Guest post by Chuck Sambuchino

I once joked that debut picture books are the one of the most difficult things to get published—perhaps second only to gay Amish novellas. While that was an exaggeration for humor’s sake, the truth remains that compiling a large list of literary agents who actively seek picture books has never been an easy task.

As the editor of the 2016 Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market, it’s my job to compile oodles of markets for kidlit writers and illustrators. But the truth is that not every market listed everywhere is 100% open—it’s not that simple. Sometimes a few agents at any agency are open to signing new writers, whereas others are not. Sometimes a publisher or agent closes themselves down to submissions for a while. With all these ins and outs, what’s a writer to do?