Interview with Literary Agent Gaby Cabezut

We are so pleased to have a moment to get some answers from our literary agent Gaby Cabezut, and she's giving away a query critique to one commenter. Details below.

What does being part of AALA mean to you?

It feels as an achievement and a recognition. I was very excited when I got the invite, because I had thought of applying (and I am not sure if you can apply as it is), but it made me feel I’m doing a good job and since I’m always interested in learning more, I jumped at the opportunity to connect with other agents and to learn more.

What should authors know about AALA?

The Association of American Literary Agents is an organization of professionals working at literary agencies. The primary aim is to keep members informed about current developments and to offer resources that support skill development as literary agents.  As there is no professional major to become a literary agent, this is an amazing place to network, keep you informed and learn from other’s experiences. 

When did you know you wanted to be a literary agent?

When I understood I had a passion to create opportunities and helping others through their stories. I love stories, I think they connect us in unique ways, whether it’s a picture book a middle grade a novel or a cookbook.

How many clients do you currently represent, and how do you balance your attention between debuts and established authors?

I currently represent 25 authors/illustrators in English/Spanish. How do I balance my attention? It’s hard. Lol. Well, I try to set up each person in a different slot in my calendar, so that I can give feedback, send out submissions, etc.

 

What is your editorial approach, and how much feedback do you typically provide on manuscripts before submission?

I like giving feedback on what I think it’s most commercial or might work better. These are just suggestions for my clients; in case they want another pair of eyes to point something. After many editors' meetings and many passes, I try to be more critical as to what the editors might point out, what they might love, etc.

 

What are your thoughts on the current market trends, and how do you see the publishing landscape evolving?

I feel that we’re in a time where connection is needed more and more, and I feel that writing and even publishing is a way to communicate, to unify, to protest, in a way. It’s free expression, after all, and we should keep fighting to keep our rights to communicate and express ourselves.

What’s something that surprised you when you first started agenting?

That agents are just like any other person. When I was a writer, and I pitched to agents, I remember seeing them as a unicorn, wondering if they exist. And yes, I’ve learned that we do exist, we make mistakes, we learn, we love, we are very passionate and driven, and that is amazing. I love that we can help make people’s dream become real, which is Seymour’s tagline, and it encompasses what we all do. It’s magical and empowering at the same time.

 

Do you judge a query on the book’s title?

Not at all. A title can change. I do judge it based on if they followed instructions, if they spelled my name right, but mostly about the pitch or logline, and then how the story starts, how it draws you in.

  

Fast Facts

Coffee or tea? coffee

Morning or night? morning

Rivers or oceans? ocean

White wine or red? Rosé. Lol. I drink either, but mostly red wine.

Champagne or liquor? champagne

Cupcakes or ice cream? Ice cream

Laptop or desktop? desktop

Casual or couture? casual

Ponytail or headband? ponytail

Shower or bath? I don’t have a bath, so bath, because I’d love to have one.

Summer or winter? Fall. Haha. Okay, I also like winter.

Motorcycle or bicycle? Bicycle.

 

About Gaby

Gaby Cabezut is a bilingual literary agent at The Seymour Agency. She has an extensive background in Digital Publishing and tech and an MBA in Digital Marketing Strategies.

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She’s passionate about diversity and uplifting LATINX authors through The Seymour Agency Mexico, where she currently represents authors in LATAM for the Spanish Market. Gaby is CLOSED to submissions at the moment.

Connect with Gaby on Instagram @gabycabezut.

Query Critique Details

Follow Gaby on Instagram and leave a comment here. Not sure what to comment? Ask her a question, let us know one of your fast facts, or share the book you've most recently read. Then, check back here on this post on October 20th, when we will update the post with the winner!

WINNER UPDATE! The random number pulled from a pile of folded pieces of paper was 4. Jodie, if you would like a query critique from Gaby, please email gaby@theseymouragency.com and mention Blog Winner in your subject line. 

