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Full Agent Profile: Jonathan Lyons



NAME

Jonathan Lyons

AGENCY
Lyons Literary LLC
AAR MEMBER
Yes
EMAIL
info@lyonsliterary.com
AGENCY WEB SITE
http://www.lyonsliterary.com



FICTION GENRES
Literary Fiction | Science Fiction | Chick Lit | Crime | Mystery | Commercial Fiction | Fantasy | Women's Fiction | Humor/Satire | Thrillers/Suspense | Multi-Cultural | Adventure | Gay & Lesbian | Military/Espionage | Offbeat/Quirky | Graphic Novels
NONFICTION GENRES

History | Sports | Celebrity | Biography | Food & Lifestyle | Politics | Science | Drama/Music | Multi-Cultural | Cookbooks | Memoirs | Travel | Adventure/True Story | Current Affairs | Business | Women's Issues | Pop Culture | Narrative | Health & Fitness | Pets | Gay & Lesbian | Military | Film & Entertainment | True Crime | Cultural/Social Issues | Humor | Journalism

CURRENT STATUS
  • This agent accepts queries
  • MORE INFORMATION

    SPECIAL INTERESTS
    • His areas of interest include narrative non-fiction, history, biographies, food writing, women's issues, pop culture, true crime, sports, mysteries, thrillers/suspense, and literary fiction.
    • In regard to fantasy and science fiction, he is only interested in urban fantasy (paranormal mysteries in particular), or near future science fiction; and these stories absolutely must be set on earth
    DOES NOT REPRESENT
    • He does not represent romance, poetry, short story collections, picture books, chapter books, juvenile or YA, and middle grade projects.
    SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
    • This agent only accepts electronic queries sent via the agency website.

    FACTS/TIDBITS
    • Jonathan Lyons is the Executive Director of Subsidiary Rights for Folio Literary Management and also serves as the agency’s legal counsel regarding contract and copyright matters. However, he still maintains his own literary agency.
    • He is a licensed attorney in the state of New York and teaches a Mediabistro.com course entitled "Understanding and Negotiating Your Book Contract."
    EDUCATION
    • Graduate of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (JD) and Washington University in St. Louis (BA).


    NEW DEALS
    PAST/PRESENT CLIENTS
    Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey
    Author:   Anastasia M. Ashman (Editor), Jennifer Eaton Gökmen (Editor)
    Genres:   Multi-Cultural | Travel | Women's Issues
    Publisher:   Seal Press (March, 2006)
    A collection of essays by foreign women candidly reflecting on their experiences within the Turkish culture.
    View book at Amazon

    When Charlotte Comes Home
    Author:   Maureen Millea Smith
    Genres:   Literary Fiction | Gay & Lesbian
    Publisher:   Alyson Publications (May, 2006)
    A teenager explores the wonder and heartache of love amid the burgeoning tensions of the Vietnam War and the illness of his younger sister.
    View book at Amazon

    The Path Not Taken: Using International Law to Promote Peace and Security
    Author:   Thomas Schoenbaum
    Genres:   Politics
    Publisher:   Cambridge University Press (June 2006)
    This book is a comprehensive analysis of the relevance of international law to the conduct of international relations and foreign policy
    View book at Amazon

    Jetpack Dreams: One Man's Up and Down (but Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention that Never Was
    Author:   Mac Montandon
    Genres:   History | Pop Culture | Humor
    Publisher:   Da Capo Press (Spring 2008)
    A journalist chronicles the history and science (and pseudo-science) of jetpacks and rocket belts.


    Oil!
    Author:   Upton Sinclair
    Genres:   History | Politics
    Publisher:   Penguin Group (Summer 2007)
    McIntosh & Otis, Inc. client.
    View book at Amazon

    Murder in America
    Author:   Bruce Chadwick
    Genres:   History
    Publisher:   WIley (Fall 2008)
    McIntosh & Otis, Inc. client.


    Washington Irving: An American Original
    Author:   Brian Jay Jones
    Genres:   History | Biography
    Publisher:   Arcade Publishing (January 3, 2008)
    Jones renders Washington Irving in all his flawed splendor, offering as never before human portrait of the often contrasting public and private lives of this true American original.
    View book at Amazon

    Women in the Line of Fire: What You Should Know About Women in the Military
    Author:   Erin Solaro
    Genres:   Politics | Current Affairs | Military | Cultural/Social Issues
    Publisher:   Seal Press (August 2006)
    In 2004, Erin Solaro went to Iraq to study American servicewomen—what they were doing, how well they were doing it, how they were faring in combat—and in 2005, she went to Afghanistan on the same mission; in this book, part personal odyssey, extensively researched, she convincingly argues that women not only deserve full participation in the American military experiment, but that they have proven their right to bear arms in defense of the Republic alongside their brother soldiers
    View book at Amazon

    Scott Free
    Author:   Marijane Meaker
    Genres:   Mystery | Thrillers/Suspense | Gay & Lesbian
    Publisher:   Carroll & Graf (March 2007)
    McIntosh & Otis, Inc. client.


