The 5-minute "elevator pitch" offers you the chance to present the idea of your book the way you might if you happened to take a short elevator ride with an agent – in a manner so compelling that the agent would say, "Send me the whole manuscript."
Each conference attendee may sign up for one 5-minute slot with an agent or editor free of charge. Slots will be filled on a first come basis, with priority given to members of James River Writers through July 31, 2010. Please indicate your order of preference on the Conference Registration form. You may sign up for EITHER one literary agent OR the editor, but not both.
The literary agents and the editor attending Conference 2010 will be the following:
Melissa Sarver joined the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency in 2006, representing authors in both fiction and nonfiction. In fiction she is interested in adult, YA and middle grade, and is looking for literary and commercial projects. She likes dark, edgy stories with brilliant prose and strong voice as well as quirky stories with a fresh sense of humor. She especially enjoys family sagas, multicultural stories and emotional stories with dystopian themes. In nonfiction, she is looking for voice-driven narrative nonfiction, memoir, lifestyle, business, travel, pop culture, cookbooks and food writing. A graduate of Boston University, she benefits from the experience of working with several literary agencies: Waxman Literary Agency, Brick House Literary Agents, and Imprint Agency (now FinePrint). Her recent sales include Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding by Jessie Sholl; The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry; Bmore Sweet: A Collection of Vegan and Gluten Free Desserts by Emily Mainquist; The Naughty List series by Suzanne Young; Traveling Instructions and Songs for a Teenage Nomad by Kim Culbertson; and Generation Earn: The Young Professional’s Guide to Spending, Investing, and Giving Back by Kimberly Palmer.
Katharine Sands is a literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Agency and the author of Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent's Eye. She has worked with authors on a diverse array of books, including Make Up, Don't Break Up with Oprah guest Dr. Bonnie Eaker Weil; playwright Robert Patrick's novel, Temple Slave; The Complete Book on International Adoption: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Your Child by Dawn Davenport; Ford model Helen Lee's The Tao of Beauty; and Elvis and You: Your Guide to the Pleasures of Being an Elvis Fan by Laura Levin and John O'Hara, to name a few. Actively building her client list, she likes books that have a clear benefit for readers' lives in categories of food, travel, lifestyle, home arts, beauty, wisdom, relationships, and parenting. She likes to be transported to a world rarely or newly observed; for fiction, she wants to be compelled and propelled. When asked what she is looking for, she says, “I know it when I see it…The last thing I would have thought I wanted to represent was a book of poetry for the young adult market; so, guess what I have just sold! Yes, SAT Word Slam by Jodi Fodor, a book of rhymes for a YA audience…I cannot always predict what a writer [will inspire] me to undertake.”
Lucy Carson worked in the editorial department of Bloomsbury UK and later in the production department of The Weinstein Company in Los Angeles before she joined The Friedrich Agency in early 2008, where she is now an associate agent. During her two years at The Friedrich Agency, Lucy has worked with such authors as Sue Grafton, Frank McCourt, Lisa Scottoline, Joseph Finder, Terry McMillan, and Jane Smiley. She is actively building a list of adult fiction and non-fiction for the trade audience.
Michelle Brower began her career in publishing in 2004 while studying for her Master’s degree in English Literature at New York University, and has been hooked ever since. During that time, she assisted agents Wendy Sherman and Joelle Delbourgo, and found herself in love with the process of discovering new writers and helping existing writers further their careers. After graduating, she joined Wendy Sherman Associates and began representing both fiction and non-fiction. In 2009, she joined Folio Literary Management, where she is now looking for literary fiction, thrillers, high-quality commercial fiction that transcends genre, and narrative non-fiction. She enjoys digging into a manuscript and working with authors to make their project as saleable as it can be. Her list includes the authors S.G. Browne, Julia Wertz, Todd Ritter, and JRW member Michele Young-Stone.
Paul Whitlatch is an assistant editor at the Scribner imprint of Simon & Schuster. His authors include the novelists David Goodwillie and David Whitehouse, journalist Daniel Hernandez, and architecture critic Witold Rybczynski. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of New York University, Whitlatch began his editorial career at W. W. Norton & Company. He has worked on projects by a range of bestselling authors, including Stephen King, former first lady Laura Bush, Don DeLillo, Colm Toíbín, Mary Roach, Kai Bird, Ruth Rendell and Kathy Reichs.
