Kara Watts--junior literary agent. Kara is not currently accepting ANY submissions. All queries sent to her will be deleted without being read.

Colleen Martin--rights manager. Colleen is handling all rights for Johnson Lit Agency. She can be reached at colleen@johnsonlitagency.com.

Here at Johnson Lit Agency, we have a three step submission process. First, email the agent that you'd like to submit your query letter to (make sure your query is in the body of your email; we do not open attachments unless they were specifically requested). Please include the first 3-5 pages of your manuscript or your overview/ideas page pasted directly into the email below your letter. We only accept email queries; all snail mail queries are discarded without being opened.

If we like what we see we'll ask for a partial or full manuscript or for your proposal. We only accept partial or full manuscript sent in a word doc or as an RTF attached to our request email. We use this method to keep track of what material we've requested so that we may read and reply in a timely manner. Our response times differ according to agent and to our schedules. We update this page as often as necessary with information about our reading schedules.

If we're interested in signing you up, we'll contact you directly. If your project isn't for us, you'll get an email response stating so. Generally we try to include a few lines about why something didn't catch our interest, but we cannot include extensive feedback on your individual manuscript. Once a manuscript has been rejected we prefer not to be queried on it again. And a rejection from one agent is a rejection on behalf of the agency. We work closely together on most projects so chances are everyone at the agency has already reviewed your book by the time the decision was made to pass on it.

Don't pitch more than one project at a time. We want to see your best work, not a laundry list of everything you've written since college. Please respect our time so that we can respond to your work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Pay attention to word count. We have multiple blog posts on industry standards as well as our preferred word count standards. There's nothing more exhausting than reading a manuscript that should have been divided into two or three different books. We encourage you to either workshop your material or hire a freelance editor to vet your manuscript before submitting. This is a great way to increase your chances of catching our interest.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

Caren Estesen is currently looking for great romance that spans the genre. That means she's considering contemporary, paranormal romance, romantic suspense, and inspirational romance. She will also consider lighter mysteries (think Sophie Littlefield and Lisa Lutz) and urban fantasy (think Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey and Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard).

Elana Roth is focusing her list on children's and young adult books, and is primarily looking for high concept middle grade and YA fiction. She will consider picture books from author/illustrators* only. She'll also consider a select number of adult projects in the areas of narrative nonfiction, pop culture and pop science. No vampires.

Email her your query at elana [at] johnsonlitagency [dot] com

*If you are an author/illustrator: In your query letter, please include a link to your online portfolio or website so we can see samples. Do not send attachments with artwork.

Kara Watts is not accepting queries at this time. All work submitted to her will be deleted without a response.

Thanks!