Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Agentopia: Jen Hunt and a Pitch Party!

This month Jen Hunt from the Booker Albert Agency is in the Agentopia spotlight, and things are working a little differently!


Check out Jen's interview below. If you think your manuscript is a good match, feel free to leave a short pitch of approximately 35 words (and only the pitch!) in the comments.

Set it out with:

Title:
Category & Genre:
Word count:
Pitch:


If Jen wants to see more, she'll let you know. You can then send Jen your query along with any other requested materials to the submissions email below. Don't forget to put 'Agentopia' somewhere in your subject line!


Although she became an agent only recently, Jen Hunt has been in the publishing world for quite some time. With  B.A, In English Literature from the University of Reno, Nevada, she started out as a reviewer for Divertir Publishing and ended as the Acquisitions Editor where she saw several books from start to publication. Even though that process was rewarding, Jen always had the desire to not be a step in their journey, but apart of it. To share an author's highs and lows, through every project. Thankfully, Jordy and Brittany gave her that opportunity to live her dream and it is amazing. 

To query Jen:  query[at]thebookeralbertagency[dot]com

1. What are you looking for in YA/MG submissions right now? 

I want strong characters that don't cry all the time. Angst is fine but I don't want a lovesick teenager. Why? Bookstores are drowning in those. They're a dime a dozen. Let's not chase genres, let's trend set! I want something clean for the age range. Also, and this might ruin a lot of my submissions, nothing in high school. I know, I know - but I hated high school growing up. Put that environment in a different era/time/place and I am very interested. At Divertir, Tony Russo is about to put out YA Diesel-punk where the female lead goes to flight school and it has a high school feel. THAT'S what I want (I was VERY lucky to edit that one). Give me scene setting with unique detail (as in not cliche) and a decently flushed out world.  

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

Let me approach this a different way. If a query is straight forward, clean, and linear, I will most likely read the first few lines of the attached story. A query all over the place without any idea who the main characters are, their plight, and what they need to overcome usually results in me clicking over to the next email. I like simple and straight forward. Also, submitting to me what's not in my genre. No horror, straight thriller, sex, etc. As an author, I understand how important and special it is to be championed by an agent, but if an author cannot take the time to write a clean query, I won't give them my time. Do your homework.

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

That is a tough one. I don't want retellings of the same plot lines. Give me age ranges in places we normally don't see. Give me unique descriptions, things described in your own voice. Keep one POV per chapter/section. 

If Jen sounds like the agent for you, please leave your pitch below in the comments. Good luck!

36 comments:

  1. Title: Threads of Fate: The Shadow of Allistor Cobb
    Category & Genre: Young Adult Historical Fantasy
    Word count: 58,000
    Pitch: Through the power of an ancient tapestry, Hannah discovers that she is loved by two men, one of whom possesses a dark secret. She must unravel a cryptic poem to protect those she loves from a century of lies and heartache.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. This looks interesting. Please send me a query with the first 15 pages.

      Delete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Title: Sorina Gomorrah
    Category & Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
    Word Count: 70,000
    Pitch: In a roaming carnival of debauchery, sixteen-year-old Sorina’s more-real-than-not imaginary friends are her family and the cast of her freak show. When one is murdered, Sorina must determine how to kill someone who doesn’t exist.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Title: The Destiny Matrix
    Category & Genre: YA Science Fiction
    Word Count: 83,000
    Pitch: Sixteen-year-old Jason Martyr has a rare genetic ability for time travel. Abducted by a covert agency to become their operative, he must prevent a 1937 coup attempt against FDR or history gets a fascist makeover.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting idea. Please send me a query with the first 15 pages.

      Delete
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  6. Title: Given To The Wind -- Book One: Khamsin
    Category & Genre: YA Heroic Fantasy Romance
    Word Count: 100,000
    Pitch: Dark amber skin; eyes fire opal blue, Mother-marked & abandoned,Thea, sixteen, seeks to ascend as Venari, a horse warrior. Will she be swept up into the ancient feud between two lands or ​​become a path to peace?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ohh yes please. Query and first 15 pages :)

