Meet Reiko Davis

Before joining DeFiore in 2016, Reiko Davis was at Miriam Altshuler Literary Agency for four years. She grew up in Kansas City, received her BA in Comparative Literature and Art History from Brown University, and is a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course.

Reiko will be teaching “How to Research, Query, and Work with a Literary Agent” and participate in Thursday evening’s “First Page Read – Love It or Leave It.”

Wishlist

Reiko’s interests are varied, but on the adult side she’s primarily seeking literary and book club fiction. She loves historical, contemporary, or multigenerational novels both in the U.S. and internationally; family sagas; voice-driven coming-of-age stories; the occasional rom-com; and fierce, compassionately written works that grapple with identity and belonging and portray diverse lived experiences. She’d love to connect with promising writers of short fiction who are at work on a debut story collection and/or novel.

She also represents select narrative non-fiction projects that explore social justice, issues of race and gender, and the history and experiences of women and people of color. She loves compelling journalistic narratives that read like fiction or that use an intimate personal story as a lens for a larger issue or analysis. She consumes a lot of true crime in her free time so is open to seeing projects in the vein of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, The Fact of a Body, or Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil if a project like that were to cross her desk.

On the children’s side, Reiko is actively looking for middle grade projects that aren’t afraid to tackle big questions or important emotional truths, and do so through remarkable storytelling, humor, and heart. Right now she’s especially on the lookout for middle grade non-fiction in the areas of mental health, science, political activism, environmentalism, and narrative history. She has a real soft spot for middle grade novels that empower kids to make a difference in their communities.

She’s not looking for adult genre category fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, horror) or adult nonfiction with a highly prescriptive bent.

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

Q&A with Reiko

MWW: Your session, “How to Research, Query, and Work with a Literary Agent” will provide a bird’s eye-view of the publishing process. In your experience, is there one aspect of publishing thatauthors seem most unfamiliar with, or where you see a lot of misinformation? Tell us about it!

RD: Every author I’ve worked with has a different degree of familiarity with the publishing process. I work with authors at various stages in their writing careers, so I can’t isolate one aspect. However, I think one of the most common misperceptions concerns publicity (leading up to and in the first few months following a book’s publication): The earned media coverage a book receives does not directly correlate with book sales. Not at all. A book could get glowing coverage—book reviews, author interviews, inclusion in “best of” roundups—but, alas, that often doesn’t translate to higher sales. The media landscape has become more and more fractured, so even a “big” media hit – for example, a New York Times book review or a segment on NPR’s Fresh Air – doesn’t mean nearly what it used to in terms of the sales it generates. Often the sales bump we see from even hard-to-secure, prestigious coverage is modest at best. Don’t get me wrong: publicity is great for helping to spread the word about a book, recognize an author’s achievement, and establish critical acclaim. But if publishers and agents knew the equation for how to guarantee strong sales for their author’s work, they would do it every time. That’s not how publishing works. There’s been speculation in the industry that the most surefire way to catapult sales these days is a book being chosen by one of the highly coveted celebrity book clubs (Reese Witherspoon, Oprah, Jenna Bush Hager), but that’s like hitting the publishing jackpot. The number of spots in those book clubs is so tiny, and publishers are all vying for one.

MWW: What’s a trend you’re seeing in publishing that you’re excited about? Maybe one that you’re not as thrilled about?

RD: Oof. I’m usually quite optimistic and excited about certain trends! But…not right now. The post-pandemic market has been hard across many categories.

I’m not thrilled about the tough state of the middle grade market right now. And I’m not a romantasy fan, so that’s a trend that just hasn’t excited me. However, the fact that it’s gotten some more people to read and buy books – well, of course that’s something I love, if not the genre itself 🙂

MWW: You mention in your bio that you’re interested in short story collections. How are your expectations different for a short story collection than they are for a novel? 

RD: That’s a great question. A short story collection is different from a novel in terms of how I evaluate it and decide if I could represent it well. To be honest, the bar is higher for me to offer representation because story collections are much harder to sell (and require just as much work as a novel). First, I have to love it so, so much knowing that I’ll be in for a challenge. (I think that’s a good thing though! Makes me impervious to editor passes when I’m out on submission.) Second, the collection needs to hang together in a very convincing way. It can’t just be a disconnected or loosely assembled group of stories even if they’re wonderful. I need to have a clear vision for how I’m going to pitch a collection, and it’s essential to me that they’re clearly linked – whether through theme, setting, recurring characters, etc. Third, there isn’t the same expectation for a novelist to be previously published as there is for a short story writer. A short story writer needs to have a solid publication record for their short fiction before a collection will entice a publisher (and very often before an agent will offer rep). So by the time a short story writer queries me, or I’ve scouted their work and reached out, it’s important that they’ve placed at least a handful of their stories in literary magazine and journals.

MWW: What’s the best book you’ve read so far this year? 

RD: We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride

Register for Agent Fest Online 2024

Meet Taylor Scharbrough, Reiko’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.

I’m Taylor Jean, and this is the fifth year I’ve been an assistant for Midwest Writer’s Agent Fest. A lot has changed over the past five years. I used to be a field technician on archaeological digs, but now I am currently a Direct Support Specialist at Hillcroft in Muncie, Indiana. I’m currently considering getting my master’s in psychology with a focus on intergenerational trauma. 

I’m an avid reader, whose favorite genres are fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction. I adore comics, and short stories too. I adore working with the agents and midwest writers to make the event as enjoyable and easy to access as possible. This year I’m the assistant for Reiko Davis. Don’t be surprised if you see several emails coming from me.

Read our earlier posts about “The [Dreaded] Agent Pitch” and “What’s In a First Page Read with Literary Agents?”

Success Stories

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Send your success stories to midwestwritersworkshop@gmail.com and we’ll post it on the new tab on our website landing page!

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