Literary Agent Interview: Ellen Goff Interview and Query Critique Giveaway

Today I’m thrilled to have agent Ellen Goff here. She is an associate literary agent at HG Literary.

Update on 7/9/2024: Ellen has been promoted to agent and international rights manager for children's & YA.

Hi­ Ellen! Thanks so much for joining us.

About Ellen:

1. Tell us how you became an agent, how long you’ve been one, and what you’ve been doing as an agent.

I always knew I was interested in moving to New York to work in publishing. After college, I interned with two different literary agencies, including a scouting agency. I knew then that I enjoyed the agency side rather than the publishing house/editorial track because of how closely we work with writers and the freedom we have to choose our areas of focus. One of the internships was with HG Literary, where I work now. I loved my time with the team and two of their senior agents needed an assistant. One worked in children’s literature and the other adult fiction, so I dove in and began working and reading in both worlds in 2017. I started in our foreign rights department as well in 2018, and then in late 2019-2020 began selling my own clients’ projects. Now in 2023, I assist partner & CFO Carrie Hannigan on our agency’s finance/bookkeeping team, I’m a foreign rights associate in our rights department, and the rest of time I devote to my own growing list of clients and their projects 

About the Agency:

2. Share a bit about your agency and what it offers to its authors.

We’re a boutique full service literary agency, so we offer the benefits of a small personal team where teamwork and collaboration with each other is paramount, while also offering all of the services of a larger agency: royalty statement auditing, editorial focus on manuscript development, and we also have a full foreign rights department where we sell our titles in translation abroad. We have physical offices in Manhattan, and typically all go in about 3 days a week at least for each other’s company and brainstorming facetime.

What She’s Looking For:

3. What age groups do you represent—picture books, MG, and/or YA? What genres do you represent and what are you looking for in submissions for these genres?

I represent all age ranges, and have picture book clients, middle grade clients, and YA clients – and I love the clients that hop around between those three! In terms of on the page content, I enjoy about any genre (speculative, contemporary, fantasy) and format (novel, graphic novel, novel in verse). I really appreciate projects that have a layer of humor in them even if the overall tone is more serious or melancholy. Can’t say no to a good love story, too. Lastly, I’m definitely a sucker for a happy ending, and if not happy, then at least hopeful.

4.  Is there anything you would be especially excited to seeing in the genres you are interested in?

I’m always on the lookout for a good ghost story. Can’t get enough. Books on food, as well, or with food as a focus. I love learning about a new time period we weren’t exposed to in middle grade US history, so historical fiction that highlights new, overlooked stories and characters is of particular interest to me. And it may be the foreign rights associate in me, but I’ll perk up at any stories that take us on an international journey, through space or time.

What She Isn’t Looking For:

5. What types of submissions are you not interested in?

Personally, I am not the best fit for books about cancer, or stories with gratuitous violence toward girls and women.

Agent Philosophy:

6. What is your philosophy as an agent both in terms of the authors you want to work with and the books you want to represent?

New and underrepresented voices (often with girl power at the center) are incredibly important to me. I’m also someone who tries to keep learning new things in my own free time, new skills, languages, talents, etc. Books that teach me something, but are also entertaining and approachable, are food for my rain.

Editorial Agent:

7. Are you an editorial agent? If so, what is your process like when you’re working with your authors before submitting to editors?

I am definitely an editorial agent, and I would say most of the HG Literary team is, too. For me, I take my clients through at least two-three revisions before we go on submission to editors. First, I’ll do a big picture revision with a writer that looks at plot, characters, structure, pacing, any gaping holes or unresolved narrative arcs. Next, I’ll do a more line-edit focused revision where we hammer out the smaller details and nuances of voice, etc. We might do a third revision if necessary. I tend to start big and broad and get narrower as we go along.

Query Methods and Submission Guidelines: (Always verify before submitting)

8. How should authors query you and what do you want to see with the query letter?

A query and the first five pages pasted into the email are great. I don’t need a synopsis just yet, I like to be surprised when I read for the first time, but if I like the manuscript and keep reading a requested full, I’ll often ask for a synopsis. The first five pages will have to grab me. Voice, the problem, the risks, a unique set up or environment or atmosphere can do the trick, too. I always read pages before I request, you can count on that! A good query letter won’t save pages that don’t hook me.

