Three agents at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency are hungry to take on new authors

Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency

PMB 515

1155 Camino del Mar

Del Mar, CA 92014

http://www.dijkstraagency.com/

Sandra Dijkstra says her agency is always looking for new authors, fresh voices, and original stories. Moreover, other than Sandra herself, all the agents at the Dijkstra agency are fairly new to the business and still building their lists. In particular, three of her agents are especially hungry for clients:

Thao Le graduated from the University of California, San Diego, with a double major in Econ-Management Science and Chinese Studies. While interning at the agency during college, she realized where her true love lies -- books -- and joined the agency full-time in the spring of 2011.

Thao is building her list and she is currently looking for adult and YA soft science fiction, fantasy, and horror and all of their sub-genres. Her taste for speculative fiction is eclectic and she enjoys both gritty, dark narratives like Anne Bishop's Black Jewel series and fantastically quirky stories like Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles. 

She is also looking for light-hearted, funny, and moving contemporary YAs with a raw, authentic teen voice. She's particularly drawn to unique characters, smart-mouthed dialogue, and strong plots that can balance romance and action. She's always on the lookout for the type of stories that make you stay curled up in bed, turning page after page even after the sun has come up.

Thao is specifically not interested in: biographies, business books, cookbooks, picture books, poetry, religious/spiritual books, screenplays, self-help, short stories, or travel books.

Thao also assists with foreign rights, finance, and contracts at the Dijkstra Agency.

Query Thao at:  thao@dijkstraagency.com

Jill Marr is an acquiring associate agent at the Dijkstra Agency. She graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing and a minor in History. She has a strong Internet and media background as well as over 10 years of publishing experience. 

She wrote features and ads for Pages, the literary magazine for people who love books, and continues to write book ads for publishing houses, magazine pieces and promotional features for television.

After writing ad copy and features for published books for years she knows how to find the "hook" and sell it.

Jill is interested in commercial fiction, with an emphasis on mysteries, thrillers and horror, women's commercial fiction and historical fiction. 

She is also looking for nonfiction by authors who are getting their work published regularly in magazines and who have a realistic sense of the market and their audience. Jill is looking for nonfiction projects in the areas of self-help, inspirational, cookbooks, memoir (she especially loves travel and foodie memoirs), history, sports, current events, health & nutrition, pop culture, humor and music.

Please note that Jill is specifically not interested in YA, children's books, sci-fi, romance or anything involving unicorns.

Query Jill at: jmsubmissions@dijkstraagency.com

Jennifer Azantian assists Sandra Dijkstra and Elise Capron and manages incoming submissions for the agency. At the University of California, San Diego, she studied clinical and developmental child psychology, and graduated cum laude in 2010. After graduation she spent a wonderful summer interning at the Dijkstra agency before joining full-time in fall of 2011.

Jennifer is a published author of several short stories and brings to the agency her passion for literature. Her personal tastes run toward all flavors of the fantastic. She believes that it is against the backdrop of fantasy and science fiction that basic human truths can be best examined, magnified, and delighted in. 

Jennifer has just begun to acquire projects and welcomes all submissions that match her interests. Please note that Jennifer is only interested in  young adult science-fiction and fantasy (including all of their sub-genres).

Query Jennifer at: jen@dijkstraagency.com

Submissions:

Fiction: Please send a query letter, a 1-page synopsis, a brief bio (including a description of your publishing history), and the first 10-15 pages of your manuscript. Please send all items in the body of the email. No attachments.

Non-fiction: Please send a query letter, an overview of your project including a chapter outline, a brief bio (including a description of your publishing history), a description of competing books, and the first 10-15 pages of your first chapter. If we are interested, we will ask you to send your complete proposal. Please send all items in the body of the email. No attachments.

Full submissions guidelines here.

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). 

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.