Author and agent
Kristin van Ogtrop is a literary agent at InkWell Management. In her previous life, she wrote a column called the Amateur for Time, was the editor in chief of Real Simple, and was named by Fortune as one of the “55 Most Influential Women on Twitter,” a designa- tion she now finds absurd. She was a contributor to the New York Times bestseller The Bitch in the House and the author of Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom. She lives in Westchester County, New York, with her husband, two dogs, and any number of children, depending on the day.
Kristin and I discuss her role as a literary agent, tips for how to find a literary agent, the process for pitching a book to an agent, exclusive submissions and pre-empt deals, the step-by-step process for how a book gets …