Ramona Pina is a literary agent at BookEnds Literary Agency.

She is seeking: Ramona is interested in carving a space for and elevating underrepresented voices. She’s currently interested in contemporary YA that carves a space for those stories. She is also seeking fiction for middle grade, young adult and adult/crossover stories, and is not taking on picture books or nonfiction projects at the moment. Right now, she wants magical realism/fabulism themes in the YA and Crossover Adult space like Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina by Zoraida Cordova, & The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. For middle grade, lore her into magical universes with lush world-building in the vein of anime Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke. Or, charm her with a Brother’s Grimm or Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz retelling.

Overall, Ramona is open and looking for character driven stories that are relatable to real-life struggles however fantastical or realistic.

Ramona is a second-generation Jamaican, and third-gen. Cape Verdean, born and raised in Boston. A lover of fall and all things cozy, she is true to her New England roots. She is obsessed with teas, seafood, and Afro- Indo- Caribbean food. Growing up, she was the odd kid who wished she could write like Langston Hughes and read encyclopedias all day. Yes, pre-internets!

Her creative journey has been influenced by Jim Henson productions, Hayao Miyazaki anime, and similar works. She constantly lost and found herself within those stories, identifying with characters who didn’t look like her. This lack of representation led Ramona to explore abroad, and other marginalized cultures. While in Chile and Guatemala, she studied, volunteered, and gained fluency in the Spanish language, applying her cultural anthropology degree to understand the richness of the mythology and folklore of mainstream and indigenous groups.

Being a spoken word poet, Ramona knows that her voice is her strongest weapon and continues to highlight that as a BookEnds literary fellow in her capstone podcast, Hollow Moon. As a literary agent, she wants to champion underrepresented voices in literature to elevate them to an even playing field. When she’s not immersed in fictional worlds, she’s a busy mom of 2 (and two fur babies, Rambo & Criminal (cats)), an avid baker, candle-maker, and DIY enthusiast/“Mona Stewart.” Otherwise, she’s watching movies featuring The Rock or other absurd action films. She’s overjoyed to have found her agenting home at BookEnds with equally compassionate fellow humans and looks forward to midwifing more diverse books into the world.

 

 

 

Caitlin McDonald is a literary agent with Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Caitlin McDonald joined DMLA in 2015, after five years at Sterling Lord Literistic. She represents adult and young adult speculative fiction, primarily science-fiction, fantasy, horror, and related subgenres. She is also seeking graphic novels along the same lines as above. Caitlin looks for diversity in all projects, and is most drawn to unique, evocative narratives and cross-genre works, with an emphasis on high-impact stories that have something powerful to say. Some of her clients include C.L. Polk, Caitlin Starling, A.J. Hackwith, Lara Elena Donnelly, and Emma Mieko Candon.

Submissions:

Looking for:
– All SF/F fiction for adult and YA, especially secondary world fantasy or alternate history
– Genre-bending or cross-genre fiction, and stories that examine tropes from a new angle
– Diversity of all kinds, including (but not limited to) race, gender, sexuality, and ability, in both characters and worldbuilding

Do not send:
– contemporary women’s fiction
– crime or military fiction
– picture books or young reader chapter books
– poetry, screenplays or short stories
– memoir and nonfiction

 

 

Kelly Peterson (she/her) is a literary agent with Rees Literary.

Kelly is a West Chester University graduate with a B.S.Ed in English and Literature. She worked as a Junior Literary Agent for two years before moving to Rees Literary Agency, continuing to champion her authors and the manuscripts she loves. Kelly seeks books in various genres within Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult age ranges. She is very interested in representing authors with marginalized own voices stories, witty and unique characters, pirates, witches, and dark fantasies.

In Middle Grade, she’s looking for:

Fantasy and sci-fi

Contemporary that touches on tough issues for young readers

In YA, she’s looking for:

Genres from contemporary, to high fantasy, to sci-fi (not the space kind) to paranormal (all the ghost stories, please!) and historical all the way back to rom-coms.

In Adult, Kelly represents:

Romance, fantasy, and sci-fi

Kelly is excited to expand her client list and find new authors who have a strong story to tell.

If you are attending the online 2024 Philadelphia Writing Workshop, you may be thinking about pitching our agents and editors. An in-person (or one-on-one virtual) pitch is an excellent way to get an agent excited about both you and your work. Here are some tips (from a previous year’s instructor, Chuck Sambuchino) that will help you pitch your work effectively at the event during a 10-minute consultation. Chuck advises that you should:

• Try to keep your pitch to 90 seconds. Keeping your pitch concise and short is beneficial because 1) it shows you are in command of the story and what your book is about; and 2) it allows plenty of time for back-and-forth discussion between you and the agent. Note: If you’re writing nonfiction, and therefore have to speak plenty about yourself and your platform, then your pitch can certainly run longer.
• Practice before you get to the event. Say your pitch out loud, and even try it out on fellow writers. Feedback from peers will help you figure out if your pitch is confusing, or missing critical elements. Remember to focus on what makes your story unique. Mystery novels, for example, all follow a similar formula — so the elements that make yours unique and interesting will need to shine during the pitch to make your book stand out.
• Do not give away the ending. If you pick up a DVD for Die Hard, does it say “John McClane wins at the end”? No. Because if it did, you wouldn’t buy the movie. Pitches are designed to leave the ending unanswered, much like the back of any DVD box you read.
• Have some questions ready. 10 minutes is plenty of time to pitch and discuss your book, so there is a good chance you will be done pitching early. At that point, you are free to ask the agent questions about writing, publishing or craft. The meeting is both a pitch session and a consultation, so feel free to ask whatever you like as long as it pertains to writing.
• Remember to hit the big beats of a pitch. Everyone’s pitch will be different, but the main elements to hit are 1) introducing the main character(s) and telling us about them, 2) saying what goes wrong that sets the story into motion, 3) explaining how the main character sets off to make things right and solve the problem, 4) explaining the stakes — i.e., what happens if the main character fails, and 5) ending with an unclear wrap-up.