Friday, June 5, 2009

Awesome Agents

Hey guys. You know I write for the QueryTracker blog. You know we've just had a big carnival. You know we had agents doing query critiques.

Okay. So those agents are awesome. Every single one of them has been easy to work with, fun to email back and forth with, and just all around spectacular. I'm going to post what they're looking for here too. If your writing / genre fits with what they want to see, query them! Query. Them. Any of them would be awesome.

And before I start, I just want to shout out a big thanks to Jon Tienstra, Kae Tienstra, Lindsay Davis and Jim McCarthy.

Kae and Jon Tienstra:

Kae and Jon Tienstra launched their literary agency, KT/PR & Literary Services, in 2006. Kae was publicity director at Rodale for 13 years before launching her publicity firm, KT Public Relations, in 1993. Jon, a corporate veteran and frustrated literati, joined the public relations business in 1995 after getting his Masters in library science. Today they manage the literary agency and publicity firm as two parallel publishing-based businesses. They are seeking a variety of genres. Jon likes to receive queries for science fiction and contemporary fantasy; mysteries; YA; literary fiction; police/detective.

Kae is interested in great women's fiction; quirky, contemporary fantasy; mysteries (especially cozies); historical fiction; YA. She's always on the lookout for nonfiction writers with impressive platforms on the topics of gardening, parenting, psychology, health, and self-help.


Lindsay Davis:

Lindsay Davis is a literary agent at Writers House. Before joining the agency, she worked in the children's marketing department at Harcourt and taught fourth grade as a member of Teach for America. For the past three years, Lindsay has apprenticed with Steven Malk in the West Coast office of Writers House, where she's had the opportunity to work with some of the very best authors and artists in the industry. She's now building her own list and is actively seeking picture book, middle grade, and young adult manuscripts. She's always been passionate about children's and young adult literature, and, as an agent, she's eager to help bring fresh voices, characters and stories to a new generation of readers.

Jim McCarthy

As an avid fiction reader, his interests encompass both literary and commercial, adult and young adult works. He is particularly interested in women's fiction, underrepresented voice, mysteries, romance, paranormal fiction, and anything unusual or unexpected. In addition to fiction he is also interested in narrative nonfiction, humor, memoir, paranormal nonfiction, and anything related to architecture, planning, or real estate. Check out the Dystel & Goderich website.



So I hope you guys had fun during the carnival. Good luck with your querying and all that!

Oh, and here's one thing I'm wondering about. I've been working on something (my NF project). I'm looking for queries to critique and include in an "examples section" of an e-book. Would any of you be interested in submitting yours for me to shred, er, critique, knowing that I might possibly be putting it in said e-book? It's like a free query critique. I mean, I'm not a literary agent, but I am a pretty good query shredder. Just ask Kate. She said I have a patented system!!

Thoughts? Let me know. kthxbai.

13 comments:

Cali MacKay said...

I've only had the pleasure of dealing with Jim McCarthy when he requested a full and he was fantastic to work with, even though it ended up being a "no".

Feel free to shred any of my queries. : )

Anonymous said...

Oh so very cool to post the agents on here! I think I might try a few possibly, but not until I finish my revisions!

As for the Query situation--heck yeah! I would totally be game and I promise I wouldn't cry! Let me know cause I love second opinions on something so crucial!

Scott said...

Well, since you're currently shredding . . . uh, critiquing . . . my query . . .Go for it!

Underrepresented voice? Does snarkiness count? If so, well, I may be able to throw some snark in a project or two. It's really a stretch for me. I'm not snarky at all . . . nor do I like margaritas!

Thanks for the info!

S

Rebecca L Sutton said...

Ohh since you already had your way with my query, feel free to use it!

Rebecca Knight said...

I would love to help on the Query Shreddage front :). Please let me know if you'd like me to send mine along. Very cool idea!

JESSJORDAN said...

Awesome post! I will reference this when I've reached that phase with my story, as nearly all of these agents are possibilities with my genre.

Thanks--you rock :)

Unknown said...

If you don't find enough queries to shred, let me know.

Kathryn Hupp-Harris said...

Great post Elana!

I'm bookmarking this one for when I'm ready.

Kate Karyus Quinn said...

It's true your system is amazing, and hopefully once I start querying I will have good agent responses to back that up with!

lisa and laura said...

Great post, Elana. These agents rock!

And for the record, we can attest to Elana's query shredding talents! Her query critiques rock!

dellgirl said...

I second everything Kat said. Ditto. This is good information to have when needed. I had no idea where to start. Now I do.

I'm bookmarking it also (for when I need it).

Stina said...

Sounds like a great idea, Elana, except I'm already getting lots of hits from my query, so it must be working. ;)

Can't wait to read your posts on the QT Blog now that the carnival is over. It was lots of fun, but I miss the regular posts.

jdsanc said...

I think that would be fun. Let me know when you're ready. Getting my query to you will take the drudgery out of repolishing it!

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