Meet Shannon Snow
Shannon Snow worked in finance and marketing for 18 years before turning to her childhood first love… books and writers. She started her publishing career in 2018 and then joined Creative Media Agency, Inc. as an Associate Agent in 2020. She holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature, and also manages the Audio rights department for CMA.
Shannon will be teaching “Creating your Goals, Motivations, and Conflict” and participate in Thursday evening’s “First Page Read – Love It or Leave It.” She is also on the Query Letter/First Page Critique team.
Wishlist
Shannon has a very eclectic reading taste. She looks for books that have a unique angle, and authors that have a wonderful, engaging voice that makes her want to read a sentence again and say “wow” just because of how you worded something. Characterization is a top draw for her because if she can’t connect to a character, she can’t fully engage with a story. So, she’s looking for vivid, well-developed characters. She absolutely loves when an author can make her laugh, make her pull out her tissue box, or just make her feel emotion in general. She is actively acquiring right now and looking to build up her list. She is looking for Adult and Young Adult/New Adult fiction in most every category. Some specific areas she’s hungry for right now include:
- Romance (sweet to steamy) in both Adult and YA/NA. Some specifics: enemies-to-lovers, romcoms with great banter, mistaken identify type stories, sports heroes like boxing, MMA, underground boxing, or hockey are especially intriguing; also love some serious, darker romance or romances that skirt the edges of women’s fiction –This can include some paranormal, contemporary magical realism or speculative fiction, but grounded in reality –Open to some “why choose” or reverse harem if it’s the right story; also open to polyamorous romances
- Horror in both Adult and YA/NA. Love locked door, locked room scenarios, haunted house, haunted woods, survivalist stories (this can include psychological thrillers); eerie creepy horror
- Light fantasy with a touch of romance, but not romantasy right now
- Scifi in both Adult and YA/NA – Space operas, space academies, space exploration, etc
- YA/NA dark academia
Take a look at bios and wishlists for our full Agent Faculty
Check out the Agent Fest Online schedule!
Register for Agent Fest Online 2024
Meet Robin Dubree, Shannon’s Assistant for AF2024
Midwest Writers Workshop likes to include interns, mostly college students majoring in English, to coordinate and facilitate the agents’ pitch schedules. You’ll be hearing from them regarding your appointment time, and they’ll help you meet the agents in the Zoom room when it’s time for your pitch.
Robin Dubree (he/they) is an aspiring writer and poet. He is a senior English and Creative Writing student at Indiana University South Bend, where he is also an intern for Wolfson Press. His poems have been published in IUSB student journals Analecta and New Views on Gender. He has been writing since early childhood and has no plans of stopping anytime soon.
Q&A with Shannon
MWW: Your session “Creating your Goals, Motivations, and Conflict” sounds like it includes advice about the craft of writing itself, which I love to hear about from agents. In what ways can thinking ahead about the book pitch and query help a writer on their work-in-progress?
SS: The more you know about your story’s Goals, Motivations, and Conflict, which is the meat of your story, the easier it will be for you to distill that down into a sentence or two for pitch sessions. Your GMC is your story, so being able to state your story in one to two sentences benefits you not only to understand it yourself and know where you’re going with it, but also be able to easily explain it to succinctly to others, hitting all the key points that an agent is hoping to hear.
MWW: When you request pages after a pitch session, what are some specific elements in a manuscript that help determine whether you think you’d like to work that story (or not)?
SS: If a story has a good flow, good pacing, engaging characters that pull me in and make me feel like I’m experiencing things with them is always a plus. Avoiding telling vs showing shows me your writing has reached a certain level of maturity and polish, especially when you also have a compelling, engaging narrative voice and style. Information dumps early on rather than gently weaving those details in a bit at a time can kill your story’s momentum and cause me to stop reading. You will probably not be able to avoid the occasional grammar issue or typo, but taking time to polish as much as possible will help make your story read more smoothly for me. Lastly, have your characters fully developed where I care about their dilemma and want to root for them.
MWW: How would you describe a successful pitch?
SS: A successful pitch is where an author can clearly and succinctly state the key elements of their story in up to three sentences. Again, distill it down to the who, what when, where, and why of it all. Who is it, what do they want to achieve, why do they want it (what are the big stakes for them) when (where’s the setting…and this can be conveyed through language you use, or stated straight out), where is it taking places in either time, place, or both, and lastly, what is standing in the way of them achieving what they want…the conflict. Other than that, feeling a good rapport on both sides is important, as that first impression can tell both author and agent whether this is someone they can and would want to work with.
MWW: What’s a trend you’re seeing in publishing that you’re excited about?
SS: Romance, both steamy and romcom are always good bets. Additionally, horror novels, eerie/creepy and unique. Romantasy is somewhat saturated but fantasy with unique worldbuilding and a great story that happens to have a touch of romance in it is always delightful.
