About Words Agency - Literary agency

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What We Are Looking For Now
&
Agent Profiles

About Words Agency is looking for commercial fiction and nonfiction.
The only categories we are NOT interested in representing are:
poetry, religious/Christian, or true-crime.

Although each agent will be taking a limited number of clients to better serve each author, About Words Agency will be actively growing its client base. Susan Graham, owner of About Words Agency, will be personally overseeing every single client every step of the way.

AGENT PROFILE: Susan L. Graham

Susan sold several books to large and small publishers in her five years in business by herself as Graham Literary Agency, Inc., including to HarperCollins and St. Martin's Press/Tor. She took a sabbatical to rethink the business in 1999, and recently re-started with the goal of dramatically expanding her new business, About Words Agency. Susan's focus on helping writers is the driving force behind the agency's new direction.

About Words Agency has sold three books: Hunting Al Qaeda, by Anonymous (foreword by Gerald Schumacher), published by Zenith Press (MBI Publishing), Worked Over: My Cosmetic Surgery Takeover, by Laura Pillarella, soon to be published by Alban Editions, and Super Human Vision, by Mark Changizi, Ph.D., to be published in 2008 by BenBella Books.

Susan is one of the founders of Georgia Writers Association, Inc., a state-wide nonprofit organization dedicated to helping writers in Georgia and surrounding areas. Tony Grooms, a poet and prize-winning author, had the original idea. Georgia Writers was born in 1994 when Susan initiated the process to start Georgia Writers with Tony Grooms and Geri Taran. Geri took on the position of Executive Director and grew Georgia Writers to its current size of about 500 members with numerous affiliated writers groups, a student writer arm called Young Georgia Writers, and several annual programs and events. Georgia Writers has continued the prestigious annual Georgia Author of the Year Awards, established in 1963.

Susan is looking for:

FICTION: Science fiction - space opera, colonizing other worlds, hard sf with good characters, believable aliens, and humorous sf. Some of Susan's favorite sf authors are: Alan Dean Foster - Susan's favorite author, Lois McMaster Bujold, Poul Anderson, Robert Forward, and William Gibson. Fantasy (high and contemporary, including humorous -- such as the Deryni series starting with Deryni Rising, by Katherine Kurtz, Gossamer Axe, by Gael Baudino, David Sullivan series starting with Windmaster's Bane, by Tom Dietz, Dead Witch Walking, The Good, the Bad, and the Undead, and Every Which Way But Dead, by Kim Harrison, Doppelganger, by Marie Brennan ). Suspense or other non-formulaic romance (e.g., Nora Roberts, Elizabeth Lowell, Kay Hooper). Mystery series with a theme, or books written in a strongly unique style and unforgettable characters (e.g., J. A. Jance, Sharyn McCrumb, Sue Grafton, Dana Stabenow). Women's fiction (contemporary, with a saucy sense of humor). Literary fiction (e.g., published by Little, Brown, Riverhead Press, etc.) Southern fiction (Trouble No More, by Anthony Grooms, published by LaQuesta Press, was Susan's first sale in 1994 - it won the Lillian Smith Award for the best book that year to promote racial harmony and is written by an African American author on civil rights themes). Susan likes to see books with a little bit each of: mystery, suspense, romance, humor, and information, whether fiction or nonfiction. NEW: Manga / comics / graphic novels - Susan is interested in anything that has fully developed characters and stories along with illustrations.

NONFICTION: Self-help, how-to, business, and popular science (Susan's father is a research scientist and as a result, she is widely read in cutting-edge science, technology and health).

Please keep in mind that with nonfiction, except with creative nonfiction such as a memoir, the author's credentials are more important than the book itself.

We have several contacts with experienced, credentialed ghost writers, co-authors and/or editors who can help you get the book ready for publication, if you don't have the time or experience to write it yourself. Again, and this can't be emphasized enough, for a nonfiction book, the author's credentials must be professional and appropriate to the book. If you don't have the right credentials, go find someone who does and ask them to write a foreword for your book, and use their credentials to validate the correctness and professionalism of what you have written.

Special Notes:

Susan is very interested in representing nonfiction at this time, particularly popular science, business, and how-to.
Susan is especially looking for and actively interested in working with African American authors.

She is in contact with several editors who would love to publish your books!! If you are African American and interested in learning to write science fiction or fantasy, please see this Publishers Weekly article about the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Fund that will sponsor a minority writer to attend one of the Clarion writers workshops where Butler got her start, starting in 2007.

Susan is also personally interested in mentoring science fiction and fantasy authors, particularly minority writers.

Click here to see which books Susan has read and which ones are her favorites (not always kept up-to-date).

AGENT PROFILE: Darinda Teeling

Darinda is an experienced writer and illustrator of her own stories, poetry and children's books. She is a member of the Atlanta Writers Club, and founder of a local critique group for children's writers in Alpharetta. She has won several awards for her poetry and short stories. She is a middle school art teacher, wife and mother. Darinda loves the written word and reading a story that catapults her to another place and time. She is About Words Agency's expert with children's books.

Darinda is looking for:

FICTION: YA only

Latest News! Darinda is now actively looking for new and established authors who write young adult novels, especially those with an edgy style and theme. She is also looking for more romance book clients.

NONFICTION: Self help, self improvement, and metaphysical/new age.

AGENT PROFILE: Leslie Gordon

Leslie is new to the agency.

Leslie is accepting:

FICTION: Popular fiction, romance (particularly futuristic), teen/children's

NONFICTION: Computer, self-help, motivational/self-help financial, and technical books

If your book doesn't fit into these more specific profiles, don't worry. It's just a place to start, and we are continuing to look for and train new agents with different interests. As long as it isn't poetry, religious/Christian, or true crime, we'd love to take a look, so send it in! Please send your email query per our guidelines to query at aboutwords dot org.