Michaela Whatnall is a literary agent with Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

They joined Dystel, Goderich & Bourret in 2019 as the assistant to Michael Bourret in the West Coast office. After graduating from Emory University with a degree in English and linguistics, Michaela completed the Columbia Publishing Course.

Their background in school and library marketing accounts for their strong interest in children’s literature, particularly middle grade and young adult fiction of all genres, including contemporary, fantasy, science fiction, historical, adventure, horror, and rom-com.

In the adult fiction space, Michaela is particularly seeking contemporary, speculative, and historical upmarket fiction, as well as character-driven sci-fi/fantasy and other genre fiction that features historically underrepresented characters. They are also open to select narrative nonfiction for both children and adults, graphic novels, and picture books.

Halley Dunne Parry is a literary agent with The Hamilburg Agency.

Halley is an agent and writer in Los Angeles. A graduate of the Washington University MFA program, she has spent the last decade working at independent bookstores and in publishing. She previously worked as an agent at Drift(less) Literary.

Halley is looking for fiction that plays with genre and form, for plot-driven literary novels, commercial fiction, adult speculative fiction and hybrid works of narrative nonfiction.

Lucy Hamilburg is a literary agent at The Hamilburg Agency.

Formerly, as a teacher, she worked toward the goal of motivating young people to love books. Lucy put great time and passion into curating a classroom library with a core foundation of equity and inclusion. Teaching allowed Lucy to pass on her love of books to her students and to instill in them that special sense of connection to story, to see themselves in the characters. As an agent, she uses her experiences to create long lasting relationships with her clients, editors, and publishers, to represent work that amplifies voice driven work, and most importantly, inspires and sustains life-long readers.

Lucy is looking for picture books, middle grade, and young adult fiction. As a former middle school teacher, she knows what flies off the shelves and is always seeking novels, graphic novels, lyrical prose, and picture books that make kids and young adults laugh out loud and simultaneously pull at their heart strings

Lucy is interested in books that cover universal experiences in humanity from authentic intersectional perspectives. She is drawn to character and voice driven narratives that examine relatable and real life issues that may be intertwined with magical realism or bits of fantasy, a combination of Jason Reynolds and B.B. Alston. She is a sucker for a series with well developed secondary characters as well as characters exploring their identity. She is also looking for page-turners with a strong hook – plots that would put her former students on the edges of their seats. Most importantly, Lucy strives to represent books that inspire empathy and empowerment through authentic perspectives while connecting and relating to all young readers.

She is open to all genres and categories within kidlit books — including fantasy, suspense/thriller, romance, contemporary, humor, paranormal, historical fiction, and everything in between.

[SOLD OUT OF PITCH APPOINTMENTS]

Steven Hutson is a literary agent and founder of Wordwise Media Services.

He is seeking: “I’m interested in representing a wide range of fiction and nonfiction books for children and adults. Surprise me.”

Some of the categories he enjoys, though is not limited to, include: Action/Adventure, Children’s, Crime, Fantasy, General, Graphic Novel, Humor, Middle Grade, Military, Mystery, Religious, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller, Women’s Fiction, Young Adult.

For Nonfiction: Biography, Cookbooks, Crafts/DIY, History, Humor, Illustrated, Pop Culture, Psychology, Science, Sports, Travel, True Crime.

“I was a storyteller almost from birth; poems, articles, business letters, advertising copy, and lame excuses. But like most writers, I kept a day job; in-between gigs I found gainful employment as a clerk typist, vitamin buyer, waiter, forklift operator, lifeguard, bookkeeper, grocery manager, printer’s apprentice, and meat cutter. Oh, and I went to college for a while with a major in business.

“But the muse didn’t give up on me, and in time I had a couple of books published. One thing led to another; I edited dozens of books for others and managed a writers’ conference for several years, making many valuable contacts along the way. I’ve mentored hundreds of aspiring authors, I speak often at writers’ events, and I write two blogs. Swimming, gardening, and cooking keep my hands busy in-between. I live in sunny Southern California with my wife Ruth and son Bradley.”

 

 

[SOLD OUT OF PITCH APPOINTMENTS]

Ken Sherman is President of Ken Sherman & Associates, a Los Angeles based literary agency. The company was established in 1989, and handles film, television, and book writers, as well as selling film and television rights for books and life-rights.

He is seeking: Ken is a generalist, and represents adult fiction and nonfiction of all types. He does not want pitches for children’s books or novels of any kind.

An agent for more than twenty years, Ken has accumulated an impressive list of clients, present and past including a few estates, with notable names such as David Guterson, Anne Perry, Franz Kafka, Willa Cather, John Updike, Starhawk, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Ken is also a popular and accomplished speaker, having taught and lectured extensively at venues including UCLA, USC, Loyola Marymount University, both in New Orleans and Los Angeles, The Santa Barbara Writers’ conference, the American Film Institute, The San Francisco Writers Conference, The Maui Writers Conference, The University of Oklahoma, Sherwood Oaks Experiment College, The Santa Fe Writers Conference, The Novelists, Inc. Conference in San Diego, The Aspen Institute, the Aspen Summers Words Writers Conference and The Eugene International Film Festival where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Since graduating from the University of California-Berkeley with a major in psychology, Ken has returned numerous times to the classroom to teach his course, “The Business of Writing for Screen, Television and the Publishing Worlds,” at both USC and UCLA. He also co-taught a screenwriting class for many years at the Eugene International Film Festival.

