Finding and Amplifying New Voices: Affecting Change as an Editor

Sally Kim

The following remarks were given at Poets & Writers’ annual gala, In Celebration of Writers, on March 29, 2022, in New York City. Hundreds of writers, agents, publishers, and readers gathered—online and in person—to celebrate writers and to honor Viet Thanh Nguyen, James Patterson, and Sonia Sanchez, as well as the author of these remarks, editor Sally Kim.

I am so humbled to be on this stage tonight with these accomplished writers. And it’s amazing to be in a room full of so many familiar and friendly faces, especially after all this time. Usually when I’m asked to speak, it’s to celebrate an author and an incredible book. It’s much harder, it turns out, to try to encapsulate the last twenty-seven years of my life as an editor. Every time I sat down to write this speech, my thoughts kept going back to a conversation I once had with my dad many years ago.

I was having a particularly tough time at work, so I was complaining to him—and I’d better be careful here, as some of my former publishers are in the room! He listened and then he chuckled in that quiet way of his, and said, “Sally, you’re not supposed to like your job. You have to keep going.”

Here’s a little bit about my dad: He grew up during war and occupation in Korea, and as soon as the U.S. opened its immigration doors, he arrived as a student at the University of Kansas, in 1969, with $60 in his pocket. He never told us directly about the hardships and racism he experienced—those things I gleaned in the in-between spaces of his funny stories about thirteen foreign students sharing a one-bedroom apartment, sleeping and eating in shifts because there wasn’t enough space.

Because why dwell on those things? He felt lucky, so lucky to be here at all.

After studying architecture he moved to LA, and to search for a job my dad rode the public bus around the city, armed only with a map and the newspaper want ads. He landed a job at a firm called Orbit Industries, but only because he showed up three days in a row even after they kept sending him away. They finally let him take a draftsman test, which he aced, and they hired him on the spot. To celebrate, he walked down the block to a local diner and finally treated himself to a precious Coca-Cola.

This is all to say that to my dad, work was something to be endured.

My path to publishing was anything but charmed—and those are stories for another speech—but suffice it to say I had my own version of my dad’s bus rides around the city. There was no one really like me in the industry back then, especially in editorial—my background and perspective were not exactly assets.

I felt lucky just to be here, so I took it upon myself to quiet my voice. I concentrated on those dualities of being an editor so that no one could question my right to be one: being introverted enough to wrestle with a manuscript for hours on end; extroverted enough to be that manuscript’s ultimate champion.

But now I know you need more than those things to be a good editor.

I don’t need to underline what an upside-down time it’s been for all of us these past two years. But particularly as the national conversation opened up deeper wounds and much-needed reconciliations, so many of us didn’t know what our roles were, how we could affect change. We donated, we marched, we reached out, we listened.

Then I realized, maybe for the first time, that the work we do, our day-to-day work, is our way of affecting change. We work through these challenges by doing what we are best skilled to do: find new voices and amplify them. Publish books that reflect a part of ourselves and so many others back into the world.

Luck is success or failure based on chance, and not as a result of your own actions. By saying I’m just lucky to have a seat at the table frees me from any responsibility for what to do with that seat.

To amplify the voices of others, I have to amplify my own.

Otherwise, it would be a disservice to all the wonderful books and writers I’ve been fortunate to work with. And it would be a disservice to my father (whom we lost exactly a year ago) and his bus rides with the want ads, to his enduring all of that so that his daughter, too, could endure, could keep going…and have a job that she not only likes, but loves.

Slowly, bird by bird, book by book, it turns out that I didn’t quiet my voice at all.

Thank you, Poets & Writers, for this absolute honor, and for the incredible work you do.

I know this is called the Editor’s Award, but everyone knows editors are only as good as the publishing teams who sweat all the details with her: art, production, publicity, marketing, sales, subrights—everyone.

Thank you to the Putnam team, especially Alexis Welby, Ashley McClay, Ivan Held, Allison Dobson—and to my mentors Susan Moldow (from whom I learned something new every day) and most certainly, Madeline McIntosh.

And of course, my brilliant authors…some of whom are here tonight, who came from as far away as London!

Special thank yous to my family, who flew out from California to be here, and especially my mom, my #1 cheerleader who reads every single book I publish (even the scary ones).

And to my children, who often get short shrift because there is always a manuscript to edit, but who turned out pretty terrific anyway. I practiced this speech in front of them, and they said it was important for me to say their names, so: Thank you, Olive and Harry.

And to my patient husband—who, twenty-five years ago, sold all his earthly belongings and packed two duffel bags to move across the country with me. He believed I could long before I did. And who only sometimes complains about the hundreds of books and tote bags that crowd our house.

Thank you, all.

 

Sally Kim is senior vice president and publisher of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House. In addition to overseeing the group’s editorial, marketing, and publicity departments, she acquires and edits her own list of fiction, including New York Times best-sellers by Robert Jones, Jr. (The Prophets, a finalist for the National Book Award), Kiley Reid (Such a Fun Age), Chloe Benjamin (The Immortalists), Megan Abbott (The Turnout), and Cristina Alger (Girls Like Us). Recent and forthcoming publications include acclaimed novels by Sarah Winman, Alma Katsu, Steven Rowley, M. O. Walsh, Nickolas Butler, and Karen Joy Fowler. Prior to Putnam, Kim was editorial director at Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, and was an editor at HarperCollins, the Crown Publishing Group, and St. Martin’s Press, after getting her start at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency more than twenty-five years ago. She’s acquired celebrated debuts by Gillian Flynn, Lisa Unger, Courtney Maum, Jami Attenberg, Ann Leary, and Holly Goddard Jones; as well as the award winners The Bright Forever by Lee Martin (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize); Truth in Advertising by John Kenney (winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor); and The Incarnations by Susan Barker (finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction and a New York Times Notable Book).

 

A Thing Meant to Be: The Work of a Book Editor

by

Rebecca Saletan

4.11.18
Online Only

The following essay was adapted from remarks given at Poets & Writers’ annual dinner, In Celebration of Writers, on March 28, 2018, in New York City.

In my senior year of college, having discovered that I generally liked working on other people’s prose a great deal more than my own, I confided to a professor that I was thinking of trying to become an editor. “Pretty thankless job,” she said. The truth is, despite its moments of frustration and overwhelm and failure, I have never found the job thankless.