      Delete
  7. Title: A ROYAL TREASURE HUNT
    Category & Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure
    Word count: 36,000
    Pitch: A sorcerer, starving creatures, and sentient weather won't stop a twelve-year-old princess from saving her best friend, the farmer’s son... right?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Title: Dreaming of Daniel
    Genre: YA
    word count: 75000
    Pitch: Mer and Human worlds collide when Ava meets Daniel. A secret friendship is torn asunder when the Mer laws mean a hard choice.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Title: Abolition
    Genre: YA Contemporary SciFi
    Word Count: 66 000
    Pitch: The colored lines predestining everyone's lives will be used to ignite a war. To protect his adoptive father, Kirk jumps off his line and allies with the people trying to stop it. Matrix meets Sims.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .Please send me a query and the first 15 :)

      Delete
  10. Title: The Backsliders
    Category & Genre: YA Sci-Fi
    Word count:98,000
    Pitch:
    2019: Great Britain closed its borders, expelling all foreign influence.
    2022: 17-year-old Thea Mimieux wants one thing: to escape. While Alice just wants to escape her Victorian-esque courtship- Prince Charming he is not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Please send me a query and the first 15 :)

      Delete
  11. Title: THE BLOOD BARRIER
    Category and Genre:YA Urban Fantasy
    Word count: 79,000
    Pitch: In a world where mutated children are sold or taken, Sixteen-year-old blood-shifter Haley’s a hot commodity. However, her schizophrenia drives her to destroy until she finds a mutant-born dog who shields her from the voices.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .Please send me a query and the first 15 :)

      Delete
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    ReplyDelete

  13. Title: RAZOR'S EDGE
    Category & Genre: YA Thriller
    Word count: 60K
    Pitch:

    1 high school senior

    1 slightly older sister, the continual fuck-up, 13 days missing

    1 radical church, the last known location

    1 cute guy, willing to help

    If Rachel’s not careful, she might vanish too.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Title: Dirty Rainbow
    Category/Genre: YA Science Fiction
    Word Count: 55,000
    Pitch: Mechayns freak out Jenna, but she should be afraid of the one who ordered their creation--her mother. When her best friend is taken she discovers just how evil her mother is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Please send me a query and the first 15 :)

      Delete
  15. Title: KILLER POTENTIAL
    Category/Genre: YA literary thriller
    Word Count: 79,000
    Pitch:
    Pills, knives, and nuts, oh my. Seventeen-year-old Yvette is freaking psycho, a master of passive-aggressive vengeance, and, unless she cooperates, also a convicted murderer. SERIAL meets The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Title: Snipe Hunt
    Category: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
    Word Count: 100,00

    When Michael and a few others decide to play the old 'snipe hunt' on their friends, they're surprised to discover something really is lurking in the woods--a hound of the Old Gods unleashed upon the earth to prepare for their return...and to hunt.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Title:The Marvelous Adventures of Gwendolyn Gray
    Category & Genre: MG Fantasy
    Word count: 80,000
    Pitch: When Gwendolyn's daydreams come to life, Faceless Men come to erase her brain and her imaginary world full of new friends. Now she must harness her imagination to save her friends, both worlds, and herself.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Title: INFINITUM
    Genre: YA Romance
    Word count: 99k

    19-year-old Harlow discovers an alternate universe through meditation. Existing in two realities, she must choose between two loves. Will she decide on the human, or the multidimensional being?

    ReplyDelete
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  20. Title: Beneath The Everdawn Sky
    Genre: YA Fantasy
    Word count: 115K

    Pitch:

    16-year-old Lucas thought a broken heart was worth dying over. He never expected to wind up in a beautiful, magical city called Hell as fighter and a champion, but moving up the ranks to where he's no longer considered worthless means he has to kill the girl he hasn't forgotten, or stopped loving.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Please send me a query and first 15 :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Title: RIHM
    Genre: YA Science fiction
    Word count: 76,000

    Pitch: Dr. Elizabeth Jahnsen has developed the first legal method of cloning. Either villain or savior, she lives a lonely life until Max. When she comes across his double in one of her studies everything unravels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Come up with a better pitch. I cannot make up my mind.

      Delete
  23. Title: Day of Night
    Category & Genre: YA science fiction
    Word count: 52,000
    Pitch: The year’s 2012 when the sun disappears, causing weather disasters and other worldwide catastrophes. Eighteen-year-old Vanessa, an African-American firefighter, helps her family, friends, and strangers as they fight for survival in a world of darkness.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ohh, glad I was told to return. Please query with the first 15.

      Delete
  24. Thank you to everyone who pitched. This session is now closed.

    ReplyDelete