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Upcoming Agent Spotlights and Query Critique Giveaways

Larissa Helena Agent Spotlight Interview on 9/10/2018
Wendi Gu Agent Spotlight Interview on 10/29/18

INTERVIEW WITH LITERARY AGENT JUDITH ENGRACIA


First I’m going to announce the winner of CLARITY by Kim Harrington. The winner is:

RANE ANDERSON
!

Congrats! E-mail me your address so I can mail you your book.

Today I’m so excited to interview Judith Engracia, a literary assistant at Liza Dawson Associates. She handles their audio rights and digital publishing and is building up her own client list.

Welcome Judith. Thanks so much for joining us.

1. Tell us a little about yourself and how you became a literary assistant.

When I was still undecided in college, the advice I kept hearing was “do what you love.” Since books have always been my passion, I decided to try an internship with a literary agency and, sure enough, I’ve been in love with this job ever since.

2. That’s so cool you’re following a career that you love. I read in your bio that you interned at Random House, FinePrint Literary and Nancy Coffey Literary Management. How will these experiences help you as an agent?

Well my three internships with literary agencies were reading and writing-intensive, and everything I did as an intern (slush, requested manuscripts, client manuscripts, and editorial letters) are all part of a normal day for an assistant and agent. Meanwhile, my internship at Random House with the Special Sales department really showed me the business side of publishing. The special sales team had to be creative in thinking of new possible markets for their upcoming titles, which is also the mindset agents need to have. An agent’s job isn’t over after he or she pitches a book to an editor—we continue to think of other ways to sell our client’s work, whether it’s through merchandising or uploading a client’s backlist as e-books, if we control the rights.

3. What types of manuscripts are you interested in receiving? Are they any different in middle grade vs. YA?

I’d love to work with more urban fantasies and paranormal romances, as well as YA’s and middle grades with a spunky, sassy protagonist. And yes, the main difference I’ve noticed between a middle grade novel and a YA is that the themes in a middle grade tend to explore family and friendship issues with a crush somewhere in the periphery, whereas romance is often more prominent in a YA.

4. Are there any genres or story lines that you aren’t interested in representing?

I enjoy pretty much all types of fiction—YA, middle grade, urban fantasy, paranormals, thrillers, romance, and literary—which is more than enough to keep me busy right now. So I think I’ll most likely shy away from nonfiction projects at the moment.


5. What books are you really excited about now that you wished you represented?

Oh, I’m sure I’m not the only agent who wouldn’t mind representing any of the books on this week’s New York Times bestseller list!

6. Ha! And we’d all have loved to have written those books. I know some agents say that the market is saturated with books about vampires and werewolves. Are there any types of books that are harder to sell right now?

The market is pretty crowded with vampires and werewolves right now, and it looks like fairies, angels, and demons are becoming harder to sell, as well. But of course, if the manuscript is stellar, people will pay attention.

7. What do you want to see in a query letter? Do you have any pet peeves?

I think agents all basically look for the same format: a short pitch or hook, a one-paragraph summary, and a brief bio listing any awards or writing experience. And above all, we’re looking for tight writing in the query. Unnecessary words and wandering sentences are flags that the manuscript is probably written in the same manner, which means more rounds of revision and more work for the agent. As for pet peeves, mine would have to be nasty replies from authors after I (politely) passed on seeing their manuscript. Rude replies don’t happen often, but when they do, it can be quite jarring.

8. Yes, rudeness is so unprofessional. Do you have any other advice that we haven’t discussed?

My advice would be to keep in mind that this is an extremely subjective business so it’s important to never give up! A pass isn’t necessarily a judgment on your writing—we might recognize that the writing is solid, but the project just really isn’t for us. So don’t be discouraged. Keep querying, and above all, keep writing!

That’s such an important piece of advice and one we aspiring authors sometimes forget. Judith will stop by and may answer some of your questions in the comments so be sure to check back.

Thanks so much Judith for letting me interview you. Good luck! You can check the Liza Dawson Associates website in the next few weeks for Judith’s bio and her e-mail to send her your queries. You can also check out her blog here.

