth about what they want and need and what I want and need. Only then it is a match and only then do I offer. The rest is just paperwork, going over the contract, getting them set up for our website and then really digging into the project to see if it needs any revision or tweaking. Then send it out!

Every day is different. We all hit the email first thing on Monday to look for critical things...offers, contracts, etc. I do a lot of communication with editors and clients in the mornings, tend to send out submissions in the middle of the day and read manuscripts in the afternoons. But on any given day one important thing can take over and take all my attention.

I'm boycotting most social media at the moment, but I am on Bluesky. One of my clients who is artistically inclined does a beautiful poster of the book covers for each upcoming season. I also promote a book as soon as it's delivered to me. I try to remember to write reviews and make sure my clients tell me if it slips my mind. And I do the kind of promotion that's sort of informal. I talk about the projects I'm excited about to anyone who will listen LOL.