Full Agent Profile: Jenny Bent


NAME

Jenny Bent
AGENCY
 The Bent Agency
AAR MEMBER
Yes
EMAIL
 queries@thebentagency.com
AGENCY WEB SITE
http://www.thebentagency.com/



FICTION GENRES
 Literary Fiction | Chick Lit | Crime | Horror | Commercial Fiction | Women's Fiction | Humor/Satire | Romance | Young Adult | Thrillers/Suspense | Middle Grade
NONFICTION GENRES

Memoirs | Narrative | Humor

CURRENT STATUS
  • This agent accepts queries
    • MORE INFORMATION
    SPECIAL INTERESTS
    • She is actively looking for female-driven crime, suspense, thrillers; also women's fiction; young adult; romance; anything with magic or other-worldliness
    DOES NOT REPRESENT
    • cozy mystery, military or eco thrillers, science, self-help/how-to
    SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

    FACTS/TIDBITS
    • Loves dogs and cursing and junk food.
    EDUCATION
    • Holds a B.A. and M.A. in English literature from Cambridge University in England


    NEW DEALS
    		 Fiction | Thrillers/Suspense
    Lori Roy's UNTIL SHE COMES HOME, the follow-up to her Edgar Award-winning debut, BENT ROAD, in which a working-class enclave of 1960s Detroit is plunged into peril when a girl goes missing on her birthday again to Denise Roy at Dutton, in a good deal, for publication in 2013, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (World English).

    Fiction | Women's Fiction
    Yangsze Choo's THE GHOST BRIDE, in which a young woman in 1890s Malaya is asked to marry a dead man; caught between the world of the living and the Chinese afterlife, she must uncover her dead suitor's secrets before she is forced to become his spirit bride, to Rachel Kahan at William Morrow, in a good deal, for publication in Summer 2013, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (NA). UK rights to Emily Thomas at Hot Key Books, by Hellie Ogden at Greene & Heaton.

    Fiction | Women's Fiction
    Lori Nelson Spielman's THE LIFE LIST, after her mother dies, a woman must complete a list of goals she wrote when she was fourteen in order to earn her inheritance, to Shauna Summers at Ballantine, in a good deal, for publication in Summer 2013, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (world English). UK rights to Kate Burke at Century, by Rachel Kind on behalf of Random House; German rights to Fischer, in a good deal, at auction by Julia Krischak at Thomas Schlueck Agency; Italian rights to Sperling and Kupfer, at auction, by Daniela Micura; Dutch rights to Unieboek, in a pre-empt, and Spanish rights to Urano, by Philip Sane.

    Non-Fiction | Memoirs
    Suzanne McMinn's BACK TO THE LAND, the author's journey into self-sustainable living halfway up a hill on one of the most remote dirt roads in West Virginia, with a cast including her children, an enigmatic partner, the "rural neighborhood" of quirky characters, and a whole slew of ridiculous and uncooperative farm animals -- based on her website, www.chickensintheroad.com, to Jeanette Perez at Harper One, at auction, in a good deal, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (World English).

    Fiction | Women's Fiction
    Liz Rosenberg's LAWS OF GRAVITY, in which two cousins' lives are torn apart when one refuses to donate his child's cord blood that will save the other's life -- and their case goes to trial before a retiring judge who must make the biggest decision of his career, to Kelli Martin at Amazon Publishing, in a good deal, at auction, for publication in Spring 2013, in a two-book deal, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (world English).

    Fiction | Young Adult
    AG Howard's SPLINTERED, an urbanized gothic retelling of ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, in which a sixteen-year-old descendant of Alice Liddell (real life inspiration for the Lewis Carroll novel), realizes the story was true when she is pulled into the darker side of Wonderland to fix the things her great-great-great grandmother Alice put wrong, to Maggie Lehrman at Amulet, in a good deal, in a two-book deal, at auction, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (World English). German rights to Bertelsmann Juvenile and Heyne, by Friederike Biesel at the Thomas Schlueck Agency.

    Fiction | Thrillers/Suspense
    PL Gaus's THE NAMES OF OUR TEARS, in which two Amish girls on vacation in Florida are separately coerced into an interstate drug-running scheme, with fatal results, to Denise Roy at Plume, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (world).

    Non-Fiction | Humor
    Scott Bateman's DISALMANAC: A Compendium of Fact-Like Facts, based on the @Disalmanac Twitter feed, blog and podcast, a somewhat fake almanac featuring somewhat true information about the US, the world, science, and more, to Marian Lizzi at Perigee, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (world).

    Fiction | Romance
    USA Today bestselling author Kieran Kramer's new series THE HOUSE OF BRADY, following the six aristocratic adult siblings of a blended marriage who carve out their own paths to true love, to Jennifer Enderlin at St. Martin's, in a significant deal, in a six-book deal, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (World).

