FYI, I’m taking over the agent spotlights from Casey at least temporarily. I will be providing all the same information we’ve shared in the past in an interview format. In addition, one lucky commenter will win a query critique from the agent being interviewed.
Status: 1/31/2025 Patricia is now at Looking Glass Literary and Media and is open to queries. Check the agency website to find out how to query her.
Hi Patricia! Thanks so much for joining us.
About Patricia:
1. Tell us how you became an agent, how long you’ve been one, and what you’ve been doing as an agent.
I've been an agent with Marsal Lyon Literary Agency since 2014. Prior to joining MLLA, I was pursuing a PhD in English and teaching writing and literature at the college level. But my dream job had always been to work in publishing, so eventually I decided it was time to make the leap. After a few internships, I was fortunate enough to land a position as an agency assistant and eventually moved up to agent. I say it often, and it’s true: this is the best job out there!
About the Agency:
2. Share a bit about your agency and what it offers to its authors.
Marsal Lyon Literary Agency was founded in 2009; our founders collectively have over four decades of experience in the publishing industry. The agency represents multiple award-winning and New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling authors. We are regularly ranked in the top five dealmakers for fiction on Publisher’s Marketplace.
Our goal is to help find homes for books that engage, entertain, and make a difference. From conception, through a collaborative and engaged editorial process, to finding a publisher and beyond, we partner with our authors to ensure success in finding the right publisher and long term success on the market. We want to work with authors not just for a book but for a career — we are dedicated to building long-term relationships with our authors and publishing partners.
What She’s Looking For:
3. What age groups do you represent—picture books, MG, and/or YA? What genres do you represent and what are you looking for in submissions for these genres?
On the children’s side, I represent all genres of MG & YA fiction, and I also represent women’s fiction and select adult romance. For middle grade, I generally lean toward warm, heartfelt stories with pitch-perfect voice – and a touch of humor or a splash of magic doesn't hurt. On the young adult side, I have quite wide ranging tastes and am open to contemporary realistic stories as well as more fantastical premises (including sci-fi/fantasy as well as contemporary fantasy and magical realism) -- as long as the book has a stand-out voice, beautiful writing, and a captivating and original plot. I tend to gravitate toward the quirky, strange, unusual and/or offbeat, and love innovative narrative structures when the author pulls them off. I'm actively looking for diverse books and underrepresented voices in all genres/categories that I represent.
4. Is there anything you would be especially excited to seeing in the genres you are interested in?
You can always find my most up-to-date specific wishlist items on my Manuscript Wishlist page, but more than anything else, I want to find books that I fall in love with and can’t imagine not working on. These are often the books that I wouldn’t have even known to ask for – weird and wonderful voices and stories that surprise me. If you think we might be a fit, I'm excited to take a look!
What She Isn’t Looking For:
5. What types of submissions are you not interested in?
Right now I’m still having a tough time with YA paranormal romance, dystopian, and urban fantasy, so anything in these genres would have to be very special for me to take it on. I love YA fantasy, but I’m feeling a little overloaded on assassins and medieval-inspired worlds right now – I’m finding myself drawn mostly to YA fantasy where the characters and world-building feels very different from what’s already out there.
As mentioned above, middle-grade gross-out humor doesn’t tend to be to my taste; I also probably would not be the best agent for Rick Riordan-style MG adventure.
Agent Philosophy:
6. What is your philosophy as an agent both in terms of the authors you want to work with and the books you want to represent?
One of the best things about this job is getting to work with people I believe in and who are just generally excellent human beings. I’m looking for authors who in addition to being talented are professional, hard-working, kind, collaborative, and dedicated to learning and growing their craft.
In terms of what kinds of books I want to represent, that’s simple: books I love and that I can’t imagine not representing. Falling love with an author’s voice on the page really does feel like falling in love: my pulse starts racing, I get excited/nervous/excited, I want to shout about this wonderful thing I’ve found to everyone who’ll listen, I start planning for the future – I think every author deserves an agent who had that kind of enthusiasm for their work.
Editorial Agent:
7. Are you an editorial agent? If so, what is your process like when you’re working with your authors before submitting to editors?
Yes, I think that in the very competitive current market it’s crucial to send out a book in the strongest possible form to give it the best shot of getting published. I’m very hands-on with my clients as we prepare a book for submission, and work with authors on everything from big-picture notes on character arcs and plot logistics to more detailed comments on the level of individual lines.
Query Methods and Submission Guidelines: (Always verify before submitting)
8. How should authors query you and what do you want to see with the query letter?
Please send a query letter along with first 10 pages of the novel pasted in the body of the email to patricia[at]marsallyonliteraryagency[dot]com.
