2026 Agents / Editors / Publishers
Miranda Darrow / Editor
Miranda Darrow is a freelance fiction editor and #RevPit online revision contest board member and contributing editor. She's a frequent presenter at writing groups, conferences, and online writing events. Miranda’s Concise Fiction Academy series of writing craft books and courses combines her experience as a freelance editor and a corporate attorney into an executive summary of complex writing topics with an overview, key recommendations, and sources for more information, all with a dash of humor. Miranda is doing a slow tour of the upper Midwest: she grew up in Wisconsin in a county with six times as many cows as people, attended college in Iowa surrounded by tall corn, and now lives in the great north woods of Minnesota with her husband, teen sons, and a bossy little dog.
Tommy Dean / Agent
Tommy Dean is an associate literary agent with Rosecliff Literary. He is looking for crime, mysteries, thrillers, and upmarket novels in these genres. He loves stories with clear stakes and surprise endings. Give him your characters with secrets, past loves, past crimes, and past mistakes that lead to unique stories.
John DeDakis / Editor
Award-winning novelist John DeDakis is a former editor on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." DeDakis is the author of six traditionally published mystery-suspense thriller novels. He is a podcaster, one-on-one writing coach, manuscript editor, and regularly teaches novel writing at literary centers and writers’ conferences nationwide.
Website: www.johndedakis.com
Ronald Gerber / Agent
Ronald Gerber is President at Lowenstein Associates, where he has been a literary agent since 2019. His clients include: Daniel Kenitz, whose debut thriller THE PERFECT HOME was published by Scribner in 2025; Sonja Thomas, author of the acclaimed children’s books SIR FIG NEWTON & THE SCIENCE OF PERSISTENCE and OLIVE BLACKWOOD TAKES ACTION! with Aladdin/Simon & Schuster; and Lorissa Rinehart, author of feminist biographies FIRST TO THE FRONT and WINNING THE EARTHQUAKE with St. Martin’s Press. Ronald is focused on cinematic stories with strong hooks and relatable characters, and is always looking for projects from queer, BIPOC, and other underrepresented authors. He is a proud graduate of Bard College at Simon’s Rock and Clark University. He resides in Queens, New York with his wife and too many books to count.
Cate Hart / Agent
Cate Hart is a literary agent with Harvey Klinger since 2019. While she specializes in Historical, whether Middle Grade or Young Adult, Women’s Fiction and Romance, she is also looking for fresh takes on fantasy, cozy mysteries, thrillers and all things Gothic.
Dean Krystek / Agent
Dean is holds a BA in English from the University of South Carolina. A Pittsburgh native, he retired from the US Army as a Sergeant Major after a long career that began in the sizzling heat of Vietnam and ended inside the cool interior of Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. After stepping away from the military, Dean held numerous positions in state government and the private sector, including for a number of years as a DoD contracted trainer in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. When he finally turned his attention from wars to words, he brought WordLink, an agency that had begun in New Zealand by a college friend, to Pennsylvania. WordLink is a small town agency with worldwide reach. Its agents reside in Colorado, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and New York. Visit the www.wordlink.us for the agency’s wish list and current client list.
Dean is looking for authors with distinctive voices whose narratives invoke a strong sense of time and place and whose stories create a memorable reading experience. He’d like to see mysteries (whodunit, cozy); psychological suspense; thrillers (looking for small town America setting vs international in scale); military fiction (character-driven pieces). In YA he would like to see mysteries, paranormal, sci-fi, coming of age, and suspense with writing that stirs the imagination and caters to the young reader’s sense of wonder and adventure.
Amber Meyer / Editor
Amber Meyer is a Story Grid Certified Editor with a passion for murder mysteries. If you long to commit fictional murder, then Amber may be your ideal partner in crime. Amber currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three crazy kids and four fur-babies. She dreams of living on a beach In Hawaii and becoming the next Agatha Christie.