9.  Do you have any specific dislikes in query letters or the first pages submitted to you?

A smidge of personalization goes a long way. No “Dear Agent.” If I only have a few minutes to review queries and respond, I’ll start with the ones that reference my wish list items or my clients’ existing books. I see a lot of folks trying to fit too much into their queries. We don’t need paragraphs – save extra background info or deep plot info for a follow up conversation with an agent if they’re interested in your work.

Response Time:

10. What’s your response time to queries and requests for more pages of a manuscript?

Agents’ reading time is often slow since we all wear a lot of different hats and have to prioritize existing clients. If I have a less busy week or am on vacation, I might be able to read a requested manuscript in a week. Other times, reading a full manuscript can take months. But typically, if I like the query and the first five pages, I’ll request to read more within a couple weeks, if not that day, if it really catches me. If a writer hasn’t received any response from me or a request to read more in 12 weeks, they should consider that a pass. However, always feel free to send a nudge after 8-12 weeks, just in case Spam took the query. 

Self-Published and Small Press Authors:

11.  Are you open to representing authors who have self-published or been published by smaller presses? What advice do you have for them if they want to try to find an agent to represent them?

I am indeed open to authors who have been published before; publishing history with independent presses can be a real benefit, especially since there are so many independent smaller presses doing some interesting and creative work. While I’m open to writers who have been published before, I will say it is easier to represent those writers on new projects going forward. It is tricker for agents to help writers try and re-publish projects that have been published before, especially projects that have been self-published. It’s often easier to start with a new fresh project if the writer is stepping into the world of traditional trade publishing for the first time.

12. With all the changes in publishing—self-publishing, hybrid authors, more small publishers—do you see the role of agents changing at all? Why?

Certainly. Agents are becoming more editorial, for a start. Editors at any kind of publisher (small or large) are becoming increasingly busy, which means they don’t often have the bandwidth to take on promising projects that might just need a lot of editorial heavy lifting. Agents help in that area and shoulder some of the initial editorial work to give projects the best chance we can at landing a home during submission. Agents are also becoming more invested in the research process to find the best homes and avenues for success for our clients’ work. If a manuscript isn’t selling in a traditional way as a novel to a large publisher, we’re knocking on all sorts of new creative doors to see where the story might have life: podcasts, film and tv, illustrated work rather than only prose, greeting cards, speaking engagements, interactive guides, articles, audiobooks, stage rights, merchandise. We are trying more than ever to imagine the different lives a project can have that go beyond just the bookshelf.

Clients:

13. Who are some of the authors you represent?

A selection:

Leslie Vedder (YA – The Bone Spindle, Razorbill)

Keith F. Miller, Jr. (YA – Pritty, HarperCollins)

Anna Lapera (MG – Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice, Levine Querido)

Adria Qui ñones (Picture Book – Mi Tierra, Reycraft)

Bunmi Emenanjo (Picture Book – I’ll See You In Ijebu, Barefoot Books)

Kealani Netane (Picture Book – Tala Learns to Siva, Scholastic)

Vivienne Chang (Picture Book – This Is Not My Home, Little, Brown)

Eugenia Yoh (Illustrator – This Is Not My Home, Little, Brown)

Emi Gennis (Graphic Novelist – What to Pack for Certain Death, Random House Graphic)

Bon Orthwick (Illustrator)

Interviews and Guest Posts:

14. Please share the links to any interviews, guest posts, and podcasts you think would be helpful to writers interested in querying you.

N/A

Links and Contact Info:

15. Please share how writers should contact you to submit a query and your links on the Web.

Query me at

ellen@hgliterary.com

or find me at

www.hgliterary.com

Additional Advice:

16. Is there any other advice you’d like to share with aspiring authors that we haven’t covered?

Read widely in your area! We can’t stress it enough. If you’re querying a YA novel, you should be reading tons of YA currently out on the shelves before you even started writing. Reading in your genre and age range will help make you a better writer, and give you comps. Comps aren’t always necessary, but I can tell a lot about your manuscript from your comps and how well versed you are in the current market space for your book. Also, popular comps that don’t actually fit your tone or narrative in your manuscript will also raise flags for me when I read, so go without comps rather that forcing comps into your query that might be popular but overall might not be great fits.

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Ellen.

­Ellen is generously offering a query critique to one lucky winner. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment through May 20th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. If you do not want to enter the contest, that's okay. Just let me know in the comments.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. This is an international giveaway.

Have any experience with this agent? See something that needs updating? Please leave a comment or email me at natalieiaguirre7@gmail.com

Note: These agent profiles and interviews presently focus on agents who accept children's fiction. Please take the time to verify anything you might use here before querying an agent. The information found here is subject to change.