Meet this Literary Agent at Bouchercon
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Oct 06 2015
I leave in two days for Bouchercon and believe it or not, I have a few openings in my schedule. I’m still talking to editors and other professionals about getting together, but I also thought I’d do something I’ve never done before, I’m going to open my schedule up to five writers. Think of it as a pitch session, or a get to know the agent session.
I’ve had such great luck with the submissions I requested from Thrillerfest’s Pitch Fest that I’m optimistic and enthusiastic about meeting more authors.
If you’re attending Bouchercon and would like to sit down with me for 10-15 minutes to pitch your book, talk about your career, or just introduce yourself I’d love to meet with you. This is for anyone. Published and unpublished authors, veterans and newbies.
How to enter? Submit your two-three sentence pitch (no more than three sentences) in the comment section of the blog. By the end of the day Tuesday I’ll pick my five winners and we can set up appointments offline.
Tip: Mention the genre in your pitch, make sure you pitch describes the hook and have fun with it. Anonymous is ok.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Oh I wish I could get there, I would love to have the oppertunity to meet you. Just to talk to, in general, about well anything.
I’m an editor and writer who negotiated my first book deal myself when it was just going to be a digital original. I was lucky to have that bumped up to a nice print run and good distribution and now as I get set to negotiate my next contract I think it’s time for an agent. My stuff doesn’t fit what you have traditional repped, but you’re so smart about the business it seems like too good of an opportunity to pass up.
In addition to possibly more books in my current series, I’m pitching a bigger crime novel as well:
Dallas Lane was raised from birth to be the perfect quarterback. He’s smarter, faster, stronger, and more athletic than almost anyone else he meets. But the guilt of playing a silly game in a rich college town on the edge of an urban wasteland rampant with crime and poverty pushes him to moonlight as a vigilante. This all becomes more than a flight of fancy when one of Dallas’s coaches finds out about his side job and blackmails him into looking for his daughter who was last seen riding a bus line between the suburbs and the city that is so popular with teens looking to score drugs it’s called The Heroin Express.
Anon: Let’s set up time to meet at Bouchercon. Email me at JFsubmissions@199.250.201.124 so we can schedule something.
Hi Jessica,
Would you like to cozy up to a little murder mystery talk at Bouchercon? While not currently in the market for an agent, I’d love to hear more about what you do and how we might work together for a bright future in cozy mysteries and more. If you’d like to hear a little more about me, please visit my site at LiesaMalik.com.
Wishing you continued publishing success,
Liesa (pronounced Lisa)
They dethroned their last king 300 hundred years ago in my new adult fantasy novel, but Kaelin now wants that title for himself. Facing biases as the first female monarch, Altarn leaves in disguise to “dethrone” Kaelin, though unexpectedly dethrones his heart instead.
I am in writing mode not querying mode at the moment, but as I hinted on Monday, I’d love to take the opportunity to say hello at Bouchercon if you have time. 🙂
Colin: Let’s set up time to meet at Bouchercon. Email me at JFsubmissions@199.250.201.124 so we can schedule something.
Unable to attend. Have a great trip.
Literary Mystery: DEAD BLUE. A beautiful 22 year old man burns a two hundred million dollar art collection and, the next day, is found dead, naked and posed in Washington DC river mud. An idealistic young attorney and a rookie female homicide detective must go head to head to solve the murder, in the process uncovering long buried secrets that could destroy their families.
Ruth:Let’s set up time to meet at Bouchercon. Email me at JFsubmissions@199.250.201.124 so we can schedule something.
Hi, Jessica. Thanks for this cool opportunity. Looking forward to my first Bouchercon, and would love to meet you. Here’s the pitch for the mystery novel Bella Figura:
Fired in disgrace by the New York Times, David Isabella, 25, is too young for his career as a journalist to be over. When he witnesses a woman jumping to her death—and landing on the hood of his car, three feet from killing him—Isabella vows to salvage his career by finding the story of why she killed herself. And the first clue is right in front of him: he knows her.
Paul: Let’s set up time to meet at Bouchercon. Email me at JFsubmissions@199.250.201.124 so we can schedule something.
I am also unable to attend. It’s probably a good thing too because I’m sure I’d just giggle, get pink faced and make a fool of myself. I get like that when I’m around people I admire.
First book in the Summer Olympics series –
It is late July 1984 in Los Angeles and TAT Taylor, a young physical therapist from Stanford, has unexpectedly been added as the first female non-MD on the U.S. Olympic Medical Team. While waiting to march in the Opening Ceremony, she answers a page to treat an injured shot putter and finds him dead in the whirlpool.
Dear Jessica,
Thank you for this opportunity.
When Jay Desmarteaux is unexpectedly released from prison after serving 25 years for murdering a vicious school bully, he does his best to follow the advice of his convict mentor: the best revenge is living well. But his family has gone missing, old friends want him
to disappear, and unknown enemies want him dead. With his wits and his fists, Jay unravels a twisted tale of small town secrets and good old Louisiana and New Jersey corruption. He wanted to bury the hatchet… but they want to bury him instead.
Bury the Hatchet is a fast-paced 92,000 word crime thriller set in post-recession America where the struggle to get by is as brutal and cutthroat as the prison yard, and where bloodstains of the past will rise to the surface without fail.
Thomas: Let’s set up time to meet at Bouchercon. Email me at JFsubmissions@199.250.201.124 so we can schedule something.
Full disclosure – we are a writing team, Zippilli & Smith, two sophomoric middle age men taking a run at this writing thing. It gets worse – we self published our first mystery/thriller novel, Kings of the Street, mostly because we were so astonished and proud to have completed it that we didn’t want to wait to let the world know. Since then we have had a short story published in Thuglit, and are well into our second, and sequel novel, and in keeping with the rules I’m going end this third, and run-on sentence by expressing how much we would really appreciate having an honest discussion with a publishing professional about our situation and prospects (gasp).
Unfortunately you’d need to turn the world upside down and shake it for me to make Bouchercon. Attending this conference is on my ‘wish list’ and I really wish I could jump at this opportunity.
Any chance you want to visit Australia in August for a conference? It can be arranged =)
I would love to visit Australia. I made a stop in Sydney to do a conference in NZ back in 2011. I’m not sure I could make this year work, but someday again. Definitely.
Happy to help make it happen =)
Hello,
The Cue Ball Mysteries: Murder meets menopause. Take a guess which wins. Even better, Ms. Faust, take a guess what my dream is. With four Cue Balls still selling well and the fifth about to be published by Kindle Scout, I’m dreaming of a Cue Ball Mysteries TV mini-series. Are you?? I know you like cozies!
I just saw this post, so I know my request is a bit late. I’ll be at Bouchercon Thurs and Fri and would love to talk to you about movie and TV rights to my books. Thanks!
Cindy B
Playing With Poison
http://www.cbmysteries.com
http://www.cbmysteries.com/blog
I’ve chosen those I’ll be meeting with at Bouchercon. Email me at JFSubmissions@199.250.201.124 and look forward to seeing up some time.