Andy Ross
Literary Agent
Workshops: 1. First Lines. 2. Query Letter Workshop.
Andy Ross opened his literary agency in 2008. Prior to that, he was the owner of the legendary Cody’s Books in Berkeley for 30 years. His agency represents books in a wide range of non-fiction genres including: narrative non-fiction, science, journalism, history, popular culture, memoir, and current events. He also represents literary, commercial, historical, and upmarket women’s fiction, and YA and middle grade fiction.
For non-fiction Andy looks for writing with a strong voice, robust story arc, and books that tell a big story about culture and society by authors with the authority to write about their subject. In fiction, he likes character and voice-driven stories about real people in the real world. Sorry. No zombies at the prom, thank you very much.
Andy is the author of “The Literary Agent’s Guide to Writing a Non-Fiction Book Proposal.”
Authors Andy represents include: Daniel Ellsberg, Fritjof Capra, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Susan Griffin, Leonard Shlain, Gwen Strauss, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Anjanette Delgado, Mark Goldblatt, Tawni Waters, Randall Platt, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Mary Jo McConahay, Gerald Nachman, Michael Parenti, Paul Krassner, Milton Viorst, Senator Jeff Bingaman, Michele Anna Jordan, and Scott Ostler.
Learn more about Andy: http://www.andyrossagency.com
Workshops
“First Lines.” First lines make a difference. Most agents and editors will tell you that you can’t tell if the book will work in the first paragraph, but you can tell if the author has “voice.” And in this business, voice is everything. In this workshop, you will be the agent. We will read and analyze the first paragraphs of various works. Some from Andy’s slush pile. Some books he’s represented. And some books by published authors. Based on our discussion of the first lines, participants will decide, as virtual agents, which authors they would choose to represent. Let’s see if you can guess which ones were published.
“Query Letter Workshop.” If you are ready to seek out a literary agent, you will need an effective query letter. It’s important to remember that agents typically get 10-20 query letters a day. Sometimes more. So, you have about 30 seconds to get the agent’s attention. In this class we will discuss how to write effective query letters that make your project pop. Bring your own drafts. We will workshop them.