PITCH YOUR BOOK TO A LITERARY AGENT:

These in-person one-on-one meetings at the 2024 Writing Workshop of Austin are an amazing chance to pitch your book face-to-face with an agent, and get personal, individual feedback on your pitch/concept. If the agent likes your pitch, they’ll request to see part/all of your book — sending you straight past the slush pile. It also gives you an intimate chance to meet with an agent and pick their brain with any questions on your mind. More 2024 agents to be announced as they are confirmed. You can sign up for pitches at any time, or switch pitches at any time, so long as the agent in question still has appointments open. We have seen many, many writers sign with agents after connecting after our conferences.

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Mark Falkin is a literary agent and founder of Falkin Literary. Mark transitioned from entertainment and intellectual property attorney to literary agent starting ten years ago.

Falkin Literary represents fiction and nonfiction, leaning toward upmarket thrillers like client Louisa Luna’s Edgar-winning Alice Vega Novels and Peter Benchley’s Jaws; horror like Gemma Amor’s The Folly and Matt Serafini’s Feeders; and literary gems like Brittany Ackerman’s The Brittanys, Ery Shin’s Spring on the Peninsula, and Mark Dunn’s Ella Minnow Pea.

In nonfiction, he prefers to work with big idea books written by people with big ideas like peace activist Christian Picciolini’s memoir White American Youth, political columnist David Masciotra’s Exurbia Now, sexperts Amy Baldwin’s and April Lampert’s Shameless Sex, and the several film and pop culture books by filmmaker Laurent Bouzereau, the most recent being Spielberg: The First Ten Years, and the forthcoming The De Palma Decade.

He is the author of the novels The Late Bloomer, Contract City, and Days of Grace. An Oscar-winning producer has just optioned his short story “The Rock Statue,” which will publish in the spring issue of UK literary journal Supernatural Tales. (A screenwriter on the Hulu series The Bear is adapting.) His recently published horror story, “QR Codes of the Dead,” is now on the syllabus for a horror literature course at Indiana University Northwest.

Born and raised in Tulsa, Mark graduated from Southern Methodist University then the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Working on his next writing projects, he lives with his wife and family in Austin where he reads, misses coaching recreational soccer, plays in a men’s over 50 Sunday death league, tries to find time to paddle Texas waters, and keeps a sharp eye on his daughters, snatching hugs here and there.

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Monica Rodriguez is a literary agent at Context Literary.

Monica is looking to uplift underrepresented voices, including, (but not limited to) authors who identify as People of Color (BIPOC), disabled, neurodiverse, and LGBTQ+. In children’s literature, she is actively looking for PB, MG, YA & Graphic Novels. She is also open to adult and nonfiction submissions.

“I run the official book club for Find A Lovely Life, our IG is @findalovelybook. I’m a contributing writer at Latina Media Co. where I cover TV Shows and Movies. I am the Director of Brand Management at Context Literary, where I help authors promote their books before and after they’ve hit the shelves.I’m currently bilingual, learned Spanish & English at the same time & I’ve been learning French and Portuguese!”

Across all genres & age groups, she’d love to find: stories about identity, specifically first-gen stories or immigrant experiences; stories about self-love with coming-of-age themes. (I believe we are always coming-of-age, regardless of age!); stories about family relationships, messy/dysfunctional families or found families; stories about sibling relationships or cousin relationships, specifically navigating adult sibling relationships or cousin relationships with cultural differences. (i.e. first-gen themes); stories about travel, where the book is set outside the U.S. or even traveling to the U.S.; stories with messy characters who are trying their best; stories with characters who are curious about therapy or where mental health is advocated for; stories about badass women doing badass things; stories about cultures that are rarely explored.

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Carina Licon is an editor for Macmillan Children’s and Henry Holt Books for Young Readers.

“I am actively seeking compelling middle-grade and young adult fiction across genres with complex characters who sit at the heart of a story and leap off the page. Overall, I’m looking for stories that lift a mirror to the experiences of diverse children and young adults who feel big and overwhelming things–love, grief, joy, and everything between.”

In picture books, she seeks: books that explore difficult experiences/emotions in nuanced ways; books that center BIPOC and queer joy; intergenerational households/settings; the fun, imaginary, and magical; the humorous, goofy, and silly; the tender, touching, and sweet.

In middle grade and young adult, she seeks: complex, whipsmart protagonists; contemporary YA horror and thrillers in the vein of Courtney Summers; spooky, atmospheric MG; gothic YA horror or fantasy; stories about mental health; coming-of-age stories; friendship stories; a modern day Jessica Darling series that reflects our diverse world; intergenerational BIPOC stories; stories of everyday life in a BIPOC household (especially Latinx); romance with lots! of! angst!; contemporary, grounded fantasy OR high fantasy with strong real world/relatable themes.

She is not a good fit for high fantasy or in-verse novels.

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Trinica Sampson-Vera is a literary agent with New Leaf Literary + Media.

Trinica is passionate about championing diverse voices and particularly loves speculative fiction; adventurous, character-driven stories with largely emotional stakes; stories featuring Caribbean characters/settings; and stories where queer characters find happy endings.

