Eight agents at Canadian literary agency The Rights Factory seek new authors

The Rights Factory Inc. 

PO Box 499, Station C
Toronto ON M6J 3P6
http://www.therightsfactory.com/index.html

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The Rights Factory (TRF) is a young agency with a roster of eight agents, all actively seeking authors. (It used to be nine agents but Devon LaBerge has left to pursue other interests.) 

The Rights Factory describes itself as a boutique literary agency that deals in intellectual property rights for entertainment products, including books, comics & graphic novels, film, television, and video games. TRF works directly with publishers, producers, studios, game developers and other rights-buyers in all territories, occasionally in conjunction with local representatives. 

The Rights Factory has an esteemed roster of both fiction and non-fiction writers, including Jennifer Close, debut author of the must-read short story collection, Girls In White Dresses; Margot Berwin, author of Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire (optioned by Julia Roberts in conjunction with Columbia Pictures for film rights), and the forthcoming paranormal romance, Aromata.

Olga Filina is an associate agent with The Rights Factory. A graduate of Humber’s Creative Book Publishing Program, Olga spent over a decade as a sales manager and book buyer for both national and independent book store chains and two years as a literary assistant at The Cooke Agency.

While Olga will read anything that may set her book clubs on fire, she gravitates towards commercial and historical fiction, great genre fiction in the area of romance and mystery, nonfiction in the field of business, wellness, lifestyle and memoir and young adult and middle grade novels with memorable characters.

In her spare time, Olga sits on library boards, organizes literary festivals and runs more book clubs than she can count.

Note: Olga is often a guest speaker for Brian Henry’s "How to Get Published workshops, as are other agents from The Rights Factory. For details of upcoming and recent appearances, see here.

Query Olga at: Olga@therightsfactory.com

Or through The Rights factory submissions page here.

Sam Hiyate is the president and co-founder of The Rights Factory.  Among others, Sam represents Andrew Kaufman, author of such literary works as All My Friends Are Superheroes and The Waterproof Bible; Rupinder Gill, This Hour Has 22 Minutes staff writer and author of the humorous memoir On the Outside Looking Indian; and David Gilmour, multi-award winning author of The Film Club and upcomingThe Perfect Order of Things. 

Sam is seeking great mysteries, crime novels and thrillers, he’s partial to funny and moving stories, and he’s always on the lookout for that perfect commercial-literary hybrid.

Query Sam through TRF’s submissions page here.

Ali McDonald specializes in children's literature of all kinds, ranging from novelty board books, picture books, early readers, and chapter books, to middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction. She enjoys working primarily with debut authors, but also has the distinguished pleasure of co-representing literary stars among her international clients. 

Ali is open to anything, building her list on strong voices with original stories. Many Quick Brown Fox readers will be familiar with Ali from when she's been a guest speaker at Brian Henry's workshops.

Query Ali at: alison@therightsfactory.com

Or through The Rights factory submissions page here.

Lydia Moëd is an associate agent with The Rights Factory. She came to Canada from the UK, where she worked as a foreign rights executive for UK publishers, including Usborne Publishing and Elwin Street Productions. At The Rights Factory, Lydia, handles foreign rights for children’s and YA books and is building her own list of authors.

In fiction, she is most interested in acquiring science fiction and fantasy, though she also enjoys magical realism, historical fiction, and stories inspired by folklore from around the world.

In nonfiction, she is interested in narrative nonfiction on a wide variety of topics, including history, popular science, biography, and memoir. She particularly welcomes queries by authors from marginalized groups.

Query Lydia through The Rights factory submissions page here.

Cassandra Rodgers is an  actively working on building her list.  Her focus is on adult commercial and literary fiction – especially manuscripts with an emphasis on relationships and family.  She loves historical fiction and would also look at a good thriller or mystery.

“I also have a couple of clients with nonfiction books – one a memoir and another an academic political book,” says Cassandra. “So I am generally interested in a wide range of genres with a focus on the adult market.”

