LRT: The answer is no. Agents are for trade publishing, not academic.

I sent feelers out about #TheDarkFantastic to a couple of editors I knew 6-7 years ago. (In education, you don't necessarily need a book for tenure - it's an article field.) No interest, so I went academic.

I was never successful getting an agent through queries, back when I was actively trying in my 20s.

I've had two agents. The first I met through Rutgers Child_Lit listserv in 2003-2004. The second & current, through a former student in 2018.

Hope that helps someone.

One more change I've seen recently: More education faculty are publishing books beyond the dozen or so presses we've been relegated to in the past.

Education professors are ever-conscious of writing for multiple audiences. Because of that, our academic writing is stigmatized.

Those of us who have K-12 backgrounds are always thinking about how best to "teach" a concept that might be very complicated to our own students, other students, and the general public.

I tell my doc students, "You don't know a theory until you can explain it in your own words."

Our lived experiences, our backgrounds, and yes, our work all shape the writers we become.

Coda: I've been telling my friends who have been trying hard to break into print that I've gotten my opportunities through networks in the children's lit world.

All too often, we are not transparent about "how we got what we got." I'm not having it. https://twitter.com/Ebonyteach/status/1328021080783663113

I had to become a professor with a CV 25 pages long in order to have a shot at the free throw line. I still don't know if I'll score. But at least I've been able to give myself the best chance.

We're so enamored with Cinderella stories. We don't talk about the grind.