Trinica graduated from Antioch College with a degree in Creative Writing and French. After several editorial internships during college, she moved to Austin and found an unexpected home in social services, where she worked for five years as a case manager to those experiencing chronic homelessness. Prior to beginning at New Leaf, she worked as an independent editor with Salt & Sage Books and Writing Diversely.

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Teffanie Thompson is a literary agent with Falkin Literary.

She is seeking: fabulism, commercial, contemporary, dystopian, historical, literary, middle grade, romance, romcoms, speculative, suspense, thriller, women’s, and young adult. BIPOC voices welcome.

Originally from Texas, Teffanie attended Prairie View A & M University and graduated from Excelsior University. She obtained her graduate degrees from the acclaimed Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. Teffanie has over two decades of experience working with writers in various roles including mentoring, sensitivity reading, critiquing, and editing.

She is also an author. Teffanie is a contributor in Like Sunshine After Rain (Raw Dog Screaming Press), When I Go Outside, I Go Inside (MMH Press), pictureless books, and Many Genres One Craft (Headlines Book, Inc.). Teffanie attended the 2018 Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival in Dubai, UAE. In 2016, her magical realism middle-grade novel, DIRT (Brown Girl Books), won an African American Literary Award at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library. She is currently writing a nonfiction blog series detailing her expat experiences on the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia.

Teffanie dreams to see more diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in genre fiction. She wants to represent authors who write for young adult, new adult, and adult audiences. Today, her favorite reads are Xenogenesis Series, The Hunger Games, The Alchemist, and The Giver. If asked tomorrow, this list will probably change.

Outside her fiction addiction, she embraces the joy of spinning hula hoops. Teffanie is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc.

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Christina Lopez is an editor with St. Martin’s Press.

“I am actively seeking adult commercial women’s fiction/ book club fiction, rom com, contemporary romance, fantasy, domestic thriller, and historical fiction. I’m also open to YA/adult crossover stories, especially in the new adult genre. I’m open to nonfiction having to do with pop culture (reality TV (especially dating shows), and growing up in the late nineties, Disney Channel era), identity and societal issues, and memoir in the vein of Everything I Know About Love.

“I’m currently obsessed with that soft spot of books that sits on the line between women’s and literary-leaning commercial fiction (think Happy Place by Emily Henry). I’m especially interested in anything with characters from historically underrepresented backgrounds (especially Latinx characters, as I’m from a border town in Texas), anything with complex family dynamics spanning several generations (especially mother/daughter stories), stories about found family or finding home in people instead of places, historical fiction like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo that move between the past and the present, and stories involving romance, but where it isn’t the sole driving force of the plot, like In Five Years. Regarding rom-com, I’d love to find the next Katherine Center, who writes commercial rom-coms with strong upmarket hooks and deeper emotional nuance. I’m also looking for stories that uplift women, such as How To Fall Out Of Love Madly, and stories that give insight into the complexity of exisiting in the world with an intersectional identity. I’d love a book about twenty-somethings and the directionless but hopeful feeling that drives this space in life. I’m also seeking fantasy books in the vein of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Ross with intuitive world building and a romantic thread.

“I want books that capture the enormity of emotions in the most mundane elements of life. I’d also love stories about diverse people doing everyday things and getting a happy ending! I want books that capture the enormity of emotions in the [common elements] of life. I’d also love stories about diverse people doing everyday things and getting a happy ending! I want a book that feels like a Taylor Swift song; dramatic, relatable, inspiring! Overall, I’m drawn to books with diverse, complex characters that make me feel big emotions.”

She is not the best fit for science fiction, horror, animal stories, war stories, and Western.

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ADDED ONLINE PITCHING: To ensure that writers have a robust and diverse lineup of agents & editors to pitch, 2024 Writing Workshop of Austin attendees will have the ability to also pitch literary agents at the Writing Day Workshops *online* event that follows the 2024 WWA on our event calendar.

That event is the 2024 Online Colorado Writing Workshop, March 8-9, 2024, which will have 30-40 agents taking one-on-one Zoom virtual pitches.

This means that 2024 WWOA attendees can have access to pitching all those online Colorado agents — pitches still at $29 each — without being a formal registrant for the online March 2024 CWW. (That said, if you want to formally register for the March 8-9 CWW and have access to all classes and panels, let us know, as there is a discount for confirmed Austin attendees.)

If you are interested in this added pitching opportunity, the first step is to get formally registered for Austin. Following the WWOA one-day conference on March 1, 2024, we will be in touch with all Austin attendees and ask them if they want to partake in pitching online agents at the 2024 CWW (March 8-9). At that time, you can communicate your pitch requests and purchase meeting time.

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         More 2024 agents may be added at any time.

These one-on-one meetings are an amazing chance to pitch your book face-to-face with an agent, and get personal, individual feedback on your pitch/concept. If the agent likes your pitch, they’ll request to see part/all of your book — sending you straight past the slush pile. It also gives you an intimate chance to meet with an agent and pick their brain with any questions on your mind.

(Please note that Agent/Editor Pitching is an add-on, separate aspect of the day, for only those who sign up. Spaces are limited for these premium meetings, and pricing/detail is explained below.)