Transcription, The Copywriter, Yesteryear, Villa Coco, Fixer Chao, I Made You Up Inside My Head, Food Person, Go Gentle, and more
I always save information about agents and publishers, especially now that I am closer to finishing my novel.
I love books that have strong plots, but if the prose is not fantastic, if the authors are not great stylists who show me new ways of looking at the world, I lose interest. So, this list includes books I read recently, books that I got because they were mentioned in podcasts and magazines I trust, or because I heard an interview with the author that intrigued me. The only one I haven’t finished is Go gentle, but it seems promising, though perhaps not so exquisite in style.
I know most of my new followers are here for actionable tips, so I wanted to give y’all something useful, and I decided to go looking for the agents of this hit books. All submission information here was checked on August 25, 2026. Anyone using this as a query list should check the agency website again immediately before submitting. Things move fast.
Transcription and Go Gentle
Ben Lerner’s 2026 novel Transcription and Go Gentle led me to Anna Stein at Creative Artists Agency. Stein’s clients include writers whose books can carry a lot of intellectual weight while remaining alive on the page. Unfortunately, Stein is currently closed to unsolicited submissions, but I would keep my eye on her. BTW, Transcription is a very good book, but I have to say it didn’t blow my mind. I found an interview with Lerner about it promised more than the book delivered. But that’s just me.
Here is some wisdom from an interview Stein gave about her expectations from query letters:
Query letters are like resumes: one skips to the words in (implicit) bold. I look for someone who gives me very little plot description (descriptions mostly tell me nothing about a reading experience), someone who gives me reason to think they’re serious and committed and have put in their time. This means they’re not writing a form letter, that the letter itself sounds like it was written by an intelligent and thoughtful person. And that they’ve already gotten writers’ residencies, or an MFA from a program I know and respect, or have published work in magazines or journals I respect, or have praise from writers I respect. Or maybe they’ve been working away on their novel for ten years, revising and revising and revising before letting anyone else lay eyes on the work. There is no particular formula, but certainly if a writer has some or all of the above, then he or she definitely has my interest.
Basically, I look for the same thing in a first-time writer that I do in a veteran. I want to be both surprised and immersed. I want to forget that I’m reading something WRITTEN (just as when I’m watching a film I want to forget that I’m seeing an actor acting), but at the same time I want to be able to stop and admire the crisp sentences, or a knock-out image. I want the craft to be so perfect that you can’t see the 100 revisions that have gone into it. Is that too much to ask?
And because these two novels led to no agent open for submissions, here goes an alternative at CAA:
Mollie Glick
Mollie Glick is a literary agent at Creative Artists Agency and is currently accepting submissions. She is interested in novels that defy the serious literary fiction/popular fiction binary. She represents literary and commercial fiction, YA, speculative fiction, and nonfiction, with a particular interest in novels that combine strong writing with a clear, compelling premise. Her clients have included Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. She has sold bestselling books for Laura Dern and Diane Ladd, Ron Howard, Matthew McConaughey, Lupita Nyong’o, Ari Shapiro, and Viola Davis. She is also working on books with Al Pacino and Geena Davis.
CAA advises querying one agent at a time and aims to respond within about six weeks.
Submission form:
https://www.caa.com/entertainmenttalent/books/agent/mollie-glick/
The Copywriter
(All side-by-side photos show book cover + agent)
Daniel Poppick’s The Copywriter was one of the most successful and formally exciting books I read all year.
Poppick, originally a poet, is represented by Jim Rutman at Sterling Lord Literistic.
Jim Rutman
Rutman represents adult literary fiction and says he is interested in “audacious novels that test the form and prioritize language.” His clients include Sheila Heti, Alissa Nutting, Teddy Wayne, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, and others. Sterling Lord Literistic currently accepts unsolicited submissions through its submission form. The agency says it receives an enormous volume and generally responds when it wants to see more material.
Agent: Jim Rutman Agency: Sterling Lord Literistic Status: OPEN
How to submit: Sterling Lord Literistic submission form
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