Submission Guidelines

Queries and submissions are responded to in order of receipt. Emailed queries are accepted, but all submissions must be snail mailed. Attachments will not be opened. Please email your queries to mail@thechudneyagency.com. Emails sent to any other address will be automatically deleted.

What we are looking for:

PICTURE BOOKS:

Author/Illustrators
The agency is looking for author/illustrators (one individual), who can both write and illustrate wonderful picture books.  The author/illustrator must really know and understand the prime audience's needs and wants—the child reader!

Submission guidelines: please submit the full text (up to three will be accepted); include 3 - 5 art samples for each (dummies not required and do not send original art!), a brief bio about yourself, and a SASE (a self-addressed, stamped envelope) if you would like your materials returned to you. Please also include the full prior submission history (to editors, not other agents).

We are not looking for:
--Board books or lift-the flap books
--Fables, folklore, or traditional fairytales
--Poetry or "mood pieces"
--Stories for "all ages" (as these ultimately are too adult oriented)
--Message-driven stories that are heavy-handed, didactic or pedantic

OLDER FICTION AND NOVELS

With novels, we're primarily looking for literary fiction: novels that are exceedingly well-written, with wonderful settings and developed characters. If you don't understand what literary means, you might reconsider sending us material. Some favorite teen authors that come to mind are Garret Freymann-Weyr, Sarah Dessen, Mark Zusak, E.L. Konigsburg, Ann Martin, Janet Tashijian, and Cynthia Kadohata. On the adult side, John Irving, Anne Tyler, Amy Tan, Sue Monk Kidd, and Oscar Hijuelos, are favorites.

We are not looking for any fantasy or science fiction.

Historical: we love historical fiction. Note: due to lack of editorial demand, we aren't looking for Civil or Revolutionary War era novel. Also, Dust Bowl and Depression era novels aren't of interest to us now, as well as novels about the slavery era too, which are not in great demand right now unless they are highly unusual and superbly written.

We're looking for historical fiction that will excite us and will introduce us to unique characters in settings and eras we haven't encountered too often yet.

Some novels I have enjoyed:
A Corner of the Universe
The Thief Lord
Big Mouth & Ugly Girl
Habibi, My Heartbeat
Because of Winn Dixie
Moonpie & Ivy
When Zach Beaver Came to Town
Pictures of Hollis Woods
Surviving the Applewhites
Jacob I have Loved
The Conch Bearer
A Corner of the Universe
Gingerbread
The Gospel According to Larry and Vote for Larry
A Northern Light
Luna
Hoot
Kira Kira
Anything by Patricia Reilly Giff, E. J. Konigsburg,
Sharon Creech, Polly Horvath, Kate DiCamillo,
Ann A. Martin, Joyce Carol Oates' teen novels