UPDATE ON 2/2/2021: Colleen Oefelein was fired by The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency on 1/26/2021 for posting on the social media platforms Gab and Parler. You can read more about it in this
Newsweek article.
Hi Colleen! Thanks so much for
joining us.
About Colleen:
1. Tell us how you became an agent, how long you’ve been
one, and what you’ve been doing as an agent.
Hi Natalie! Thank you so much for having me in the agent
spotlight. I’m a fairly new agent with The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency
(since February 2018), and I’m actively and very excitedly building my list. Prior
to working with New York’s Jennifer De Chiara, I was an associate agent, agent
assistant, and PR manager with Inklings Literary Agency, which was where I
began my publishing career as an intern several years ago. Prior to that, I was
an Air Force officer and engineer working space launch. I hold a BS from Penn
State in Chemical Engineering with a focus in Biotechnology, and I also hold a
BS in German. As a published YA author, I can greatly appreciate the journey to
publication and always look for opportunities to mentor pre-published authors. As
an agent, I host several online and conference workshops such as Rejection
Correction, Pitch Perfect, “Reel” Inspiration, and Undreary Your Query. I’ve
recently signed my first clients to the agency and am preparing their
manuscripts for submission.
About the Agency:
2. Share a bit about your agency and what it offers to its
authors.
The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency is a New York
City-based full-service literary agency founded in 2001 and named one of the
top 25 literary agencies in the country by Writer’s Digest. The agency
represents children’s literature for all ages – picture books and middle-grade
and young adult novels – but also represents high-quality adult fiction and
non-fiction in a wide range of genres. JDLA is proud to represent illustrators,
as well as screenwriters for both television and film, including Emmy and
Peabody Award-winning writers and illustrators. What sets JDLA apart from other
agencies is our holistic approach to managing every aspect of an author’s
career to make the most of their project's potential.
- A designated Foreign
Rights team, with co-agents in every country and an established presence
at Book Expo and book fairs throughout the world.
- A designated Film/TV/Media
agent based in Hollywood.
- An affiliated Presentation
Service and Media trainer to help authors communicate with clarity,
precision, and greater impact.
- An affiliated Speakers
Services agent who coordinates booking speaking engagements.
- Strong affiliations with
top merchandising agents to handle merchandising opportunities as they
arise.
JDLA is truly a full-service literary agency, and we
regularly help our authors in everything from creating book ideas to editing
and promoting their books. We are proud to represent established authors and
help advance their careers, but we are committed to discovering talented new
writers and making their literary dreams a reality.
What She’s Looking
For:
3. What age groups do you represent—picture books, MG,
and/or YA? What genres do you represent and what are you looking for in
submissions for these genres?
I represent authors of picture books, middle grade, young
adult, and adult books in a range of genres:
Picture Book: I’m looking for fun, funny, adventurous, or
touching stories with that magical mix of novel simplicity and a surprise
ending that will have my 6-year-old asking to read over and over. My favorites
are The Kissing Hand, The Good for Nothing Button, Parts, the There
Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a... series, the Llama Llama series,
and the Pigeon series.
Middle Grade: I’m looking for mystery, suspense, thriller,
horror, low fantasy, paranormal, all with a thread of subtle or not-so-subtle
humor.
Young Adult and Adult: In general, send me unusual
re-tellings and heart-rending love stories, harsh and sobering contemporary,
romantic suspense, romance in all subgenres (except erotic), mystery, suspense,
thriller, horror, comedy, low fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, and anything
fast-paced.
4. Is there anything
you would be especially excited to seeing in the genres you are interested in?
In general I love to see anything high-concept, fast-paced,
and in deep POV.
In YA, I badly want a Faust retelling, and a retelling of a
more obscure fable, fairy tale, or lesser-known cultural myth. Also in YA, a
mystery/suspense/thriller based on or inspired by the David Grunwald murder
(one that smartly navigates the culture of teen cannabis use and violence). I’d
also love to see a suspense or thriller that involves identity policing. In YA
SciFi, urban fantasy, or dystopian, a story that calls to mind THE ANDROMEDA
STRAIN;
In MG and YA, I’d
love to see a non-didactic, fresh perspective from a main character who
struggles to fit in to or feels ostracized from his/her marginalized community;
In MG, YA, or Adult:
anything by or based on an Alaska Native POV; and a thriller or mystery
involving painted rocks.
What She Isn’t
Looking For:
5. What types of submissions are you not interested in?
At the moment, I’m not interested nonfiction, literary
fiction, atmospheric novels, westerns, vampires, werewolves, faeries, dragons,
politics, video games, or shifter romance.
Agent Philosophy:
6. What is your philosophy as an agent both in terms of the
authors you want to work with and the books you want to represent?
