In this interview, Jon Michael Darga answers questions about being an agent... and more! 

Jon Michael Darga of Aevitas Creative Management represents titles across a diverse range of genres, including memoir (most recently, the New York Times bestselling Vagabond by Tim Curry), pop culture (New York Times bestsellers How to Save a Life by Lynette Rice and Your Favorite Scary Movie by Ashley Cullins), platform-driven (New York Times bestseller How to Piss Off Men by Kyle Prue), and cookbook (Family Thai by Arnold Myint, named a Best Cookbook of 2025 by the New York Times and the Washington Post), as well as select commercial fiction primarily in the romance, mystery/thriller, and horror spaces,
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Darga graduated from the University of Michigan with Honors with a BA in English and Creative Writing, and later attended the Columbia University publishing program. Before coming to Aevitas, he was an editor at Crown, a division within Penguin Random House, where he worked on several bestsellers and award winners. He is the Co-Head of Aevitas Collaboration and was a Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree in 2025.

Susan Graham joined Dunow, Carlson, and Lerner Agency in January 2025 after nearly a decade as an agent at Einstein Literary Management. They hold a Master’s Degree in Children’s Literature and a Master’s Degree in English from Simmons College. They represent illustrators across format and age categories, genre and speculative fiction, select nonfiction, and children's and young adult prose. They are very interested in children's and young adult nonfiction. 

​Keep reading to see if Susan is your dream agent! 

Whether you're published traditionally, seeking representation, self-published, or just thinking about writing a book, you should have a website. It doesn't have to be fancy or complicated. All you need is a place that is uniquely yours outside of a third-party social media site. 

One of the biggest reasons to have a website is to make it easy for potential readers, agents, and publishers to find you. It's your chance to show exactly who you are as a writing professional and share your thoughts.

Regardless of whether you build your website yourself or hire someone else to build and maintain it, there is certain content you'll want to have. 

ABOUT THE AGENT: 

Jeanne de Vita recently joined Martin Literary Management, bringing her editorial expertise to the team.
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While working in acquisitions and as a developmental editor for traditional publishers and freelance clients, Jeanne has edited hundreds of aspiring and established authors, including NYT, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon bestsellers.

​After more than a decade working with stories at various stages of the publishing cycle, including teaching both writing and editing at the college level, Jeanne brings a strong editorial vision and passion for the publishing industry to her clients. She is excited by strong voices and compelling stories across the sub-genres of fiction, with a specific interest in romance, fantasy, thrillers/mysteries/suspense, horror, and speculative fiction.
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She has MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame and a BA in English from Iowa State University. Jeanne’s love for happy-ever-afters started in childhood, as her mother was a traditionally published romance author who wrote across the genres over her two-decades long career in publishing.

​Jeanne is committed to developing diverse voices and has run pro bono mentorships for underrepresented authors. Jeanne has volunteered extensively with medically fragile children, the arts, and survivors of gender-based violence. Jeanne is excited to discover new talent and to work with established authors searching for a caring, informed, and supportive advocate. 

Keep reading to see if Jeanne is your dream agent. 

I love interviewing authors. These interviews are very helpful to aspiring writers because the authors come clean about what they believe they did right, what they wish they had done differently, and other advice for writers.
 
So I went back to 25 debut author interviews of the past and focused on one single important question I asked them:
 
“Now that you’re done explaining your own journey to publication, what is one piece of advice you’d like to share with writers?”