Time for an agent?

[Synchronicitous]

Hi all, I am an experienced writer with a lot of published romance work behind me. I have a few questions for those in the know. After five years of writer's block, I am writing a children's series. I envision it like Winnie the Pooh in the sense that it's an episodic collection of shorter stories (that's not the subject matter at all), but it could also be suitable to be a series of picture books. I really want this one to go to a publisher and it's the first time I've had "the feeling" about a project since I stopped writing romance five years ago.

Would the agent decide whether this is a series of picture books or a collection of short stories, or do I need to decide that before I send it to them? I know they don't like it when you try to self-illustrate (unless you're very good at it) and that's fine by me!

With romance, there's a lot more you can do directly and I've worked with publishers before but I've never had an agent. As I understand it, younger children's books need to go through an agent but I'm not sure why. Are agents completely necessary or can I directly approach publishers the way I used to with romance books? What does an agent add to the situation?

Thanks in advance!

Not sure which publishers you’re thinking of contacting, but any from the ‘big five’ (the vast majority of publishers) will only accept work from an agent. Good luck!

Thank you, I'm not really sure who to put on a list, TBH, but it sounds like I need to target agents, not publishers this time. I feel like I need to unlearn everything I know about publishing to get this one out! 😅

I don't write children's books I write adult commercial fiction but I do have an agent. I think that if you approach an agent they may well have an idea how to try and sell a book/series but an editor will also have their own idea. I can't off the top of my head think of any publishers who take direct submissions that publish children's books.