Our Masterpieces...Err, Our Novels

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Our Agent Wish List: Kelly Mortimer

Brainstorming Song of the Day: "Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)" by Muse (check it out on our playlist!)

Woo hoo! After a minor break, the Agent Wish List is back--and I have someone pretty awesome for you all. This week we're featuring Kelly Mortimer from the Mortimer Literary Agency. Ms. Mortimer is a past winner of the America Christian Fiction Writers "Agent of the Year" award and has a degree in contract law. Oh, and she quotes Ridley Scott films for words of advice. Pretty cool, huh? Well, there's more...

Why I Heart Her: She's one of the rare agents who prefers third-person POV for YA, which was my original vision of Wants. Plus, she has an incredible sense of humor. Just check out her biography on her website.

Why You'll Heart Her: She only signs pre-published writers. And she announces that proudly. How cool is that? Not to mention she usually answers queries within 48 hours.

Who She Represents: Mystery/historical romance author Cynthia Hickey; romance author Kelly Ann Riley; nonfiction author Dr. Beverly Rose; paranormal romance author Raz Steel, and many more!

What She's Looking For: Contemporary YA (woo hoo!), historical romance, thrillers, paranormal, mainstream fiction, and nonfiction with a killer platform. For more info (including what kind of writers she'd love to work with), click here.

Notable Net Nuggets:

Guide to Literary Agents interview

QueryTracker

Perils of Publishing (her site with helpful links for writers)

Welcome to My Worlds: A Bipolar Christian Tells All (her personal blog)

The Editorial Department interview

Novel Journey interviews (Part One and Part Two)

Between the Lines interview

Absolute Write Water Cooler thread

Twitter

Once Upon a Romance guest post

How to Submit to Her: She only submits e-queries. Do NOT paste pages with your queries; she'll let you know if she wants to see more. Click here for complete guidelines.

Just from reading about her, and from my own brief "encounters" with her, I have to say she's an absolute cool chick. Anyone would be lucky to have her as an agent. Fingers crossed for anyone thinking of querying her! :)

Pam

5 comments:

Tahereh said...

another fabulous profile, ladies!

great work!!

Anonymous said...

This is a really cool feature -- I'm glad to know that there are still YA agents out there who prefer third person PoV!

Wendy Ramer, Author said...

Nice new site. And great post about Kelly Mortimer. (The music, however, I could do without. Good thing there's a pause button ;-))

Keisha Martin Romance Writer said...

Just started following your blog I'm 30 something aspiring to first get a agent then a publisher which is the most difficult process... as of late I have two agents reviewing my submission(partial, and full) my rejections is now heading within the double digits...is there no agents that love Young adult/paranormal I think i have queried them all and i must admit that some of my queries sucked chunk cuz I made the worst mistake perhaps it was nerves now i know what to do. Another ponder has twilight busted the genre so bad there is no hope Help!!!!

Pam Harris said...

Thanks for the comments, ladies. Glad to know that you like the new look. :) And Keisha, try clicking on the "agents" link under the labels. I featured a few agents--maybe you haven't queried some of them. I'm definitely in the same boat with you about rejections. The only thing we can do is keep writing and keep our fingers crossed that one day someone will fall in love with our work as much as we do. :)