Dear Kathy…

On the contrary, I recommend you pursue young editors and agents at full speed because they are often in high list-building mode. That means they’re more likely than those long in the tooth to fly around the nation for smaller events like writing chapters’ Agent/Editor Days, making them more accessible to submitting authors, and they are more likely to offer an ‘open call’ for submissions when they get there. They are also more willing to work through a round or two of revision on a promising project. And very importantly, in almost every case these young’uns have deeply experienced mentors hovering in the background. Mentoring is a big thing in the ranks of literary professionals, and that, coupled with youthful enthusiasm, brings young agents and editors up to speed on the marketplace and their craft very quickly. These ‘kids’ are hungry, driven, and acquiring; does it get any better than that? If you have an opportunity to connect with an editor or agent, forget about your abundance of gray hairs and their lack thereof. It’s about the books, always.

Happy writing!

The Editor