Welcome to Debutiful’s Agent Week! We gathered some of our favorite literary agents representing the most exciting debut books and asked them questions about what makes them love a submission, their agenting style, and the books they’re working on.
Amanda Orozco has been a literary agent at Transatlantic Agency since 2020, where she is drawn to stories from Asian and Latinx writers. Her clients include Shoshana von Blanckensee, m. mick powell, and Nick Medina. She seeks work where protagonists have a distinct voice and personality, where the plot is clever, quirky, gritty, or twisty.
We dug into why writers should know everything in publishing takes more time than they’d expect, representing both fiction and nonfiction, and her opinion on genre with a capital G.
What types of projects are you most interested in right now? What feels oversaturated in your inbox?
Right now, I’m most interested in horror of all kinds and fiction with a dark edge or tinge; and on the other hand (or sometimes at the same time, love me some dark humor), projects that have humor woven in, whether that be in premise/concept or in voice. I’ve been saying I like my fiction the way I like my meat; dark, warm, and tender. Above all, confident writing and expert storytelling that’s surprising and ambitious
What feels oversaturated in my inbox right now is romantasy! It’s very on trend with what’s currently working in the marketplace but 1) it’s not a genre I have represented historically and 2) it feels like we’re close to arriving at the peak of that trend, if we haven’t already surpassed it, so it’s hard to really distinguish projects in the genre at this point and make it really stand out.
Kate McKean recently told me, “I want to forget I’m reading a query.” What makes you gobble up a submission? What makes you stop dead in your tracks once you start?
Confidence, in writing and storytelling, in vision for the project and understanding of where it sits on a shelf, and precision—I can see it on the page right away, from the start of the query. I’ll gobble up a submission that thrusts me into the story right away, without need for exposition; where I’m losing sight of the writing itself because I’m so immersed in the story and the characters’ lives. Voice-y asides from the protagonist or narrator (when not overdone and done well), beautiful (but not purple or flowery) descriptions, unique settings, fascinating characters we haven’t seen before will always hook me but, at the end of the days, it’s always going to be how effective and precise the writing is on the page.
Things that make me stop dead in my tracks once I start a query: too much exposition or over-explaining something (both in the query and the writing of the sample itself), too many adverbs or adjectives… these all feel like throat-clearing to me and not trusting the reader, showing the author is still developing their craft and storytelling skills such that they haven’t learned yet how to most effectively craft sentences or edit themselves in order to serve the story best.
What should all first-time authors know about the publishing industry? Either submitting, or selling, or marketing, or… anything!
Everything in publishing takes more time than you expect… and rarely faster than that: querying can take years, being on submission can take years, publishing houses are looking out 2-5 years ahead of the present in terms of books they’re publishing, and the book production process, including layout, design, printing, shipping, and distribution, takes many, many months. I like to say that one week outside of the publishing industry is equivalent to one business day for us, or at least that’s what it feels like for me, because it takes time for everything to be read and reviewed and passed through the various teams and departments and hands a book needs to go through in order to get published. Marketing and publicity and cover design and sales: these all happen up to a year or more ahead of publication because there are so many moving parts and people involved in the process so patience is key! And along those lines: everyone’s journey in publishing is going to look a little different so don’t compare your trajectory with anyone else. Authors can and should compare notes but don’t compare trajectories because there are so many different factors that come into play with each author’s journey that you cannot necessarily see or account for, and comparison will rob you of every joy there is to be had in the process for yourself.
Who are some recent debut clients you represented in the last few years? Any upcoming ones you can brag about?
Recent debut clients… it feels like so many of my clients are or were debut clients in recent years (after all, every author has to start somewhere). I’m proud to represent Nick Medina, though his debut novel, Sisters of the Lost Nation, came out in 2023 (it feels like just yesterday…). Other debut clients I’ve represented in the last few years: Cherry Lou Sy, Jessica Elisheva Emerson, Anna Julia Stainsby, Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, Rowan Perez, Eva Recinos, Jenny Birch, Sierra Marilyn Riley, Thao Votang, Shoshana von Blanckensee, Cristina Quintero, Gloria Huang, Melissa Yue, m. mick powell, tonia laird.
Upcoming ones I can brag about and am super excited for:
Afterbirth by Emma Cleary (Our Monstrous Bodies in the UK): this was an exciting deal we closed during AWP 2024, when it was in Kansas City! It’s the first time, too, that I’ve had an author’s book sell across three territories at once and so will have a unique edition in the US, UK, and Canada. It’s body horror at its finest, with much love and homage to art and horror films, exploring the bounds of female bodily autonomy and sisterhood. It comes out this month, on March 12 in the UK and March 24 in North America.
