Authors Lunch

Deb Futter is the president and publisher of Celadon Books. Prior to this role, she was the publisher of Twelve and vice president and editor-in-chief at Grand Central Publishing; previously, she spent 25 years at Random House Inc. She has acquired and edited numerous bestselling and acclaimed books by authors including Abby Wambach, Barbara Ehrenreich, Carole King, Jane Hamilton, Jean Hanff Korelitz, Min Jin Lee, Noah Hawley, Pete Dexter, Scott Turow, and Steve Martin, among many others. What criteria do you think about when you consider a work of fiction by a debut author? I like a book to be […]

Evil Eye. (Harper, September 5, 2023. Editor: Emily Griffin. Agent: Julia Kardon, Hannigan Getzler Literary.) Etaf Rum was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY by Palestinian immigrants. She lives in North Carolina with her two children and owns a coffee shop and bookstore called Books and Beans. Her first novel, A Woman Is No Man, was a New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club pick. How did you find your agent? Julia Kardon was kind enough to respond to my Twitter message telling her how much I loved Brit Bennett’s The Mothers and whether […]

Kristin van Ogtrop is a literary agent at InkWell Management, which she joined in 2018 after a decade as an InkWell client. Prior to becoming an agent, van Ogtrop was a magazine editor, working at Vogue, Premiere, Travel & Leisure, and Glamour before becoming the editor in chief of Real Simple, a job she held from 2003-2016. She was a columnist for Time, a contributor to The Bitch in the House and is the author of Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for a Half-Insane Working Mom (Little, Brown, 2010) and the essay collection Did I Say That Out Loud: Midlife Indignities and How to Survive Them (Little, Brown, 2020). As […]

The Woman in the Castello (Kensington, July 25, 2023. Editor: John Scognamiglio. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne & Miller Literary Associates.) Kelsey James is a historical fiction author and content marketer whose work has appeared in Conde Nast Traveler, Insider, ABC News, and The Huffington Post, among other outlets. Her debut novel, The Woman in the Castello, is an Indie Next and LibraryReads pick. A graduate of Dartmouth College with a degree in Creative Writing and Classical Studies, she lives with her family outside New York City. How did you find your agent? It took many years and countless rejections before […]

Julie Trelstad started her career as an acquisitions editor of architecture books at Van Nostrand Reinhold. Over several decades as an editor, marketer, publisher, and book production manager, she’s touched every aspect of creating and selling books. As director of digital rights at Writers House, a literary agency, Julie began working directly with authors, helping them navigate the publishing world and build their digital platforms. Julie is currently the principal of Paperbacks & Pixels, an author support and services agency, and head of U.S. Publishing for StreetLib.com, a global digital book distribution company. How do I find an appropriate agent for […]