2024 Agent Roundtables

  • "I owe my writing career to Killer Nashville. I had sent the first draft of the novel, The Gallery of Beauties, to KN for a critique, and got the best input, so I resolved to go to the next conference. At that first conference, I learned so much, got acquainted and joined Sisters in Crime, pitched my first agent in a roundtable, and I was on my way to publication. I am grateful for all I've gotten from KN and recommend it to any new writers.”

    Nina Wachsman

  • “I got home yesterday from my first Killer Nashville, and I still feel like I’m flying. Thank you so much for the FANTASTIC conference. I met so many wonderful people and learned so much.”

    Lori Roberts Herbst

  • “As someone who hasn’t submitted to agents yet, the panel with the literary agents was one of my favorites. After attending it, I took the first pages of my manuscript to the Killer Nashville Agent / Editor Roundtable and received some great feedback, and also requests to see it once it is finished. Attending Killer Nashville helped me grow as a writer, and it inspired me to power through that first draft of my book.”

    Bonnie Bailey

AGENT ROUND TABLES - THE PROCESS

GET AN AGENT’S ATTENTION

We know how important seeing the right agent, editor, or publisher can be, and that’s why we give you ample opportunity to meet them at network dinners, lunches, social gatherings, and classroom sessions. Our goal is for you to reach your goals. However, we do provide a way for you to meet agents one-on-one to talk about YOUR work: the Killer Nashville Agent / Editor / Publisher Round Tables.

Each round table will consist of five writers, one agent, publisher, or editor, and a volunteer to read submissions. When submitting your offering, please remember the following:

  • We ask writers to provide a minimum of 7 copies of the first two pages of their manuscript for each member of the group to bring the day of their round table. Killer Nashville does not provide copying services; however, copying services are available for a fee in the guest business office of the hotel.

  • Please use double spacing with reasonable font sizing, such as 12 pt New Times Roman, with one-inch margins.

  • In the header area of the first page, include your name, book title, genre or subgenre, email address and/or phone number, and a one-sentence logline/description of the book to give the reader context. (Note: You may start the text at the top of the first page, rather than dropping down a number of lines to begin a chapter in standard manuscript format.)

After each manuscript is read, the agent, publisher, or editor will give constructive feedback on the pages. Each agent, publisher, and editor has been asked to keep comments instructional, helping writers see both their strengths and where they need to improve. Agents and editors may request partial or full manuscripts if they think a manuscript has promise.

Since it is understood that these sessions are educational in nature, in practice, each session serves as a pitch without penalizing a writer whose work is not yet ready for representation or publication. In addition, each writer can learn from what is said to other authors.

Authors may register for as many sessions as they wish, however, multiple sessions with the same agent or editor are discouraged. You must be a four-day paid full registrant of the Killer Nashville Conference to participate in any Agent Round Tables. Each session is $45. 

Visit our Agent/Editor/Publisher page to see who is coming in 2024.

  • "My first experience at the conference was wonderful. I met so many nice people, everything ran as smoothly as possible, and I attained my goal of interesting an agent in seeing more of my work. The staff was as helpful as could be, the critiques were very useful, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself."

    Lucinda Gerlitz

  • “I met an editor at Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference and was able to pitch to her. She asked to see the whole manuscript, and two months later I had a contract.”

    Margaret Fenton

AGENTS WHO ARE AGGRESSIVELY LOOKING FOR NEW CLIENTS

Elizabeth Copps / Literary Agent

In the summer of 2010, Elizabeth Copps did what any starry-eyed word nerd would do: she used her savings to move from Florida to New York City with the goal of doing something—anything—related to books.

When she was offered an internship with Maria Carvainis Agency, Inc., she discovered her passion for publishing. She founded Copps Literary Services, LLC in 2021 and is thrilled to continue building the agency and her list of award-winning and eclectic clients from her current home of Denver, Colorado.

For the past fourteen years, Elizabeth has dedicated herself to the care and management of author careers. Her business philosophy is simple: to foster relationships across the industry that are equitable, transparent, and long-lasting.

Elizabeth is drawn to fresh takes on timeless plots, and stories that are thought provoking and discussion spurring. She loves complex, voice-driven characters who are brimming with personality and burst off the page. She specializes in humorous and heartfelt contemporary novels, horror, and historical fiction for middle grade, YA, and adult audiences. She is also partial to gut-busting romantic comedies. In nonfiction, she loves platform-driven memoir and biography, as well as policy-driven, narrative nonfiction.

She is not seeking cozy mysteries, political thrillers, hard sci-fi, epic fantasy, short story collections, or poetry.

