Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I've been searching for about a month now for a literary agency that handles authors looking to publish coloring books, but so far I've either gotten no replies or polite emails stating the agency wasn't interested in handling color books.

I didn't explain this in my email but I hope to make this into a series of educational coloring books like you find published by Scholastic. My friend (who is a first grade teacher) has been helping me edit the first coloring book and says she is very excited to use the activities and coloring pages in her classroom and told me that the material is incredibly relevant to what they have to teach right now in elementary school so I have high hopes for the book's success.

My biggest problem is, so far, finding that literary agent.

So my question is: should I just start sending query letters to agents (who specializes in children's books) or should I try something else?

I wouldn't classify a colouring book as a children's book, unfortunately. I think you're much better off going straight to publishers. You say it's relevant to what is taught in current classrooms, and that Scholastic has similar projects - is there a specific imprint or vehicle at Scholastic or educational publishers that publishes lines like this?

This is interesting. Like Sleeping Beauty, I suspect that a coloring book is not classified as a book. I think it would be classified as a toy, or art project.

I don't know anything about the market for those, but you could do some research.

Really interesting question - good luck!