Q&A: Literary Agent Saritza Hernández Talks Books and Representation (Part 1)
Check out what stories Hernández wants to see more of, tips for working as an agent, and more in this two-part interview.
(Photo credit: Saritza Hernández)
Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing literary agent Saritza Hernández, who is currently part of the team at Andrea Brown Literary Agency. In Part 1 of 2, read her thoughts on how the publishing industry can be more inclusive and her journey as a literary agent so far, among other important topics.
The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity, and split into two parts.
Q: To start my first question is, how did you get started as an agent and what has that process been like over the years?
A: I get to say this story a lot because everyone always asks me, especially people who are looking to get into the industry. And I will preface it by saying that most agents, if you ask them how they got into agenting, everybody's story is different because it's one of the few areas in publishing where we are able to enter the space from various backgrounds and bring our expertise in a way that helps us be successful in publishing. So, my trajectory came through textbook publishing. I worked in the textbook industry for some 18 years. I was at Harcourt before it was called Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company. Before that merger, it was Harcourt School Publishers, and I started there as a as an admin, just helping in the technical production team. One of the things that they had at the time, was the ability to cross train in other departments. They gave you opportunities so that you can go into another department and learn for like a week and then have someone sitting in your department and learn your job, which also helps people understand each other's roles. But what it did for me was, it allowed me to enter spaces that I probably would not have thought to look out for in the publishing industry.
I am one of those people that ask a lot of questions. I'm going to be asking and the manager at the time was like, ‘you know, Saritza, these are things that literary agents usually ask us’ and I'm like, ‘what is that? What's that that department like?’ And so, they explained the process. At the same time, almost in a very serendipitous way, one of my friends had written a beautiful romance novel that featured a queer love story at the heart, and she was finding it difficult to find a publisher, and she didn't really know the process. We were like, okay, let's help. Let's see what we can do. We started looking at what literary agents do and I ended up researching queries and talking to agents and eventually was able to get a mentorship at the Lori Perkins Agency in New York while being in Florida. So I am in Orlando, Florida. I was able to do an internship remotely at the time, and at the time we didn't have the remote opportunities we have now.
But this agency, because they there were small and the owner was able to communicate with me via email, and we could get on conference calls, and she could mentor me that way, I was able to then get into the industry in a way that was unconventional. But I brought in my experience from publishing to understand some of the pieces and then my passion for working with authors that were, or are, from underrepresented communities that have been traditionally kept from publishing because publishing has been very white, and very straight, and very conservative for a very long time. So fast forward to 12 years later, I represent authors — 95% of my list or more consists of authors of color with a big focus on queer and neurodivergent cross sections.
Q: I wanted to ask you because I know this is something a lot of writers wonder, what are you looking for right now in terms of the stories that you're passionate about, that you think are maybe missing from what's being published currently?
A: I'm currently closed to queries, but I am open to particular opportunities. So, for example, when I go do an event at SCBWI or a writers’ conference, I usually give them a link to be able to submit their work directly to me. I'm closed to the public.
I've let everyone know that I really only want to work currently with creators who are from underrepresented backgrounds. I want stories that are centering joy and just normal, for the lack of a better word, experience, but through a lens that hasn't had an opportunity to be shown, right? For example, one of my most recent books that one of my clients released is a romantasy, a young adult romantasy, but it features [an] Afro-Boricua main character and an Afro-Mejicano main character. And it's not about coming out. It's not about explaining their culture to someone. It's simply them trying to solve a problem but some of the problems, some of the ways that they're going to approach solving that problem are going to be led by their experience and their community and how they approach things, right? It's a celebration of the community while at the same time giving you a story that feels familiar, so people understand it, right? I'm looking for more stories like that. I'm looking for in the middle grade space specifically, I want more stories that talk about experiencing life, especially right now with all of the fear that we have in the next four years and beyond, of what is going to happen. But still showing kids having fun and finding joy and making their own joy.
I know it's very broad but the reason I say that is because there are times that I will take on a project that may need a little bit of work, because the story is such a great premise that I'm like, ‘okay, I can help you get it there,’ while at the same time wanting to promote more of those stories. Because I think publishing also thinks that, if it's a writer of color, if it's an Indigenous main character that we have to discuss the pain. And it's like we have many books about the pain, can we not? Can we talk about something else? So, stories like that. I focus a lot on fantasy and romance and science fiction, my three favorite genres across the board, across like categories from kid lit all the way to adult. But the one thing that I'm not seeing in my inbox that I would love to see more of is nonfiction, like narrative nonfiction. Think essay collections or even a conversation analysis that's not prescriptive, that doesn't sound like a textbook, that gives you a story about what happened, that's historical from the perspective of communities in Latin America — specifically Latin America — anywhere in Latin America. But we don't have enough of those… so I'd love to see it. Kid lit specifically would be great, like middle grade and YA that talks a little bit about the history that has led to us today.
Q: You touched upon it a little bit, there have been some efforts to help to make the publishing industry more inclusive. And there are some organizations, for example, like We Need Diverse Books that work towards that goal. But I wanted to ask you, based on your job, on your experiences and what you've seen, what, if anything, do you feel like maybe still needs to be done to make the industry less white, as you said?
A: Yeah, there have been a lot of initiatives. The problem with the initiatives in the publishing industry on the publisher's side, is that they were so performative and when they were called out on it, they're like, ‘no, look at what we've done…but then little by little, they started letting go of that party line, right? And started actually showing what we all knew to be true. So, they created these DEI divisions. They hired editors across the country, opened up remote opportunities to people from underrepresented communities, but did not give them agency within the publishing industry to be able to affect change. And then said, ‘now that we have to pay the lease again on the building, we need people back in the building, so we have to get rid of remote opportunities or we have to get people to move to New York, but we're not going to pay them more for it, we're just they're going to get paid exactly the same, they need to figure out how to get here.’ They closed the opportunities in a way that has been very detrimental to the list because you can see the types of books that are coming out in 2025 and 2026 that have been acquired in 2021, 2022, that show you have that one book on your list that's from a person of color or that one book that is queer or the one cover that shows a character in the background on a wheelchair and that's their way to kind of say, ‘oh well look at us being representative of the community at large’ and they're not. On the other side, we're seeing editors who were formerly working— especially editors of color — who were working formerly in publishing, now moving to the literary agent side.
To give a little plug to our Association of America Literary Agents —AALA — that association, that organization has created the Literary Agents of Change, which comprises of agents who represent or are part of underrepresented communities and are doing the work to then fight back with the publishers and say, ‘you are not acquiring the way you say you are going to. You are putting in obstacles and roadblocks that before you said you had removed and now, they're back in place. Like where is your DEI representative?’
I had two editors that both were Latino who were looking for more Latino representation. They're no longer there. What happened, right? What is your retention level like? We're able to have those conversations with them to kind of like as an organization, put a little bit of weight behind it … we're going to call it out the injustices. And we're going to do everything we can to get the publishing industry to course correct as much as possible.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Bio: Known as the first literary agent to represent marginalized creators in the digital publishing space, Saritza is a self-proclaimed geek who loves escaping into worlds and stories from all walks of life. Her love of great storytelling is what has driven her work in the publishing industry for the past 18 years, and her passion for amplifying queer and BIPOC voices is what continues to drive her today. An avid romance, fantasy, and science-fiction reader, Saritza is a strong advocate of traditionally underserved and underrepresented communities. She enjoys fresh voices in YA and adult genre fiction. She specializes in romance and young adult fiction by and for diverse audiences. Learn more about her interests here: https://www.andreabrownlit.com/Team/saritza-hern%C3%A1ndez