John Rudolph at Dystel & Goderich seeks thrillers and other guy books, middle grade and YA fiction, and picture books

Dystel & Goderich Literary Management

One Union Square West

Suite 904

New York, NY 10003

http://www.dystel.com/

I've  featured John Rudolph once before - back in 2010 when he first joined Dystel & Goderich as a literary agent (see here). But recently, Andrew Murray, who attends my workshops in the London area, told me he had a good experience submitting to Rudolph. Ultimately, Rudolph  rejected Andrew’s manuscript, but he provided him with a paragraph of valuable feedback.

This suggests that Rudolph was impressed with Andrew’s work, but also says to me that Rudolph is an agent who’s willing to put himself out and who treats writers with respect. Not all agents bother to give feedback about a work they’re turning down, not even if they quite liked it. This isn’t a slam against agents. But for agents time is their most precious commodity and I’m always impressed when an agent’s willing to give a bit of it away.

 - Brian

John Rudolph joined Dystel & Goderich in 2010 after twelve years as editor acquiring children’s books. He began his career as Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers as an Editorial Assistant and then moved to the G.P. Putnam’s Sons imprint of the Penguin Young Readers Group, where he eventually served as Executive Editor on a wide variety of young adult, middle grade, nonfiction and picture book titles.

John is always eager to discover fresh new voices and highly original stories regardless of category, though he’s probably known as a “boy book” kind of guy. He is particularly interested in thrillers and other commercial men’s fiction. He is also looking for narrative nonfiction, especially in sports, music, other performing arts, health / popular science, memoir, military history, and humour.

On the children’s side, he is keenly interested in middle-grade and young adult fiction and would love to find the next great picture book author/illustrator.

Query John at jrudolph@dystel.com

Include an outline or brief synopsis of the work (with word count if possible) and a sample chapter in the body of the query. No attachments.

Full submission guidelines here.

Dystel & Goderich also has two relatively new agents who are actively seeking authors:

Brenna Barr is attracted to true crime/adventure, the occult, humor, historical pop culture, and social issues. Regarding fiction, she is enthusiastic about graphic novels, steampunk, and alternative literature. Having recently been diagnosed with multiple food intolerances, she’s also interested in cookbooks that take these issues into account.

Query Brenna at: bbarr@dystel.com

Rachel Stout is interested in literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and believable thought-provoking YA, as well as magical realism.

Query Rachel at rstout@dystel.com

Brian Henry will lead a “Writing for Children and for Young Adults” workshop in Newmarket on Saturday, September 22 (see here), and he'll lead a "How to Get Published" workshop on Saturday, October 13, in Toronto with Monica Pacheco of The Anne McDermid literary agency (see here). But the best step you can take toward getting published is to take one of Brian’s weekly courses, such as The Next Step in Creative Writing (see here), though beginners will want to start with Welcome to Creative Writing (see here).

See Brian's full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Kingston, Peterborough, Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Georgetown, Milton, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Dundas, Kitchener, Guelph, London, Woodstock, Orangeville, Newmarket, Barrie, Gravenhurst, Sudbury, Muskoka, Peel, Halton, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.