The Call with Jennifer Graeser Dornbush

I knew from the time I was eight years old that I would be a writer. I was always writing little stories and making little books. I was that kid always making up plays and getting her sisters and friends to play the parts. As I grew up, that love for writing morphed into careers in journalism where I was telling human interest stories, and then, public relations and development where I was telling the stories of non-profits and organizations. Eventually, I leaned into my desire to get back to writing fiction and I dove headfirst into screenwriting. I found my forensic, crime writing voice and started to write a bunch of film and TV scripts. As these began to pile up, I got the spark of an idea to turn them into novels. It wasn't soon after that I found myself teaching a day-long forensic bootcamp for writers at the ACFW conference in 2014. That's where I met Julie Gwinn. It was the final hours of the conference and I was standing in line at the Starbucks when someone introduce her to me because they knew I was looking for a literary agent. We probably said five sentences to each other, but that was the start of my journey with Julie and Seymour! I had never written a novel before, so Julie TOTALLY took a chance on me. I spent the next year writing my first novel under Julie's gentle guidance. Then Julie spent the next year plus trying to sell it. In the meantime I had written a movie, God Bless the Broken Road, and we decided to novelize it. That was actually my first book contract! I remember I wrote the first three chapters while we were filming. Two weeks after I turned in those pages, we received several offers. We chose one and that was my first fiction contract with a publisher! It wasn't long after we sold my first novel to another publisher. 

Jennifer's Newest Release, Hole in the Woods

About the Author, Jennifer Graeser Dornbush:

Jennifer Graeser Dornbush is a screenwriter, author, international speaker and forensic specialist. As she says, “I grew up around death.” 

The television or movie screen is the closest most people will ever come to witnessing the forensic world. But Jennifer was raised in it, as the daughter of a small town medical examiner whose office was in their home. There were body parts in the fridge. She investigated her first fatality, an airplane crash, when she was 8 years old, picking up pieces of skull with her father who simply saw it as an anatomy lesson. It was the first of many coroner lessons she experienced over two decades. 

After exploring journalism and high school teaching, Jennifer turned seriously to screenwriting where she began to connect her coroner world to her writing. She sought out a degree at the Forensic Science Academy in Los Angeles to gain more forensic training and earned a unique kinship with LA’s top CSIs, fingerprint specialists, DNA scientists and detectives. To share her love of forensics with the writing world, she authored the top-selling non-fiction authoritative book, Forensic Speak, used not only by show-runners and writers, but also crime investigators and law enforcement. As a forensic consultant, she is frequently asked to consult with TV writers on shows such as Bull, Conviction, Hawaii Five-O, Leverage, Suits and Rectify. 

She created an Amazon top-selling mystery novel series, The Coroner’s Daughter. The first book in the series, The Coroner, released August 2018. The second in the series, Secret Remains, released January 2020. She is developing the series for TV. She wrote the theatrically released film and novel, God Bless the Broken Road (2018). She has developed a TV crime drama series with Echo Lake and Hoplite Entertainment. She also adapted a popular YA novel to script and sold a children’s show. 

She teaches screenwriting and mentors aspiring writers. Jennifer is a member of the Writers’ Guild of America, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America and FBI Citizen’s Academy Alumni. And she has a great sense of gallows humor. 

Website:  www.jenniferdornbush.com

Facebook: Jennifer Graeser Dornbush

Twitter: @JGDornbush

Instagram: @JGDornbush

LinkedIn: Jennifer Dornbush 

The Seymour Agency Q&A with Author Jen J. Danna

Seymour Agency: You recently launched your new series, the NYPD Negotiators, with EXIT STRATEGY. Why hostage negotiation?

Jen J. Danna: In LONE WOLF, the first book in the FBI K-9s series, I wrote a character who was a hostage negotiator. This guy had a really tough job as the middle man between the FBI, who wanted to close the case, and an armed gunman, who was holed up with his family. The negotiator was not only trying to save lives, but was also fighting to satisfy his law enforcement brethren, many of whom saw force as the best way to quickly get their man. This character really stuck with me, partly because the situation he had to deal with was different than anything I’d written before.

