Melissa White
Melissa White is a vice president, director of international rights, and literary agent at Folio Literary Management. She has represented Folio and placed books in the British Commonwealth and foreign-language markets for over a decade, brokering deals in more than 45 languages, while also representing a select list of clients domestically. Prior to joining Folio, Melissa was an agent at Elizabeth Kaplan Agency. She holds a degree in journalism from Boston University.
In the US market, Melissa represents authors of both fiction (including Brooke Beyfuss, Kim Culbertson, Jennifer Longo, and Emily Bliss) and nonfiction (bestselling creativity guru Todd Henry, and family finance expert Kimberly Palmer). She loves stories that explore the human experience and appreciates distinct voices that show different perspectives or illuminate other places and cultures. Some of her favorite authors include Louise Erdrich, Barbara Kingsolver, Emma Straub, J. Courtney Sullivan, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Julia Philips, Rebecca Makkai, Celeste Ng, Tana French, Lisa Jewell, Kate Alice Marshall, and Ruth Ware.
In fiction, she’s currently seeking literary, upmarket, and commercial women’s fiction, romcoms, domestic suspense, and thrillers. She’s especially interested in multigenerational stories, sibling relationships, outsider experiences, and stories specific to places or about people fighting injustices or societal circumstances just to survive.
In nonfiction, she is looking for commercial projects in pop culture, pop science/psychology, self-help, parenting, memoir, business, lifestyle, and health and wellness. She looks for a strong voice and expertise on a topic, along with an established platform.
How to Submit
Please send your query letter and (for fiction) the first 10 pages of your manuscript, pasted in the body of your email, to melissa@foliolit.com. Please include the word QUERY and the title of your project in the subject line. Due to the volume of queries I receive, I’m afraid I can only respond to those in which I’m interested. If you don’t hear from me within 30 days, please consider it a pass.