More About Speed Dating

SPEED DATING WITH AGENTS and ASK A PRO events
at the San Francisco Writers Conference

Speed Dating for Agents One of the things that makes our conference attendees most anxious--and one of the things they end up having the most fun with--is the Speed Dating with Agents event. On Sunday morning during breakfast in the Peacock Room, each of the agents will stand up, in alphabetical order, and tell the attendees who they are and what they're looking for. In ONE minute! After that, each agent will take a seat at a table in the ROOM OF THE DONS next door. The tables will be arranged alphabetically, around the circumference of the room.

RULES:

Each attendee who has signed up for Speed Dating with Agents will have a color-coded dot on their badge holder. RED dots can Speed Date during the first hour (9:00-9:51 a.m.), GREEN dots can Speed Date the second hour (10:00-10:51 a.m.), YELLOW dots can Speed Date the third hour (11:00-11:51 a.m.) and BLUE dots can Speed Date the final hour (Noon-12:51 p.m.). Due to hotel safety regulations, you will NOT be allowed to line up prior to your hour time slot. There will be no advantage, since all Speed Daters for that time slot will be let into the room at the same time. When you are not Speed Dating, you are encouraged to attend all the wonderful workshops that will be happening Sunday morning or visit the onsite conference bookstore: Bookshop West Portal.
During your THREE MINUTE PITCH you will be trying to convey the essence of your book and why you're the best person to write it, quickly, allowing a response from the agent within your three allotted minutes. When the first bell rings, stop talking and let the agent speak. When the second bell rings, move on to the next agent's line.

Please remember to speak quietly while you are waiting in line, as the agents must be able to hear each pitch. You may also wish to practice your pitch on your fellow attendees--quietly--while you wait.
Bring the first page of your novel to show, if you wish, or a one-page description of your nonfiction book. Bring business cards. You may wish to share these things with the agents, but do respect the agent if he or she chooses not to accept anything from you. If anyone wants to see something, you'll be told what to send, and how.

We frequently tell writers to imagine what would happen if their book was turned into a movie. And if that movie was on TV, what would TV Guide write about it? That's your "perfect pitch."

You may go from one agent to your next choice to your next choice during your hour. When the hour is up you will leave the Room of the Dons out the front door.
Remember, manners count.

The ASK A PRO event on Saturday afternoon is open to all attendees. (Read that: No additional cost!) For the first 30 minutes, each publishing professional will introduce himself or herself for 2 minutes. Then each editor or agent will sit at a 10 person table. The nine attendees at the table each will have one minute to ask a question and then receive one minute of feedback. Then all nine attendees will move to another table and meet another Publishing Pro. Attendees can move to new tables every l8 minutes until 6:30 pm.

If you still have not spoken to an editor or agent during or after this session, try to meet them on Sunday or write to them after the conference.

This event will continue until the book signings have started in the front right corner of the room and the no-host bar has been set up.

Always remember that all of the agents, editors and presenters are there to talk to you at breakfast, lunch, and during breaks. You don't have to wait for a "Speed Dating" or "Ask a Pro" event to talk to them. If they have their badge on, they're "on" and approachable! If they do not have a badge on, then please respect their privacy. Thanks so much.

LIST OF AGENTS AT THE 2009 SAN FRANCISCO WRITERS CONFERENCE:

Regina Brooks is the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency LLC, based in Brooklyn, New York. The agency represents a diverse base of award-winning clients. Ms. Brooks is the author of the children's books, Never Finished! Never Done! and Writing Great Books for Young Adults--and is also on the faculty of the Harvard University publishing program. She is interested in
non fiction and literary and commercial fiction for adults, young adults and children, and subjects like politics, psychology and self-help, pop culture, health, science, women's issues, parenting, cooking, and design crafts, alternative spirituality, business, science/technology, sports and always interested in new and emerging writers.

