New Agent Alert: John Rudolph of Dystel & Goderich

Literary agent alerts (like this one with John Rudolph of Dystel & Goderich) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building their client list.

About John: John Rudolph joins Dystel & Goderich after twelve years as an acquiring children’s book editor. He began his career at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers as an Editorial Assistant, then moved to the G. P. Putnam’s Sons imprint of the Penguin Young Readers Group, where he eventually served as Executive Editor on a wide range of young adult, middle-grade, nonfiction and picture book titles. He graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College with a double major in Classics and Music. A lifelong New Yorker, John currently resides in Manhattan with his wife and son.

He is seeking: fresh new voices and highly original stories in all genres. He is interested in all areas of middle-grade and young adult fiction, and he would love to find the next great picture book author/illustrator. And he is excited to expand into literary and commercial adult men’s fiction, humor, pop-culture, politics, and the arts, especially music.

How to contact: jrudolph[at]dystel[dot]com. "Enclose a query letter, outline or brief synopsis of the work (with word count if possible), a sample chapter, and a stamped, self-addressed envelope for our response. Please type all of your correspondence and double space everything other than the query. E-mail queries are fine, but keep them brief and make sure your cover letter is in the body of the e-mail. We won't open attachments if they come with a blank e-mail. Please be sure to query only one agent at this agency. We will not review queries sent to more than one of us. We will respond to most query letters within a 6-8 week period. If you don't hear from us within that timeframe, feel free to resend it."


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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.