Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Announcing the Agent Greeting Contest Prizes

The Agent Greeting contest (details here) will start on August 5th with the opportunity to win a query critique from not one, but five agents. Five random winners will each be randomly assigned to an agent. I will direct the winner how to email their query to their agent.

Now to get to the good stuff: the identities of the agents! Take a good look and see whether your query falls into their areas of expertise. Agent Greeting will be open to all fiction genres and age categories, but the agents might be more helpful with queries that fall in their wish lists. 


Agent #1:





Danielle Smith an associate literary agent at Foreword Literary Agents where she represents picture books and middle grade authors and illustrators. Her enthusiasm for children’s literature began as a young child, but grew exponentially when her own two children were born and shortly thereafter she began reviewing books at her top rated children’s book review site There's A Book. For more than five years she’s been involved professionally with books through print and online publications such as Women’s World and Parenting Magazine, as a member of the judging panels for The Cybils awards for fiction picture books, as well as locally by serving on the board of The Central Coast Writer’s Conference. She is most interested in finding new author/illustrator talent, children’s fiction and creative non-fiction from picture books through







Agent #2: 

Jordy Albert is a Literary Agent and co-founder of The Booker Albert Literary Agency. She holds a B.A. in English from Pennsylvania State University, and a M.A. from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She has worked with Marisa Corvisiero during her time at the L. Perkins Agency and the Corvisiero Literary Agency. Jordy also works as a freelance editor/PR Director. She enjoys studying languages (French/Japanese), spends time teaching herself how to knit, is a HUGE fan of Doctor Who, and loves dogs. 

She is looking for stories that capture her attention and keep her turning the page. She is looking for a strong voice, and stories that have the ability to surprise her. She loves intelligent characters with a great sense of humor. She would love to see fresh, well-developed plots featuring travel, competitions/tournaments, or time travel. Jordy is specifically looking for:

* Middle Grade: contemporary, fantasy, action/adventure, or historical.
* YA: sci-fi, dystopian/post-apocalyptic, contemporary, historical--Though I am open to looking at other sub-genres, I'm looking for YA that has a very strong romantic element. 
NEW ADULT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
* Romance (contemporary and historical).


Agent #3


Sarah Negovetich of Corvisiero Literary is fully aware that no one knows how to pronounce her last name, and she's okay with that.

Her favorite writing is YA, because at seventeen the world is your oyster. Only oysters are slimy and more than a little salty, it's accurate if not exactly motivational. 

Sarah's background is in Marketing. FYI, your high school algebra teacher was right when they told you every job uses math. She uses her experience to assist Corvisiero authors with platform building and book promotion.

Sarah is only accepting MG and YA fiction manuscripts. She is open to any genre within those age groups, but prefers speculative fiction. Contemporary is not her favorite, but she will look at it. She is not interested in seeing poetry, novels in verse, short stories/novellas or anything focused on saving the environment (she's all for recycling, but doesn't want to represent it).


Agent #4

TR 

Tamar Rydzinski worked at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates prior to joining the Laura Dail Literary Agency. She graduated from Yeshiva University in 2003 with a major in literature and a minor in business.

Tamar is not interested in prescriptive or practical non-fiction, humor, coffee table books or children’s books (meaning anything younger than middle grade). She is interested in everything else that is well-written and has great characters, including graphic novels. A fantastic query letter is essential – “you need to make me want to read your book, and be excited to read it,” she says, “with those first couple of paragraphs.”


Agent #5


Michelle L. Johnson is a literary agent, the founder of Inklings Literary Agency and has a business administration background in addition to a lifetime of working with books (sales, editing, and writing) and authors (marketing, promoting, event planning). She is also a script/story consultant for an independent film under production in Halifax, NS.

Before founding Inklings Literary Agency, she was with Corvisiero Literary Agency. She has spent many years in the editing field for private clients and multiple independent publishing houses.

She has also owned and operated a Writers' Center and Bookstore in Virginia Beach, organizing numerous special events for authors and artists alike.

Michelle is closed to unsolicited query until further notice, but in fiction Michelle looks for Contemporary, Suspense, Thriller, Mystery, Horror, Fantasy, including Paranormal and Supernatural elements within those genres.

She is also interested in romance of every heat level, including very well written erotica.

In Non Fiction, she is interested in Memoir, True Crime.

She is especially fond of plot twists that surprise her and deep, well-rounded characters that make her laugh and cry.

Not looking for: Textbooks, Cookbooks, Short Stories, Picture Books, Poetry, Coffee Table Books, Christian Fiction, Screenplays, Steampunk.



3 comments:

  1. Yay! So exciting. Thank you agents & Michelle.

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  2. That's awesome! So generous of all of you.

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  3. Thank you for doing this, everyone!

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