More than anything, there is this: the sublime moment—and it never stops being sublime—when you get to attend, as beautiful, meaningful, and original work emerges in the world. When I gave birth to my daughters, one of my sisters-in-law said, “It is one of the rare experiences for which ‘miracle’ is not an overstatement.” It’s not an overstatement for the birth of art, either. What’s most miraculous is the “let there be” of it—the way a new and unique something yet again emerges from the wordless deep.

The sense is that the book is trying to communicate what it wants to become, how it wants to incarnate itself. Masha Gessen recently spoke of this process in an interview: “I know what my objectives are and I know what the topic is, and then I’m just reporting. I walk around for a bit, literally, bike and walk, and then suddenly, I get an idea of what it should be, what the structure is. I can’t tell you how I came up with this.” Peter Matthiessen thanked John Irving for his comments on the sprawling early draft of what would become his monumental Shadow Country back in “the book’s cretaceous days, when the whole was still inchoate, crude, and formless.” And when Matthiessen died, just before we at Riverhead had the precious honor of publishing his final book, Irving mourned the loss of “a friend I dared to show what I was up to, when I was still unsure of what it was.”

At its best—and it is often this good—editing means getting to be such a friend, and entering into that strange and almost primal process of divining the shape the work is trying to assume. It was Matthiessen himself who gave me my first experience of being taken seriously as an editor, back when I was an assistant to the formidable Jason Epstein, and Peter was working on a collection of stories. One day he asked if I would look at one he’d been laboring over. Something was hampering it, but he didn’t know what. I read it and instantly saw—or rather, felt—what was off: The story was constructed on a hinge, and the hinge was stuck, much as an actual hinge might be.

It’s as if writer and editor have their eyes not on each other but on the shape of the emergent work, and this angle of approach is wonderfully liberating, breaking down barriers and kindling an immediate intimacy that may be my favorite thing about my job. This past fall, I was invited to give a talk at a conference on Ivan Doig, the great memoirist and novelist of the West. I puzzled over what to say. Writers and editors don’t talk about what a work means, I realized, we talk about how it’s made. Ivan and I began with Bucking the Sun, a novel that opens with a couple found drowned in a truck at the bottom of the Missouri River. Revisiting our correspondence of twenty years ago in the online archive, I was struck by how unceremoniously we got down to business: The mystery of who these characters were was a thread that needed to be pulled more firmly through the entire book.

When I think about the writers and books I have worked with, it’s the dialogue about shape that I most remember. A draft of a story in which a kind of sonic boom goes off at the beginning demands an answering boom at the end. Or: Rather than trying to launch six complicated characters at the outset, how about introducing them one by one, like a juggler putting balls into the air? Perhaps not surprisingly, all my career I have been drawn to writing and writers who are structurally inventive and do not fit into easy categories: fiction/nonfiction, narrative/essay, poets and writers. I love that the very name of this organization allows for the reading that they are one and the same.

What took me much longer to recognize—and is I think less recognized generally—is that the boundary between the “creative” enterprise and the “business” of publishing is worth challenging too. If we keep our focus on the work itself, keep taking our inspiration from it rather than imposing a grid of conventional approaches and expectations on it—the publishing process becomes an extension of the creative moment that gave rise to the book itself. My mentors in this have been my colleagues. The art director, looking to create a jacket that will become the outward expression of a book’s inmost explosive self, runs around for weeks exploding her hands until she finds a photographer willing to let her throw colored dust all over his studio and photograph it. The production editor nerds out on finding the mot that does justice to a magnificent sentence. The publicity director dreams up a campaign that involves pet treats or murals. The shape of a powerful pitch for a book comes to an editor while commuting on her bike. The publisher keeps the whole enterprise aloft, sometimes tugging us back into orbit but also challenging us to boldly go where we haven’t before. When we are doing it right, the work we are trying to put into the world focuses and fuels us, and we recapitulate its Big Bang in a series of detonations all the way through the process.

When work like this goes out into the world—when it goes out into the world like this—I think it is not audacious to say that it becomes, as the phrase goes, an instance of the change we wish to see in the world. This is not only because of the impact it may have, as its fullest and most coherent self, shown in the brightest possible light, presented like nothing we have seen before but a thing necessary, meant to be. It is also because, in putting it into the world this way, we, with our writers, become a community functioning as we would have the world function.

 

Rebecca Saletan is vice president and editorial director of Riverhead Books, a Penguin Random House imprint. Over her thirty-five-year career in publishing, Saletan has worked with a wide range of authors including internationally best-selling novelist and essayist Mohsin Hamid; National Book Award-winning journalist and social critic Masha Gessen; and National Book Award-winning writer and environmentalist Peter Matthiessen. She received the 2018 Editor’s Award from Poets & Writers, Inc.

Rebecca Saletan (front left, seated) at Poets & Writers’ annual dinner with authors (clockwise from upper left) Garnette Cadogan, Mandy Aftel, Danzy Senna, Pitchaya Sudbanthad, Francisco Cantú, Casey Gerald, Yelena Akhtiorskaya, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Claire Vaye Watkins, and Anna Badkhen. (Credit: Margarita Corporan)

Finding and Amplifying New Voices: Affecting Change as an Editor

Agents & Editors: The Complete Series

by

Jofie Ferrari-Adler, Michael Szczerban, and M. Allen Cunningham

2.10.21
In Print and Online

Launched in 2008, this series of in-depth interviews with book editors, publishers, and agents offers a unique look at the past, present, and future of the book industry and what writers can do to thrive in today’s publishing world.  

 

Agents

 

The Book Group
by Michael Szczerban
6.14.16
Four veteran agents—Julie Barer, Faye Bender, Brettne Bloom, and Elisabeth Weed—talk about the business of books, the secret to a good pitch, and what authors should do in the lead-up to publication.

Claudia Ballard, Seth Fishman, Melissa Flashman, and Alia Hanna Habib
by Michael Szczerban
6.17.15
Four young literary agents meet for an evening of food, drink, and conversation about how they find new authors, what they need to see in a query letter, and the common mistakes writers should avoid.

Jennifer Joel
by Michael Szczerban
2.10.15
Jennifer Joel, whose clients include Chris Cleave, Joe McGinniss Jr., Evan Osnos, and Shonda Rhimes, talks about the difference between selling fiction and nonfiction, what inspires her to go the extra mile for her authors, and what writers should really want out of publishing.

PJ Mark
by Michael Szczerban
6.18.14
PJ Mark, whose clients include Samantha Hunt, Wayne Koestenbaum, Dinaw Mengestu, Maggie Nelson, Ed Park, and Josh Weil, talks about what writers can do to improve their chances of success, why fiction is harder to sell than nonfiction, and the importance of trusting your heart.

