Want more on this subject?

• Like romance writing? Check out my interviews with agent Scott Eagan, editor Leah Hultenschmidt, and agent Laura Bradford.
• Confused about formatting? Check out Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript.
• Read about What Agents Hate: Chapter 1 Pet Peeves.
• Want the most complete database of agents and what genres they're looking for? Buy the 2011 Guide to Literary Agents today!
• Have a burning question about agents or publishing?  E-mail it to me at literaryagent@fwmedia.com and I may answer it on this blog.

Agent Interview by
contributor Ricki Schultz.

"Agent Advice" is a series of quick interviews with literary and script agents who talk with Guide to Literary Agents about their thoughts on writing, publishing, and just about anything else.

This installment is part I of II, and features Joe Monti of Barry Goldblatt Literary. Joe has been in the business for more than twenty years. He started as a bookseller, became the children's fiction buyer at Barnes & Noble, worked at Houghton Mifflin, and recently at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers as their editorial director of Paperbacks. 

He seeks: children's and young adult and takes a special interest in multicultural and boy-centric books. As well, he represents graphic novels, picture books, and some adult genre fiction, with particular regard to fantasy and science fiction.

Joe Monti

GLA: How did you become an agent?

JM: I wanted to marry the unique retail experiences I acquired as a children’s fiction buyer at Barnes and Noble along with my publishing experiences in sales and editorial in a creative way that would also let me utilize my skills in advocacy for my clients.

GLA: What’s the most recent thing you’ve sold? 

JM: Eisner and World Fantasy award winner Charles Vess’s next picture book, written by Neil Gaiman, titled Instructions, coming late Spring 2010 from HarperCollins Children’s Books. Bits on the creation of the book can be seen here.

GLA: What are you looking for right now and not getting?  What do you pray for when tackling the slush pile?

JM: Non-genre middle grade fiction, because as much as I love genre fiction, with a fierce passion, there is nothing finer to me than reading a middle grade novel that can accomplish so much, so elegantly, and with minimal word choice. I like to cite Jerry Spinelli’s Loser as my example of this. At the end of the novel, there’s a snowstorm, and the not-as-whimsical-as-he-was protagonist dives outside into it to help a friend. His parents follow suit. On one level, it reads like a desperate search through a blizzard; on another, deeper level, that perhaps only a sophisticated or adult reader can appreciate, Spinelli is plotting out a discourse on the meaning of loss. What is lost? What does it mean to be lost? And how do you know you truly are? And what then signifies you as a loser? Brilliant. 
      Another deep interest is YA science fiction aimed at a male readership. I’m a big believer that the going wisdom that boys of a certain age do not read is utterly wrong. I do believe that we lose a lot of boy readers after a certain age because there isn’t a lot for them to read, nor to easily designate as potential reads, after the ages of 11-13. When I was at B&N, I was fortunate enough to be in the position as a children’s fiction buyer when everything was changing, and thus be a part of it. In YA, while I think Burgess’s Smack, followed by Anderson’s Speak were the two biggest initial, critical successes, Von Ziegesar's Gossip Girl series deserves equal time as a herald, as it proved to publishers that there was a large female readership here and that they should publish towards it. 
      In other words, GG was the gateway fiction the YA category needed to jumpstart it. I feel that smart, high-action science fiction (and action thrillers) will help to do the same for male readers. YA had Paolini, while the books became a phenomenon; oddly not many have tried to write more action-driven fantasy for boys. Give me some smart military science fiction for teen boys and you’ll see that readership start to pick up writers like John Green and Barry Lyga. Then, the category will get even more interesting. So I’m also talking to adult science fiction writers who have shown an interest or a particular appropriate voice in their works to write a YA novel.  Whether I represent them or not, I think it’ll be good for the industry as a whole. Doctorow’s Little Brother, which I loved with an intense passion, is a great example.
      Then, there’s another old flame: Steampunk. So, a lot of what I’ve seen is pseudo-steampunk: Quasi Victorian or Edwardian era fiction with some absurdist machinery. What Steampunk really was, and can be, is a rebellion against the mores of society, largely through the utilization of science and education. The rebellion, hence the punk aesthetic, is largely lost in the brass bolt tech or Victorian-ish era setting. I’m looking to put the punk back in steampunk and I hope I get such a manuscript across my desk because the era is such a wonderful mirror to our modern times in many ways. Except for the equality of race. But a good modern steampunk novel should address that as well as have some kick-butt action and tech. A lot is riding on Scott Westerfeld’s forthcoming Leviathan series to help break this subgenre out. But Scott’s got the talent to make it happen, so we may see more of it.

