New Literary Agent: Rachel Hecht of Foundry Literary + Media
New literary agents are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list. This spotlight features agent Rachel Hecht of Foundry Literary + Media.
As of 2013, Rachel has left Foundry and moved to
Mary Anne Thompson Associates, which lacks a
major website and seems to be a scouting firm for
other agencies. Do not query Rachel until unless this
post is updated in the future.
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About Rachel: Rachel Hecht serves as Foundry’s Foreign Rights Director for Children’s Books, and also develops her own list of authors. Before joining Foundry in 2011, Rachel served as the children’s book scout for Mary Anne Thompson Associates, where she provided exclusive insight into the US publishing world for a diverse roster of foreign publishers. A graduate of Kenyon College with a degree in English, she began her career in New York at Condé Nast before moving into book publishing.
She is seeking: As a domestic agent, Rachel seeks children’s projects of all stripes, from picture books through to young adult fiction, as well as select fiction and nonfiction projects for adults that are wonderfully written and completely absorbing.
"In terms of adult fiction, the strength of the voice and quality of the writing is what is most important to me. I am seeking literary as well as upmarket/commercial projects, and would love to see projects with crossover potential as well as those that blur the boundaries between genres – especially in the thriller, fantasy, and historical categories (but a polite no thank you to straight genre writing)." [Editor's note: I believe this means she does not accept fantasy or thrillers. She's saying that she looks for mainstream works that perhaps have some elements of fantasy or thrillers in them.] "For nonfiction, I’m interested in memoirs, pop culture, and narrative nonfiction projects with a great hook – stories that I am unable to put down about topics I had no idea I was interested in."
How to contact: [Rachel has left Foundry. Do not query her.]
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.
