Kelly Dyksterhouse

Kelly Dyksterhouse

@kellydhouse.bsky.social

Literary Agent, The Tobias Literary Agency | #kidlit | AALA | SCBWI | 🐱and 🐶 | writer-hiker-daydreamer | www.KellyDyksterhouse.com

7,510 Followers 1,373 Following 230 Posts Joined Aug 2023
2 weeks ago

That’s a wrap! Thanks to those who submitted pages for this month’s live first pages session with @thetobiasagency.bsky.social !Our next will be on 3/25. To submit your first page, send to queryconuncdrum@gmail.com.

#writers #firstpages #amquerying

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3 weeks ago
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Our first live Ask Agent is tomorrow! If you’re free during, hop on over to IG and join us! #amquerying #writers #kidlit #publishingindustry

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2 months ago
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#kidlitartpostcard ⭐️

Hey there 👋
I’m Caroline, PB author and illustrator with a softly textured style and a love of endearing tales ✏️✨

Rep'd by @kellydhouse.bsky.social 📚 and available for picture books, board books, chapter books, covers and licensing ✨ #kidlit

carolinemcphersonillustration.com

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2 months ago

If this is a first draft, just get the story on the paper. You will have many, many drafts later to refine and work on the word count. Trust the process—and enjoy it!

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2 months ago

Happy new year! May the words flow sweetly, may you trust the process, and may you wake up ready to fight Resistance so you may pursue your story with relentless curiosity. Bring on 2026!

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2 months ago

I love when I can greet the day sipping coffee and scrolling through illustration art here and on the Gram, especially now as they’re filled with images of wintery wonderlands. Uplifting and inspiring. Keep creating, folks!

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3 months ago

Not all books are for all people!

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3 months ago

Totally valid.

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3 months ago
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Why SUNRISE ON THE REAPING didn't work for me . . . until it suddenly did. Large casts of secondary characters can be your best friend!

I’m curious if other readers give books several tries and if so, why?

If you’re interested reading about why I recently kept trying a book and what I learned about it, you can read my Substack here: open.substack.com/pub/kellydyk...

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3 months ago

But if I’m just browsing in a store, the book gets less than one try: it gets a first sentence, maybe a first paragraph. If I finish the first page, I’m likely to buy it. Proof of 2 things: that first page is truly weighty, and also that word of mouth recommendation sells and builds books.

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3 months ago

Readers, how many chances do you give a book?

For me, if it’s recommended, I will give it several tries. Sometimes it’s clear I’m not in the right headspace for the kind of story it is and need to wait.

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3 months ago
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Interview With Agent Kelly Dyksterhouse! - Publishing Pals Hello! We are so excited for this episode to interview Kelly Dyksterhouse, an agent at Tobias Literary Agency.  Kelly is an agented writer as well as an agent at The Tobias Literary Agency, a bou...

Our interview with awesome literary agent and author @kellydhouse.bsky.social is out! We had a lot of fun asking our burning questions about author/illustrators and how self-publishing is viewed in the industry. www.buzzsprout.com/2533442/epis...

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3 months ago
Family getting a tree

Happy #kidlitartpostcard day! I’m reusing my image for this weeks #winterywoodchallenge over on Instagram because I love it! I’m am repped by @kellydhouse.bsky.social @thetobiasagency.bsky.social Happy Holidays!

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3 months ago
Picture book illustration of a collection of snow globes for sale in a festive shop window. Wintery colour palette of blues, teals and greens depicts a snowy backdrop with evergreens. A central snow globe contains a tiny mouse with a sleigh, on its way into a Christmas tree farm to choose his tree.

Saying a special December hello to any and all publishing folks who may see this post 👋 🙂

I’m Caroline, an author-illustrator, available for picture books, board books and covers ✏️✨

Literary Agent: @kellydhouse.bsky.social ✨📖✨

carolinemcphersonillustration.com

#kidlitart #kidlitartpostcard

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3 months ago
Preview
Best Books for Teens 2025 Our expert librarians have selected the year's best books for kids, teens, and adults! Discover a selection of 25 e-books that you can read right away—with no wait times!—through December 31, 2025, pl...

A.A. Vacharat's THIS MOTH SAW BRIGHTNESS made the New York Public Library's Best Books for Teens in 2025.

www.nypl.org/books-more/r...

#yabooks #writingcommunity #bookcommunity

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3 months ago

If you’re interested, join us for a few minutes or the whole hour. We’d love to take your questions.

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4 months ago
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If you’ve got some free time on Nov. 18 from 1-2, pop on over to IG and join us! We will answer questions, tell stories, and talk all things #kidlit in publishing!

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4 months ago
A young character in a blue snowsuit and rainbow scarf, hat, mittens and boots, stands in the snow looking up at a huge tree with a trunk of rainbow colours. A sweet little squirrel watches on from a nearby rainbow tree. Its snowing.

Happy #kidlitartpostcard day ✨

l’m Caroline, 🇬🇧🇦🇺 picture book author-illustrator with a softly textured style and a love of endearing tales ✏️✨

Rep'd by @kellydhouse.bsky.social 📚 and available for picture books, board books, covers and licensing ✨ #kidlit

www.carolinemcphersonillustration.com

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4 months ago

Yes, we’re looking for a date in Nov!

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4 months ago

Thanks so much!

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4 months ago

Lucky you, haha!

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4 months ago

So from what I can tell this Group 7 thing is for adults what 6 7 is for 5th graders. Is that about right?

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4 months ago

Come spend your lunch hour with us! Bring your questions—we may or may not be able to answer them but will definitely have fun trying!

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4 months ago

Just looked that up. Stunning!

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4 months ago
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BOOK GIVEAWAY!

To celebrate the paperback release of THE SEARCH FOR THE SHADOWSOUL, I’m giving away a copy of the book that started it all — THE HUNT FOR THE HOLLOWER!

1. Like and follow me and @thesupercallie.bsky.social
2. What creature would you like to be your familiar?
Ends 10/21--US only.

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5 months ago
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A fun perk of being a literary agent is that we get copies of our clients' books! My shelves are currently bursting with those copies, and I need more room (for more copies of more clients' work, yay!) So be on the lookout in the coming weeks for some amazing #FREEBooks!

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5 months ago

Yep!

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5 months ago

Many #writers get stuck because they mentally treat their #roughdraft like a more finished draft. Let go of that. It’s called a ROUGH draft for a reason. Give yourself permission to write poorly, explore the story, go down rabbit holes. There will be time to perfect the story later.

#writinglife

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5 months ago
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A Review: Tuck and Tina and the Lost Fortune ​ H ow delightful it was to find in my mailbox a package containing Tuck and Tina and the Lost Fortune written by my kidlit agency sibling Jess Brallier, illustrated by Jack Keely, and released by...

"They like my journal!" - Tina

www.dionnalmann.com/interviews-b...

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5 months ago

It’s so lovely and captures the sweeping nature of the book so well!

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