    Serving Memories
    Author:   Lorraine Bodger
    Genres:   Food & Lifestyle
    Publisher:   Clarkson Potter (Potter Style), forthcoming
    A guided journal to collecting, testing, and modernizing family recipes, as well as capturing the stories behind the food.


    Who Moved My Kingdom?
    Author:   Josh Karp
    Genres:   Sports | Memoirs | Spirituality | Pop Culture | Humor
    Publisher:   Chronicle Books; forthcoming
    Josh Karp explores the link between golf and spirituality by playing with various shamans, mystics, and eccentrics, obtains enlightenment, and improves his handicap along the way.


    Damnation Falls
    Author:   Edward Wright
    Genres:   Mystery | Thrillers/Suspense
    Publisher:   St. Martin's Press; forthcoming
    Shamus Award Winner Edward Wright's crime novel about a disgraced Chicago newspaper columnist who agrees to ghostwrite a biography of his childhood friend and former Tennessee governor, but instead finds himself investigating a series of ghastly murders and a town legend from the Civil War in the Tennessee hills.


    The Suicide Collectors
    Author:   David Oppegaard
    Genres:   Literary Fiction | Thrillers/Suspense | Offbeat/Quirky
    Publisher:   St. Martin's Press; forthcoming
    Set in the near future where ninety percent of the Earth's population has committed suicide over a period of five years in a plague of emotional ennui, and one man's quest across the country to discover a cure.


    The Peach Grower's Almanac
    Author:   Elaine di Rollo
    Genres:   Women's Fiction | Historical Fiction
    Publisher:   Crown Publishing Group
    Set in 1850s England, the novel follows twin sisters who find different ways to escape their stifling upbringing and their eccentric father, who wishes them to be curators of his huge personal museum of peculiar artifacts. Chatto will publish in the U.K.


    I Am A Man
    Author:   Joe Starita
    Genres:   History
    Publisher:   St. Martin's Press
    Pulitzer Prize finalist Joe Starita's biography of Chief Standing Bear, whose 1879 habeas corpus suit against the U.S. government led to the landmark ruling recognizing that Native Americans were persons under the law and subject to the benefits of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.


    Red-headed Stepchild
    Author:   Jaye Wells
    Genres:   Fantasy
    Publisher:   Orbit
    Three book deal sold at auction revolving around Sabina Kane, a half-mage/half-vampire assassin with divided loyalties


    Brick Addicts
    Author:   Jonathan Bender
    Genres:   Pop Culture
    Publisher:   John Wiley & Sons
    One man's quest through the world of LEGO to become a master builder.


    A Theory of All Things
    Author:   Peggy Leon
    Genres:   Literary Fiction
    Publisher:   The Permanent Press
    The story of five grown siblings facing a number of simultaneous crises and haunted by past tragedy, the desertion of a mother and the suicide of a brother.


    Three Days to Dead
    Author:   Kelly Meding
    Genres:   Fantasy
    Publisher:   Bantam Dell
    A supernatural bounty hunter wakes up in a morgue in someone else's body, with only three days to stop an impending war between humans and paranormals before she dies again.





    LINKS
    This is the agent's blog
    http://lyonsliterary.blogspot.com/
    This is the agent's webpage on PublishersMarketplace
    http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/jonathanlyons/
    This is the course the agent teaches through Mediabistro.com
    http://www.mediabistro.com/courses/cache/crs2906.asp
    This is the agent's response to our symposium question, Publishing Changes
    http://www.agentquery.com/symposium_pubchanges.aspx
    This is the agent's response to our symposium question, Pitching Editors
    http://www.agentquery.com/symposium_pitcheditors.aspx
    http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/Agent+Advice+Jonathan+Lyons+Of+Lyons+Literary.aspx
    This is an interview with Mr. Lyons on Guide to Literary Agents Editor's Blog
    PREVIOUS AGENCIES
    Curtis Brown, Ltd.
    McIntosh & Otis, Inc.