Lauren E. Abramo

I’m a Vice President at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret and have a small and carefully cultivated client list, in addition to being the agency’s director of subsidiary rights.

Most of the nonfiction I represent is for the adult market and has a social justice connection (including non-fiction that isn’t primarily about social justice but is written from the perspective of and centering the needs of a community underrepresented in that field/discipline).

My adult fiction taste can best be described as upmarket commercial and accessible literary, and I’m most partial to literary fiction, contemporary romance, women’s fiction, and domestic and psychological suspense.

In children’s I concentrate on middle grade and young adult fiction. In middle grade I run the genre spectrum. In YA I tend toward grounded contemporary, from fun and fluffy (please send me more fun and fluffy!!!!) to sad and serious.

Here’s what’s on my specific wishlist as of November 2019:

• Adult Nonfiction
  • Nonfiction about the intersection of the healthcare industry and marginalized populations
  • Political/social justice nonfiction about the sex work industry
  • A serious, criminal justice-oriented look at marijuana legalization/decriminalization and its decarceration implications
  • Non-sensationalist true crime, including on cults
  • A journalistic deep dive into MLMs
  • Popular science, especially very accessible high concept books on biology, psychology, and neuroscience
  • Accessible reportage on contemporary social issues, especially inside perspectives on communities that are often neglected
• MG and YA fiction
  • Fun, fluffy YA
  • Middle grade or YA fiction and upmarket, accessible adult fiction and non-fiction by authors who are:
    • trans and/or non-binary and/or otherwise not cisgender/binary gender
    • disabled and/or neurodiverse and/or mentally ill
    • Native American and/or American Indian and/or Indigenous
    • and of course anyone at any of the intersections of the above demographics, including BIPOCs in those demographics
    • whether they’re writing something with a focus on identity or not (including fun and fluffy!) and whether or not they’re writing something with a protagonist who shares their identity
  • Fiction by #actuallyautistic authors with autistic protagonists (especially middle grade, especially contemporary)
  • Middle grade with old houses full of mysterious architecture, like secret passageways and stairs hidden by bookcases and spooky hallways to nowhere
  • Fun but sincere middle grade about kids who are facing real world stakes but are also unapologetically weird
• Adult Fiction
  • Contemporary adult romance with protagonists and/or love interests who are BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and/or disabled
  • Romance novels that don’t glorify persistence. Men who take no for an answer. Active affirmative consent.
  • Upmarket accessible fiction including “women’s fiction” and “book club fiction” by authors from underrepresented communities

• Fiction inspired by or non-fiction about real-world mysteries, like Morgellons, the Tamam Shud case*, the Voynich manuscript, Hinterkaifeck, and the Sodder children (*If you write me an incredible novel with a main character based on Jestyn, I will be your best friend for life.)
• Fiction that recognizes that friendship is as complex, fraught, and valuable as family and romance
• Underrepresented voices across all categories I represent. By underrepresented voices, I personally mean writers from marginalized communities that are not well represented in publishing.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to labramo@dystel.com

Please see DGB’s submission guidelines at the Guidelines and Details link below for the basics. If you’re responding to a very specific request from me above, please include #MSWL in the subject line.

Guidelines & Details