Susan Golomb
by Michael Szczerban
5.1.14
Susan Golomb, whose clients include Jonathan Franzen, Rachel Kushner, and William T. Vollmann, talks about the ebb and flow of submission season, the art of the preemptive offer, and the gems she finds in her slush pile.

David Gernert
by Michael Szczerban
1.1.14
Literary agent David Gernert discusses the bookstore as a key to our culture, what it’s like to work with John Grisham, and how big changes in the industry are affecting authors’ incomes.

Eric Simonoff
by Michael Szczerban
7.1.13
A heavy-hitting agent who for twenty-two years has represented some of the biggest literary writers in the country, Eric Simonoff discusses recent changes in the publishing industry, the pitfalls of self-publishing, and what he’s learned about staying creative.

Georges Borchardt
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
9.1.09
Georges Borchardt has been an agent for more than fifty years. He’s seen authors, editors, and other agents come and go, but two things have never changed: his belief that good writing is a gift and his ability to get it published.

Maria Massie, Jim Rutman, Anna Stein, and Peter Steinberg
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
5.1.09
Four agents discuss how the economy is affecting their jobs, where they’re finding new writers, and what totally freaks them out about MFA students.

Julie Barer, Jeff Kleinman, Daniel Lazar, and Renee Zuckerbrot
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
1.1.09
Four young literary agents meet for an evening of food, wine, and conversation about the writing they’re looking for, how they’re finding it, what they love, what they hate, and ten things writers should never ever do.

Molly Friedrich
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
9.1.08
Known as a heavy-hitting agent willing to go to bat for her clients, Molly Friedrich discusses how an author should choose an agent, what she looks for in a manuscript, and what separates great agents from merely good ones.

Nat Sobel
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
5.1.08
Agent Nat Sobel, one of the most forward-thinking and outspoken agents in the business, voices his opinions on what authors should do for themselves, the dangers of MFA programs, and what he finds in literary magazines.

Lynn Nesbit
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
1.1.08
With more than forty years of experience in the business, agent Lynn Nesbit discusses how she signed some of her biggest clients, how a writer can get an agent’s attention, and what’s wrong with the publishing industry.

 

Editors

 

Sarah McGrath
by M. Allen Cunningham
2.10.21
The editor in chief of Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, talks about her start in publishing, acquiring books, editing as a creative process, and more.

Ben George
by M. Allen Cunningham
8.14.19
Ben George, a senior editor at Little, Brown who works with some of the biggest names in literary fiction and nonfiction, talks about the author-editor relationship, the plight of the midlist writer, and the art of revision. 

Rob Spillman
by Michael Szczerban
10.12.16
Editor Rob Spillman talks Tin House—the magazine, the books, the summer workshop—and the pleasures, perils, and surprises of independent publishing.

Michael Wiegers
by Michael Szczerban
10.14.15
Michael Wiegers, the editor in chief of Copper Canyon Press, talks about how he decides which books to publish (from the two thousand manuscripts the press receives each year) and what it’s like to edit the likes of Pablo Neruda, W. S. Merwin, and C. D. Wright.

Dawn Davis
by Michael Szczerban
8.19.15
Dawn Davis—vice president and publisher of 37 INK, an imprint of Simon & Schuster’s Atria Publishing Group—talks about editing Edward P. Jones, the lack of diversity in publishing, and what some of the most successful authors have in common.

Jeff Shotts
by Michael Szczerban
10.15.14
Graywolf Press executive editor Jeff Shotts discusses the power of patience in publishing, editing as an act of empathy, and why it’s an exciting time to be a poet.

Amy Einhorn
by Michael Szczerban
2.12.14
The publisher of her eponymous imprint at Penguin Random House, Amy Einhorn discusses her early days as an assistant at FSG, the importance of titles, and how she pushes her authors to make their books the best they can be.

Jordan Pavlin
by Michael Szczerban
9.1.13
A vice president and executive editor at Knopf, Jordan Pavlin discusses her terror of launch meetings, the particular genius of Sonny Mehta, and her job as a writer’s ideal reader.

Jonathan Karp
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
11.1.09
As the editor in chief of Twelve, Jonathan Karp is always looking for good writing. Considering that half of all the books he’s published there have become best-sellers, that should make a lot of writers very, very excited.

Jonathan Galassi
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
7.1.09
Some publishers may have lost sight of what’s important, but the head of FSG shows his allegiance as he discusses the fallacy of the blockbuster mentality, what writers should look for in agents, and his close bond with authors.

Lee Boudreaux, Eric Chinski, Alexis Gargagliano, and Richard Nash
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
3.1.09
Four young editors, from big houses and small, take some time off to discuss what makes a good manuscript, what they’ve come to expect from their authors, and how much of their work needs to be done at night and on weekends.

Chuck Adams
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
11.1.08
A veteran editor who has worked at publishing houses both large and small, Chuck Adams of Algonquin Books talks about what beginning writers tend to forget, the secret to selling two million copies, and the problem with MFA writing.

Janet Silver
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
7.1.08
Having settled into her new role at Nan Talese’s imprint following her ouster from Houghton Mifflin, editor Janet Silver discusses what she looks for in a new writer and what every author should know about agents.

Pat Strachan
by Jofie Ferrari-Adler
3.1.08
With nearly four decades of editing experience, publishing veteran Pat Strachan reveals the qualities she looks for in fiction, her approach to editing, and how writers can help themselves navigate the industry.

Agent Advice: The Complete Series

by

Staff

12.15.21
In Print and Online

The industry’s best and brightest agents respond directly to readers’ questions in this regular column dating back to 2010. To submit a question for the next featured agent, e-mail editor@pw.org.

Monica Odom of Odom Media Management
12.15.2021
The agent answers questions about attracting agents using self-published books and whether to use a summary or a writing sample to pitch a memoir.
 

Larissa Melo Pienkowski of Jill Grinberg Literary Management
10.13.21
The agent who represents writers TJ Alexander and K. Tempest Bradford, among others, answers questions about being ghosted by agents and how to query for nonfiction books.

Jade Wong-Baxter of Frances Goldin Literary Agency
8.18.21
The agent representing Chris Belcher, Kate Broad, Delia Cai, Duy Doan, and others offers advice about working with a coauthor, changing a memoir to fiction, why agents don’t consider previously published work, and how to become an agent.

Amy Elizabeth Bishop of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret
 6.16.21
The literary agent answers questions about how to seek representation as a self-published author, break into the agenting business, and more. 

