Mary Cummings

After thirteen years as an agent for kids’ books with Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises, in spring 2021 I opened my own agency: Great River Literary, dedicated exclusively to representing authors and author-illustrators of books for children and teens. Among my sales are board and picture books, chapter books and novels to such houses as Abrams; Little, Brown; Knopf; Random House; FSG; Imprint; Holt; Feiwel and Friends; Viking; Philomel; Nancy Paulsen; Chronicle; Candlewick; WorthyKids; HarperCollins; Balzer & Bray; Holiday House; Wiseman S & S and others.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to greatriverliterary@gmail.com

If you would like to submit your work for potential representation:

Please follow these guidelines (see also “Wishlist” in articles on Great River Literary website, greatriverliterary.com):

I represent fiction, literary nonfiction and poetry for children and teens, from board and picture books to middle grade (including chapter books) and young adult. (No adult projects, please).

For picture books, please embed the entire text in the body of your e-mail. If you are an author/illustrator, send a link to the dummy and sample illustrated pages (do not send attachments).

For longer works, please embed the first three pages.

Include a bit about your project, some bio info, plus related writing or other relevant experience. It’s helpful to know your experience with kids, too.

Submit to: greatriverliterary@gmail.com *** NO ATTACHMENTS *** They will be deleted without being read. No phone or snail-mail queries. Please understand that owing to the number of queries I receive, I am able to respond only to those that may be a potential fit.

Guidelines & Details