The Seventh Annual Publish & Promote Your Book VIRTUAL Conference - Date Coming Soon

Cynthia Manson, Cynthia Manson Literary Agency, is a well-known and respected literary agent who represents a number of bestselling authors in a variety of genres. She graduated from Scripps College for Women in Claremont, CA. Manson has worked in both magazine and book publishing including Sterling Lord Literary Agency, Putnam, Bertelsmann, Scientific American, and Advertising Age Magazine. She is well connected to the Hollywood community and has brokered numerous deals in the book to film and television market. Cynthia is always on the lookout for commercial fiction specifically thrillers, mysteries, psychological suspense and fantasy.

Matt Belford joined The Tobias Agency in 2020 after previously working at the David Black Agency and the Aaron M. Priest Agency. Once he received his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Emerson College, he decided to apply his talents in representing authors, as opposed to writing himself. A lover of all things science fiction and fantasy, Matt accepts his nerd status readily. Some of his favorite reads include: THE SUMMONER by Gail Z Martin, KINGS OF THE WYLD by Nicholas Eames, TRAIL OF LIGHTNING by Rebecca Roanhorse, and RED RISING by Pierce Brown.

Susan Hawk has worked in children’s books for over twenty-five years. She came to Upstart Crow Literary from the Bent Agency, and her clients include Alison Oliver, illustrator of the bestselling Baby Lit board books and the forthcoming picture book Moon; Ruth Spiro, author of the Baby Loves Science board book series; Marcie Colleen, author of the Super Happy Party Bears chapter book series and the forthcoming picture books Love, Triangle and Penguinaut!; Lisa Tyre, whose debut middle-grade novel, Last in a Long Line of Rebels, was a BEA Buzz Book title; Sarah Lariviere, whose middle-grade novel The Bad Kid is an 2017 Edgar Award Nominee; and Rachael Allen, author of the YA novels 17 First Kisses, The Revenge Playbook and the forthcoming A Taxonomy of Love.

Before agenting, Susan worked in the Children’s Marketing departments of Penguin Books for Young Readers, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers and North-South Books, where she managed campaigns for many books and authors including Eric Carle, Mary E Pearson, Richard Peck and Joan Bauer. She’s also been a children’s librarian and bookseller, and spent some time in Dutton Editorial, acquiring select picture book and YA projects for that list.

Mitch Hoffman joined the Aaron Priest Literary Agency as a Senior Agent in 2015 and is actively building a list of authors writing across the spectrum of fiction and nonfiction. He was previously Vice-President, Executive Editor at Grand Central Publishing.As an editor, Mitch published over 200 books, more than 60 of which were New York Times bestsellers. He has nurtured the careers of debut novelists as well as global #1 bestselling authors, and has worked with journalists, memoirists, scientists, historians, and members of the military and intelligence services. Their books have won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Edgar Award, ITW’s Thriller Award, The Barnes & Noble Discover Award, and have been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, among many other honors.

Mitch is looking for fiction and nonfiction, including literary fiction, thrillers, and suspense, as well as narrative nonfiction, politics, popular science, history, memoir, current events, and pop culture.

Rebecca Nagel is a literary agent at The Wylie Agency, where she has worked for more than a decade representing writers of history, journalism, science, cultural criticism, literary fiction, poetry, and graphic novels, among other subjects.  She received her BA and MA in history from The University of Chicago.

Mindy Stockfield has held senior positions in publishing, entertainment and media with a focus on marketing, and digital. She has led critical launches for a number of new and culture-defining initiatives utilizing some of the latest approaches in digital and social media. Coming fresh from working several years at Scholastic as Senior Vice President of Marketing, Creative, and Digital, she has driven these A-list publishing brands including: Harry Potter, Dog Man, The Babysitters Club, and Goosebumps as well as helped to build the careers of emerging authors. In addition, she has worked with top authors and talent including Mitch Albom, Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver, Michael J. Fox, and Jamie Oliver. Prior to Scholastic, she held prior senior roles at MTV, Disney, and Cartoon Network. She is currently consulting for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt trade publishing and Cricket Magazines. In addition, Mindy serves on the adjunct faculty at NYU’s Center for Publishing program.

Caitlin Alexander spent eleven years at Random House, where she edited New York Times bestsellers in fiction and nonfiction, as well as RITA Award winners, Thriller Award winners, and Edgar Award nominees. She continues to edit bestselling and award-winning books through her editorial services company.

Dan Ambrosio, Senior Editor, joined Da Capo in 2012. His list of nonfiction titles focuses on health and wellness, fitness, parenting, business, sports, and personal growth, but he also acquires select memoirs and narrative nonfiction. Among his books are the New York Times bestseller Discover Your Optimal Health by Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen and The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living by Amit Sood, MD. Dan began his publishing career in 1997 at Warner Books before moving on to roles as a literary agent at Vigliano Associates and an editor at Wiley. In his career, he has published everything from training guides for triathletes to a bestselling business book memorably entitled Working with You Is Killing Me.

