Laurie McLean joined the two agency founders in 2005 following a 20-year stint as the CEO of a successful Silicon Valley public relations agency. Laurie was able to switch gears in 2002 to immerse herself in writing. She has penned three manuscripts to date, and if that wasn’t enough, she decided that the life of a literary agent would be the perfect complement to her duties as a writer of genre fiction. Laurie has been writing professionally since high school–first as a journalist, then as a public relations agent. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the State University of New York and a Master’s Degree at Syracuse University’s prestigious Newhouse School of Journalism. Laurie specializes in adult genre fiction (romance, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, westerns, horror, etc.) plus middle-grade and young adult children’s books. She does not handle non-fiction, or commercial, literary or women’s fiction, nor does she handle children’s picture books or graphic novels.
The Interview
1. What is the best part of being a literary agent?
I love writing in all its forms and working with authors and editors. I love that every day is different and filled with vitality and challenges. I love that I get to use both sides of my brain for creative and analytical activities. And I love meeting new people at conferences. I pretty much love nearly every aspect of my job. (One aspect I don’t like, rejecting so many hopefuls.)
2. How would you summarize your personal agenting philosophy? What do you expect from an agent-author relationship?
I consider myself the business side of the creative-business partnership with an author. I mentor, guide, critique, negotiate, advise, help develop an author’s career, brainstorm marketing ideas, etc. I want a partner who is as strong and committed to developing their talents as I am. I want a book a year, minimum, for 5 years at least, from my clients. I want a civilized, respectful relationship. I want my clients to learn about and understand the publishing process. And finally, I want clients who embrace and actively use social media tools and techniques for promoting their author brand. The days of being a writer and that’s it are over. You need to market your work or you will not rise about the noise level.
3. What’s something coming out new/soon that you’ve represented and are excited about?
Oooh. Mad Skills by Walter Greatshell is a game-changing book that features a teen girl who undergoes brain surgery after a freak amusement park accident that leaves her with a super genius IQ. However her implant is being used for sinister reasons and she becomes kind of a hybrid bionic-woman-MacGyver activist fighting the corporation who is trying to control her. Amazing writing and action scenes from the guy who brought you XOMBIES. I challenge anyone to read his prologue and not buy the book. It’s simply heart stopping. Also, Pip Ballantine’s GEIST is out.supernatural fantasy at its most creative. And she is teaming up with Tee Morris for a new steampunk series called The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences coming out next May. Think X-Files in Victorian England. It’s hilarious. Julie Kagawa’s popular IRON FEY series (The Iron King, The Iron Daughter, The Iron Queen and The Iron Knight has some of the best fantasy writing anywhere. Just sold more books in that series, plus she’s creating a post-apocalyptic series as well. Man, there are so many of my clients’ fantasy books I’m excited about. One more. Jennifer Rardin, who passed away this fall, has the seventh book in her Jaz Parks urban fantasy series, BITTEN IN TWO, out now, with the final book in the series, The Deadliest Bite , coming next year. The whole series is phenomenal. Well worth reading them all.
4. What are the primary mistakes you see writers make in the query process?
Well, a lot of writers spend so much time researching/writing/editing/polishing their manuscript only to send it out in a big unfocused blast to a list of agents who they haven’t even qualified. I urge writers to take 10 percent of the time they spent writing their book(s) and research the agents they want as potential business partners. Every agent is on the Internet (with a few exceptions). Look at what they’re seeking, what they’ve sold recently, who their clients are. If they have a blog, read it. Then craft a personalized pitch to that agent. Sure, 75% of the pitch can be the same for all agents. But you’d be surprised at the impact of a query letter that shows you did your homework. It really pops for us. That’s the main mistake I see. Along with using “Dear Sir/Madam” as the salutation, getting the gender of the agent wrong, misspellings, grammatical errors.minor things like that. Take your time. Get it right. You only get one chance usually, so make it count!
5. With fiction partials, what makes you stop reading and start skimming-or stop reading altogether?
The usual suspects. Grammatical errors, misspellings, too much exposition, too little character revelation, using too many words to say something, passive verbs, too little or too much world building, slow pacing, backstory, etc. In this modern age, and especially with fantasy, you need to pack as much power into your opening scene as possible. Your world should be front and center, but not so much that you slow the pacing of the action to a crawl. Banish backstory in this scene. Instead feather it throughout the manuscript-exactly what is needed exactly when the reader needs to know it, not before. And make your characters compelling. If the reader doesn’t like the character enough to want to take the journey of a story with them, you’ve lost me.
6. You said that you would like to work on more fantasy and science fiction, can you elaborate more on fantasy/sci-fi subgenres that you are drawn to?
I love all fantasy and science fiction. All of it. But what’s popular right now, so as an agent it’s what I’m looking for, is post-apocalyptic YA fantasy, vampire YA fantasy, shape-shifting YA fantasy, YA science fiction that is mostly space opera (not so much hard spec-fic), futuristic YA fantasy, YA historical fantasy. Crossover YA/Adult is the holy grail, so if teen characters can interest adults it interests me. Steampunk is growing quickly so I’d love to see some more of that. Gothic fantasy would also be nice, although there is no market for it yet. I think it could catch fire with the right story.
7. When accepting young adult, what subgenres do you lean toward?
Anything really. One of the reasons I love the YA market so much is that it’s experimental and all encompassing. So as long as the writing is stellar and the storytelling superb, pretty much anything goes. I’d like to see gritty contemporary drama, school dramas, romantic comedy, fantasy of all stripes, science fiction, literary YA, mysteries, thrillers with teen protagonists, anything dark and compelling that I can’t put down.
8. Will you be at any upcoming conferences where people can meet/pitch you?
I keep that information updated on my blog: www.agentsavant.com
9. What’s the best way to contact you?
I only accept submissions via email, no attachments, to query@agentsavant.com . I don’t want query letters. I just want the first 10 pages plus a 1-2 page synopsis. And since most prologues are written in a different style than the main manuscript, please start with chapter one instead of the prologue. Because I receive 1200-1500 submissions every month, unfortunately I do not have the time to answer each query with even a form letter. So, you’ll receive an auto responder when I open your email (usually I check my query emailbox twice a week) letting you know that I have received your submission, will read it in chronological order, and if you haven’t heard from me within 8 weeks, assume I am rejecting your submission. But you’ve got an open invitation to send future work, just not the same revised submission. For non-query communication, I can be reached at laurie@agentsavant.com .
10. Best piece(s) of advice we haven’t discussed?
Write every day. Even if it’s just a sentence, a blog post, a journal entry, a poem, whatever. You’ll keep your writer’s brain lubricated and just like any exercise, the repetition of it keeps you in tune and fresh. If you do only one thing, do this.
Oh, and maybe one more. J Keep developing your craft. Even best sellers are constantly learning and improving their writing, their storytelling, their pacing. Writing is a journey, not a destination. Be open to erasing bad habits and inventing new talents. And enjoy yourself!
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