The First After by Jasmeen Siddiqui: this novel is such a beautifully drawn portrait of coming-of-age and finding one’s identity in a different country after a first break-up. I love this one so much; it’s tender and poignant and contains so much intricate detail—in the setting of Lisbon but also in the inner workings of Anaa and her navigation of relationships both new and old. Comes out April 14 from Random House Canada!
The Flayed Man by Chloe Lauter: another novel that stood out to me from the first few lines of the query, this one is gritty and visceral, while also so tender… set in the Mojave desert, it’s exploring the toxic mother-daughter relationship and the burden of caregiving when your parent has dementia—with the added elements of needing to drink blood to survive, working night shifts at the ER, falling in love with a prickly paramedic, and finding out what happened to Uncle Bill (the one who sources the blood to drink) who’s gone missing. Not to mention, the whispers of the fabled flayed man, the antagonizing monstrous figure that consumes other blood-drinkers. Coming out from Soft Skull Press on July 21! A perfect summer read, in my opinion.
It Looks Like You In the Dark by Mathilda Zeller: this one is the literal embodiment of female rage… you can feel it radiating off the pages and it is so satisfying. Based on the first short story in the Never Whistle at Night anthology (“Kushtuka”), the author expanded this into a novel that is SO fast-paced and thrilling, based on Iñupiat mythology and set in the Kobuk River Valley, an area of Alaska similar to what was depicted in True Detective: Night Country. I don’t want to give too much away but it’s an absolute must-read this fall—comes out from Nightfire on October 13!
Welcome Home, Mariam by Sanchita Mitra: this novel gave me such strong Ari Aster vibes (the Hereditary or Midsommar Ari Aster, that is) when I read it but it has evolved into so much more than just a horror novel. It’s speaking to intergenerational trauma and how toxic beliefs get perpetuated and passed down both within a family and a larger town… and it has probably one of the most satisfying endings for a Final Girl you will ever see. Comes out from Page Street Publishing on November 10 and honestly, the timing is perfect for the Thanksgiving family time haha.
You represent both fiction and nonfiction… I’m curious how your relationship with writers on both sides of the fence is similar and different?
Similarities across fiction and nonfiction for me would include respect for the creative process—I’m never one to rush writers when it comes to their timeline in drafting, revising, editing, etc. no matter what the project is—and provision of support and collaboration for said process as needed. Sometimes, a writer or project needs more of an editorial heavy hand and sometimes, all that’s required is accountability, encouragement, a listening ear.
Much of the difference lies in where I fit in as a part of the writer’s process—for nonfiction, I’m often arriving at the ideation for the book and the writing of the material much earlier than I am for fiction, where there is usually a full manuscript already on hand. And also, every writer is different in terms of needs, personality, experience, and communication style so oftentimes, differences arise in accordance to how I can best serve each of my writers across those various facets. Some writers that are coming from an academic background, for instance, might need more hands-on editorial support than writers coming from other backgrounds, to un-learn the academic writing habits that have been drilled into them… while other writers from similar backgrounds may have already gone through that un-learning process and gotten much of the “bad writing” out of the way and need support in other ways. Some of my fiction writers like to have me to bounce ideas for future projects off of while others prefer to focus on finishing the draft on their own before getting my eyes on it.
A lot of your represented books mix genres incredibly well. I’m curious on your thoughts about Genre, capital G. Is it a thing? Is it a marketing tool? I know this is open-ended, so sorry, but take it away.
Wow, this is such a good question that I haven’t thought about before. Ultimately, I don’t think Genre with a capital G is a thing—it’s just a way for publishing and booksellers to more easily categorize readers. It’s a marketing tool, yes, but I think it’s bigger than that, too; it feels so similar to the larger human behavior of wanting to classify everything so that we feel like we can Know, with a capital K, them. If we Know it, we feel like we have control over it in some way or make it predictable. So, with publishing, Genre is a way we can as publishing professionals Know the reader and therefore maybe have some say in said reader’s consumptive behavior.
But in reality, readers are so much more diverse and multi-faceted than these categorizations—we read widely and you can’t pinpoint exactly the taste of a reader based on what they like to read or have read previously. I think, instead, the goal should be growth—in taste and range—to expand readers’ minds and challenge them with new things constantly and the Genre, capital G, along with the thinking behind it, really hinders that. Perhaps this is why “genre-bending” and “genre-mashing” are what editors and readers have been looking for and resonating with in recent years; because we’re tired of the same cookie-cutter approaches to publishing and want to be exposed to unfamiliar areas of storytelling, new voices and new perspectives, that feel fresh and exciting and challenge our worldview or shift our paradigms, even just a little.