Ken maintains strong community involvement as well, serving as an Arts and Cultural Affairs Commissioner for the City of West Hollywood, is a charter member of the British Academy of Film and Television/Los Angeles (BAFTA), and is a member of both the Academy of Television Arts and Science and the International Advisory Board of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation.

 

 

 

Helga Schier, PhD, is the Editorial Director of CamCat Books (camcatbooks.com), a boutique publisher of award-winning genre fiction. With over 25 years of experience powering her work, Helga guides authors through the development and revision process. Helga focuses on concept, story, and approach, helping writers sharpen their vision, refine their voice, and unlock the potential of their manuscripts. A former academic, Helga has lectured on literature and creative writing, published essays on contemporary English and American fiction, and has translated several novels, screenplays, and memoirs (visit withpenandpaper.com for more information).

With an unwavering commitment to excellence and dynamic growth, CamCat Books is proud to publish what we call Books to Live In: books that allow for an immersive reading experience, that invite you to walk in other people’s shoes, that stay with you far beyond the last page. As Editorial Director of CamCat Books, Helga is heavily involved in the acquisition process, actively looking for stories with a sense of empathy for morally ambiguous characters, a well-structured plot that moves at a nice clip, and an inkling that a wrong choice could quickly lead us down an irreparably treacherous path.  CamCat Books accepts submissions in adult and YA novel-length genre fiction. We’ll consider any good tale, but what we want to see most urgently revolves around these genres:

• Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense
• Science Fiction & Fantasy
• Romance
• Historical
• Paranormal
• Horror
• Western

Please note that CamCat Perspectives will soon open for adult nonfiction submissions in the following subject areas:
– True Crime
– US History and Biography

CamCat Books and CamCat Perspectives are imprints of CamCat Publishing. For
more information visit camcatbooks.com.

Darlene Chan is a literary agent with Linda Chester Literary Agency.

Darlene joined the agency in 2020. A veteran of the film industry, she served as an executive for Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures (both times under Jeffrey Katzenberg), Davis Entertainment, and as an independent producer. Among the titles she has been associated with are Grumpy Old Men, Beverly Hills Cop, A Thing Called Love and Shattered. In 2009, Darlene established Darlene Chan PR, which specializes in web PR and social media for authors. Among her PR clients are Live Talks Los Angeles, Daniel H. Wilson, Joe Ide, Elizabeth Brundage, Tara Ison, and Denise Hamilton.

Darlene is interested in stories by and about BIPOC, women’s fiction, literary fiction, chick lit/rom-com, crime fiction, pop culture, narrative non-fiction and nonfiction books on film and the entertainment industry.

She’s not seeking: sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, family saga, children’s/YA or screenplays that have been turned into novels.

If you are coming to the 2024 Writing Conference of Los Angeles (May 4, 2024), you may be thinking about pitching our agent-in-attendance or editor-in-attendance. An in-person pitch is an excellent way to get an agent excited about both you and your work. Here are some tips (from a previous instructor) that will help you pitch your work effectively at the event during a 10-minute consultation. We advise that you should:

• Try to keep your pitch to 90 seconds. Keeping your pitch concise and short is beneficial because 1) it shows you are in command of the story and what your book is about; and 2) it allows plenty of time for back-and-forth discussion between you and the agent. Note: If you’re writing nonfiction, and therefore have to speak plenty about yourself and your platform, then your pitch can certainly run longer.
• Practice before you get to the event. Say your pitch out loud, and even try it out on fellow writers. Feedback from peers will help you figure out if your pitch is confusing, or missing critical elements. Remember to focus on what makes your story unique. Mystery novels, for example, all follow a similar formula — so the elements that make yours unique and interesting will need to shine during the pitch to make your book stand out.
• Do not give away the ending. If you pick up a DVD for Die Hard, does it say “John McClane wins at the end”? No. Because if it did, you wouldn’t buy the movie. Pitches are designed to leave the ending unanswered, much like the back of any DVD box you read.
• Have some questions ready. 10 minutes is plenty of time to pitch and discuss your book, so there is a good chance you will be done pitching early. At that point, you are free to ask the agent questions about writing, publishing or craft. The meeting is both a pitch session and a consultation, so feel free to ask whatever you like as long as it pertains to writing.
• Remember to hit the big beats of a pitch. Everyone’s pitch will be different, but the main elements to hit are 1) introducing the main character(s) and telling us about them, 2) saying what goes wrong that sets the story into motion, 3) explaining how the main character sets off to make things right and solve the problem, 4) explaining the stakes — i.e., what happens if the main character fails, and 5) ending with an unclear wrap-up.