What an agent is looking for...

We have asked senior agent Chloe Morgan, who will give feedback to the winning Secondary picture book creator as part of their prize, what she hopes to see from the winning entry.

Chloe said, "For me it's the characters that make the book and I think it's important to think of your characters as if you're casting the lead actors in your play along with their side kicks. "What sets the lead characters apart from the rest? Injecting personality into the characters by focusing on their clothing - adding in patterns and/or textures into their clothing such as pattered leggings and shirts, hairstyles, bows in hair/hats, glasses, backpacks and toys are just a handful of examples of the sorts of things you can experiment with to really give your character depth. "Adding things like this will also make your characters easily identifiable if the books were to go into a series... giving your main characters a voice is also so important in bringing the characters to life - thinking about the pacing and tone can really help the narrative and flow of the storytelling." You have until 30th April to send your entries to the ReadingZone Picture Book Competition 2019.