JULY AGENT OF THE MONTH – ERIN CLYBURN

Erin Clyburn – Associate Literary Agent

Critiquing four first page for July – See guidelines below.

Erin joined The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency as Associate Literary Agent in 2019 after an internship and apprenticeship with a boutique literary agency. She has worked as a copy editor and recipe editor in the magazine industry and was general manager and director of collection development for Turtleback Books. She received her BA in English Literature from Mississippi State University and her MA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University. When not working, Erin loves hiking, cooking, traveling, painting, and trying to keep her three rabbits, Felix, Agnes, and Valentino, from chewing up every baseboard in the house.

LOOKING FOR:​

CHILDREN’S MIDDLE GRADE:

• Creepy and scary stories
• Contemporary with big hearts, humor, and unforgettable voices
• Mystery, especially with scavenger hunt or puzzle-solving elements
• Grounded stories with magical or speculative elements

YOUNG ADULT: 

• Horror
• Dark contemporary
• Queer and BIPOC rom-coms
• Thriller
• Mystery
• Magical realism
• Grounded stories with magical or speculative elements
• Lush, literary stories

ADULT FICTION: 

• Upmarket and book club fiction with great hooks and writing that leans literary
• Sharp women’s fiction
• Domestic and psychological thrillers, especially by BIPOC authors
• Mystery
• Humorous and satirical novels, with ensemble casts or stellar protagonists
• Horror of all stripes, especially horror plus other genres, like mystery horror or romantic horror
• Multigenerational family sagas (I would love one by a BIPOC author set in the South)
• Grounded stories with magical or speculative elements
• Southern Gothic

ADULT NONFICTION: 

• Narrative nonfiction or memoir about sports or adventure (Alone on the Wall, Wild)
• Pop science (Oliver Sacks, Mary Roach)
• High-interest nonfiction, particularly histories and stories about fascinating people and issues that haven’t been told before (The Radium Girls, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks)
• Cookbooks and culinary histories
• Science- or culture-focused memoirs and narrative nonfiction (My Brain on Fire, Educated, Full Body Burden)

MORE SPECIFICS:

• My favorite books—MG, YA, and adult—are those that are set in our world but with elements of weird: Karen Thompson Walker’s The Dreamers and The Age of Miracles, Marisha Pessl’s Neverworld Wake, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton, Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas, Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here, The Riverman by Aaron Starmer. Please send me your weirds!
• I love stories about food, stories with lots of food, good descriptions of food, etc.
• An Alabamian, I would love to see diverse Southern voices writing stories set in the South.
• Across the board, I am looking for projects from underrepresented writers.

NOT LOOKIN FOR:

• Picture books
• Chapter books
• Children’s nonfiction
• Romance
• Westerns
• Fantasy or science fiction (except in the cases above, basically our world with a magical/weird twist)
• Political, crime, or military thrillers
• Short stories

HOW TO SUBMIT:

Queries should be submitted through QueryManager: http://QueryMe.Online/ErinClyburn. Please only query one JDLA agent at a time. Emailed queries will be deleted unread, as will queries sent through Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. For fiction, please include your query letter, synopsis, and first 20 pages of your manuscript. For nonfiction, please send your query, proposal, and the first 20 pages.

JULY FIRST PAGE CRITIQUE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

In the subject line, please write “JULY 2021 FIRST PAGE CRITIQUE” Example: Paste the text in the email, plus attached it as a Word document to the email. Please make sure you put your name, the title of the piece, and genre: a picture book, chapter book, middle grade, or young adult, Non-fiction, contemporary, historical, Sci-fi, fantasy, etc. at the top on both the email and the Word document (Make sure you include your name with the title of your book, when you save the first page).

PLEASE name the Word document file by putting 2021 JUNE FIRST PAGE – Your Name – Title of first page. Thank you.

REMEMBER: ATTACH THE WORD DOCUMENT AND NOT GET ELIMINATED! Your First Page Word document should be formatted using one inch margins and 12 point New Times Roman font – double space – no more than 23 lines – only one page.

Send to: kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com. Sending it to my hotmail account will probably keep me from seeing it and including you in the running.

PLEASE FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES: Your submission will be passed over if you do not follow the directions for both the pasted email and the attached Word doc. This is where most people mess up.

DEADLINE: JULY 23rd. – noon EST

RESULTS: JULY 30th.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy