Jason Yarn

I've got solid material. Here's the synthesis: Jason Yarn (Jason Yarn Literary Agency, NYC; AAR/AALA member, ex-Paradigm Talent Agency) is genuinely broad across literary fiction, commercial fiction, SF/fantasy, thriller/suspense, crime, historical fiction, YA, and narrative nonfiction (history, science, food/lifestyle, current events), plus graphic novels. On query etiquette he's old-school and specific: paste the first ten pages of your manuscript or proposal into the text of your email (do not send any attachments) , with "Query" in the subject line, and due to high volume, he only responds if interested — so don't expect a pass notification. On pitch craft, he's said he wants concrete, specific hooks, not vague mood words — in his own words, "Don't be flabby – be concrete," meaning your pitch shouldn't lean on clichés like "Fate" and "Doom" untethered from an actual character or story element; he's fine with comp titles ("X meets Y") as shorthand but warns to make sure your comps "are not both classic novels – got to have something in there that worked in the last 5-10 years." His pet-peeve auto-passes include queriers promising "the next world-wide bestseller" (more common in adult thriller/political nonfiction pitches) , queries for categories he's not currently looking for (since his wishlist shifts over time) , and overlong, unfocused query letters — he wants them "as tight as you can make it." Taste-wise, recent deals skew literary/upmarket and offbeat: he placed Brie Williams's novel-in-stories "Alligator Baby" with Shortwave , suggesting an appetite for structurally inventive literary fiction alongside his established genre and graphic-novel clients.