Serendipity Literary Agency LLC
Website: www.serendipitylit.com
twitter id: @serendipitylit

Andrea Brown, President of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, is also an SFWC Advisory Board member. Andrea Brown has sold a thousand children's and YA fiction and nonfiction books. She is the author of Writer's and Artist's Hideaways: Great Places for Seducing the Muse.
ANDREA IS NOT PARTICIPATING IN SPEED DATING.

Andrea Brown Literary Agency
Telephone: 831-422-5925
Email: Ablit@comcast.net?
Website: www.andreabrownlit.com

Elise Capron is a literary agent with the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, known for establishing and guiding the careers of many fiction and nonfiction authors, including Amy Tan, Lisa See, Maxine Hong Kingston, Diane Mott Davidson, Kevin Starr, Mike Davis, Eric Foner, Chalmers Johnson and many others. Elise, who has been with SDLA for six years, assists Sandra Dijkstra and agents her own projects, specializing in debut fiction, character-driven literary and offbeat fiction, and short story collections.

Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency
Telephone: 858-755-3115 x 100
Email: elise@dijkstraagency.com
Website: www.dijkstraagency.com

Minju Chang joined BookStop Literary Agency in 2006, and represents middle-grade and young adult writers of all genres. She has a particular interest in smart adventure/mystery novels, magical realism, and intense literary fiction, but her real weakness is for funny, clever, and gutsy characters with big attitudes.

Bookstop Literary Agency
Telephone (925)254-2664
info@bookstopliterary.com

Verna Dreisbach, of Dreisbach Literary Management, offers professional representation for distinctive voices for both emerging and experienced writers. Verna has a particular interest in books with a political, economic or social context and represents both fiction and non-fiction authors. With over 13 years of law enforcement experience, she has a genuine interest and expertise in the genres of mystery, thriller and true crime.

Dreisbach Literary Management (Sacramento)
PO Box 5379, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
Telephone: 916.804.5016
Website: www.dreisbachliterary.com

April Eberhardt, joined Kimberley Cameron & Associates after 5 years of editorial work with Zoetrope:All-Story, a literary magazine, and another agency. Her specialty is adult commercial and literary fiction, particularly contemporary urban fiction, ironic family dramas, and realistic mid-life tales, often with a twist, prefereably involving strong female characters. While April does consider selected nonfiction and YA cross-over works, she generally does not represent mysteries, thrillers, fantasies, westerns, romances, or children's titles.

Kimberley Cameron & Associates
Website: www.kimberleycameron.com

Stephany Evans, President of FinePrint Literary Management, has been an agent for twenty years. She specializes in a range of women's fiction – literary, commercial, romance and mystery, as well as both prescriptive and narrative nonfiction. Her clients have included bestsellers Emily Giffin, Molly Harper, Jenny Bentley, Rowan Jacobsen, psychic medium Concetta Bertoldi and living legend, midwife Ina May Gaskin.

FinePrint Literary Management
240 West 35th Street, Suite 500, New York, NY 10001
Telephone: 212-279-1410?Website: www.fineprintlit.com

Mary Grey James, a former lead book buyer for Ingram and National Accounts Manager for Harcourt, is a partner in the East/West Literary Agency (EWA). James has over thirty years of experience in publishing and sales. She represents a broad range of literature for adults and children; in particular, her special interest is with southern writers and their stories.

East/West Literary Agency (EWA)
Email: mgjames@eastwestliteraryagency.com
Telephone: 615-386-6760.

Wendy Keller has been a literary agent since 1989. Keller Media, Inc. has sold more than 800 deals worldwide, including 7 best sellers in 11 countries. The agency specializes in authors whose content would make an excellent speech, film or product.

Keller Media, Inc.
Telephone: (800) 278-8706
Website: www.KellerMedia.com
Get Mentored: http://www.FameFinders.com

Mary Kole came to children's literature from a writer's perspective. As an associate agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Mary is on a quest to learn all sides of publishing, she has also worked in the children's editorial department at Chronicle Books and is currently earning her MFA in creative writing at the University of San Francisco. At this time, Mary is only considering young adult and middle grade fiction and truly exceptional picture books.

