Paige Wheeler

Paige Wheeler is a founding partner of Folio Literary Management, LLC. Prior to forming Folio Literary Management, Ms. Wheeler founded Creative Media Agency (CMA) in 1997 and served as its President for nine year until she merged the company into her new venture, FOLIO, in 2006.

What I'm looking for

I'm looking to represent all different types of projects. Lately, I've been reading upscale commercial fiction (heading toward literary but stopping short) and nonfiction books that tell a unique story or ones in which the author has a huge platform. Most importantly, I love it if the book has a high concept. Can you describe it in a sentence? Is the writing really, really strong? Is your voice unique?

Fiction: All commercial fiction and Upscale (think book club) fiction as well as women's fiction, romance (all types), mystery, thrillers, psychological suspense, and some young adult.

Nonfiction: I'm looking for both narrative nonfiction and prescriptive nonfiction. I'm looking for books where the author has a huge platform and something new to say in a particular area. Some of the areas that I like are lifestyle, relationship, business (!), pop-culture, popular/trendy reference projects and women's issues.

What I'm not looking for

Fiction: children's, science fiction, fantasy

Nonfiction: academic nonfiction

How to contact me

I am currently accepting EMAIL queries only. Send your query letter to pwheeler(@)foliolit.com. Please write in the subject line of your email 'query' or it may get deleted as spam. Please don't include any attachments but just have the query in the body of the email.

Your query letter should include your name and contact information, the date, the type of project (genre), the word count, gratuitous flattery (thought I'd stick that in there), a brief summary of the project, if any editors have seen the info, a bit of personal information about yourself (books published, MFA, articles written, etc.), and a full synopsis and the first 5 pages of text. If you have sold previously, I'd like sales information about your books.

Some favorite (non-client) books

I love Victoria Holt, Pam Houston, Amy Tan, Patricia Cornwell, Lawrence Block, Helen Fielding, Kate White, Peter Mayle, Frances Mayes, Steven J. Gould, Chinua Achebe, Janet Evanovich, Laura Hillenbrand, Dava Sobel, Meg Cabot, Richard Ford, Tracy Chevalier, Philippa Gregory, to name a few.

What kind of writing inspires me

Well, what "inspires" me and what makes me money may be two totally different things. I'm motivated by projects that are commercially viable and that I love. However, sometimes I love books that aren't commercially viable. I like books that are well organized and constructed and have a brilliant and unique voice. More specifically, for fiction I like plot lines that make sense and may give a fun twist to a tired storyline, or that have really fun, believable characters that shine, and are well written with thoughtful prose. In nonfiction, I like for the author to have the expertise to write the book and the platform to help sell it. The projects should cover a niche that has yet to be addressed and be timely and necessary, or at the very least, interesting.

What I love about my job

I love to be an author's advocate. It's a thrill to make a writer's dream come true of selling their book. It's even more exciting to help that person grow their career. As much as I'd love to shut myself off from the world and read, I'm also an extrovert and love meeting with people. This job really fits my personality. Also, the individuals that make up the publishing industry are simply wonderful: they're smart, opinionated, well-read, and a bit quirky.

My response time

Please note, in preparation for maternity leave, I will stop reviewing queries after January 1st, 2008 and will be open to queries again as of April 15th, 2008.

I strongly prefer email queries although I do read snail mail queries but it takes a while. I typically respond to email queries within 2-3 weeks, though often more quickly than that. If you have sent me a query and haven't heard back, please contact me by the same means that you initially made contact. Include a copy of your original query. Please be sure that you have written QUERY in the subject line, otherwise it will be treated as junk mail. Snail mail queries will take me a bit longer.

If I've requested material from you, I typically respond within 4 weeks (for partials or non-fiction proposals), or two months for full manuscripts.