Nicola Pittam / Agent
Nicola Pittam is a British journalist, award winning author and screenwriter. She has published 4 best selling books and her scripts have placed in such contests as the Bitch List, The Grey List’s Top 40 Writers Over 40 in Hollywood in 2023 and 2025, Shore Scripts, Atlanta Film Festival, LA International Screenplay Awards, Table Read My Screenplay & Austin Film Festival. She is also the COO and Acquisition Agent for Dark Anthem Press. Nicola is a member of The Author’s Guild, Women In Film, The IWC (Independent Writers’ Caucus) and The International Press Association.
Dark Anthem is currently looking for genre fiction – horror, sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian YA, dark gothic and thrillers.
Website: https://onemoorer.com
Mason Rowlee / Agent
Mason Rowlee joined DeFiore & Company in 2023. He previously worked as an assistant literary scout at Jenny La Plante, Inc., where he developed an eye for the type of books that appeal to international publishers and film production companies. He also interned at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, CBS Television Production, McIntosh & Otis Literary Agency and Gotham Writers Workshop. Originally from rural Upstate New York, he is a graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill.
Mason only represents adult books. He is seeking literary novels with genre elements, unputdownable thrillers, horror with nuanced social commentary, and novels that embrace the absurd. He is particularly interested in working with queer authors.
Jaden (Beth) Terrell / Editor
Jaden (Beth) Terrell is a Shamus Award finalist and the internationally published author of the Nashville-based Jared McKean private detective series. Terrell’s short stories, which range from cozy to noir, have appeared in several anthologies, and she’s a contributor to ITW’s The Big Thrill online magazine and Now Write! Mysteries, a collection of how-to essays for writers of crime fiction. Terrell is the recipient of the Killer Nashville Builder Award and two awards for service to the Southeast Mystery Writers of America. She offers workshops, coaching, and courses for writers.
Website: https://www.jadenterrell.com
Kristen Terrette / Agent
Kristen is honored to be a literary manager with Martin Literary and Media Management. She’s excited to continue building her list featuring titles in young adult, new adult, fantasy, thrillers/mysteries/suspense, romance, women’s fiction, horror, literary fiction, historical fiction, contemporary, non-fiction, all faith-based books.
She has a BA in Early Childhood Education and MA in Theology and Religious Studies which led her into children’s ministry for many years. Eventually, her lifelong love of books and authors drew her back to her original dream of entering the publishing world. Kristen is a multi-published, award-winning author and freelance writer. She’s held such positions as the Blog Manager for a national women’s ministry and the Social Media Manager for a publishing house. All these components landed her a spot in the coveted Writers House Intern Program. There, she received valuable hands-on agenting and publishing experience which she brought into her position, and now learns every day beside her amazing MLM colleagues. She was also named an ECPA Emerging Leader in 2023 and went through a precious mentorship during 2024 to further her understanding of the Christian Publishing landscape.
Kristen has long been a voice for diversity. She’s written extensively on topics of racial reconciliation and unity and has been a facilitator of groups around these topics in her church. In all her focused genres, she welcomes books with BIPOC or disabled main characters and diverse friendships. She believes books change people in all the best ways and that every child should see themselves in the pages.
Helen Thornton-Gussy / Editor
Helen Thornton-Gussy has been editor and owner of Edit Co. for the past eight years, providing editing services such as developmental (structural) editing, line editing, copy editing and proofreading. She works in both US and UK English and loves a good Oxford comma.
With many strings to her bow, Helen decided to give up the corporate world to focus full time on her editing business. With the knowledge she has gained over the years, Helen has now added publisher to her resume, with several books (fiction and non-fiction) published through her Southlight Press publishing company.
In adult commercial fiction, the genre’s she edits are crime, thriller, mystery, epic fantasy/fantasy, and women’s fiction. She loves a good thriller or epic fantasy and considers herself fortunate to have been able to work with Grim Oak Press (based in Washington State) who produce limited edition copies for fantasy authors such as Robin Hobb, Terry Brooks, Raymond E. Feist and many more.
Born and bred in New Zealand, Helen, as is typical of most Kiwi’s, has travelled the world, learning as much about different cultures as she can. Every visit to the United States ends with a standing invitation to those she meets, to come and visit her beautiful country.
Learn more about Helen, and the services she offers here (https://www.editco.nz/) or on Instagram @edit_co._ or Threads https://www.threads.net/@edit_co._/