To learn more, please visit www.coppsliterary.com, connect with her on Instagram or Twitter @elizcopps, or visit her Manuscript Wish List.

Elizabeth is looking for:

Fiction: Commercial, Family Saga, General, Historical, Horror, Literary, Middle Grade, Romance, Women’s Fiction

Non-Fiction: Biography, Journalism, Memoir

Favorite sub-genres: Dark Humor, Fairytale Retellings, Hauntings, Literary Noir, Narrative Nonfiction, Psychological Horror, Southern Gothic, Speculative Fiction, historical mystery, historical romance, non-Western historical fiction

Brenna English-Loeb / Literary Agent

Brenna English-Loeb joined Transatlantic in 2019 after working for several years at Janklow & Nesbit Associates and Writers House, where she had the pleasure of working with New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors across multiple genres. Brenna grew up in beautiful Upstate New York and studied English and Theatre at Bucknell University. 

Brenna is also the owner of BEL Tower Editorial, where she works with authors as a developmental editor on such big-picture issues as world-building, plot and character development, pacing and theme, among other areas of concern, such as query and synopsis critiques.

For nonfiction: Brenna is looking for serious, groundbreaking sociological work that holds our culture up to the magnifying glass. She also loves accounts of historical events and people that deserve to be better known, as well as unusual and influential object histories.

For fiction: Brenna has always gravitated to unique stories with a strong point of view. She is specifically looking for works of adult and select YA science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romcom and gothic horror. She’s interested in crime and suspense that does not center the police, military or state intelligence agencies and Westerns from a queer and/or BIPOC POV.

She loves character-driven space operas, rare myth and fairy tale retellings, nature survival stories, epistolary novels, and heists. She also has a soft spot for stories that blend multiple genres and she is always looking for works by underrepresented groups and identities.

Aspects of a work that are sure to catch her eye include: sports, pilgrimages, bog bodies, gothic and evocative atmospheres, relationship-driven plots, a sense of adventure, and narratives that reveal a deep knowledge of a particular subject. She also loves old tropes made new again, unreliable narrators, the age of sail and power imbalances.

transatlanticagency.com

Kathleen Foxx / Literary Agent

Kathleen Foxx is a literary agent at The Rights Factory in Toronto, Ontario, representing clients from anywhere in the world. She’s also a fiction editor at Foxx Editorial, host of the #badasswriters podcast, audio editor for The Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcast, and a founder/organizer/host of #MoodPitch. She’s heavily engaged with the writing community on Twitter and Instagram and also writes thrillers and supernatural horror. She’s a member of Editors Canada, CWC, SinC, and ITW. She’s building her list of exceptionally talented writers!

In adult and YA commercial and upmarket fiction, Kat is looking for domestic/psychological thrillers and suspense, supernatural horror, historical fiction, historical fantasy (witches, time travel, past lives/reincarnation, etc.), and some light speculative fiction. She has a very specific nonfiction wish list available on her website. Kat is NOT interested in picture books, middle grade, political or legal thrillers, space operas, graphic novels, poetry, novellas, short story collections, epic fantasies (kings/queens/kingdoms/wars/mythical creatures/epic journeys), hardcore sci-fi, religion, politics, academia, sports, erotica, gore/body horror, extreme violence, or anything generated by AI.

Learn more about Kat’s MSWL here and her editing services here.

Kathleen is interested in: Thrillers, Suspense, Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Gothic Horror, Supernatural, Romance, Romcom, Memoir, select nonfiction. Looking for Adult, YA.

Ronald Gerber / Literary Agent

Ronald Gerber has been a literary agent at Lowenstein Associates since 2019. Recent titles from his clients include OLIVE BLACKWOOD TAKES ACTION! by Sonja Thomas (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, 2024) and FIRST TO THE FRONT by Lorissa Rinehart (St. Martin’s Press, 2023). Ronald is always on the lookout for cinematic stories with strong hooks and relatable characters. He lives in Queens, New York.

Ronald is interested in:

Fiction: Action/Adventure, Commercial, Crime, Family Saga, General, Historical, Horror, Humor, LGBTQ, Literary, Middle Grade, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story, Thriller, Women’s Fiction

Non-Fiction: Biography, History, Journalism, LGBTQ, Memoir, Pop Culture, True Crime

lowensteinassociates.com

Stacey Graham / Literary Agent

Stacey Graham loves working with writers at all stages of their careers, representing talented authors and illustrators from around the globe in picture books, middle grade, romance, graphic novels, thrillers, and nonfiction. She is currently looking to add to her list with projects in: romance, mystery, spooky fiction, YA,  and graphic novels.

