Prior to joining DeFiore & Company, Elise Howard was the founding publisher of Algonquin Young Readers, an imprint of Workman Publishing, which she led from 2011 to 2022. Elise was previously SVP and associate publisher at HarperCollins Children's Books, where she oversaw the publication of many award-winning and bestselling books. Some of the authors she has worked with include Masuma Ahuja, Avi, Tracey Baptiste, Kelly Barnhill, Sara Farizan, Kelly Jensen, and Nova Ren Suma. Books she has edited have won the Newbery Medal twice, the Edgar Allen Poe Award for best juvenile novel twice, and many other awards and honors. She began her career as a book packager, conceiving, selling to publishers, and developing juvenile and adult fiction and non-fiction projects.
As an agent, Elise is looking for new favorites— hers, an editor’s, and ultimately the reader’s: juvenile and adult fiction and eye-opening narrative non-fiction, particularly stories of the natural world, visible or invisible, including the human mind and body, or of people and events previously overlooked. Elise is not looking for adult genre fiction. She is taking on a select group of illustrators.
Submission guidelines: Please email queryelise@defliterary.com with the title of your work and its category (e.g., adult n.f., middle-grade fiction) in the subject line. Please include in the body of your email:
- A brief, compelling description introducing your work.
- A paragraph (not more!) about you, relevant to your submission.
- For non-fiction, a concise synopsis that compels me to read on and the opening chapter.
- For fiction, the opening chapter.
- For graphic novels, the first chapter or the first twenty-five pages.
- For picture books, the full manuscript.
- For illustration, one to three samples and information about where to find you portfolio or social media.
- No attachments, please. Submissions that include them won’t be opened.
If Elise would like to read more of your manuscript or discuss representation, she’ll respond as within eight weeks of the date of your submission. She regrets that she is not able to respond to every submission.
