A WEEK IN READING
TOO often writers can fall under the impression that agents are a cabal of mysterious gatekeepers hunkered down behind closed doors, quietly eviscerating the queries and manuscripts that hungry, eager scribes have lobbed over the castle wall. In reality the vast majority of agents are passionate, creative, smart people with wide-ranging interests and even wider-ranging reading habits, who want nothing more than to discover you (assuming your writing is brilliant). Scouring agency websites for client lists is a great way to learn what kinds of books any given agent responds to, but there’s more to know. To give you a deeper sense of who these professionals really are—and where they are looking for talent, apart from the deluge of e-mails that greets them each morning—we asked four agents in April to share what they read in a week aside from queries and manuscripts. Their impromptu reading diaries offer unique insights into what shapes these tastemakers: their personalities, obsessions, and appetites—literary, culinary, and otherwise.
Maggie Cooper
Aevitas Creative Management
What she represents: Literary and commercial fiction, as well as the occasional graphic, illustrated, and nonfiction project—with a particular emphasis on queer stories, genre-bending conceits, and wellearned happy endings.
Who she represent s: Will Betke-Brunswick, Marisa Crane, Andrew J. Graff, Carolyn Prusa, Julia Ridley Smith
AS SOMEONE who loves to document even the most quotidian activities, I was thrilled to get this assignment. In terms of parameters, I didn’t record anything that was directly work-related: manuscripts, queries, emails, royalty statements, etc. That’s a good chunk of how I spend the day, so what remains is a sprinkling of other
