New Literary Agent Alert: Clelia Gore of Martin Literary Management
Literary agent alerts (like this one with Clelia Gore of Martin Literary Management) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building their client list.
About Clelia: Clelia (Martin Literary Management) is originally from New Jersey and lived in New York City for several years prior to moving to Seattle. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Boston College. She received her J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law and practiced law as a corporate litigator in New York City. In 2011, she decided to dedicate her career to books and reentered graduate school at Emerson College. In 2013, she received her master's degree in Publishing and Writing. While she was studying publishing and taking creative writing courses at Emerson, Clelia worked as a managing editorial intern in the children's book division at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Clelia also honed her editorial skills as an editorial intern at Oxford University Press. She also taught academic writing and research courses to freshman students at Emerson College. In addition to reading YA and children's books, Clelia also likes to blog about them. You can read her musings and ruminations on rereading the books of her 90's youth at www.tweenat28.com.
She is seeking: Clelia is very interested in young adult and middle grade books. She is seeking to represent writers whose protagonists have strong voices and whose plots are original. Clelia never wants to let go of her favorite characters, so she particularly loves trilogies and series that can be adapted to the screen.
Clelia also has a special spot in her heart for picture books. She especially loves ones that are funny or quirky, ones that feature minority and multicultural characters, and ones parents won't mind reading over and over again to their children.
How to submit: "Please send your queries to Clelia [at] MartinLiteraryManagement.com. In the subject line of your email, write 'QUERY' followed by the title of your work. In your email, provide the text of your query letter, followed by a short sample of your writing pasted into the text of the email (only illustration attachments will be opened). Kindly indicate if this is a multiple submission. Your query letter should include publisher submission history and previous publishing credits, if applicable. If you receive an offer of representation from another agent, please let us know immediately."
- PICTURE BOOKS: Query letter + full manuscript text pasted in email.
- ILLUSTRATORS: Query letter + 2 to 3 illustration samples (attached in jpeg or pdf format), link to online portfolio, and text of picture book pasted in email, if applicable.
- FICTION: Query letter + text of first ten pages pasted in email.
- NONFICTION: Query letter + proposal + sample chapter text pasted in email.
- GRAPHIC NOVELS: Query letter + summary + 2 to 3 sample page spreads (attached in jpeg or pdf format). (See a list of graphic novel agents here.)
"If I am interested in reading more of your work, I will contact you and give you specific instructions about how to send the rest of your material."
Chuck Sambuchino is a former editor with the Writer's Digest writing community and author of several books, including How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack and Create Your Writer Platform.