9. Do you have any specific dislikes in query letters or the first pages submitted to you?
Like many agents, I consider it a red flag when authors compare their novels to children’s classics (A WRINKLE IN TIME and THE GIVER are great, but we’re in a very different market now) or mega-bestsellers like HARRY POTTER (this level of success is an outlier, and if an author is expecting that, I assume they have unrealistic expectations and will be disappointed when they learn the realities of the market). It’s also best to avoid mentioning that you think your book would make a great movie – first I hope you want it be a great book!
Also, the redundant term “fiction novel” drives me completely bananas.
Response Time:
10. What’s your response time to queries and requests for more pages of a manuscript?
I try to reply to queries within 2-3 weeks and requested materials within 2-3 months, although occasionally it does take me a bit longer.
Self-Published and Small Press Authors:
11. Are you open to representing authors who have self-published or been published by smaller presses? What advice do you have for them if they want to try to find an agent to represent them?
Yes, previously published authors are welcome, but please only query me with never-before-published projects. It’s very difficult, if not impossible, for an agent to sell a previously self-published novel unless the sales are astronomical. If you’ve already hit the self-publish button and then decide you want to pursue a traditional path, the best path is to write the next book and then query agents with that new project.
12. With all the changes in publishing—self-publishing, hybrid authors, more small publishers—do you see the role of agents changing at all? Why?
As time goes on, agents are becoming more and more like career managers, helping authors think not just about a single book but about branding and career arc as a whole. Hybrid authors often appreciate the long-term strategic planning that an agent can bring to their work.
For authors who are interested exclusively in self-publishing or publishing with small presses, I think an agent isn’t always as necessary. Most agents are still best suited to help authors who are interested in seriously pursuing traditional publication in some form, even if its one of many avenues.
Clients:
13. Who are some of the authors you represent?
My wonderful clients include Hayley Chewins (The Turnaway Girls), Margaret Dilloway (Summer of a Thousand Pies), Candice Iloh (Every Body Looking), Mary McCoy (I, Claudia), Anna Meriano (This is How We Fly), Axie Oh (Rebel Seoul), Jaime Questell (By a Charm and a Curse), Sandy Stark-McGinnis (Extraordinary Birds), Kristi Wientge (Honeybees and Frenemies), Alexandra Leigh Young (Idol Gossip), bestselling adult fiction authors Kate Bateman, Sarina Bowen, Charis Michaels and Loretta Nyhan, and more.
Interviews and Guest Posts:
14. Please share the links to any interviews and guest posts you think would be helpful to writers interested in querying you.
https://deaddarlings.com/interview-literary-agent-patricia-nelson-marsal-lyon-literary-agency/
http://booksbywomen.org/qa-with-literary-agent-patricia-nelson-marsal-lyon-literary-agency/
https://wildmindcreative.com/author-interviews/patricia-nelson-marsal-lyon-literary-agency
https://fromthemixedupfiles.com/agent-spotlight-patricia-nelson/
http://www.michelle4laughs.com/2014/10/query-questions-with-patricia-nelson.html
Update on 1/7/2025
Podcast at Middle Grade Ninja (09/22)
Interview at Darling Axe (12/21)
15. Please share how writers should contact you to submit a query and your links on the Web.
Please send a query letter to patricia[at]marsallyonliteraryagency[dot]com. Feel free to include the first 10 pages of the novel pasted in the body of the email. No attachments please.
For more information, our agency website is at: marsallyonliteraryagency.com. I’m also active on twitter at @patricianels, where I tweet frequently about what I’m reading, what my clients are writing, and anything else I’m excited about.
Update on 1/7/2025:
Additional Advice:
16. Is there any other advice you’d like to share with aspiring authors that we haven’t covered?
Know the market. Connect to a writing community. Read craft books (I frequently recommend SAVE THE CAT by Blake Snyder!) and keep improving. Revise until you can’t imagine revising anymore, then revise again. Find critique partners you trust and learn from them. Keep going: if 10 agents reject your book, send it to 10 more; if 100 agents reject your book, write another book. Published authors are the aspiring writers who didn’t give up.
Thanks for sharing all your advice, Patricia.
Patricia is generously offering a query critique to one lucky winner. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follower button if you're not a follower) and leave a comment through March 26th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter either contest. If you do not want to enter the contest, that's okay. Just let me know in the comments.
If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. This is an international giveaway.
Profile Details:
Last Updated: 1/7/2025
Agent Contacted for Review? Yes
Last Reviewed by Agent? 5/19/2020
Have any experience with this agent? See something that needs updating? Please leave a comment or e-mail me at natalieiaguirre7@gmail.com
Note: These agent profiles and interviews presently focus on agents who accept children's fiction. Please take the time to verify anything you might use here before querying an agent. The information found here is subject to change.