Query Cassandra at: cassandra@therightsfactory.com

She prefers to be queried with just a good pitch, synopsis, and bio.  If she’s interested, she will generally ask for the entire manuscript.

Drea Cohane joined The Rights Factory in 2011. With a publishing degree, and several years of writing behind her, Drea is a voracious reader of all genres. She is currently looking to add to her list of authors in memoir, crime, creative non-fiction and YA. Her roster consists of British, American and Canadian clients. She welcomes international talent. Drea blogs occasionally here.

Query Drea at: Drea@therightsfactory.com

Haskell Nussbaum is a lawyer turned writer turned literary agent. He is the author of Beat That Parking Ticket and has contributed articles and stories to the National Post (Canada), Jerusalem Post, Pacific News Service and others, and he has appeared on, or been featured in, national and local news, radio and TV, including Fox and Friends, NPR, NY Post, New York Magazine, USA Today, NY1, CBS, Today in New York, and many others. 

His list is diverse, ranging from clients on the New York Times Bestseller list to debut authors.

Query Haskell at: Haskell@therightsfactory.com

Or through The Rights factory submissions page here.

Harry Endrulat is an associate agent. He has worked in children’s publishing for many years and is the author of the children’s book, A bear in War. 

Harry has also written numerous books for the Max & Ruby series (based on the popular show on Treehouse TV, which is based on the books by Rosemary Wells). As an editor, Harry has worked almost twenty years as both an in-house and freelance editor, for Fenn/Tundra, Harper Canada and Penguin Canada.

Query Harry through The Rights Factory’s submissions page here.

Natalie Kimber has joined The Rights Factory as associate agent in New York City. Natalie brings her list from her self-started Sun Rae Agency. Previously, she worked with Georgetown Booklab and as an associate to Muriel Nellis at Literary and Creative Artists, Inc.

Natalie is primarily looking for literary and commercial fiction, and creative nonfiction in categories such as memoir, cooking, pop culture, spirituality and sustainability. 

Query Natalie at: Natalie@therightsfactory.com

Or through The Rights Factory’s submissions page here.

Author Alan Cumyn

Brian Henry will lead How to Get Published workshops on Saturday, Feb 20, in Kitchener, with literary agent Olga Filina of The Rights Factory (see here) and on Saturday, Feb 27, in Brampton with Martha Webb of the McDermid Agency (see here).

Also, Brian will lead Writing for Children & for Young Adults workshops on Saturday, March 5, in Burlington, with literary agent Monica Pacheco (see here), on Saturday, Apr 2, in Barrie, with literary agency Rachel Letofsky (see here), on Saturday, April 30, in Guelph, with Yasemin Uçar, senior editor, Kids Can Press (see here), and Sunday, May 29, in Ottawa with acclaimed author Alan Cumyn (see here).

Other upcoming workshops include How to Build Your Story, Saturday, Jan 16, in Georgetown (see here), and Saturday, Jan 30 in Toronto (see here), Writing With Style, Saturday, March 12, in Oakville (see here), and Writing Your Life, Saturday, March 16, in Caledon (see here).

For more information or to register, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

But the best way to grow as a writer or to get your manuscript ready for publication may be with a weekly class. This winter, Brian is offering a full range of courses for beginning to experienced writers (details of all five classes here). Three classes still have space:

Welcome to Creative Writing, Thursday afternoons, Jan 28 – March 31, (no class March 17), in Burlington. (See details of this class here.)

Writing Personal Stories, Tuesday afternoons, Feb 2 – March 29, (no class March 15) in Burlington (see here.)

The Next Step in Creative Writing, Wednesday evenings, Jan 20 – March 30 (no class March 16), in Burlington (see here)

For information about the spring sessions of any of the above or the spring session for Intermediate Creative Writing on Thursday evenings in Georgetown or Intensive Creative Writing on Wednesday afternoons in Burlington, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Read reviews of Brian’s courses and workshops here.

To register or for more information for any class or workshop, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian’s full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Alton, Barrie, Bracebridge, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, St. John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Ingersoll, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.