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JILL CORCORAN is a children’s book agent with Herman Agency.
Her current interests include: high concept Young Adult and Middle Grade Thrillers, Mystery, Romance, Romantic Comedies, and Adventure manuscripts.

With an English degree  from Stanford University and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the  University of Chicago, Jill has marketed everything from sneakers to  cereal at Leo Burnett Advertising, LA Gear, Mattel, and at her own  consulting company, LAUNCH! New Product Marketing.

That marketing background seems to have helped her become a successful agent, because the books and amount of books she has sold is quite impressive.  Here is the link to take a look.  http://jillcorcoran.blogspot.com/p/recent-deals.html

What Jill is looking for New Adult authors/manuscripts.

So, what is New Adult? School Library Journal has a fabulous roundup of articles to give many but the same definition of New Adult and Goodreads has a list of popular New Adult books.

Please email your query plus the first 10 pages of your ms pasted into your email to [email protected]

Jill reps Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult and Crossover Young Adult (New Adult)

Here is a complete description of what Jill is looking for as of Feb 2013

Please read because Jill is being very strict to my vision of what type of books she will be agenting.

To put it bluntly, I want books, actually characters, that have legs. If you haven’t heard the term “has legs” that is marketing shorthand to mean the characters can live outside the confines of your book. They can spark a series, be transformed to the big or small screen (Herman Agency is based in NYC but I live in LA and have close ties to the Film and TV industry.), possibly go outside the library/bookstore market to gift stores, grocery stores, etc, become a genre leader rather than just another book competing in a market where discoverability is becoming the most challenging obstacle to sales and sadly some of the best writing is not rising to the top of readers’ buy lists.

All books must have excellent commercial plus literary writing. What I mean by this is an utter command of the language that is accessible to most readers–not just the brainy kids. The concept must be fresh, organic, break-through. Just another one is not going to cut it. Yes, lots of copycat books make the hit list, but I am an agent, a talent scout. I am not looking to sell copycats. I am looking to discover the next big thing.

I want complexity of character, multi-level plot and theme, believability even in the fantastic, and pacing that blinds me to time and space. I am a fan of the underdog, but the underdog doesn’t always need to be the nerd, the foster kid, the kid from the broken home. It is irritating when the popular kids are bad and the outcasts are heros. I think most kids are average. Some are more popular than others but being popular often takes a lot of work and that work spurs a host of insecurity.  Many kids define popular in different ways. Some cherish their inner and outer geek. I want “normal” teens in extraordinary circumstances (I leave the definition of normal to you:) ).

Regarding romance, I want authentic vulnerability and innocence as well as hot, steamy yearning, and in some cases, more than yearning. I want to love your characters so I understand why your characters love each other. I want to be so enmeshed with your character that when his/her heart breaks, so does mine. When your characters are kissing, or doing more than kissing, I want to feel that pull in my body too.

Please send queries to [email protected]   All emails sent to my Herman Agency email will be deleted.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy