New agent at D4EO wants romance, other commercial fiction & non-fiction

D4EO Literary Agency

Principal agent: Robert (Bob) Deforio

7 Indian Valley Road, Weston, CT 06883

Joyce Holland (sorry, can't find a photo) recently became an associate agent with D4EO Literary Agency. Her interests include romance, science fiction, mystery, horror, YA, and nonfiction of all kinds.

Joyce was a newspaper columnist for several years and is a published author of three books and over two dozen short stories, so she knows what it feels like to be on the other side of the pitching table.

Because she is new to the agenting world, she’s open to just about anything. Joyce was a reader for Futures Magazine for two years, so it doesn’t take her long to recognize talent when she sees it. Of the hundreds of manuscripts she has read since joining D4EO she has found only one that took her breath away. She’s hungry for that jewel in the slush pile.

Joyce is past president and current conference coordinator for Emerald Coast Writers in Florida. She and her husband, Tony, live on a small barrier island, but spend much of their time traveling the rivers of America on their trawler, Code One.

“Romance and thrillers are always popular,” says Joyce. “People are escapists in the best of times, but when things are tough in the world, as they are right now, they make an incredible leap and choose material as far removed from reality as they can get. Witness the popularity of books on vampires, werewolves, and such, not to mention movies like Avatar. But even in Twilight and Avatar, the love theme prevailed. Romance in any setting, sells.

“Romantic thrillers with a twist are my favorite and I love mild sci-fi and paranormals. Give me a mad scientist with an experiment gone wrong or an extraordinary child with powers of good or evil. Throw in a romantic element and you have my attention. I’m up to my eyebrows in vampires, witches and werewolves and don’t want to see another one right now.

“I enjoy non-fiction, and I’m particularly fascinated by books on the subject of death and the afterlife, if they’re not preachy. I read romance, true crime, horror and mystery, you name it, all genre fiction. I’m the wrong agent for high literary, young adult or memoirs.”

To submit: “Please send me a one or two sentence ‘pitch’ that will excite me. Put it at the top of the query letter. Open your manuscript with the inciting incident. Make something dramatic happen, or make me absolutely love your protagonist. Don’t tell me you’re building up to it with background material. Your premise doesn’t have to be high concept, but it does have to demonstrate passion. Other than that, send a one to three page synopsis and the whole manuscript. Email or snail-mail. Believe it or not, I’m dying to find the jewel in the slush pile. I dream about it. So, you brilliant, talented author, send it to me.”

Email: joyce@d4eo.com

Mandy Hubbard also recently joined D4EO, where she is now building her list, focusing on Young Adult and Middle-Grade fiction. Mandy is interested in a broad range of YA/MG, whether they be contemporary or historical, fantasy/paranormal or realistic. She loves books with a heavy focus on romance, as well as “issue books” with a strong voice. If your book has a high concept or a big hook, she wants to see it.

If your story includes portals to fantasy worlds, wizards or dragons, it’s probably not for her. Please, no chapter books, pictures books, poetry, non-fiction, or books for the adult market.

Before joining D4EO, Mandy interned at The Bent Agency, but she began her career in publishing on the other side of the desk: as an author. Her debut novel, Prada and Prejudice (Razorbill/Penguin) is a teen novel. Released in June of 2009 it’s now in its fifth printing. She has four other books under contract, divided among Harlequin, Llewellyn Flux, and Razorbill/Penguin.

Check out Mandy's Blog here: http://mandyhubbard.livejournal.com/

To submit: Send your query letter, along with the first five pages of your manuscript (both pasted into the body of an e-mail) to mandy@d4eo.com

Note: Brian Henry has a few"How to Get Published" workshops coming up soon: in Hamilton on May 15, in Windsor on June 6 and in Waterloo on July 24.

For information about all of Brian's writing workshops and creative writing courses, see here.