James McGowan, "Good Night, Oppy!" (Astra Young Readers, 2021)

James McGowan is literary agent at Bookends, where he represents many award-winning authors and illustrators. He focuses on illustrated projects for young readers (board books, picture books, chapter books, and middle grade) as well as adult nonfiction and mystery/suspense novels. In addition to being an agent, James is a children’s author. His debut picture book Good Night, Oppy! (Astra Young Readers, 2021) launched from Astra BFYR in 2021. In our lively conversation we talk about his life and career as both author and agent, his new book, the realities of publishing for children, and his tips for aspiring writers. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University, emeritus) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 240,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices