Monday, July 18, 2016

From Writer's Digest: Manuscript Wish List!

From Writer's Digest:

About Suzy: Suzy is an attorney, author, and agent who holds a Ph.D. in history from UC Berkeley. Her most recent books include Machiavelli for Moms (Simon & Schuster) and Forgotten Crimes: The Holocaust and People with Disabilities. She's also a ghostwriter for a #1 New York Times best-selling author with more than 25 million copies in print and her first children’s book will be published by HarperCollins in 2018.

She is Seeking: In the adult market, Suzy is particularly on the hunt for great serious nonfiction, especially by historians who are looking to make a transition from an academic to trade readership and journalists who have something unique and significant to say.

She’s also on the lookout for smart parenting books with truly useful, original hooks that fill a gap in the market; food, cooking, health and diet-related titles, especially culinary histories of all flavors and tastes; sports books with strong crossover appeal in other genres, especially history and philosophy (she’d love to find the next Golf in the Kingdom or Zen and the Art of Archery!); self-help of every stripe by authors with well-estbalished, national platforms and riveting, elegantly-written memoir (recent favorites include William Finnegan's Pulitzer-Prize-winning Barbarian Days and Paul Kalanithi's deeply-rendered When Breath Becomes Air), as well as popular culture, humor, especially as it relates to marriage and parenting, and small quirky books that make her smile and think about the world in entirely new and unexpected ways.


On the children’s front, Suzy is looking for lively, engaging, original nonfiction that really *pops* off the page and makes kids excited about reading and learning; wacky/hilarious MG commercial fiction with series potential; and YA graphic novels that bring history, literature and fascinating historical figures (think Socrates! Machiavelli! Hamilton!) to life.

She also has a soft spot for heartwarming MG works that explore the coming-of-age theme in a warm, honest voice that makes readers feel safe and at home; contemporary YA fiction that tackles difficult issues in bold, daring ways and with inventive formats that can be brought into the classroom to stimulate meaningful discussion and debate; and sweet, lyrical picture books that capture the imagination and call for multiple readings (favorite classics include Stellaluna and The Cat Who Walked Across France.) She’d also love to find an exciting, high-concept thriller that has “MOVIE!” written all over it.


How to Submit: For fiction, please send a synopsis and the first ten pages of your manuscript pasted below your query (quick, friendly tip: resist the temptation to hit “send” too quickly. Revise, revise, and revise and THEN hit send). For nonfiction, please send your query with a concise author bio to suzy@dijkstraagency.com. Thanks so much for sharing your work with me and I look forward to hearing from you!