 Iwalani Kim of Sanford J. Greenberger Associates
 4.14.21
The literary agent answers questions about submitting story collections, getting an agent’s attention, and querying two agents at the same agency.
 

Jody Kahn of Brandt and Hochman
4.10.19
A literary agent answers questions from writers about genre, age, costs, and client lists.

Find a Literary Agent

The Literary Agents database contains details about more than 170 agents who are looking for new clients. Search the listings to find contact information, submission guidelines, client lists, tips from the agents, and more. 

find an agent

Priya Doraswamy of Lotus Lane Literary
10.10.18
An agent answers questions on obtaining the copyright of a self-published novel and seeking a U.S. publisher from abroad.
 

Regina Brooks of Serendipity Literary Agency
8.15.18
An agent answers questions on referrals, pitching a self-published book, and what to do if you’re dropped by an agency.
 

Annie Hwang of Folio Literary Management
12.13.17
A literary agent answers readers’ questions—from how seriously agents consider a writer’s previous sales to how to responsibly seek new representation.

Kirby Kim of Janklow & Nesbit Associates
4.12.17
A seasoned literary agent offers valuable counsel on when to query, how to keep revising, and whether horror fiction is a genre worth pursuing.

Anna Ghosh of Ghosh Literary
12.14.16
Anna Ghosh answers readers’ questions—from why poetry agents are seemingly nonexistent to whether or not it is possible to be “too young to write.”

Betsy Amster of Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises
10.14.15
The agent of authors such as María Amparo Escandón and Joy Nicholson offers advice on query letters, editing, and what not to do when submitting a manuscript.

Agents & Editors Recommend

A dependable source of professional and creative advice, Agents & Editors Recommend features anecdotes, insights, tips, recommended reading and viewing for writers, and more from leading agents and editors.

Explore the series

Danielle Svetcov of Levine Greenberg Rostan
4.15.15
Should you pay to have a manuscript edited beforehand? Are there benefits to querying via snail mail versus e-mail? Danielle Svetcov of Levine Greenberg Rostan answers readers’ questions about what (and what not) to do when trying to find an agent.

Meredith Kaffel Simonoff of DeFiore and Company
8.20.14
An agent representing authors such as CJ Hauser and Cecily Wong answers questions about writing in multiple genres, agents’ fees, and publishing work in online journals.

Amy Rennert of the Amy Rennert Agency
3.01.14
The agent of authors such as Diana Nyad and Herman Wouk answers questions about self-publishing, age restrictions, and working with an agent remotely.

Chris Parris-Lamb of the Gernert Company
10.06.13
Chris Parris-Lamb of the Gernert Company offers advice on submitting query letters and manuscripts, and when to embrace or eschew self-promotion.

Lucy Carson of the Friedrich Agency
9.01.13
Lucy Carson of the Friedrich Agency discusses e-book publishing, when to send a sample to an agent, and more.

Matt McGowan of Frances Goldin Literary Agency
5.01.13
Literary agent Matt McGowan, who represents Eula Biss, John D’Agata, Brian Evenson, and many others, answers writers’ most commonly asked questions.

Rebecca Gradinger of Fletcher & Company
10.17.12
Literary agent Rebecca Gradinger explains why writers need agents and offers tips about best practices for finding one.

Douglas Stewart of Sterling Lord Literistic
4.12.12
The agent of Jami Attenberg, David Mitchell, Carolyn Parkhurst, Matthew Quick, and others offers guidance about publishing credits, MFA programs, and unagented submissions.

Jenni Ferrari-Adler of Brick House Literary Agents
3.01.11
Does your book need to be finished before you seek representation? Do agents really read synopses? Agent Jenni Ferrari-Adler, whose clients include Lauren Shockey and Emma Straub, answers these questions and more.

Terra Chalberg of the Susan Golomb Literary Agency
10.15.10
When is the best time in your career to look for representation, and when should you call off an author-agent relationship? Terra Chalberg, whose clients include Lori Ostlund and Glenn Taylor, tackles these questions and more.

Jennifer Carlson of Dunow, Carlson & Lerner
8.11.10
The agent of authors such as Kevin Brockmeier and Marisa de los Santos offers her thoughts on self-publishing and what she looks for in the first five pages of a writing sample.

PJ Mark of Janklow & Nesbit Associates
5.01.10
The agent of authors such as Samantha Hunt, Dinaw Mengestu, and Josh Weil offers advice on shaping a query letter and when to follow up after pitching your book.

Katherine Fausset of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
3.01.10
Agent Katherine Fausset answers questions from readers about the agent’s role in submitting work to literary magazines and how writers can choose agents based on their client lists.
 

Agents & Editors: The Complete Series

We Mean Business: Twelve Agents Who Want to Read Your Work

by

Kevin Larimer

July/August 2017
6.14.17
In Print and Online

To say there are a lot of literary agents out there is an understatement—almost like saying there are a lot of writers looking for an agent (but not quite). The Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR), a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1991, currently lists more than four hundred agents as members, all of whom meet certain experience requirements and abide by an established code of ethics. Another, more general, online database claims to offer details for nearly a thousand agents of varying levels of expertise and areas of emphasis. The carefully curated and focused database of literary agents at pw.org lists more than a hundred, including contact information, submission guidelines, and client lists.

No, the challenge for writers is not a dearth of agents, but rather picking the right one out of the crowd. (Of course, the same could be said about the challenge for agents.) To help narrow the field, I contacted some hungry agents who I know are eager to receive an e-mail from an as-yet-unknown writer and asked each of them for some basic information about what kind of work they want to read and how to reach them, as well as some not-so-basic information that will help you get to know them a little better. Remember, publishing is a business of relationships. You don’t want to simply fire off an e-mail to any agent you happen to come across. Read carefully. In the following profiles, a dozen agents are dropping some subtle (and not so subtle) hints for you. Have you written a piece of narrative nonfiction that gets to the heart of what it means to live in a specific geographical region? Duvall Osteen might be a great fit. Do you have a novel set in North Carolina? Adam Eaglin could be your man. Are you from Detroit and love music? You may need to look no further than Carrie Howland. Are you a writer of smart horror fiction and just can’t get enough of the work of Joe Hill and Nathan Ballingrud? You should take the time to get to know Renée Zuckerbrot.

These twelve agents all have distinct personalities, aesthetics, work habits, backgrounds, proclivities, and peeves—and so do you. So take your time, do the research, read books by their clients, and listen to what these professionals are saying. One of them might be speaking directly to you.

 

Danielle Svetcov, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency

Who she represents: Bridget Quinn (Broad Strokes), Bonnie Tsui (Why We Swim), Nicole Perlroth (This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends), Stephanie Wilbur Ash (The Annie Year), Meg Elison (The Book of the Unnamed Midwife), James Nestor (Deep), Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky (Run Fast Eat Slow), Eben Weiss (The Ultimate Bicycle Owner’s Manual)

What she wants to read: Biographies and histories in which I can smell the breath and walk in the footsteps of the characters profiled; memoirs and reported narratives braced by vivid scenes and a sense of urgency; humor that can revive a marriage when read before bed; fiction that reads easy but isn’t.

When you should contact her: If your manuscript is the only piece of writing you’ve got to share (you’re not a working journalist, say, or a published author), then your manuscript (if it’s fiction) should be complete before you query. If you are a professional writer with clips galore to share, I still recommend you query when you’ve got a finished manuscript (if fiction), because it leaves no mystery (but it’s up to you). If you’re submitting nonfiction—all writers—then you should have a full proposal to share when you query. Coda: An agent should not be the first person (besides you) to read your manuscript or proposal.

Where she can be reached: e-mail dsvetcov@lgrliterary.com

Why you should want her as your agent: To quote my clients: “relentless,” “wolfish,” “and she always calls you back.”

How she wants to be contacted: Send query letter with attached proposal or sample of fiction (say, twenty-five pages).

 

Renée Zuckerbrot, Massie & McQuilkin Literary Agents

Who she represents: Dan Chaon (Ill Will), Shannon Leone Fowler (Traveling With Ghosts), Kelly Link (Get in Trouble), Deborah Lutz (The Bronte Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects), Andrew Malan Milward (I Was a Revolutionary), Keith Lee Morris (Travelers Rest), Shawn Vestal (Godforsaken Idaho), M. O. Walsh (My Sunshine Away), Daniel Wallace (Extraordinary Adventures)

What she wants to read: I tend to be seduced by voice, so voice-driven fiction and nonfiction are high on my wish list. I love getting lost in a world that is strikingly different from mine. I have a deep appreciation for storytelling that allows me to see the world anew, or introduces me to a culture or worldview outside my own. I read to be entertained and educated. Writers who approach current events and historical topics with original, provocative ideas will always find readers. I’m also looking for smart horror writers along the lines of Joe Hill and my client Nathan Ballingrud (North American Lake Monsters). There will always be room on my list for popular science—Eric Sanderson’s Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City is a good example—and pop-culture books like my client Theron Humphrey’s Maddie on Things.

When you should contact her: Please query me when you have a complete manuscript or proposal with a sample chapter. I am also willing to look at a complete short story collection and partial novel, or a complete novel and a partial story collection. For memoirs, I will consider a proposal with a sample chapter or the complete manuscript.

Where she can be reached: e-mail renee@mmqlit.com

Why you should want her as your agent: I am a careful reader who reads on both a micro and macro level. My first job was in editorial—I’m a former Doubleday editor—so it’s all about the writing. I work with my clients on getting their work in the best shape possible before submitting it. That said, my job is not to edit a manuscript so that it conforms to my idea of perfection; rather, it is to edit a work so that editors reading it will be able to envision the book as the writer intends. I need to leave enough room for editors to work with my clients to shape their manuscripts to their shared vision and the publisher’s vision. I’m proud of the fact that the manuscripts I sell never require major editorial overhauls. Also, I value fostering long-term relationships with my writers. Last but not least, I’m enthusiastic about collaborating with my writers and their publishers during the publication of their work. I love helping to generate buzz for my clients by talking up their work to anyone who will listen.

How she wants to be contacted: Please include a description of your work, your writing credentials, a brief bio in the body of an e-mail, along with the first three chapters/stories from your manuscript as a Word document. For nonfiction, you can also send a proposal and sample chapter.

 

Duvall Osteen, Aragi Inc.

Who she represents: Bethany Ball (What to Do About the Solomons), Elizabeth Poliner (As Close to Us as Breathing), Marjorie Liu (Monstress), Lauren Holmes (Barbara the Slut and Other People), Brooke Barker (Sad Animal Facts), Brad Watson (Miss Jane), Bryce Andrews (Badluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West), Wil S. Hylton (Vanished: The Sixty-Year Search for the Missing Men of World War II), Pablo Medina (The Island Kingdom)

What she wants to read: Fiction and narrative nonfiction with a big voice and/or a strong sense of place.

When you should contact her: For fiction I request completed novels or story collections. For narrative nonfiction I’m happy to read a proposal, which should include an overview and at least two finished chapters.

Where she can be reached: e-mail queries@aragi.net; attn: Duvall Osteen

Why you should want her as your agent: We’re a small, selective agency. We keep it that way for a reason. Our authors are never going to be handed off; they can always reach us, no matter how big or small the question, no matter what stage of their career. Every single author at Aragi is of equal importance.

How she wants to be contacted: Please send your query via e-mail, which should include a synopsis of the book and your bio.

 

Jeff Kleinman, Folio Literary Management

Who he represents: Garth Stein (The Art of Racing in the Rain), Elizabeth Letts (The Eighty-Dollar Champion), Eowyn Ivey (The Snow Child), Jacquelyn Mitchard (Two If by Sea), Charles J.  Shields (Mockingbird), Karen Dionne (The Marsh King’s Daughter), Benjamin Ludwig (Ginny Moon), Val Emmich (The Reminders), Kathy McKeon (Jackie’s Girl)

What he wants to read: I focus on book-club/literary fiction and narrative nonfiction—especially those projects that I feel can make a difference either to me personally or to the world. I love unique voices, magnificently strong characters, unusual premises, and books that offer some new perspective on something I thought I already knew something about or never even dreamed existed. I’m always interested in learning and love when someone can teach me something organically so it doesn’t feel like I’m even learning. I’m particularly looking for voice-driven fiction as well as very well-written thrillers and psychological suspense novels; or novels with a great, quirky, fun voice. I love narrative nonfiction and memoir and have sold projects in a wide variety of subjects, including art, history, animals, military, and many other genres.

When you should contact him: Fiction writers, when you’ve finished your entire novel, had it read by several readers, edited and reedited it, and feel like it’s now absolutely as strong as you can possibly make it, write me a letter and tell me about it. Nonfiction writers, when you’ve written a book proposal, paying particular attention to the sample chapter(s)/excerpts and marketing materials, write me a letter.

Where he can be reached: E-mail jeff@foliolit.com, but please consult the Folio website (foliolit.com) before you fire off an e-mail. No phone calls or hard copies, please.