SA: How was it different?

JJD: In all my other police procedurals, the protagonist is always reacting to the initial situation, usually a murder, sometimes a natural disaster. I wanted to explore police work from the opposite, proactive angle. Yes, there’s a crisis in play, but the challenge is to save lives before they’re lost, to get the hostages out in one piece, and hopefully contain and arrest the person responsible.

SA: How did you develop Gemma Capello and her first responder family?

JJD: This was the first book I wrote solo, so it was fun to take advantage of my own family history to flesh out Gemma. Like me, her family hails from Siculiana in Sicily. Like me she lost a parent at a young age (though her loss is by very violent means). But I like writing ensemble pieces, where the characters appear throughout the series, so I crafted a family around her, a father and four brothers, who with only one exception are all NYPD officers in various branches of the department (the other brother joined the FDNY). In this way, she can work with at least one of them during her cases.

SA: How does her family play a part in EXIT STRATEGY?

JJD: When an alert goes out, interrupting a family celebration, Gemma, her father, the Chief of Special Operations, and her two older brothers respond. But when the hostage situation takes a turn for the worse and Gemma has to put herself at risk with the hostage taker, everything, including her life, will rest in the hands of her younger brother.

SA: What can we expect next from Gemma?

JJD: The second book in the series, SHOT CALLER, will release in summer 2021 from Kensington Books and Dreamscape Media. In it, Gemma is called to New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail when a riot occurs and both correctional officers and inmates are taken hostage. It’s a contained but extremely volatile situation, and Gemma and her negotiating team are pulled in different directions as everyone tries to steer the crisis—from the inmates, to the staff at Rikers, to the city administrators that run the Department of Corrections, to the NYPD. She also has to balance her need to peacefully resolve the situation, which takes time, with the tactical team’s desire to go in and rapidly resolve the crisis with force. It’s a real nail biter. Then the third book in the series, LOCKDOWN, will follow in the summer of 2022.

About the Book, Exit Strategy:

In this taut new suspense series featuring NYPD detective Gemma Capello and her close-knit law enforcement family, a madman brings a halt to the heart of the city that never sleeps . . .

After her mother’s death during a bank robbery when she was a child, Gemma Capello grew up to become one of the NYPD’s elite hostage negotiators. In a family of cops, there’s rarely a day when a Capello isn’t facing down some form of threat. Still, despite their unpredictable schedules, they always find time for their annual family summer picnic. But this year, a sudden phone call changes everything. 

A heavily armed gunman has taken hostages at City Hall. Gemma races downtown to join the rest of the Hostage Negotiation Team as they scramble to identify the captives—fearing the mayor may be among them. But as they scramble for answers and struggle to gain control of the circumstances, it becomes clear that the mayor is at the center of it all, just not in the way they initially believed. 

With several lives on the line and a criminal who always seems to be one step ahead, Gemma is the only one able to connect with the suspect. Soon, she finds herself engaging in a battle of wits while enduring a battle of egos in the command center. With time running out and a mastermind who has proven he’ll do whatever it takes to get what he wants, Gemma risks it all—her career and her life—in a last-ditch effort to save the hostages. Now, she needs to figure out how to save herself . . .

About the Author, Jen J. Danna:  

A scientist specializing in infectious diseases, Jen J. Danna works as part of a dynamic research group at a cutting-edge Canadian university. However, her true passion lies in indulging her love of the mysterious through her writing. 

With Ann Vanderlaan, she writes two series. Under Danna and Vanderlaan, they craft suspenseful crime fiction with a realistic scientific edge. Their five Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries include DEAD, WITHOUT A STONE TO TELL IT; NO ONE SEES ME ’TILL I FALL; A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH; TWO PARTS BLOODY MURDER; and LAMENT THE COMMON BONES.

