SPOTLIGHT FEATURE: Brenna English-Loeb from Transatlantic Agency

Good morning, everyone!

We are very excited to introduce another Canadian agent, Brenna English-Loeb, a literary agent at Transatlantic Agency.

Brenna has always gravitated to unique stories with a strong point of view. She is specifically looking for works of YA and adult science fiction, fantasy, mystery and rom-coms. She’s interested in crime and suspense, character-driven space operas, rare myth and fairy tale retellings, nature survival stories, epistolary novels, and heists. She also has a soft spot for stories that blend multiple genres and she is always looking for works by underrepresented groups and identities.

Transatlantic Agency was founded 25 years ago and is a literary management company with a team of 20 agents based in cities across North America. Transatlantic represents more than 700 American, Canadian and internationally bestselling and award-winning clients. Their client’s books range from commercial to literary for fiction and nonfiction, graphic novels and picture books, and they regularly appear on notable bestseller lists across North America and have won major awards.

Check out some highlights from our interview with Brenna below!

“I find a synopsis really helpful in judging early on if the story is going to go in the direction I would like it to, and if my vision for the story and the author’s vision are going to be aligned.”

Q. What brought you to agenting?

It was a bit of random chance. For a long time, before I was working in publishing, I didn’t know that literary agents existed, or the role they played in the industry. I knew that editors were a thing and I thought that sounded really cool, but I didn’t quite understand what agents were. Then I got an internship at a publisher, and from there I learned a lot more about the industry and ended up getting a second internship at an agency. From there I decided that I was far more interested in the agenting side of things as it plays more to my strengths. After that I was very lucky to be offered a job at an agency and I’ve never looked back.

Q. What’s your favourite thing about being an agent?

I think my favourite thing about being an agent is just being able to pick my own projects and what I want to work on. Having that kind of self-direction is really fun because it means that I get to follow my heart in terms of what I want to be working on, or who I want to be working with. And having that kind of freedom and independence is, I think, pretty rare in a job, just generally speaking. It’s so awesome to have that choice and to really be able to curate my list according to my own tastes and interests and to support the authors that I really want to work with.

Q: What is a day in the life of an agent like for you?

The biggest thing is staying on top of my inbox, which is probably the only constant. On a typical day I’ll check my inbox first thing, and now that I live in mountain time I’m always behind the east coast by a couple of hours, so when I get up I already have a lot of things waiting for me. So a couple of hours going through my inbox, replying to or filing things and updating stuff based on whatever has come in, and then after that I often have meetings within the agency or with editors or clients. And then after that it’s mostly project management, so working on projects for my clients, whether that’s reading or preparing something to go out on submission or giving notes. Often my days end up being a little bit of everything, which is nice as there’s always variety.

Q. What’s at the top of your fiction wish-list?

Right now, I would really love a space opera, something along the lines of The Vorkosigan Saga. Something large in scope but very personal in stakes, and just fun. I love a really fun, adventurous space opera. Other than that, I’m always interested in sci-fi fantasy, and I’m very often interested in mystery as well. I’d love to see a really tropey fantasy, for example something with an arranged marriage or enemies to lovers.

Q. What’s at the top of your nonfiction wish-list?

There is nothing I’m specifically looking for at the moment. When it comes to nonfiction I’m looking for someone who is an expert in their field who has something to say and something surprising because I like it to be something that I can learn about as I’m working on the project.

Generally speaking, I tend to be most interested in things that are sociological or scientific, that have a basis in something historical or something modern, and I want to learn something about the way the world and our culture operates, that I hadn’t really thought about before.

Q. What do you want to see in a query letter? And what do you hate?

Query letters are so difficult to write so I have so much respect and sympathy for everyone who writes them.

I will say that a common mistake I see is not actually describing what happens in the story in the query letter, and instead kind of talking around it. So for example, sometimes people will just list the themes of the story, or they’ll say people will love this because of X and it feels more like marketing copy and that’s not really of interest to me at this stage. I can figure those things out for myself based on the actual story, so that’s what I want to know.

Q. Same question when it comes to the synopsis. What should writers do? What should they avoid?

I find a synopsis really helpful in judging early on if the story is going to go in the direction I would like it to, and if my vision for the story and the author’s vision are going to be aligned. There’s nothing worse than starting something that’s very well-written and super engaging, and then realising halfway or three quarters of the way though that you have different goals for the story than the author does. And generally speaking, that doesn’t make for a very compatible relationship and you can’t very easily move forward from that. If I can skim the synopsis, and I don’t even necessarily read all the way through or want to spoil the ending, but if I can get a sense of how it is moving along structurally and if this is in the way that I would hope then I feel much better prepared when considering the manuscript.

The synopsis also doesn’t need to be really detailed and describing every single thing that happens, it only needs to cover the major things.

Q. What makes for a successful author-agent relationship? How can both parties get the most out of the relationship?

I think that when you’re working with an agent it’s really important to find someone that you can actually have a conversation with and you feel like you’re speaking the same language, you’re on the same page, you’re being heard, your concerns are being listened to, and your agent is explaining things fully to you. And I think you have to trust your agent, and if you don’t then I don’t think it can be a successful relationship. And this goes both ways. From the agent side that’s what you’re looking for in an author as well. Beyond the manuscripts it’s so important to get along on a personal level so that you can collaborate on everything and have that frank relationship where you can actually discuss somewhat, like fraught or sensitive topics. If you’re a writer and you want that to be your career, these can be emotional issues, and it’s important to be able to have a conversation about these things in a productive way and with someone who is going to be sensitive to that. So having that trust and the ability to communicate is really, really important.

Q. Any final words of advice for authors in the querying process?

I think the biggest thing is just to query a lot of different agents, possibly even more than you think. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, but also make sure those agent choices are well researched. It’s a balancing act between trying to query enough agents that you have a higher chance of success but not so many that the quality of your submission is sacrificed.

I also think it’s important to develop a group of writing friends who can be a support network and be your first readers and be giving you accurate and helpful advice. Writing can be so isolating without a community and it’s good to have that environment to be able to share the good and bad with like-minded people who can offer emotional and constructive support when it comes to your writing journey. We can always benefit from having multiple eyes in an editorial sense and there’s no one better than other writers.

Check out the full interview on Brenna’s AgentMatch profile here.

We hope you have enjoyed our series on Canadian agents, as much as we loved doing it.

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