THAO LE: On Being A Literary Agent

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Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a literary agent? Or how a literary agent sells a manuscript? How about tips on improving your query letter? We discuss these topics and much more with Thao Le!

Thao is a literary agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. She represents Children’s books and Young Adult across many genres, and in the adult realm represents romantic leaning Fantasy and Light Science Fiction. Thao’s clients include NYT bestselling fantasy author Roshani Chokshi, NYT bestselling contemporary Young Adult author Sandhya Menon, Indie bestselling picture book author-illustrator Jessie Sima, and many more.

In our conversation, we dive deep into how Thao found her passion for stories and the steps she took to become a literary agent. We discuss how she learned to sell manuscripts, we walk through different kinds of book deals, get into details like what sub rights are in contracts, and shine some light on the financial side of being a literary agent. We talk about commercial hooks in query letters and her experience as a marginalized literary agent and a champion for representation. And Thao unpacks some of her favorite query letters and why they stood out to her. (P.S. You can download these query letters on her shownotes page!) 

Special note about this episode: A lot has changed from the time of the original interview back in January to the time of the release of Thao's podcast episode in May. As of March this year, Thao has changed to full-time agenting and no longer handles royalties for the agency. Everything in Thao's episode is accurate for when our interview took place. ENJOY!

Say 'Hi' to Thao Le on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThaoLe8

Head over to Thao’s shownotes page at 88cupsoftea.com/podcast/thao-le to download three of Thao’s favorite query letters that caught her eye! You’ll also find all the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation!

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