Holly Root is a literary agent with Root Literary. She says: ÒReading as much as you do in this job, it’s easy to become overly analyticalÑassessing this or that from a market standpoint, considering the buyers and retail outlook before you’ve even fallen into the story. My favorite booksÑand the submissions most likely to catch my interestÑare the ones so assured in their execution that the only input my critical mind can muster is “That was fun. How soon can we tell everyone we know about it?” I’m delighted to be in a position of perpetual discovery.
Professionally, I’m proudest of the times my work has enabled my clients to take great leaps, whether creative or professional, to advance their careers. It’s an honor to be inside the process, participating in bringing great reads into the world, and a true joy to enable those books’ creators to build healthy, sustainable careers.
IÕm drawn to well-told commercial narratives across multiple categories. IÕm much more likely to keep reading if I know from the perfectly-executed first pages that this is someone whose voice interests me, someone whose story IÕd like to get lost in for the next few hours. I know IÕve found a winner when I catch myself sketching a potential submission list on any available scrap of paper as I read.Ó