Agents at the Knight Agency Looking for MG and YA

Established in 1996, The Knight Agency has gained worldwide recognition for the success of our authors in the fiercely competitive publishing marketplace. Our philosophy is simple: what you give is what you get. As a company, we are dedicated to cultivating prosperous, long-term writing careers by giving clients unparalleled service. Thus, the agency designed a multifaceted approach to success, which includes maintaining high visibility in the marketplace, fostering the all-important author-agent relationship and operating full-service subsidiary rights and marketing and publicity departments. This conscientious approach anticipates the needs of clients at all stages of the publishing process.

Pamela Harty, Vice President of Sales/Agent 

Pamela Harty joined The Knight Agency in the summer of 2000, and has placed hundreds of titles.

She’s currently seeking submissions for contemporary and historical romance, romantic suspense, women’s fiction, young adult, business, motivational, diet and health, memoir, parenting, pop culture, and true crime.

Recent sales include books to Penguin Putnam, Grand Central, Random House, Simon and Schuster, Harper Collins, Harlequin/Silhouette, Thomas Nelson, Water Brook, McGraw Hill, and Baker/Revell.

Lucienne Diver, Agent 

Lucienne Diver joined TKA in 2008, after spending fifteen years at New York City’s prestigious Spectrum Literary Agency. With her sharp eye and gift for spotting original new voices, Lucienne is one of the most well-respected agents in the industry.

Over the course of her dynamic career she has sold over seven hundred titles to every major publisher, and has built a client list of more than forty authors spanning the commercial fiction genres, primarily in the areas of fantasy, science fiction, romance, romantica, suspense and young adult. Her authors have been honored with the RITA, National Readers’ Choice, Golden Heart, and Romantic Times Reader’s Choice Awards, and have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. A publishing veteran, Lucienne has superb industry knowledge, numerous editor relationships, and a keen understanding of the foreign rights market.

Nephele Tempest, Agent 

Nephele Tempest joined The Knight Agency in January, 2005, opening the Los Angeles office. As an agent, she works with a number of talented writers, assisting them to hone their skills and build their careers. In addition, she spends time developing the agency’s Hollywood film and multi-media contacts.

She continues to actively build her client list, and is currently seeking works in the following genres: literary/commercial fiction, women’s fiction, fantasy, science fiction, romantic suspense, paranormal romance, contemporary romance, historical fiction, young adult and middle grade fiction.

Melissa Jeglinski, Agent 

A graduate of Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in English with a writing concentration, Melissa began her career as an editor with Harlequin Enterprises. Looking to work with a variety of authors and genres, she joined The Knight Agency in 2008. 

With over two decades experience in the publishing industry, Melissa has fostered her clients to National prominence including a recent Newbery Honor.

She is a member of RWA and AAR. Melissa is currently seeking projects in the following areas:  Romance (contemporary, category, historical, inspirational) Young Adult, Middle Grade, Women’s Fiction and Mystery.

Their agents are open to reviewing manuscripts and material from both first-time authors and publishing veterans. We receive thousands of query letters each year, so it is imperative that you read the guidelines outlined below before submitting your project. Your assistance in adhering to these standards will ensure that the agency can receive, evaluate and respond to your material as quickly and efficiently as possible.

1. We are a Green agency and, therefore, only accept emailed queries. Paper queries submitted via US Mail or any other means (including Fax, Fed-Ex/UPS and even door-to-door delivery) will not be reviewed nor returned.

2. All queries should be sent to Submissions(at)KnightAgency(dot)net. When typing this email address, please use the @ symbol for “at” and a period for “dot.” We request that queries be kept to approximately one-page in length and that all text be contained in the body of an email.

Queries must be addressed to a specific agent. Please do not query multiple agents. To determine which member of our team would be most appropriate for your project, visit our “About Us” page.

3. We are unable to open any attachments. Attachments in unsolicited queries will not be opened and their inclusion may cause a query to be inadvertently deleted or sent to spam. At the query phase we only ask for a standard query letter, this is not yet the time to submit sample material. (Additional material will not be reviewed or returned). All queries will be reviewed on an individual basis by our submissions coordinator and relevant agents. Only a small minority of queries will meet the requirements of the openings in our agency’s list. We are unable to offer tailored critiques or specific reasons for passing on your project; however, a fair amount of time will always be given to your letter in the review process.

If we feel that your project matches the Knight Agency’s needs, we will then request additional materials from the author. In such cases, authors will be asked to submit a partial manuscript (for fiction) or a proposal (for nonfiction). For more information regarding preferred proposal content, please visit our Proposal Guidelines page. At the time such an invitation is made, we will provide you with instructions regarding the proper method for submitting the appropriate additional materials. All submissions are also to be made electronically.

4. The response time for queries is two to three weeks from the time of receipt. If you do not hear back after three weeks, please requery using an alternate email address. It’s possible that our email security filter has blocked your email. Due to spam filters, query letters and even our responses have been known to go missing. Our email security filter has been known to block Hotmail users specifically. To ensure delivery, we suggest that you do not use Hotmail. We ask that you understand these unavoidable inconveniences and appreciate your patience.

5. Review of requested material currently takes six to eight weeks from the time of receipt. Please do not call to check on the status of your manuscript. If you are concerned of its receipt, e-mail is the best way to inquire. If after 4-8 weeks you have not received a response regarding material we have specifically requested, we ask that you  resubmit your project via an alternate email address.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy