TFA & Neon! From left to right: Kent Wolf, Lucy, Marin, Hannah
This year, The Friedrich Agency made its way to our first ever AWP! Woooo! We’d been wanting to attend for ages, so getting to experience everything it had to offer was surreal, exciting, aaaand slightly overwhelming. But truly, it was heartwarming and serotonin-boosting to be in the same space with fellow literature lovers, writers, publishing professionals, booksellers—you name it, every single member of the book ecosystem. It was a literary lovefest and intoxicating to be a part of!
In addition to our various meetings (and book fair perusing), Lucy had two panels: “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About (or To) Agents” & “Defying Category: How to Sell, Edit, and Market a Genre-Bending Novel”. I wasn’t able to make the first so can’t dish on any details (I have full faith that she killed it!), but I can definitely tell you that her second panel was AMAZING. Picture this: 9am on a Friday morning, and the conference room is at about 90% capacity! This truly was an all-star panel that Lucy put together (and moderated); I truly wish I brought a tape recorder or something because every single piece of advice and perspective shared was SO informative. I was able to write down some pointers (again, I wish I could’ve written everything down), and these are some golden nuggets that I just think is a crime not to share:
Silvia Park (**A GENIUS** remember the name! Oh, and author of the forthcoming book LUMINOUS, S&S, March 2025): I think of genres as amplifiers of feelings – genre is a promise that you’re extending to your readers: these are the range of emotions and questions you’ll experience. That’s where genre is useful. Where genre is not helpful, is when people are dismissive of it. […] At the end of the day, regardless of genre, books are about the questions that are driving us crazy.
Hannah with her author Greg Marshall (Leg)
Carina Guiterman (Executive Editor at S&S): I think it’s more important for writers to know the other books in the same space, rather than know exactly what genres they are and use all the terminology that’s being thrown out today. […] The almost best way to receive comps as an editor is to know sort of the journey you’re going to go on. When I received the novel AFTERTASTE, and Lucy pitched it as The Bear meets Hadestown, I could kind of envision it even if I didn’t know 100%.
Annie Hwang (of Ayesha Pande Literary Agency): If a novel is weird and has so many elements at play, clarity is of utmost importance — what do you say and what do you not say in the initial query letter (and the latter would just be part of the journey of reading the book).
Just a little taste of what the panel was like! Anyway, I’m excited for all the panels we’ll be on next year.
The other highlight of our AWP trip was the party we co-hosted with Neon Literary (wish I took more photos, oops <3 )! Thank you to all our writers, friends, and friends of friends who showed up!
What a vibe and we’re so excited to host our next AWP party. Which leads me to say: we’ll see you next year in Los Angeles at #AWP25!
