Literary Agent Appointments: Pitch your book

Literary agents looking for new authors will join the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference: Focus on Mystery again this fall.

The 10-minute pitch sessions offer attendees a face-to-face opportunity to sell themselves and their manuscript. The appointments will be available free of charge to attendees who register for the full conference, and will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. But only a limited number of slots are available. When you sign up, be sure to check the box asking for an appointment, and give us your choices in order of preference in the "notes" section. We’ll do our best to accommodate you.

About the agents:

Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli has been involved in publishing for 35 years, starting in the contracts department at New American Library and then as an editor at Fawcett Books. In 1975, she and Jim Trupin founded JET Literary Associates, Inc. in New York. Their offices relocated to Santa Fe, N.M. and Vienna, Austria in 2000. JET represents adult and YA fiction and non-fiction and is actively seeking new mysteries. Liz welcomes queries from new writers, which should include a brief description of the work and writer’s background. (On her website, Liz notes that she considers new clients by referral only---your appointment with her counts as a referral) www.jetliterary.com.

Betsy Amster is president of Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises, a literary agency in Los Angeles.  Before opening her agency in 1992, she spent ten years as an editor at Pantheon and Vintage, two divisions of Random House. A frequent instructor at Mediabistro and The Loft, the acclaimed literary center in Minneapolis, Amster has also run workshops at UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program and at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. She has been described in the L.A. Times as “a dogged prospector of …literary talent” and celebrated in a profile in the American Society of Journalists and Authors newsletter for her “no-nonsense style and whimsical sense of humor.”  Her clients include bestselling mystery writers Sandi Ault and Hannah Dennison. The agency's areas of interest include quirky mysteries and thrillers as well as literary fiction and a range of nonfiction. To learn more, click here

Tony Outhwaite has been an agent at the JCA Literary Agency in New York city since 1984 and previously worked at Oxford University Press, Horizon Press and St. Martin’s Press. He has published articles on jazz, culture and politics in National Review, Chronicles, Jazz Actuel and other journals and has just completed, Whistle Stop Chords, a book about the jazz organ club circuit of the 1950s and 60s, to be published in late 2009. He has been on the board of PEN American Center and was Chair of PEN’s Translation Committee from 1996-2002. Outhwaite’s personal interests include thrillers and mysteries. JCA represents writers in many genres with a specialty in mysteries, crime and suspense fiction (including true crime), literary fiction and serious non-fiction http://www.jcalit.com/

And there's more....

The agents will present a panel discussion open to all attendees, moderated by Peter Joseph, an editor at St. Martin's Press. They will share advice on how to get representation, what an agent can do for you, how to prepare submissions, financial arrangements and other topics of interest. Agent Betsy Amster will teach a separate breakout session on how to write a winning querry letter. Agent Tony Outhwaite and author John Trudel will speak at lunch on Saturday, Nov. 8, about their work as collaborators on Trudel's mystery novel.