Patrik Henry Bass joined Amistad as a Senior Editor in spring 2018. His interest is commercial and literary fiction, narrative non-fiction, mystery, current affairs, self-help, wellness, and history. For nearly two decades, he was books editor at Essence Magazine, where he worked with a wide range of writers including Pulitzer Prize winners Isabel Wilkerson, Robin Givhan, Rita Dove, and Leonard Pitts, Jr., as well as Maya Angelou, Colin Powell, Terry McMillan, Edwidge Danticat, Pearl Cleage, Farah Jasmine Griffin, and Sonia Sanchez. He is the author of Like A Mighty Stream: The March on Washington, August 28, 1963 (Running Press, 2002), The Zero Degree Zombie Zone (Scholastic, 2014), and co-author of In Our Own Image (Running Press, 2001). Bass has written and edited for numerous publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, and The Paris Review. Bass has lectured widely on African-American culture and as an adjunct professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University.

Jenny Chen is an editor at Crooked Lane Books. Jenny began her publishing career in 2014 while obtaining BA/MA degrees in English literature, interning for Touchstone at Simon & Schuster, and Berkley/NAL at Penguin Random House. Shortly thereafter, she joined Writers House for an intensive education about all things publishing before infiltrating the Crooked Lane team to work with books from the one genre that has made her an unapologetic binger of macabre stories. Jenny has worked with New York Times bestselling, national bestselling, and award-winning authors at Crooked Lane and is now on the hunt for raw stories that challenge and explore the resiliency of the human spirit. She is particularly interested in the fraught natures of intimate relationships, especially of those between parent and child, and siblings. Jenny’s list focuses on small town/rural mysteries (and the secrets that corrupt them) and domestic thrillers, with particular attention to family dynamics, serial killers, and the wilderness.

Monique Patterson is an Editorial Director and Executive Editor at St. Martin’s Press. She has published countless New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors. Some of her authors include co-founder of Black Lives Matter and New York Times bestseller, Patrisse Khan-Cullors and New York Times bestseller, asha bandele (When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir), Kahran and Regis Bethencourt aka CreativeSoul Photography (GLORY: Magical Visions of Black Beauty), American Book Award winner, Jeff Chang (Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation and Who We Be: A Cultural History of Race in Post-Civil Rights America), New York Times bestselling husband and wife writing duo, Ashley and JaQuavis (The Cartel series), international bestseller, Jin Yong (Legend of the Condor Heroes), award-winning author, L. Penelope (The Earthsinger Chronicles), #1 New York Times bestsellers PC and Kristin Cast (Tales of a New World series and Sisters of Salem trilogy), #1 New York Times bestseller, Lora Leigh, and more.

Mitch Hoffman joined the Aaron Priest Literary Agency as a Senior Agent in 2015 and is actively building a list of authors writing across the spectrum of fiction and nonfiction. He was previously Vice-President, Executive Editor at Grand Central Publishing.As an editor, Mitch published over 200 books, more than 60 of which were New York Times bestsellers. He has nurtured the careers of debut novelists as well as global #1 bestselling authors, and has worked with journalists, memoirists, scientists, historians, and members of the military and intelligence services. Their books have won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Edgar Award, ITW’s Thriller Award, The Barnes & Noble Discover Award, and have been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, among many other honors.

Mitch is looking for fiction and nonfiction, including literary fiction, thrillers, and suspense, as well as narrative nonfiction, politics, popular science, history, memoir, current events, and pop culture.

Rebecca Nagel is a literary agent at The Wylie Agency, where she has worked for more than a decade representing writers of history, journalism, science, cultural criticism, literary fiction, poetry, and graphic novels, among other subjects. She received her BA and MA in history from The University of Chicago.

Matt Belford joined The Tobias Agency in 2020 after previously working at the David Black Agency and the Aaron M. Priest Agency. Once he received his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Emerson College, he decided to apply his talents in representing authors, as opposed to writing himself. A lover of all things science fiction and fantasy, Matt accepts his nerd status readily. Some of his favorite reads include: THE SUMMONER by Gail Z Martin, KINGS OF THE WYLD by Nicholas Eames, TRAIL OF LIGHTNING by Rebecca Roanhorse, and RED RISING by Pierce Brown.

Susan Hawk has worked in children’s books for over twenty-five years. She came to Upstart Crow Literary from the Bent Agency, and her clients include Alison Oliver, illustrator of the bestselling Baby Lit board books and the forthcoming picture book Moon; Ruth Spiro, author of the Baby Loves Science board book series; Marcie Colleen, author of the Super Happy Party Bears chapter book series and the forthcoming picture books Love, Triangle and Penguinaut!; Lisa Tyre, whose debut middle-grade novel, Last in a Long Line of Rebels, was a BEA Buzz Book title; Sarah Lariviere, whose middle-grade novel The Bad Kid is an 2017 Edgar Award Nominee; and Rachael Allen, author of the YA novels 17 First Kisses, The Revenge Playbook and the forthcoming A Taxonomy of Love.

Before agenting, Susan worked in the Children’s Marketing departments of Penguin Books for Young Readers, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers and North-South Books, where she managed campaigns for many books and authors including Eric Carle, Mary E Pearson, Richard Peck and Joan Bauer. She’s also been a children’s librarian and bookseller, and spent some time in Dutton Editorial, acquiring select picture book and YA projects for that list.