    Non-Fiction | Humor
    Nicole Knepper's F*CK YOU DINNER, MAKE YOURSELF!, based on the author's Facebook page, Moms Who Drink and Swear, a collection of musings, misadventures and mayhem from a potty-mouthed mom who loves her kids but doesn't mince words about the realities of parenting, to Tracy Bernstein at NAL, in a "good" deal, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (World English).

    Fiction | Young Adult
    Sandra Waugh's LARK RISING, the story of a clairvoyant sixteen year-old, who is charged to rescue her village from attack, only to discover she is destined for a far greater purpose - to save the Earth from utter destruction - which she bravely attempts with the help of a gnome, a white horse, and a young man she loves but is fated to kill her, and FALLING RAIN, the next in GUARDIANS OF TARNEC series, to Diane Landolf at Random House Children's, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (World English).

    Non-Fiction | Humor
    Laurie Notaro's THE POTTYMOUTH AT THE TABLE, a collection of tiny episodes of humiliation, turmoil and displays of social upheaval; true stories include doing something unspeakable in front of 100 people in a train car, raging war with Antiques Roadshow, and cringing from the uninvited affections of an ex-boyfriend in a dirty parking lot on the side of a freeway, to Gallery, with Tricia Boczkowski editing, in a good deal, in a two-book deal, (world English)

    Non-Fiction | Humor
    Pixar story artist Josh Cooley's MOVIES R FUN, pitched as featured on the front page of Reddit, a previously self-published collection of popular R-rated movie scenes drawn in the style of a children's picture book, to Steve Mockus at Chronicle, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (world English)

    Romance
    NYT bestselling author Lynsay Sands's untitled historical romance, to Erika Tsang at Avon, in a major deal, in a three-book deal (world English)

    Romance
    New York Times bestselling author Julia London's untitled historical romance, a retelling of Sense and Sensibility, to Ann Leslie Tuttle and Tara Parsons at HQN, in a major deal, in a three-book deal

    Fiction | Thrillers/Suspense
    Sonja Condit's STARTER HOUSE, A pregnant woman moves into her dream home, only to discover she must solve the mystery of a decades old murder to rid herself of a ghostly little boy and save her unborn child, to Carrie Feron at William Morrow, at auction, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (world, excl. UK). UK rights to Sara O'Keeffe at Corvus, by Hellie Ogden at Greene & Heaton, on behalf of The Bent Agency.

    Young Adult
    Shannon Greenland's KILLER INSTINCT, first of a chilling series featuring a brilliant teenage girl who studies and understands serial killers... because she might be one herself, to Patrick Price at Simon Pulse, in a good deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in Summer 2014, by Jenny Bent and Gemma Cooper at The Bent Agency.

    Romance
    NYT bestselling author Lori Wilde's new contemporary romance series, again to Lucia Macro at Avon, in a very high six-figure deal, in a six-book deal, by Jenny Bent at the Bent Agency (world English).

    Historical Fiction
    Jan Moran's A PROMISE OF ROSES, about a young French perfumer whose family is torn apart during World War II, who spies for the French resistance, and who begins life anew in America, struggling to rebuild the family perfumery, reunite her family, and find the love of her life, to Jennifer Weis at St. Martin's, in a two-book deal, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (world English).

    Women's Fiction | Thrillers/Suspense
    Susan Crawford's POCKET WIFE, in the tradition of SILENT WIFE and TURN OF MIND, when a bipolar woman's next door neighbor is brutally murdered, she must struggle to remember what happened that day and fight to clear her name as the evidence slowly begins to point in her direction, to Carrie Feron at Morrow, at auction, in a six figure deal for two books.

    PAST/PRESENT CLIENTS
    Under a Vampire Moon
    Author:   Lynsay Sands
    Genres:   Romance
    Publisher:   Avon
    When Vampires Go On Vacation . . . Escaping a horrible marriage, Carolyn Connor has no desire to think about men—a vow she's determined to keep while on vacation in St. Lucia. She'll take the Caribbean sun and sea and plenty of tropical drinks with those cute umbrellas poolside, thank you. She absolutely does not need male company, no matter how tan and rock-hard his body may be. Easy enough, but then Carolyn meets the charming Marguerite Argeneau, who is infamous among her family for her matchmaking prowess . . . Christian Notte has well known the power of finding a life mate. He's seen enough of his Argeneau relatives taken down for the count, but he never imagined he'd let himself fall in love—until he meets the enthralling, charmingly skittish, and oh-so-mortal Carolyn. But how will he reveal what he is and still convince this once-bitten mortal to trust him with her heart . . . and her forever?