Andrea Brown Literary Agency
Website: www.andreabrownlit.com

Michael Larsen, AAR, is a partner in Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents. He is eager to find passionate, promotable nonfiction writers with books that will interest big houses, make a difference in people's lives, or have such good ideas and writing that he has to handle them. Mike is the author of How to Write a Book Proposal and How To Get A Literary Agent (4th edition). With Jay Conrad Levinson and Rick Frishman, president of Planned Television Arts, he coauthored Guerrilla Marketing for Writers: 100 Weapons for Selling Your Work. The 42nd book in the Guerrilla Marketing series was published last year! Mike is also the co-founder/director of the San Francisco Writers Conference.

Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents
Telephone: 415-673-0939
Email: LarsenPoma@aol.com
Website: www.larsenpomada.com

Paul S. Levine opened the Paul S. Levine Literary Agency in 1996, specializing in the representation of book authors and the sale of motion picture and television rights. Mr. Levine has sold over 100 fiction and non-fiction books to over 30 different publishers and has had several books developed as movies-for-television. He is an attorney, specializing in the representation of writers, producers, actors, directors, the “subjects” of docudramas, composers, musicians, artists, authors, photographers, publishers in the fields of motion pictures, television, interactive multimedia, publishing, and advertising. As a literary agent, he represents adult, children, and YA fiction and non-fiction book authors.

Paul S. Levine Literary Agency
Telephone: (310) 450-6711
Email: paul@paulslevine.com
Website: www.paulslevine.com

Cameron McClure, Agent and Rights Director joined the Donald Maass Literary Agency in 2004, and handles the agency's foreign and film rights as well as her own growing client list. Prior to this she worked as an assistant agent for Curtis Brown. She represents mostly fiction, and is especially looking for projects that combine genre style plotting with literary quality writing. She's also interested in seeing literary fiction, mystery and suspense, urban fantasy (fantasy and SF set on earth), and projects with multi-cultural, international, environmental, and GBLT themes. She's drawn to non-fiction that reads like fiction, and that explores subcultures or topics that haven't quite broken into the mainstream. E-mail her at cmcclure@maassagency.com with the query letter and first 5 pages pasted into the body of the e-mail.

Donald Maass Literary Agency
Telephone: 212-727-8383
Email: info@maassagency.com
Website: www.maassagency.com

Jill Marsal has been agenting for ten years, previously at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, and she was an editor at Dorchester Publishing. She is currently looking for women's and commercial fiction, romantic suspense, paranormal and mysteries/thrillers. On the non-fiction side, business, current events, health, self-help, relationships, psychology, parenting, history and narrative non-fiction. Jill enjoys working with both new and experienced authors. Authors she represented include former Asst. Secretary of State Susan Shirk (China, Fragile Superpower), Dr. Howard Murad (The Water Principle: Saving Your Looks and Your Health Through the Science of Cellular Water) and Pat Montandon (Oh, The Hell of It All!)

Marsal Lyon Literary Agency LLC
Telephone: (858) 492-8009
Email: Jill@MarsalLyonLiteraryAgency.com

Laurie McLean is an agent at Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents in San Francisco. Laurie represents adult genre fiction (romance, fantasy, science fiction, horror, nouveau westerns, mysteries, suspense, thrillers, etc.) as well as children’s middle-grade and young-adult books. She looks for great writing, first and foremost, followed by memorable characters, a searing storyline and solid world building.

Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents
Blog: www.agentsavant.com
Website: www.larsenpomada.com
Queries: query@agentsavant.com

Rebecca Oliver, joined the William Morris Endeavor Entertainment book department in 2009 when the William Morris Agency merged with the Endeavor Talent Agency (where she started her agenting career in 2007). Before becoming an agent she worked for eight years at Grand Central Publishing as the Assoc. Director of Subsidiary Rights and at St. Martin's Press. Her client list is diverse and ranges from practical non-fiction (Tracy Anderson, The 30-Day Method Boot Camp) to memoir (John DeLucie, The Hunger; Janna Cawrse Esarey, The Motion of the Ocean) to both commercial and literary fiction. Other non-fiction clients include tattoo artist and bestselling author Kat von D, t.v. host Zane Lamprey, Gossip Girl costume designer Eric Daman, and career expert Nicole Williams. Recent fiction projects include the bestseller The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry; Mother of the Believers by Kamran Pasha, and The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson.

William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
www.wmeentertainment.com

Elizabeth Pomada, AAR, is a partner in Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents. Fiction: literary, commercial, mysteries, thrillers, historical, contemporary romance (both major stand-alone and category). Nonfiction: women's interest & narrative. The agency has sold books to more than 100 publishers. She is eager to find books she likes, by writers she likes, and sell them to editors she likes. She and Mike collaborated on the six books in the Painted Ladies series. Elizabeth is the co-founder/director of the San Francisco Writers Conference.

Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents
Telephone: 415-673-0939
Email: LarsenPoma@aol.com
Website: www.larsenpomada.com

Laura Rennert is a Senior Agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency. She specializes in all categories of children's books, and also represents literary fiction, crossover fiction (YA market to the adult market, or vice versa), mysteries, thrillers and narrative nonfiction. She represents award-winning and best-selling authors, including Ellen Hopkins, Jay Asher, and Kathleen Duey, as well as first-time authors. Some of her noteworthy sales include deals for over half a million dollars to Random House and Simon & Schuster. Laura is the author of a picture book, Buying, Training, and Caring for Your Dinosaur.

Andrea Brown Literary Agency
Telephone Direct: (650) 853 -1976
Email: ljrennert@mac.com
Website: www.andreabrownlit.com

Andy Ross is a literary agent in Oakland, California. He specializes in nonfiction. He does not work with personal memoir, fiction, poetry or juvenile. Andy has worked in the book business for 36 years. From 1977-2006, he was owner and general manager of Cody's Books in Berkeley, California—one of America's great independent book stores. Andy is past president of the Northern California Booksellers Association, a board member and officer of the American Booksellers Association.

Andy Ross Literary Agency
Telephone: 510-238-8965
Email: andyrossagency@hotmail.com
Website: www.andyrossagency.com

Meg Ruley joined Jane Rotrosen Agency in 1981. She represents commercial fiction. Her list of clients includes authors of best-selling women’s fiction as well as suspense, thrillers, and mystery—including SFWC presenters and bestselling authors Susan Wiggs and Robert Dugoni.

Jane Rotrosen Agency
Telephone: 212.593.4330
Website: www.janerotrosen.com

Katharine Sands, author of Making the Perfect Pitch, is a literary agent with the Sara Jane Freymann Literary Agency in New York. She represents a wide range of authors: from fiction and faction to non-fiction (popular culture, personal growth, leisure activities) to home arts (lifestyle, cookbooks, home design) to eclectic (travel, humor, spirituality). She handles projects for the literary estate of Normal Wexler, Academy-Award nominated screenwriter for Saturday Night Fever. Katharine has represented Make Up, Don't Break Up by five-time Oprah guest Dr. Bonnie Eaker Weil; Give Me That Online Religion by Dr. Brenda Brasher; and The Indigo Cookbook by Chef Glenn Chu. Her book reviews appear in The New York Times and Publishers Weekly.

Sara Jane Freymann Literary Agency
Telephone: 212-366-2627
Email: KatharineSands@NYC.rr.com

Robert Shepard, celebrating the l6th year of the Robert E. Shepard Agency, recently moved from Berkeley to Los Angeles. Representing only non-fiction, he proudly counts among his clients Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony Shadid and Steve Fainaru; bestselling author Stefan Fatsis (Word Freak). He represents both narrative and "practical" non-fiction in most categories except spirituality.

