About Words Agency - Literary agency

about words, about words agency, literary agent, literary agency, writer, writers, writing, words, book, books, bookstore, publish, publishing, publishers, manuscript, manuscripts, submission, submissions

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 two books: Hunting Al Qaeda, by Anonymous (foreword by Gerald Schumacher), published by Zenith Press (MBI Publishing) and Worked Over: My Cosmetic Surgery Takeover, by Laura Pillarella, soon to be published by Alban Editions in France.

Susan is a co-founder 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, but no time to implement it. 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.

Excellent article in New York Times about depressing children's books, which Susan actively dislikes.

**Books Susan is reading now:**
Title	Author	Notes
The Alexandria Link	Steve Berry	I have enjoyed reading all of Steve Berry's books and this one has not disappointed, either :)
Born In Death	Nora Roberts (writing as J. D. Robb)	Also one of my favorite authors, this is the latest in her futuristic romantic detective mystery series (think she covered enough genres? :D)
The Bookwoman's Last Fling	John Dunning	Being a bit of a bibliophile myself, I am enjoying John Dunning's latest book mystery!

**Fiction books Susan has read lately for fun or from the best seller list:**
Great	Good	Okay
The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon	The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd	Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay & its sequels	The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown	The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
	The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
A Grave Denied by Dana Stabenow Excellent characterization! Her best yet!	Running From The Deity by Alan Dean Foster My favorite author - a thoroughly enjoyable book

**Writing reference books Susan has read lately:**
Great	Good	Okay	No
Stein On Writing by Sol Stein
Write In Style by Bobbie Christmas
Getting The Words Right by Theodore Cheney
Writing The Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
Writing Creative Nonfiction by Theodore Cheney
On Writing by Stephen King
The Elements of Style by Strunk & White
The Synonym Finder by J. I. Rodale
How to Write and Illustrate Children's Books and Get Them Published edited by Treld Pelkey Bicknell & Felicity Trotman

**Nonfiction books Susan has read lately:**
Great	Good	Okay	No
How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It, by Patricia Love, Ed.D., and Steven Stosny, Ph.D. I simply cannot say enough good about this book!!! Everyone should read it. It should be required reading in high school, college, etc.