The Agent
All About Kids Books
As a literary agent, Michelle’s focus is on children’s literature for all ages, both fiction and nonfiction. She craves adorable board books as much as she savors a delicious young adult fantasy, and everything in between. Her tastes are rather eclectic, so to get a better idea of what types of books, click the button below to view her manuscript wishlist, or the link beside it to discover some of the gorgeous books written (and illustrated) by her fantastic clients.
Inside the agency
Meet Mansion Street
Get to know the literary agency behind the agent.
The Agency
Built on Mansion Street
Mansion Street Literary Management got its start in a cute c1839 Greek Revival house on – wait for it – Mansion Street.
Mansion Street is a boutique literary agency based in New York that seeks exciting new authors and properties to represent, founded by Jean Sagendorph, a twenty-year veteran of the entertainment industry, whose award-winning work includes many New York Times bestsellers for prominent clients like Peanuts, Food Network, and Fancy Nancy, to name a few.
My philosophy
Working with authors as an editorial agent
For the past twenty years I’ve edited various types of fiction and nonfiction, in all its many splendid forms. I started out in journalism as a copy editor for the Deseret Morning News. After a few years, I transitioned to working with books (though still nonfiction) at Gibbs Smith, an independent publisher of varied nonfiction and gift books. Gibbs Smith has a rather eclectic mix of titles they publish; I worked on everything from books about blacksmithing and green living to cookbooks and children’s activity books. I learned a lot about the process of publishing a book, from the beginnings of an idea, through the editorial stages, on to design, production, and printing, and then through sales and marketing to when it finally lands on bookstore shelves.
Working for a smaller publisher means you are involved in more than just a single step in the process, so I gained a lot of practical knowledge and deeper understanding of all the little details that go into printing a book, like why paper thickness and typeface and even the glossiness of the cover matters in a finished book. All of this experience gives me an advantage as an agent, as I know what goes on in each stage in the process and can guide my authors on what to expect in the unique world of publishing.