The Robert E. Shepard Agency
Telephone: 510-849-3999
Email: mail@shepardagency.com
Website: www.shepardagency.com

Ken Sherman is President of Ken Sherman & Associates, a Los Angeles based literary agency handling books (fiction & non-fiction); film and television writers; and film & television rights to books and life rights. A few of his clients are David Guterson (Snow Falling On Cedars), John Updike (sadly now, the estate), Tawni O'Dell (her best seller, Back Roads, is in development with Ms. O'Dell adapting the screenplay), San Francisco's own Starhawk, Judith Jones, Keith Stern (Queers In History), Louis Begley and Anne Perry.

Ken Sherman & Associates
Ken@KenShermanAssociates.com

Gordon Warnock is an agent with Andrea Hurst Literary Management. Although actively looking for fiction at the SFWC, the agency works with fiction and nonfiction authors including SFWC presenters Penny Warner (How to Host a Killer Party) and Stephanie Chandler (The Author's Guide to Building an Online Platform).

Andrea Hurst Literary (Sacramento)
Telephone: 916.549.5864
Website: www.andreahurst.com

Deborah Warren, is the founder of East/West Literary Agency. East/West handles 25% nonfiction; 75% juvenile books. Nonfiction areas of interest: Art/Architecture, Crafts, How-To, Humor, Interior design, Juvenile nonfiction, Language/Literature, Music/Dance, Photography, Popular Culture, Inspirational, Self-Help. Fiction areas of interest: Comic Books/Cartoon, Ethnic, Juvenile, Picture Books, Young Adult.

East/West Literary Agency
1158 26th St, #462, Santa Monica, CA 90403
Email: dwarren@eastwestliterary.com
Telephone: 310.573.9303

Ted Weinstein, is an AAR-member literary agent whose clients include a wide range of journalists, academics, celebrities and other authors of nonfiction for adults. His agency represents the full range of narrative and practical non-fiction with a focus on biography, history, business, personal finance, contemporary culture and politics, popular science, health and medicine, pop culture and quirky reference works. His clients include NPR's "Math Guy" Keith Devlin, Pulitzer finalists Steve Suo and Erin Barnett (Portland Oregonian), Wired managing editor Leander Kahney and USA Today editorial board member Richard Whitmire.

Ted Weinstein Literary Management
Website: www.twliterary.com

Christine Witthohn is an agent with the Book Cents Literary Agency, LLC in West Virginia. Her interests in fiction include romance (paranormal, contemporary, rom coms, mystery/suspense), women's fiction, young adult, middle grade, medical/legal fiction, mainstream mystery/suspense, cozy mysteries. She is also looking for specific non-fiction which includes women's issues/experiences, fun/quirky topics (particularly of interest to women), cookbooks, entertaining, gardening (herbs, plants, flowers), and how-to books.

Book Cents Literary Agency, LLC
Telephone: 304-347-2330
Email: cw@bookcentsliteraryagency.com
Website: www.bookcentsliteraryagency.com

MORE HINTS

NOVELS:
Agents may want to read the first page of a novel because they can tell immediately whether a writer can write and if they know how to start a novel. Have a short synopsis of your novel and the rest of the first chapter with you in case agents want to see them. Bring a copy of your proposal or the manuscript of a novel and a short synopsis to the conference (although there's no certainty that anyone will ask to see everything you bring.)

NARRATIVE NON-FICTION:
Be prepared to share the beginning of your work. It should have the impact of a novel. If you want to sell a book to a big house, agents will want to hear a compelling title. They need to know about the writing, media and professional experience that qualifies you to write your book. Tell them what you will do to promote the book. They may also want to see a sample of your writing and a list of chapters.

Agents all work differently and will vary in what they want to hear. Even if an agent can't help you, they will answer your questions and give you direction.

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