The author-agency relationship is first and foremost a business
relationship with the express intent of selling a literary work. However,
publishing a book is a life’s dream, and oftentimes there’s a lot of emotion
involved (for agents too). For me, this is a career-long commitment, and so I
take some time to get to know an author’s personality in real life and on
social media, and I like to discuss the author’s career goals, share editing
suggestions, and/or bounce story ideas to determine if this is an author-agent
relationship that could work long term.
When it comes to finding a book I want to represent, I’m
pragmatic. Is the book currently marketable, and am I enthusiastic enough about
it to make the sale? Those are the two questions on my mind. If my answer is
yes to both, I get to know the author. :-)
Editorial Agent:
7. Are you an editorial agent? If so, what is your process
like when you’re working with your authors before submitting to editors?
I would consider myself an editorial agent. For debut
authors, my process is this: prior to offering representation, I ask the author
how willing they’d be to make any big-picture edits I’d like to see. Once we’ve
signed the contract, I email the author a list of big-picture editing
suggestions (which we’d have already discussed), which may be plot tweaks, sub
plot tweaks, and/or character edits. Once the big-picture edits are finished, I
read the MS again and highlight any remaining story issues. Following that
comes line editing.
Query Methods and
Submission Guidelines: (Always verify before submitting)
8. How should authors query you and what do you want to see
with the query letter?
9. Do you have any
specific dislikes in query letters or the first pages submitted to you?
In general, I dislike a query that’s arrogant, wordy, or
convoluted. Though I’m not a query snob, I do like a query letter that’s fairly
formulaic:
- An intro with the title, readership (picture book, middle
grade, young adult, or adult), the genre, and the word count rounded to
the nearest thousand.
- An opening hook that either teases me with a one-sentence plot
summary, meaningful comp titles, or a nugget of character irony that makes
me want to jump straight to the pages.
- A 3-5 sentence plot summary. This should be concise, voicey,
and it should not give away the ending, but rather tease with cliffhanger
that makes me want to speed-read the synopsis.
- A 1-3 sentence bio is nice but not required.
Openings: I don’t
like a bored main character in an opening. A bored main character makes me a
bored reader. In addition, I don’t like an opening sentence that describes the
weather unless the weather is about to cause some shenanigans. Info dumps and
passive voice are also things I skip over in an opening.
Response Time:
10. What’s your response time to queries and requests for
more pages of a manuscript?
For queries, my response time is 6 weeks. If an author
doesn’t receive a response from me within 6 weeks, they can consider it a pass.
However, I try to answer all queries.
For requested pages, my normal response time is 12 weeks.
Self-Published and
Small Press Authors:
11. Are you open to
representing authors who have self-published or been published by smaller
presses? What advice do you have for them if they want to try to find an agent
to represent them?
Yes, I’m open to both, though books by authors who have
self-published may be a harder sale to a big publisher. I need to feel extra
enthusiastic about those, because if the sales numbers for those self-published
books aren’t high, it will be challenging to garner an offer for that author’s
other work.
My advice to authors is to consider their career objectives
prior to self-publishing. If an author wants to be published traditionally, I
recommend publishing traditionally first.
12. With all the changes in publishing—self-publishing,
hybrid authors, more small publishers—do you see the role of agents changing at
all? Why?
As long as editors prioritize agent-submitted work over
author-submitted work, and as long as authors seek assistance in contract
negotiations and sub-rights sales, I don’t see the role of literary agents
changing significantly.
Clients:
13. Who are some of the authors you represent?
I recently signed three new clients to The Jennifer De
Chiara Literary Agency: Tia Barber is a fresh voice in swoon-worthy and
page-turning paranormal and mob romance, Kelly Hopkins is a #TeenPit
co-founder, a #PitchWars mentor, and a prolific author of gritty and fearless YA,
and Marina Anisimova, a genius picture book author, is an immigrant who
navigates the absurdity of stereotypes through forest animal humor.
Interviews and Guest
Posts:
14. Please share the links to any interviews and guest posts
you think would be helpful to writers interested in querying you.
Links and Contact
Info:
15. Please share how writers should contact you to submit a
query and your links on the Web.
Additional Advice:
16. Is there any other advice you’d like to share with
aspiring authors that we haven’t covered?
My best piece of advice to authors is this: Don’t quit.
Thanks for sharing all your advice, Colleen.
Colleen is generously offering a query critique to one lucky winner. To
enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follower button if
you're not a follower) and leave a comment through July 14th.
If your e-mail
is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to
enter either contest. If you do not want to enter the contest, that's okay.
Just let me know in the comments.
If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this
in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. This is an international giveaway.
Profile Details:
Last Updated: 2/2/2021
Agent Contacted for Review? Yes
Last Reviewed by Agent? N/A
Have any experience with this agent? See something that needs updating?
Please leave a comment or e-mail me at
natalieiaguirre7@gmail.com
Note: These agent profiles and interviews presently focus on agents who
accept children's fiction. Please take the time to verify anything you might
use here before querying an agent. The information found here is subject to
change.