This week and next I’ll be blogging on Wednesdays as well as Mondays so I can spotlight two middle grade authors. On Wednesday I’ll be interviewing Hillary Homzie abut her new book THE HOT LIST and giving away a copy of it. Hope you'll join us.

I want to remind you of The Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays started by Shannon Whitney Messenger to spotlight middle grade authors. Check it out here.

And check out these other Marvelous Monday Middle Grade Reviewers:

Joanne Fritz
Shannon O’Donnell
Sherrie Petersen
Myrna Foster

I follow them every week because I love finding out about middle grade books and it’s important that we all help promote middle grade authors.

Next Monday I’ll be sharing a really helpful resource to help you with your query letters that’s FREE and something else that is totally awesome. Hint. Hint. It involves Elana Johnson’s new book POSSESSION. I’ll be giving away a copy of her ARC! Trust me, you want to read it as soon as possible so be sure to enter.

28 comments:

  1. Hi, Casey, Hi, Judith,

    I really enjoyed the interview.

    Judith, it's nice that you are open to several different genres. My question is ... What if you have no previous writing credits, would you just write a short synopsis of the book and target market?

    I am currently querying my m/g realistic fantasy and would like to write a strong query.

    Thanks,

    Michael

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  2. Thanks so much Judith for letting me interview you. It's so helpful for us aspiring authors to meet a new agent that is looking for submissions and learn what you're looking for.

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  3. Hi Natalie,

    Great interview! Thanks for doing posting this for us.

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  4. Congratulations Rane! And thanks for another great interview ladies.

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  5. Fantastic interview! Great insight into what Ms. Engracia is looking for.

    Thank you Natalie and Judith!

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  6. Awesome interview! And thanks for the MMGM linkage. :-)

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  7. Thanks for the great interview and the linkage! I'm hoping to query Judith later in the year.

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  8. Casey, your blog is a treasure! I don't write YA or MG, but you almost make me wish I did with these invaluable glimpses into the agents' preferences and interests. On behalf of my writing friends who *do* write YA/MG, I've recommended your blog to them with enthusiasm.

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  9. Informative. Thanks Natalie. And thanks for the MG blog links!!

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  10. Great to hear from an agent who is so positive and energetic. Thanks for the interview!

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  11. Great Interview Natalie, and thanks for listing the MMMG links! Can't wait to read your interview with Hillary Homzie

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  12. Thanks for the great query tips. It's always interesting to see what agents are looking for.

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  13. Great interview- I didn't expect to get another agent to put on the list since my WIP isn't a children's book, so extra thanks!

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  14. With a YA ms and a MG WIP, I especially liked this interview, thanks! (I just won an ARC of Possession from another blog, yay!!)
    erica

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  15. Thanks for a fantastic interview, Natalie and Judith. Those are some very impressive internships!

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  16. Wonderful interview, Natalie and Judith! I think Judith rocks!!!

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  17. Thanks so much for having me! It was a really fun interview with great questions that made me think :) And I'm sorry I couldn't stop by yesterday! I'm actually home sick today, so right after work, I went straight to bed and just woke up now. Ack!

    As for your question, Michael, it's fine to leave out previous experience and publication if you're a first-time writer. Liza's website actually assures writers not to worry about that. In fact, she's launched new authors onto bestseller lists, so you can still definitely make a strong query letter without that paragraph on previous experience.

    Thanks again! And if there's any other questions, I'll just be in bed taking it easy, so I'll stop by again later :)

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  18. Judith, thanks for stopping by even though you are sick. Hope you feel better soon.

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  19. Excellent interview! Jude has quite a resume as well as being so personable!

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  20. What a wonderful interview! Jude sounds like a wonderful agent. I do so enjoy this blog.

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  21. Great interview, Natalie! She seems like she'd make a wonderful agent. Love the encouraging advice!

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  22. Thanks for the awesome interview, Natalie! This was great and the advice about not quitting is particularly important to me right now. ;D

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  23. THANKS!!!!!!! For the book!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited to read Clarity. It was one of my blog's book club options for this month. Sadly, though, it didn't get chosen. BUT, I'm still happy I'll be reading it.

    :)

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  24. Great interview! Thank you. I'm anxious to read POSSESSION too. Must check that out.

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  25. Awesome interview! I missed it last year. Thank you!

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