Under the joint pseudonym of Sara Driscoll, they write the FBI K-9s mysteries series, starring search-and-rescue team Meg Jennings and her black lab, Hawk. The series includes LONE WOLF and BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, STORM RISING, and NO MAN’S LAND. The fifth book in the series, LEAVE NO TRACE, will release in January 2020.

Jen is also the author of the upcoming NYPD Negotiators thriller series, with the first book, EXIT STRATEGY, releasing in August 2020. The second book in the series, SHOT CALLER, will release in 2021, and the third book, LOCKDOWN, will release in 2022.

Jen lives near Toronto, Ontario with her husband, two daughters, and three rescued cats, and is a member of the Crime Writers of Canada.

You can reach her through the contact page on her website or by email at jenjdanna@gmail.com.

Social media links: Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram.

Interview with Jessica Lemmon

Hello Readers! 

Welcome to 5-stars Friday! 

Today we have an interview with 5-stars author Jessica Lemmon, another giveaway, and the announcement of the winner from the last 5-stars Friday. Jessica writes super amazing contemporary romance novels, and you can follow her on Instagram by clicking here.

***Risa's Interview with Jessica***

Risa: What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time before you were published?

Jessica: Calm down! You can’t run before you can walk. Savor every moment of the journey. They’ll be good times and not-so-good times, but you’re going to be better than okay.

Risa: That's really great advice! You've hit so many career milestones and reached destinations emerging authors are still striving for. I saw on your website that you have around 30 books (including the coming soon ones). How long does it take you to write a book?

Jessica: About 4 weeks.

Risa: Do you prefer ebooks, paperbacks, or hardcover?

Jessica: I find myself reading more and more paperbacks lately! I like to take a break from the screen.

Risa: Speaking of taking a break from the screen... what do you do when you're not writing?

Jessica: I’ve recently started a health and wellness blog called Lemmony.com. I hand-draw all of the illustrations on the website.

Risa: That's an awesome website! Okay, last question. What's one thing you can't live without?

Jessica: I’m incredibly adaptable and can live without almost anything, but if there’s one thing I prefer to always have in my arsenal, it’s coffee. 

Super thanks to Jessica for taking the time to answer some questions!

***GIVEAWAY ALERT***

One random and lucky commenter will receive a copy of Best Friends, Secret Lovers (Book 1, The Bachelor Pact). Not sure what to say in the comments? If you've read books by Jessica Lemmon, what title was your favorite so far? Or let us know if the last books you've read have been ebooks, paperbacks, or hardcovers. If you have a favorite local bookstore, what's the name of the bookstore?

***WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT***

Congratulations to Taylor R. Williams! You won a copy of Crime and Poetry by Amanda Flower, coloring bookmarks, and a sticker signed by Amanda Flower. By Monday, October 28, 2019, please confirm if you'd like a Kindle copy or mass market paperback of Crime and Poetry by Amanda Flower, as well as the U.S. mailing address for the coloring bookmarks and signed sticker. If you choose the Kindle copy, please provide an email for the Kindle copy to be gifted to you. This message was sent to the email you provided in the comment section. If you did not receive the email, please email assistant@theseymouragency.com. Thanks!

xox~Risa

IG: @thereisnobox

*GIVEAWAY RULES AND REGULATIONS
U.S. mailing addresses only. If prize is Kindle-related, winner must have a valid Amazon email to receive prize. Must be at least 18 years of age to win. Void where prohibited. Giveaway hostesses are not responsible for items once shipped. We reserve the right to change any and all rules or conditions as needed. Complete and correct information must be provided as requested, or the entry will automatically and immediately be null and void. Bounced email will automatically void an entry. If we cannot locate your follow or other entry options, your entry will be voided. Once the winner email is sent, that winner will have 48 hours to respond to the win with the information requested in notification email.

*Giveaway winner announced during next 5-star Friday. Contest closes on Thursday, November 28, 2019.