Three agents at Donaghy Literary (a Canadian agency) seek commercial fiction for adults, new adults,YA, and MG

Donaghy Literary Group

Headquartered near Toronto, Canada

http://www.donaghyliterary.com/

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The Donaghy Literary Group is based in Canada, with a team of three agents to choose from: Stacey Donaghy, Valerie Noble, and Sue Miller.  Representing NY Times, USA Today and Amazon bestselling authors, they’re focused on commercial fiction – for adults, new adult, young adults and middle grade – and are always interested in new and upcoming talented writers. 

  

Stacey Donaghy began her career with an agency in New York and in 2013 opened the doors to Donaghy Literary Group in Canada.

Asked what manuscripts she’d like to get right now, Stacey said, “I would love to see more diverse stories that are highly commercial.  LGBTQ stories that focus on the characters and story development and less on the 'issues' related to coming out or being out.  

“It would be exciting to receive a LGBTQ in adult or YA that is story driven, such as a romance or thriller in Adult and in YA a Mean Girls, Duff, even a thriller that highlights diversity but where the story leads the way.”

More generally, Stacey is seeking Adult, New Adult, Young Adult, and Middle Grade fiction. Specifically, she’s looking for:

Romantic Suspense 

LGBTQ Stories, standalone or series

Diverse books

Contemporary romance (she loves smart and edgy characters)

Romance with varying heat levels

New Adult

Thrillers

Middle Grade, she’s looking for quirky not cute.  

Young Adult – lower, mid and upper YA (No sci-fi/fantasy or historic)

You can keep up to date with Stacey’s wish list here.

Query Stacey at: query@donaghyliterary.com

In the subject line, write: Stacey Donaghy, followed by story title and title and genre. Paste a one or two page synopsis below your query and the first ten pages of your manuscript below that. No attachments.

Note: Stacey will be the guest speaker at a the How to Get Published workshop Saturday, Oct 22, 2016, in London (see here) and on Saturday, Jan 28, 2017, in Toronto (see here). 

Note: If you're looking at this posting after Jan 28, find updates about the Donaghy Agency and appearances by its agents here).

Valerie Noble is based in the U.S.  She loves science fiction and fantasy (think Kristin Cashore and Suzanne Collins), but she reads everything; for her, it’s more about the writing and less about the genre.

Valerie is seeking Young Adult and New Adult in the following areas:

Science fiction

Fantasy

Historical fantasy

Historical fiction

Valerie is generally not interested in romance or paranormal.

Query Valerie at: query@donaghyliterary.com

In the subject line, write: Valerie Noble, followed by story title and genre. Paste a one or two page synopsis below your query and the first ten pages of your manuscript below that. No attachments. 

Sue Miller is an associate agent. She graduated with a degree in English Literature from York University in Toronto, as well as a certificate in publishing, from Ryerson University. Sue previously worked in children's publishing with Scholastic Canada.

Prior to joining DLG, Sue interned for Bree Ogden during her time at the D4EO agency. Sue dabbles in writing and has edited short stories for other writers. An admitted social media junkie, Sue is always interested in the latest platforms for networking and relationship building within the industry. This led her to complete her Digital Marketing Management certificate from the University of Toronto.

Sue is seeking new and exciting voices as she builds her client list, and she’s romance, young adult, new adult and adult contemporary novels. Asked what manuscripts she’d like to get right now, Sue said, “I would love to see high concept, young adult, urban fiction that deals with social justice issues that does not preach, but tells a universal human story.”

More generally, Sue is looking for:

YA – any sub genre (think Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Cynthia Hand, Stephanie Perkins, Colleen Hoover) 

Urban Fantasy (think Sandy Williams, Patricia Briggs, Karen Marie Moning)

Low Fantasy/ Low level Science Fiction/ Dystopian (think Laini Taylor, Samantha Shannon, Pierce Brown, Andy Weir)

Contemporary Romance (think Jamie McGuire, K.A. Tucker, Colleen Hoover, Jojo Moyes)

And her wish list includes:

 YA or Contemporary romance - fun and smart (not silly) and/or heart breaking, with angst, romantic, sometimes dark

YA contemporary, authentic voices representing urban life (think Treasure E. Blue), multicultural (example: Canadian/Afro-Latino etc.), social change (think Heidi Durrow, R.J. Palacio)

Query Sue at: query@donaghyliterary.com  

In the subject line, write: Sue Miller, followed by story title and genre. Paste a one or two page synopsis below your query and the first ten pages of your double-spaced manuscript below that. No attachments.

Full guidelines for the Donaghy agency here.

Note: If you're looking at this posting after Jan 28, find updates about the Donaghy Agency and appearances by its agents here).

Anne Shone, senior editor
Scholastic Books

Brian Henry will lead How to Get Published workshops on Saturday, Oct 15, 2016, in Burlington with literary agent Cassandra Rodgers of The Rights Factory (see here), on Saturday, Oct 22, in London with Stacey Donaghy of the Donaghy agency (see here), on Saturday,  October 29, in Caledon, at the Bolton Public Library, with Martha Web of the McDermid Agency (see here), and on Saturday, Jan 28. 2017, here. 

Note: If you're looking at this posting after January 2017, check out current How to Get Published workshops here (and scroll down).

Then on Saturday, November 19, Brian will lead a Writing for Children and for Young Adults workshop in Mississauga with Anne Shone, senior editor, Scholastic Books as his guest speaker (see here). 

Note: If you're looking at this posting after Nov 19, 2016, check out current Writing for Children & for Young Adult workshops and weekly Writing Kid Lit courses here (and scroll down).

To register or for details, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

But the best way of getting your manuscript ready for publication, may be with a weekly writing course. Come the new year, a full slate of classes will be offered: (See details of all six here.)

Exploring Creative Writing, Thursday afternoons, Jan 26 – March 30, Burlington

Writing Personal Stories, Tursday mornings, Feb 9 – March 30, Oakville. Details here.

Intermediate Creative Writing, Wednesday evenings, Jan 18 - March 22, Burlington

Intermediate Creative Writing, Thursday evenings,Jan 19 – March 23, Georgetown
Intensive Creative Writing, Tuesday afternoons, Jan 25 – March 28, Burlington. Details to come.

Extreme Creative Writing, Wednesday afternoons,Jan 25 - March 15, Burlington

See details of all six courses here.

To reserve a spot, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Brian Henry also has a number of other workshops coming up soon: Writing and Revising,Saturday, Nov 5, in Midland (see here), How to Write Great Characters, Saturday, Nov 12, in Barrie (see here), and Writing Your Life and Other Personal Stories, Saturday, Dec 3, in Oakville (see here).To register of for more information for any of the above, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Read reviews of Brian’s courses and workshops here.

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

Navigation tip: For many more literary agents seeking authors, click on the Literary Agents button at the top of the page, just below the banner. To see only Canadian agents, click on the button in the right-hand column under More Content. To see only agents representing kid’s lit, click on the Children’s/YA agents button in the list of Labels below.