GLA: Why did you choose juvenile literature as your primary area of interest?  What is it that draws you to this category?

JM: Honestly, I was lucky. Like many in our field, I fell into it, and within three months of reading it intensely, I was in love and never looked back. In large part, I believe it’s because I can relate to the literature at a deep level. Take my love of middle grade: I had a traumatic experience at the age of nine when I had open-heart surgery. Back then, it was a life or death thing, and they waited to perform the surgery until I was just old enough to survive it.  I quickly became the introspective, chubby nine-year-old that enjoyed talking to adults cliché and had a sense of mortality and a level of empathy beyond my years. So when I read books like Because of Winn-Dixie, I not only know that girl, Opal, I also wish I had her story to help me understand what I was going through at that age. Thus, getting behind a book like that is not just a personal advocacy, but also a need to share it in a social sense to pay it forward. Children’s and YA fiction has the ability to transform a reader, and a bookseller, far more than any other category.

GLA: Cultural diversity also interests you.  What subjects are you tired of seeing in this area?  As well, are there any subjects you feel are untapped and would, therefore, be a refreshing change from the typical multicultural story?

JM: As our president famously said, I’m a mutt. My parents both immigrated here, my mother from Argentina (and her mother a full-blooded Quichua), and my dad from Italy. My wife, also a child of immigrants, is Chinese-American, and our son is all these things and more. So there’s our family history that colors so much of how I perceive the world, as a lens, not a filter. 
      When I was a buyer, I was tired of certain subject matters only because those subjects have been explored so well, so often, that you really needed to bring something special to the page to make anyone take notice. The Book Thief is a recent example of a Holocaust story done so well that it transcends and sits alongside some of the other great WWII works. Send me a story about some modern immigrant stories, some multi-generational stuff, like the forthcoming (in the US) YA novels of Carlos Ruiz Zafon. There are deeply rich stories about being an outsider, and yet how assimilation means a compromise and loss. I’d also love to see more issues of race discussed in modern terms, where there is the melting pot happening across the US, yet the tensions are still there, like the fear of the other. I think these stories, when done well, are universal stories, as we all feel that way at some point. Look at Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as exhibit A.

Want more on this subject?

• Along with Joe, another new agent at BG Literary is Beth Fleisher, who I profiled before.
• See all children's related posts and agent info here.
• Need to write your query to Joe and want some guidance? Check out The Writer's Digest Guide to Query Letters.
• Confused about formatting? Check out Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript.
• Read about What Agents Hate: Chapter 1 Pet Peeves.
• Want the most complete database of agents and what genres they're looking for? Buy the 2011 Guide to Literary Agents today!

If you've ever listened to my cover band play, you know that our lead singer has a decently cool voice.  He's got good vocal range, and his voice has that grungy edge to it that makes our Nirvana and STP covers that much cooler.  And all this is leading to my next point: He completely lost his voice about six songs in (out of 50) at our show last night.

Disaster.

You ask: "So, Chuck ... what happens when the lead singer loses his voice at a show?"  Well, I'll tell you.  Chaos.  Absolute chaos happens.  First we tuned down our guitars a whole step to help him.  Then I started to sing every song with him to supplement his voice.  Then the bassist started singing as well.  All the songs became big, rowdy shout-em-outs instead of musical melodies.  When we realized Plan A sucked, we started inviting people up to sing with us (Plan B).  What we lost in musical quality, we tried desperately to regain in theatrics.  Well, that didn't work so well so we went to Plan C.  End the damn night early. 

The lead singer

Dude.  Disaster.  But it was definitely a memorable show.  There's no way this show will just fade away in my mind.  We jammed on "Hang on Sloopy", had various guest singers, witnessed a fight outside the bar, and had a new enthusiastic soundman who kept pumping us up.  Never a dull moment. 

"Agent Advice" is a series of quick interviews with literary and script agents who talk with Guide to Literary Agents about their thoughts on writing, publishing, and just about anything else.

This installment features Amberly Finarelli of Andrea Hurst Literary Management.

She is seeking: Her nonfiction areas of interest: Humor/gift books, Crafts, How-to (financial, house and home, health and beauty, weddings), Relationships/advice, Self-help, psychology, Travel writing, Narrative Nonfiction. Her fiction areas of interest: Commercial women's fiction, Comic and cozy mysteries, Literary fiction with a focus on the arts, culture, and/or history.  She is NOT looking for: True crime, Thrillers, Science fiction, Children's, Fantasy, or Young Adult.

GLA: How did you become an agent?

AF: After finishing my degree in English with a concentration in professional writing, I worked for a small press in Sacramento, CA, where I came in contact with Andrea Hurst and worked my way from assistant agent to agent.

