Fueled by the thrill of reading a new story for the first time, Peter works creatively with his clients and the PLM team on marketing, branding initiatives and promotions to get great books into the hands of  readers. Before joining PLM, he was a story editor at a book-scouting agency working with film clients, and he continues to look for new ways to partner with Hollywood on adaptations and multimedia properties. His clients include New York Times bestsellers Soman Chainani, Lindsay Cummings and Brenda Drake, and Lambda nominee Will Walton. You can learn more about Park Literary at www.parkliterary.com, and you can find Peter online on Twitter (@petejknapp) and Tumblr (www.petejknapp.com).

How and why did you get into agenting?

My mom is an English professor and my dad is a business owner, and so getting into the business of books was the most natural fit in the world for me. Right out of college, I worked at a scouting agency that consulted on book-to-film adaptations for Hollywood studios. It was an excellent first job because it gave me a bird’s-eye-view of the industry; in order to do my job, I had to constantly talk to agents, editors, foreign publishers, and Hollywood development executives. I discovered two important things at that job that led me to agenting: first, agents have an independent, entrepreneurial approach to the work they do that was hugely appealing to me; second, not every book I love makes an obvious studio film, and I desperately wanted a career where I could champion the titles I believed in, rather than being limited to seeking out only titles our film clients would want to make.

When I heard that Theresa Park, the head of Park Literary & Media, was looking for an assistant in 2011, I didn’t hesitate: I sent in my resume, interviewed, and very quickly got a job on her desk. Theresa is a remarkable agent and an extremely generous mentor, and under her guidance I discovered my instinct was right: I loved working at an agency, and six years later, I love being an agent.

What gives you the most joy about what you do?

I may be cheating with this answer a little, but what I love most about what I do is everything—by which I mean that I love how varied this job is. I get to discover manuscripts; I get to help edit them; I get to sell them; I get to consult on cover design; I get to weigh in with marketing ideas; I get to meet with the buyers and distributors of mass retailers; I get to travel to book festivals like YALLFest, YALLWest, and North Texas Teen Book Festival; I get to attend excellent writers’ conferences, like SCBWI regional conferences and the Midwest Writers Workshop and the Kweli Color of Children’s Conference. I am never bored with my job—it’s too dynamic, and there’s no time for boredom anyhow. Plus, I love that this is a job that requires faith—which is to say, a gut belief that my taste in a manuscript is spot on, and that the hard work I’m doing (and that I’m asking my clients to do) will pay off. I love taking that leap—and I love the moment when I get to call an author and say, “It’s happening. You have an offer. You’re going to be published.”

When you're reading a submission, what makes you say I have to be this author’s agent?

I am lucky to have seven amazing colleagues, and they can all tell you this as well: when I’m loving a submission, they know it. I will send texts of memorable quotes if I’m reading over the weekend or sneak into my colleagues’ offices during the day to tell them how excited I am. I also find that if I’m into a submission, I edit as I read it, leaving little notes in the manuscript about how the author can push the story further. I think the best word for it is “vision”: I can see what the story is and what it can become, who I can sell it to, how it can be published. I sometimes even begin imagining the movie, the book trailer, the website, the marketing material. When I want to sign a book, it’s because it fully captures my imagination in this way.

How do you work with your clients? 

Each client’s needs are different, so how I work with them varies. In terms of editorial work, I tend to be very hands-on. For example, let’s say I’ve just signed a debut novel: After we agree to work with each other, I read the manuscript again and then deliver an editorial letter as well as notes on the manuscript pages. We keep working on the book together until it is ready to submit—sometimes this is one quick round of edits, and sometimes it takes several editorial rounds, depending on how much developmental work is required to get the manuscript into shape for submission.

My job doesn’t end after I’ve sold the book to a publisher, though. Our agency is unique in that we have an in-house marketing person (Emily Sweet, our executive director of brand development & client promotions) and an in-house retail relations person (Andrea Mai, our director of publisher & retail relations), and so I work very closely with the two of them, the client, and the publisher to develop a cohesive strategy for publication. We also have an in-house foreign rights team, which sells our clients’ titles internationally, and we work with a network of Los Angeles based film and TV agents to figure out a strategy on that front.

This is why I love my job—it’s such an excellent mix of developmental work, editorial work, selling, and business strategy.

You can submit a query to Peter during the month of May queries@parkliterary.com and instructions are:

Please send your query and the first chapter or approximately 10 pages pasted into the body of the email to queries@parkliterary.com. Please put “Peter Knapp” as well as the category and genre of your book (i.e.: “Peter Knapp – YA Fantasy”) in the subject line of your email. I respond to all queries within 12 weeks of receiving them.