Why you should want him as your agent: I’m very hands-on and love the editing-collaborating process—brainstorming plots, rejiggering motivations, tweaking backstory. It’s really satisfying and invigorating to be part of the creative process. I also love being part of the publication process, too—coming up with marketing ideas, discussing PR strategies, revising flap copy, reading/editing short promotional materials, and so forth. I do best working with authors who see their agent as a partner in the book publishing process: I’m not a guy who rubber-stamps a manuscript and just forwards it to the editor; and I don’t just disappear once the book has been sold. As one author told me recently, “I was just saying that what you do for me is not normal. I don’t know of a single other agent who works so hard to make sure his clients look good—and I know a lot of agents!”

How he wants to be contacted: For fiction, a query letter plus the first page of your manuscript; for nonfiction, a query letter plus a proposal overview and/or first page of a sample excerpt.

 

Eleanor Jackson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner

Who she represents: David Wroblewski (The Story of Edgar Sawtelle), Susie Steiner (Missing, Presumed), T. Geronimo Johnson (Welcome to Braggsville), Aline Ohanesian (Orhan’s Inheritance), Susan Straight (Between Heaven and Here), Michael Lemonick (The Perpetual Now)

What she wants to read: I believe a good book should wake you up by taking you out of your life and immersing you in someone else’s. So I want to read books with deeply imagined worlds, by writers who are not afraid to take risks with their work.

When you should contact her: Fiction writers, I want you to contact me when you have a full draft of your novel. I sell a lot of nonfiction on proposal, so I’m happy to look at those projects a bit earlier. If I’m considering nonfiction on proposal, I’d like to see one or two sample chapters. In general, I think the best moment for writers to contact an agent is when they have done everything they possibly can on their own.

Where she can be reached: Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency; 27 West 20th Street, Suite 1107; New York, NY 10011; e-mail eleanor@dclagency.com

Why you should want her as your agent: I consider my clients my friends. They all have my cell-phone number and are free to use it. My list is intentionally small, so I can give every project the attention it deserves. I also like to think long-term, about how to build a career as well as sell individual books.

How she wants to be contacted: Please send me a one- to two-page query letter with a summary of your work and an author bio. If you have a proposal, please attach it to your query. If you are working on a novel, please attach the first ten to twenty pages to give me a sense of your writing.

 

Allison Hunter, Janklow & Nesbit Associates

Who she represents: Katie Heaney (Never Have I Ever), Arianna Rebolini (Public Relations), Swan Huntley (We Could Be Beautiful), Anna Pitoniak (The Futures), Anne Helen Petersen (Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud), Christina Kelly (Good Karma), Victoria James (Drink Pink), Kelsey Miller (Big Girl), Jen Chaney (As If!), Emilie Wapnick (How to Be Everything), Dvora Meyers (The End of the Perfect 10), Eliot Nelson (The Beltway Bible), Megan Mulry (A Royal Pain)

What she wants to read: Literary and commercial fiction, especially upmarket and women’s fiction, as well as select memoir, narrative nonfiction, cultural studies, and pop culture. I’m especially looking for funny female writers, great love stories, campus novels, beach reads, family epics, and nonfiction projects that speak to the current cultural climate.

When you should contact her: Fiction writers, please wait until you have a complete, polished manuscript. Nonfiction writers, you should have a fully fleshed out idea and ideally a full book proposal.

Where she can be reached: e-mail ahunter@janklow.com

Why you should want her as your agent: I like to think that I offer my authors the best of both worlds—the resources of a large, world-class agency but with a great deal of personal attention. I am a fast and voracious reader and feel that it is my duty to read widely in the genres I’m representing, to fully understand the market. I pride myself on my close working and personal relationships with editors at every publishing house, as well as my connections with the greater literary community in New York City.

How she wants to be contacted: Please send me a query and approximately ten to fifteen pages of your manuscript or proposal.

 

Carrie Howland, Empire Literary

Who she represents: Kaitlyn Greenidge (We Love You, Charlie Freeman), Carmiel Banasky (The Suicide of Claire Bishop), Melissa Gorzelanczyk (Arrows), Sarah Prager (Queer, There, and Everywhere), Jason Tougaw (The One You Get)

What she wants to read: I’m actively seeking adult-fiction writers, both literary and upmarket. My background is in poetry and literary fiction, so beautiful language is one of the first things I look for in any project. Equally important are a strong voice and great story, which I’m looking for across genres. I would love to see a literary thriller, whether adult or young adult, come across my desk. For children’s books, I love voice-driven, contemporary fiction that isn’t afraid to tackle tough issues. I adore a middle-grade adventure story but am also taken by one that might deal with the loss of a sibling, for example, or a serious issue at school or with a friend. For nonfiction, I’m a music fanatic, and as such I’m always looking for great books on movements, culture, musicians themselves, or simply how we as a society respond to, and are affected by, the music around us. I’m a Detroit-area native, so I’d also love submissions for books that deal with the city itself, or cities like it, the politics surrounding them, and stories of people who live there. In addition to poetry, I have a strong background in public policy, so I’m incredibly interested in books that deal with politics, education, or other societal issues. Finally, I love all things pop culture, so I will never say no to a proposal about anything from “why we’re a Bachelor-obsessed nation” to “why we can’t ever seem to get enough of Gilmore Girls.”

When you should contact her: For fiction, a project should truly be finished before I see it. I recommend you have a not only complete but also well-edited manuscript before sending to me, or any agent. For nonfiction, a proposal is perfect.

Where she can be reached: e-mail carrie@empireliterary.com

Why you should want her as your agent: After nearly twelve years as an agent, representing award-winning authors, I’ve developed a hands-on approach to launching the careers of debut novelists. I’m a very editorial agent and love collaborating with my clients. Whether that’s idea development, manuscript feedback, assisting with publicity, social media, or marketing, I really do consider myself a full-service partner for my authors. I absolutely love what I do; I live and breathe for my clients and work tirelessly to promote their work and careers. Beyond that, while I’ve been a New Yorker for over a decade, I’m a Midwestern girl at heart, so you’ll find not only an advocate, but a friend in me as your agent. This can be a tough business, and I like to remind my clients why we all chose this profession in the first place: because we’re passionate about the written word.

How she wants to be contacted: Please send your query letter and first twenty pages (for fiction) or proposal (for nonfiction) as a Word document to carrie@empireliterary.com.