Stacey is interested:

Fiction: romance, graphic novels, mystery, commercial fiction, humor

Nonfiction: humor, pop culture, how-to books, antiques, craft books, cook books, lifestyle, and pets

threeseasagency.com

Dean Krystek / Agent: WordLink Incorporated

After a lengthy Army career that took him from the sizzling heat of Vietnam to the cool interior of Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, Dean retired as a Sergeant Major. Out of uniform, Dean held various positions in the private sector and state government before participating Operation Enduring Freedom as a Department of Defense contractor training the Afghanistan national army for a number of years. Finally turning his attention from wars to words, he brought WordLink, an agency established in New Zealand by a college friend, to Pennsylvania. WordLink is a small-town agency with global reach. Its agents reside in Colorado, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, and Istanbul, Turkey. In addition to its US-based authors, it represents authors from Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, the UK, Turkey, and Gambia. Dean is interested in authors with distinctive voices whose narratives invoke a strong sense of time and place and whose stories create a memorable reading experience.

Dean is looking for authors with distinctive voices whose narratives invoke a strong sense of time and place and whose stories create a memorable reading experience. He’d like to see mysteries (whodunit, cozy); sci-fi (space opera, dystopian, alternate history, time travel); psychological suspense; thrillers; military fiction (character-driven pieces; favoring post-WWII. **Vietnam**). In YA he would like to see mysteries, paranormal, sci-fi, coming-of-age, and suspense with writing that stirs the imagination and caters to the young reader’s sense of wonder and adventure.

He represents both fiction and nonfiction and asks that you visit www.wordlink.us for more about the agency, its agents, and authors.

https://www.wordlink.us/agents

Cyle Young / Literary Agent

Cyle Young is a talented literary agent, award-winning author, and sought-after speaker. With a passion for nurturing writers, Cyle has successfully represented numerous authors across various genres. He's known for his dynamic approach to author development, keen market insight, and a deep commitment to fostering literary excellence.

Cyle is looking for manuscripts in both the Christian and General markets. Trends he’s looking for: HAPA, Own Voices, Non-Caucasian Characters, Christian Non-fiction, African American, Non-European Settings or Societies (Sci-Fi/Fantasy), Non-male protagonist (Sci-fi/Fantasy).

More specifically, Cyle is looking for:

Fiction: Romance (Romantic Suspense, Amish, Historical, Contemporary, Young Adult and New Adult, Romantic Science Fiction, Romantic Fantasy, Regency Romance, Inspirational Romance, Paranormal Romance, Novellas 15K-40K, Novelettes – Under 15K, Romantic Comedy, Time Travel, Western, Holidays, African American, Action Adventure Romance, Clean & Wholesome (non-puritanical), Spicy Monogamy (Married Couple/Not-Erotic), Sports Romance), Horror, Speculative, Action Adventure, Historical, Mystery, Cozies, Suspense (Thriller, Noir, Historical, Crime, Detective), Women’s, Childrens (Picture Books, Early Readers, Chapter Books), Middle Grade, Young Adult, Fantasy (Alternative History, Arthurian, Coming of Age, Dark Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Humorous Fantasy, Myths and Legends, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Romantic Fantasy, Superhero, Sword & Sorcery, LitRPG), Science Fiction (Magical Realism, Military, Space Opera, Dystopian, Steampunk, Time Travel, Alternate History, Contemporary), Horror, Humor, Action Adventure, Historical, Suspense (Thriller, Noir, Historical, Crime, Detective), Women’s, Children’s (Fiction, Nonfiction, Picture Books, Early Readers, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Animal Characters, Trucks, Cars, Etc.  Characters, Retold/Reimagined Fables), Young Adult

Nonfiction: Self-Help (Parenting, Marriage, Depression, Life Issues), How-To, Business Leadership, Memoir, Cookbooks, Biographies, Travel, Food & Wine, Healthy Lifestyle

cyleyoung.com

  • "I was able to meet with several agents and received multiple manuscript requests. But, what I found most astonishing, was when talking with agent Dean Krystek - who I met at the awards dinner - was when he told me that he was hoping to meet me - because you had told him about my submission and that he may be a good fit. I was blown away that you took the time to do that for me, someone you'd never met. Dean requested my manuscript!" 

    TJ Stecker

  • “I participated in two Killer Nashville Agent / Editor Roundtables. Although the editor didn’t feel the two pages I presented were a good fit for the line she represented, she kindly spent time with me after the session answering my questions. Two hours later, my second roundtable editor asked for the entire book from the same two pages. A few weeks later, she bought the book.”

    Debra Goldstein