Mark Falkin
Falkin Literary
My Manuscript Wish List®
Around 2013 I began transitioning from attorney to literary agent. Licensed in Texas, living in Austin, I’ve practiced entertainment, intellectual property, and civil rights law for 20+ years, representing hundreds of artists (platinum seller and Grammy® winners among them), entrepreneurs, and businesses, shopping artistic projects, drafting and negotiating entertainment contracts, securing trademarks and copyrights, licensing and selling intellectual properties, establishing businesses, litigating disputes. While I do maintain my Bar card, I am a full-time literary agent representing fiction and nonfiction. I am also a writer with two traditionally published novels to my name and I am always working on the next thing.
I’m particularly interested in literary fiction with propulsive storylines, commercial fiction that does something new, and nonfiction that fascinates and can spark individual and cultural change. I want a book to put me under its spell. A shortlist of clients includes Peter Benchley, Laurent Bouzereau, Kristen Lopez, Louisa Luna, David Masciotra, Christian Picciolini.
Fun facts about me:
I lyricized for and vocalized in an original, gigging rock band for a few years – while practicing solo rainmaker law.
Given my age, I’m a bit of a Halloween spaz. It’s sad really.
Football (aka “soccer”) is a thing: I coached girls rec for years, still play in a Sunday suicide league, and watch it a lot. #USWNT #USMNT #Barca
I really love being in a British pub.
Taos NM, New Orleans LA, and London UK have my heart.
Last three family Labrador names: Steve (RIP), Charles (RIP), Louis.
As a writer doing a book signing event, I have experienced the “empty chairs” phenomena.
As a writer doing a book signing event, I’ve experienced the “standing room only” phenomena.
I’m good at making my daughters laugh.
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be emailed to mark.falkin@gmail.com
1. No attachments. No links.
2. E-mail your query plus the first chapter or so (in the body of the e-mail).
3. Please identify the genre and provide the word count.
For nonfiction, please send a query before a full proposal.
Only one book/proposal at a time, please.
(Realistically, it’s much better to submit Monday-Thursday.)
If I catch so much as a whiff of m. a. g. a. coming off you, forget it. Got it? Bleating tryhard performative progressive allies likewise. Antipodes don’t interest me. Work employing dialogic imagination–putting various conflicting ideas into play then leaving it to the reader to adjudicate–does interest me. Frankly, I am sick of politics and our society’s obvious nihilism so you might be wasting your time with such projects.
Vital Info
Favorite sub-genres:
"Big Idea/Think", #ownvoices, AAPI Horror, Accessible Literary Fiction, Action-Adventure, Activism, Adult, Adult Horror, Adult Rom Com, Author-Illustrator, BIPOC, BIPOC Horror, Biography, Book Club, Character-Driven Horror, Commercial YA, Commercial adult fiction, Commercial and Literary, Contemporary Young Adult, Crime & Thriller, Crime Fiction, Cross-genre, Dystopian, Fabulism, Feminist Horror, Film & Theater & TV, Film/TV, Gothic Horror, High Concept, Literary Crossover, Literary Horror, Literary Noir, Literary Thriller, Magical Realism, Monsters, Mystery / Crime, Narrative Nonfiction, New Weird, Noir, Occult Horror, Political Thriller, Politics/Current Affairs, Pop Culture, Psychological Thrillers, Speculative Fiction, Sports, Supernatural Horror, Techno-Horror, Thriller, Upmarket Commercial Fiction, Upmarket Fiction, body horror, book club fiction, comedy, coming of age, commercial, creatures, crime, crossover, ghost story, horror, literary, nonfiction
I’d like the next…
LOVE ME BACK by Merritt Tierce
DARK PLACES by Gillian Flynn
COME CLOSER by Sara Gran
CLOSE RANGE by Annie Proulx
GEEK LOVE by Katherine Dunn
SWAMPLANDIA! by Karen Russell
FIGHT CLUB by Chuck Palahniuk
JAWS by Peter Benchley
FIVE DECEMBERS by James Kestrel
BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK by Ben Fountain
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN by Cormac McCarthy
CLOSE TO SHORE by Michael Capuzzo
ILL WILL by Dan Chaon
KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL by Anthony Bourdain (but in another industry)
My favorites include…
Film: Sideways, Ken Burns The Civil War, Blazing Saddles/Young Frankenstein, Jaws, Animal House, American Werewolf in London, Blue Velvet, Dr. Strangelove, Pulp Fiction, Fargo, Wall Street, Michael Clayton, Blade Runner, The Last Picture Show, Apocalypse Now, Goodfellas/Casino, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Lighthouse, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Big Lebowski, Cabaret, Moneyball, Hoosiers, Glengarry Glen Ross, Birdman, Capote, Ed Wood, The Jerk, The Birdcage, Eddie Izzard: Dressed to Kill, LA LA Land, The Wrestler, The Shining, Boogie Nights, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali: When We Were Kings, All the President’s Men, The Verdict, Rear Window, Spinal Tap, Withnail and I, The Adam McKay Films, Finding Nemo . . . I could go on for quite some time here.
Podcasts: Ellis James & John Robbins, Post Mortem with Mick Garris, The Movies That Made Me, Kermode & Mayo’s Take, Caught Offside
Radio: KOOP The Lounge Show, KUTX Twine Time/Uptown Saturday Night, BBC6, KCRW Electric 24, vintage Howard Stern
Music: 70s-90s Indie Rock & Post-Punk & New Wave, e.g., R.E.M., Nirvana, The Pixies, Radiohead, Janes, NIN, Depeche Mode, The Cars, Talking Heads, B-52’s; 60s era jazz; New Orleans Jazz and Second Line; Zydeco; Rockabilly; Instrumental surf rock of the 60s; 50s & 60s Lounge (esp. via Jay Robillard); Western Swing/Hot Jazz; Broadway; Kae/Kate Tempest’s spoken words; 70s Classic Rock; Americana/No Depression; old Country & Bluegrass; Scotch-Irish Folk; vintage Halloween horror sounds & music; A Tribe Called Quest . . . I could go on for quite some time here.
TV: Vintage Warner Bros. Looney Tunes, The Simpsons, Drunk History, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Frontline, Premier League on NBC, The Bear
Non-client books I’ve recently loved:
- Five Decembers
- The Shards
- Nothing to See Here
- Don’t Know Tough
- There There
- The Throwback Special
- Eileen
- Crazy Heart
- The Descendants
- World War Z
- The Barcelona Complex
- The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Isaac’s Storm
- Seabiscuit
- Where’d You Go, Bernadette
- Brand New Ancients by Kae Tempest
- My Favorite Thing is Monsters
- Come Closer