 

Ross Harris, Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency

Who he represents: Isaac Oliver (Intimacy Idiot), Charlyne Yi (Oh the Moon: Stories From the Tortured Mind of Charlyne Yi), Rachel Lindsay, Manoush Zomorodi (Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self), A. Brad Schwartz (Broadcast Hysteria: Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News), Rebekah Frumkin (The Comedown), Ruth Joffre (Night Beast and Other Stories)

What he wants to read: My taste tends to lean toward the literary, but as long as the plot surprises and entertains, I’ll be won over. I love to find new, unpredictable stories—I think every agent will tell you that—but I particularly enjoy the feeling, the unease, the excitement that creeps in when I honestly don’t know what’ll happen next. When I finish a book (or proposal), the lasting feeling of wonderment is what I’m after.

When you should contact him: You should write to me (and, yes, please do!) when you feel comfortable sharing your work. I tell writers that the right time to share your work with an agent is when you feel confident that it’ll speak for itself—without you having to be in the room. If you’re going to want to be over my shoulder saying, “Well, this part will be fixed…” or “I intend to make this part a little clearer…,” you aren’t ready to share the work, which is completely fine. Many writers make the mistake of looking for an agent too soon. An agent’s primary job is to sell your work, so if you don’t have anything yet to sell…wait until you do. You get one first impression. Make it count.

Where he can be reached: My inbox is always open to new and prospective clients: rh@skagency.com.

Why you should want him as your agent: I’m fun, I mean business, I care deeply about seeing each and every client succeed in her or his own way. When I work with any writer, regardless of genre or style, it’s a very personalized relationship.

How he wants to be contacted: A partial manuscript, a proposal, or full manuscript. The work doesn’t have to be 100 percent polished, but remember that I’m going to be considering its salability, not potential salability. Just make sure you’re ready (and feel confident) to send. If you’re excited to share your work with me, I’ll be excited to read it.

 

Caroline Eisenmann, Frances Goldin Literary Agency

Who she represents: Meghan Flaherty (Tango Lessons), Brandon Hobson (Where the Dead Sit Talking)

What she wants to read: In almost any genre, I’m attracted to great prose and a strong sense of emotional intelligence on the page. For upmarket and literary fiction, I tend to be particularly drawn to relationship-driven novels, stories about obsession, and work that grapples with intimacy and its discontents. With nonfiction, I’m very interested in deeply reported narratives and stories that take the reader into the heart of a subculture as well as idea books with a surprising or unusual central argument.

When you should contact her: I’d like to see your work when you feel you’ve taken it as far as you can by yourself. With a novel, this will almost always mean an edited full manuscript; in nonfiction, I’d generally want to read at least the fundamental elements of a proposal (outline, sample pages, etc.).

Where she can be reached: It’s best to get in touch by e-mail at ce@goldinlit.com

Why you should want her as your agent: I do a lot of editorial work with my clients, generally from the ground level of a project. That can mean brainstorming about the concept behind nonfiction or coming up with plot solutions in fiction, but my goal is always to help authors reach the best possible version of their book before submission. I’m also a clear communicator who’s constantly thinking about what my clients want and need, and I will do everything possible to make those goals happen. I worked in marketing and digital publishing before coming to agenting, which gives me extra insight into how to position my clients in an evolving landscape.

How she wants to be contacted: Please send a query. If the work is fiction or completed nonfiction, include the first ten pages in the body of the e-mail.

 

Adam Eaglin, Cheney Associates, LLC

Who he represents: Lawrence Osborne (Hunters in the Dark), Jennine Capó Crucet (Make Your Home Among Strangers), Ron Rash (The Risen), Lisa Servon (The Unbanking of America: How the Middle Class Survives), David Treuer (Prudence), Devin Leonard (Neither Snow nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service), Leah Vincent (Cut Me Loose: Sin and Salvation After My Ultra-Orthodox Girlhood), Diksha Basu (The Windfall)

What he wants to read: Debut literary and upmarket fiction; narrative nonfiction and memoir; journalists and academics writing new takes on culture, politics, and current events. Regardless of genre, I’m always interested in diverse voices and underrepresented perspectives, and as a native North Carolinian I am partial to great fiction set in the South.

When you should contact him: For fiction, it’s usually best to be in touch when you have a finished manuscript to share. For nonfiction, a draft of a proposal.

Where he can be reached: e-mail adam@cheneyliterary.com

Why you should want him as your agent: I try to keep a small, selective list and only take on projects I really believe in, which enables me to be a hands-on and passionate advocate for each of my writers. This includes in-depth editorial work, working strategically to find the best publishing deals, and shepherding an author through all aspects of the publication process, including publicity and marketing. My goal is always to help each of my author’s books make as big an impact as possible and to build careers over time.

How he wants to be contacted: A query by e-mail with a full manuscript (for fiction) or a proposal (nonfiction).

 

Amelia Atlas, ICM Partners

Who she represents: Caite Dolan-Leach (Dead Letters), Mark O’Connell (To Be a Machine), Matt Gallagher (Youngblood), Joy Williams (Ninety-Nine Stories of God)

What she wants to read: I’m looking for books—whether fiction or nonfiction—that feel engaged with the larger world. That can mean having a big new idea, taking me to a place or a part of history that I haven’t seen, or simply having a kind of inquisitive spirit. I’m looking for writing that comes from a place of urgency.

When you should contact her: Ideally I’d like to hear from writers who have a finished manuscript or proposal ready for review. At the very least it should feel like you’ve really pushed the project as far as you can without outside eyes and feedback.

Where she can be reached: e-mail aatlas@icmpartners.com

Why you should want her as your agent: The projects I look for are the kind of things I know I’m going to want to be in the trenches fighting for in the years to come (publishing is a slow business), and I think that shows in how I work with my clients—whether it’s reading multiple drafts, batting ideas around, or shepherding them through the publishing process. I like to be pretty hands-on, especially in the early, developmental stages: It’s exciting to watch something become the book we know it should be.

How she wants to be contacted: A query letter plus the first ten pages pasted into the body of an e-mail.