GLA: What's the most recent thing youve sold?

AF: One of my favorites is Imagine Life with a Well-Behaved Dog (St. Martin's Press, by Julie A. Bjelland).
      We've also been packaging for the Complete Idiot's Guide series.

GLA: You seek mysteries but not thrillers. What draws you to the mystery genre?

AF: Perhaps it's just the fact that I grew up in a small town, but I love the intimate, slow-paced lifestyle that is found in both small town life and cozy mysteries. Something in the idea that these protagonists could be my next door neighbor just sucks me in.

GLA: You're also seeking comic mysteries. Could you help define this category? Are there some examples people should read?

AF: Loosely, a comic mystery is simply a mystery with humorous elements. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series and our own Presley Parker Party-Planning mysteries by Penny Warner are good examples.

GLA: What are you looking for right now and not getting? What do you pray for when tackling the slush pile?

AF: I am looking for fiction in any of the areas I represent, really whose voice just utterly blows me away. Maybe it's the sheer amount of submissions I read per week, but it can be difficult to find that powerful voice combined with a unique storyline that makes me shove the other manuscripts aside and succumb to the power of the narrative. Developing voice is a lifelong process, and a very slippery one at that, but as long as writers are aware of what voice is and can identify what makes their own writing voice unique, it can' t help but be evident in their writing.

GLA: I know that AHLA now has five agents. If a writer sends you a promising query outside your specific areas of interest, will you pass it along to another agent?

AF: I generally will, because I like to connect great authors with great agents, but I would caution writers against depending on this too much. Make sure you do your research, check out our site to see what areas we each represent, what books we like, and then pitch us. We will appreciate the leg work you've done, and you'll appreciate the faster response!

GLA: We met at the Reno Writers Conference. You likely took a lot of pitches that day. When writers sit down to pitch you in person, what are they doing wrong?

AF: For me, it mostly comes down to preparedness. In my experience, writers can be overprepared, where they have a pitch that they've obviously memorized, and they become very nervous if they stray from it. In most cases, these pitches end up sounding monotonous, like a customer service recording rather than a human being talking about their human story. Writers pitching me can also be underprepared, talking too long about the overall storyline of their book instead of focusing on key points and characters, and saying too little about their writing experience and commitment to writing. Remember that it's like an interviewcome prepared, but don't forget the human element.

GLA: Speaking of conferences, will you be at any upcoming writers' conferences where people can meet and pitch you?

AF: With our new agent additions to our team, we're currently working out our conference schedule for next year, but be sure to check out our web site for conference schedule updates.

GLA: Lets talk about women's fiction, for a moment. Lets say the query is intriguing and you request a partial. When you start to read women's fiction partials, where do you see writers going wrong?

AF: Because the genre is so inundated, if I feel like it's like something I've read before, I stop reading. In light women's fiction, this often happens when a book starts out like a real workday: the protagonist is late, rushing to the office (usually in some writing/publishing related field), chewing an apple and putting her heels on at the same time. Then we meet her best friend/co-worker then there's the demanding boss and finally the dreamy co-worker love interest. And don't even get her started on dieting and her parents coming into town. 
      In serious women's fiction, because it usually deals with more serious aspects of life, if I feel like the writing is melodramatic or heavy-handed, I'll stop.

GLA: You also rep some nonfiction areas. If you met a writer and suggested that they build their platform, only for them to ask "How do I do that?" - what would you say?

AF: That's a common question! Thankfully, there is a lot of information on the subject, but some basics: Have a web site. Internet presence is imperative in todays market. Start a blog, Twitter account, or e-newsletter - something that builds your Internet base. Also, continue to nurture and grow your client base in your professional field, as these will be the most obvious people to purchase your book. Generally, were hoping that this platform is built up before authors approach us.

GLA: What is something about yourself writers would be surprised to know?

AF: I'm a sucker for a really good caf mocha.

GLA: When writers first contact you, what do you want them to send and how?

AF: Unless weve spoken or written previously and I've requested something more specific, an airtight, professional e-mailed query is the best way to get my attention.

GLA: Best piece(s) of advice we havent discussed?

AF: I think my colleagues at AHA could attest to the fact that weve seen an increase in unconventional query letters. Unconventionality in itself isn't a bad thing, and can sometimes work at getting my attention, but please be aware that the conventions in query writing help both the agent and you. Dont begin queries with "I know this isn't a real query, but I wouldnt be surprised if you just deleted this on sight." Wow us first with your professionalism and unique story, and then with your unique creative prowess in your book.

Want more on this subject?

