Agentopia: Brittany Booker

Welcome to the July edition of Agentopia! For more information and to see other Agentopia posts, click here.

This month Brittany Booker from the Booker Albert Agency is in the spotlight.

Brittany Booker is a  Literary Agent and co-founder of The Booker Albert Literary Agency. She has worked with Marisa Corvisiero during her time at the Lori Perkins agency and the Corvisiero Literary Agency. She has a BA in English and a minor in journalism from The University of Arkansas at Monticello.

She is looking for novels that keep her  up at  night and transport her into the pages.In fiction she is looking for well-written contemporary romances, fantasies, YA and New Adult. She is specifically interested in time travel novels. As for YA, Brittany  is drawn to contemporary works; dramatic or funny romances; and urban fantasy.  She's especially interested in YA that is funny and quirky. The goofier the  heroine the better. Brittany is very interested in New Adult Contemporary Romances, anything dramatic, funny or with a demanding hero. She is a big sucker for happy endings. She also has a  passion for books set in the south. She has working knowledge of Japanese  and Spanish.Brittany is not looking for memoirs or paranormal works at the moment.

Brittany is now considering middle grade and erotica.


Email Brittany at brittany@thebookeralbertagency.com
FollowBrittany on Twitter
Follow Brittany's Blog

Brittany was kind enough to answer a few questions for YAtopia's readers...

What are you looking for in YA submissions right now?

I’m always looking for contemporary romances in YA. But I would like to see more sci-fi with romantic elements in my inbox. I love the feeling of being pulled into a completely different world.

What's an immediate turn-off in a query, something guaranteed to get the author rejected?

To be honest, I don’t have a lot of turn-offs when it comes to queries. I try to give each one a fair chance. However, I do not read ‘Dear Agent’ queries and I only read queries that are sent to me alone. I personally like when authors let me know why they’re pitching to me, or how they stumbled across me.

What's the story got to have to make you want to represent it?

A killer voice. I’ve read so many queries that have amazing concepts, but when I read the sample pages the voice doesn’t draw me in. And it’s not something I can show you how to fix. Finding a voice that readers connect to can take time. I suggest reading other novels in your genre that you like, and try to understand why you like it so much. It’ll help your work tremendously.