 

Julie Barer, The Book Group

Who she represents: Joshua Ferris (To Rise Again at a Decent Hour), Bret Anthony Johnston (Remember Me Like This), Lily King (Euphoria), Celeste Ng (Everything I Never Told You), Cristina Henriquez (The Book of Unknown Americans), Helen Simonson (Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand), Mia Alvar (In the Country), Madeline Miller (The Song of Achilles), Alice Sebold (Lucky), Kathleen Kent (The Heretic’s Daughter), Nicole Dennis-Benn (Here Comes the Sun), Megan Mayhew Bergman (Almost Famous Women), Paula McLain (The Paris Wife), Kevin Wilson (The Family Fang), Charles Yu (How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe)

What she wants to read: My list is predominantly fiction, and I am particularly interested in representing diverse voices and perspectives from around the world. I’m always looking to learn something new from the fiction I read and to be taken somewhere I’ve never been before. I’m drawn to original voices, or retellings of stories we’ve heard before in new and innovative ways. I need to feel emotionally connected to the characters, and as obvious as it sounds, I need a real plot. More than anything, though, I just want to fall in love. I want to miss my subway stop because I can’t stop reading. I want to completely disappear into the world of the novel. I want to turn the last page and immediately feel the need to tell everyone I know about it.  

When you should contact her: In general I think it’s best, when writing fiction, if you have a complete and polished manuscript. That means you’ve taken the time to self-edit and even stepped away from the project for some time so you know that you’ve really put everything into it that you can. If it’s nonfiction, then a proposal with forty to fifty pages of material is usually enough. 

Where she can be reached: The Book Group, c/o Julie Barer; 20 West 20th Street, Suite 601; New York, NY 10011; thebookgroup.com; e-mail submissions@thebookgroup.com

Why you should want her as your agent: At the Book Group we believe in a very hands-on approach at every stage of the publication process. I love to edit, and I bring a strong editorial eye and passionate commitment to each project, making sure I’ve done all I can do to help authors realize their vision and address any issues before we submit to publishers. I’m extremely selective in taking on new projects, which ensures that I’m able to give my clients the time and attention they need. I’m also committed to helping my clients establish and navigate their careers across many years and many books, so I like to be involved in everything from helping write jacket copy to developing a social media presence, pitching magazine ideas, and submitting short stories to brainstorming for the book’s marketing campaign and beyond. We are right there with you every step of the way, and in addition to the U.S. market, we’re thinking about international sales, film, television and audio, and also what your next project should be. This long-term, big-picture perspective and involvement is one of the most interesting parts of my job. 

How she wants to be contacted: Please submit a query letter along with ten sample pages with “Julie Barer” in the subject line to submissions@thebookgroup.com. Please do not include any attachments.

Kevin Larimer is the editor in chief of Poets & Writers, Inc. 

Agents & Editors: The Complete Series
Agent Advice: The Complete Series

Seventy-Eight Agents to Follow on Twitter

by

Staff

July/August 2017
6.14.17
In Print and Online

We did the work for you and found the most active and insightful agents to add to your Twitter feed. The seventy-eight listed below share with their followers upcoming pub dates, news, reading recommendations, and more. For more agents, visit our Literary Agents Database.

Noah Ballard                             @NoahBallard

Monika Woods                      @booksijustread

Ginger Clark                            @Ginger_Clark

Julie Barer                                        @juliebarer

Amelia Atlas                                 @ameliaatlas

Adam Eaglin                                        @aeaglin

Caroline Eisenmann           @CarolineMEisen 

Ross Harris                                    @rossharris1

Carrie Howland                 @ECarrieHowland 

Allison Hunter                      @AllisonSHunter 

Jeff Kleinman                             @FolioLiterary

Duvall Osteen                           @AragiAuthors

Renée Zuckerbrot                             @RZAgent

Danielle Svetcov                                @dsvetcov

Ayesha Pande                             @agent_ayesha

Alia Hanna Habib                         @AliaHanna

Alice Tasman                              @AliceTasman

Andrew Lownie                      @andrewlownie

Betsy Lerner                                @BetsyLerner

Brettne Bloom                                     @Brettne

Carly Watters                              @carlywatters

Carol Mann                       @carolmannagency

Chris Parris-Lamb                    @thegernertco 

Claudia Ballard                                         @wme

Curtis Russell                               @CurtisPSLA

Daniel Lazar                         @DanLazarAgent

David Haviland                       @davidhaviland

Deborah Schneider              @deborschneider

Brian DeFiore                                     @DeFiore

Dorian Karchmar              @DorianKarchmar

Elisabeth Weed                        @elisabethweed

Elyse Cheney                              @ElyseCheney

Emily Forland                           @EmilyForland

Emma Sweeney               @EmmaSweeneyESA

Emma Patterson                              @EmPat222

Farley Chase                                   @farleychase

Ryan Fischer-Harbage            @fischerharbage

Christy Fletcher                     @FletcherChristy

Gary Morris                               @garymmorris

Katie Grimm                                     @grimmlit

Jenni Ferrari-Adler               @JenFerrariAdler

Jessica Papin                                         @jkpapin

Joanne Wyckoff                      @JoanneWyckoff

Joy Harris                             @JoyHarrisAgency

Kate Garrick                                   @kategarrick

Katherine Fausset                                   @Kfauss

Kimberly Witherspoon                      @kwspoon

Laura Biagi                                     @LauraJBiagi

Laurie Abkemeier                @LaurieAbkemeier

Laura Dail                                                @LCDail

Liza Dawson                        @LizaDawsonAssoc

Lucy Carson                                 @LucyACarson

Mary Evans                                 @MaryEvansInc

Melissa Flashman                         @melflashman

Meredith Kaffel                                     @mere215

Miriam Altshuler                   @MiriamAltshuler

Peter Steinberg                         @PeterSteinberg1

Rayhané Sanders                      @rayhanesanders

Rena Rossner                                  @renarossner

Sarah Burnes                                  @sarahburnes

Samantha Shea                                       @sb_shea

Seth Fishman                              @sethasfishman

Stuart Krichevsky                                @skagency

Sarah Levitt                                    @slevittslevitt

Sarah Yake                                               @slyyake

Soumeya Bendimerad Roberts     @soumeya_b

Rachel Sussman                       @SussmanRachel

Sarah Bowlin                                        @svbowlin

Michelle Tessler                            @tessleragency

Bill Clegg                                 @TheCleggAgency

Tina Wexler                                    @Tina_Wexler

Uwe Stender                             @UweStenderPhD

Vicky Bijur                                                  @VBLA

Joseph Veltre                                                @veltre

Rachel Vogel                                  @Vogelrachelm

William Clark                                @wmclarkassoc

Zoë Pagnamenta                        @zoepagnamenta

 

 

We Mean Business: Twelve Agents Who Want to Read Your Work
Agents & Editors: The Complete Series
Agent Advice: The Complete Series

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Sally Kim, senior vice president and publisher of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and recipient of the 2022 Editor’s Award, at the Poets & Writers gala on March 29, 2022.  (Credit: Margarita Corporan)

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Author: klarimer

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Date:
  • April 5, 2022
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