• See all agents I've interviewed here.
• If you're interested in Andrea Hurst Literary Management, I've interviewed Andrea before and profiled Gordon Warnock.
• If you like what you're reading, sign up for e-mail notifications by putting your e-mail in the box on the upper left corner of this page.
• Confused about formatting? Check out Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript.
• Read about What Agents Hate: Chapter 1 Pet Peeves.
• Want the most complete database of agents and what genres they're looking for? Buy the 2011 Guide to Literary Agents today!

"How I Got My Agent" is a new recurring feature on the GLA blog. I find it fascinating to see the exact road people took that landed them with a rep.  Seeing the things people did right vs. what they did wrong (highs and the lows) can help other scribes who are on the same journey.  Some tales are of long roads and many setbacks, while others are of good luck and quick signings.

Billy Coffey

TARGETING WORDSERVE

I’ve heard that signing with a literary agent is a more difficult task than signing with a publisher. I’d have to agree with that now. Then, however, things were different. That was when I had fallen for the classic illusion of a novice writer—writing a book is the hard part. Finding an agent to represent it?  Simple.

That fantasy was pushed aside once reality set in. Writing a book, I found, was the easy part. Finding an agent to represent it was nearly impossible. Nearly.  A year ago, I put the period after the final sentence of my manuscript, Snow Day, and submitted a query to Rachelle Gardner at WordServe Literary. I was a reader of her blog and she seemed like a perfect match for what I had written. In the meantime, I used the wait to research between 30 and 40 more agents who would possibly be interested in representing my book. That turned out to be a wise decision. Having those other potential suitors helped take the sting out of the rejection e-mail WordServe sent two weeks later.

REJECTIONLAND, THEN THE REFERRAL

I spent the next six months methodically trudging through that list of agents, querying and proposal-ing and, most of all, waiting. Quite a few asked for partials. Some wanted the entire manuscript. But all eventually passed.There really is such a thing as a good rejection, which is the equivalent of the most popular girl in school turning you down but still calling you cute. Quite a few of those no-thank-yous resembled that. But there was much less tickle than torture.

I had two things going against me. One was an economy that was persuading publishers to be very hesitant on taking a chance with an unpublished writer. The other was the fact that I didn’t have much of a platform. Many of those kind rejections offered the same piece of advice—do something. Writers can’t simply write anymore. Start a blog. Sign up for Facebook and Twitter. Put your name out there, build an audience, and submit again.  So I put my manuscript in a desk drawer and forgot about finding an agent, concentrating instead on starting a blog and building an audience.

Eight months later I received an e-mail from a new reader who wanted to know if I had a book in the works and, if so, if I had an agent. I answered yes to the one and no to the other, and she suggested she could perhaps talk her agent into taking a look at my manuscript. Her agent just happened to be Rachelle Gardner.

SNOW DAY COMES FULL CIRCLE

I mentioned that Rachelle had already passed on Snow Day, but this kind new reader felt sure Rachelle would give me a personal look. I submitted to Rachelle again and held my breath.  Rachelle contacted me a week later and asked for a telephone conversation. We talked about the book and the direction I wanted to take it, and she asked for the full manuscript and held my breath more.

She e-mailed again three days later. This time, she didn’t want me to call her. This time she wanted to call me. By that time I had met another friend online who had finally convinced me to sign up for Twitter. Rachelle direct messaged me there on the morning of our conversation and told me not to worry, for this was The Call.

I had never heard of The Call before, didn’t know what it meant, but I thought it sounded good. I paced the floor at work all day until my phone rang. Rachelle offered representation right away, and I could finally exhale. Breathing is important for conversation. We’ve since edited Snow Day and it is now in the hands of several interested publishers. Rachelle has been everything I could have hoped for and more in an agent. I couldn’t have asked for a better situation.

In the end I got the agent I wanted, though in a nontraditional way. But I think it’s a lesson every writer in today’s market needs to know. Authors can’t simply write anymore. They need some level of exposure and self-promotion. If I hadn’t started a blog and put time in to attract readers, I wouldn’t have an agent. Blogs and social networking can bring people to you who are willing to help you accomplish your dreams. Yes, it can seem like a risk. But one worth taking.

Want more on this subject?

• See all the posted stories of writers finding agents here.
• If Christian/inspiration writing is your thing, check out the agents I've interviewed who specialize in this category, including Greg Daniel and Joyce Hart.
  
• Confused about formatting? Check out Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript.
  
• Read about What Agents Hate: Chapter 1 Pet Peeves.
• Want the most complete database of agents and what genres they're looking for? Buy the 2011 Guide to Literary Agents today!

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