    The Revenge of Lord Eberlin
    Author:   Julia London
    Genres:   Romance
    Publisher:   Pocket
    Returning to Hadley Green after fifteen years, the young Lord Eberlin has but one goal in mind: to avenge the death of his father. But when he is reunited with the beautiful target of his smoldering wrath, his plans take an unexpected turn. . . . Tobin Scott has not been back to Hadley Green since Lily Boudine’s childhood testimony helped send his father to the gallows for stealing the valuable Ashwood jewels. Now a wealthy man, he intends to exact his revenge by destroying Ashwood and its lady. He offers Lily a choice between her life and the livelihoods of the people who depend on the estate. She chooses the former, certain she can hold his dangerous plans at bay. Lily and Tobin’s game of one-upmanship quickly becomes a delicate dance of seduction, and she realizes he is not the cold, heartless man he tries to seem. In fact, she is certain he is right—his father was innocent. Together, they set out to find the jewels that will restore his family’s honor, and soon their unbridled passion uncovers a shocking secret that will change their lives forever.
    Lost and Found
    Author:   Jacqueline Sheehan
    Genres:   Women's Fiction
    Publisher:   Morrow
    A poignant and unforgettable tale of love, loss, and moving on . . . with the help of one not-so-little dog Rocky's husband Bob was just forty-two when she discovered him lying cold and lifeless on the bathroom floor . . . and Rocky's world changed forever. Quitting her job, chopping off all her hair, she leaves Massachusetts—reinventing her past and taking a job as Animal Control Warden on Peak's Island, a tiny speck off the coast of Maine and a million miles away from everything she's lost. She leaves her career as a psychologist behind, only to find friendship with a woman whose brain misfires in the most wonderful way and a young girl who is trying to disappear. Rocky, a quirky and fallible character, discovers the healing process to be agonizingly slow. But then she meets Lloyd. A large black Labrador retriever, Lloyd enters Rocky's world with a primitive arrow sticking out of his shoulder. And so begins a remarkable friendship between a wounded woman and a wounded, lovable beast. As the unraveling mystery of Lloyd's accident and missing owner leads Rocky to an archery instructor who draws her in even as she finds every reason to mistrust him, she discovers the life-altering revelation that grief can be transformed . . . and joy does exist in unexpected places.


    Bent Road
    Author:   Lori Roy
    Genres:   Thrillers/Suspense
    Publisher:   Dutton
    "A remarkably assured debut novel. Rich and evocative, Lori Roy's voice is a welcome addition to American fiction." -Dennis Lehane For twenty years, Celia Scott has watched her husband, Arthur, hide from the secrets surrounding his sister Eve's death. As a young man, Arthur fled his small Kansas hometown, moved to Detroit, married Celia, and never looked back. But when the 1967 riots frighten him even more than his past, he convinces Celia to pack up their family and return to the road he grew up on, Bent Road, and that same small town where Eve mysteriously died. While Arthur and their oldest daughter slip easily into rural life, Celia and the two younger children struggle to fit in. Daniel, the only son, is counting on Kansas to make a man of him since Detroit damn sure didn't. Eve-ee, the youngest and small for her age, hopes that in Kansas she will finally grow. Celia grapples with loneliness and the brutality of life and death on a farm. And then a local girl disappears, catapulting the family headlong into a dead man's curve... On Bent Road, a battered red truck cruises ominously along the prairie; a lonely little girl dresses in her dead aunt's clothes; a boy hefts his father's rifle in search of a target; a mother realizes she no longer knows how to protect her children. It is a place where people learn: Sometimes killing is the kindest way.


    Forgive My Fins
    Author:   Tera Lynn Childs
    Genres:   Young Adult
    Publisher:   HarperCollins
    Unrequited love is hard enough when you’re a normal teenage girl, but for Lily Sanderson, there’s no such thing as a simple crush. Lily has a secret, and it’s not her huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Lily’s mermaid identity is a secret that can’t get out, since she’s not just any mermaid—she’s a Thalassinian princess. When she discovered three years ago that her mother was actually a human, Lily finally realized why she didn’t feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she’s been going to Seaview High ever since. Living on land has its problems—like her obnoxious biker-boy neighbor, Quince Fletcher—but it has that one major perk: Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren’t really the casual dating type—when they bond, it’s for life. When Lily’s attempt to win Brody’s love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily ever after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned.


    First Love Cookie Club
    Author:   Lori Wilde
    Genres:   Women's Fiction | Romance
    Publisher:   Avon
    The top rules of the First Love Cookie Club: No men. No kids. No store-bought. No gossip! And no one is going to keep rule #4 now that local-gal-made-good Sarah Collier has reluctantly returned to Twilight, Texas. The once-awkward teenager has become a big-time success with her bestselling kids’ books. Now she’s come back home to grant one child a very special wish, even though her own heart was once broken by the little girl’s father, Travis Walker. This all makes Sarah wonder, even though you can go home again—should you? Every time she turns the corner, the memory of who she was hits her square in the face, and it isn’t pretty. But there’s magic in Twilight, Texas—the magic of friendship and the magic of love, if only Sarah would open her heart to it. . . .


    The Art of Saying Goodbye
    Author:   Ellyn Bache
    Genres:   Women's Fiction
    Publisher:   Morrow
    She was the thread that wove their tapestry together. With a group of women as diverse as the ladies from Brightwood Trace, you might not think them to be close. There's Julianne, a nurse with an unsettling psychic ability that allows her to literally feel what her patients feel, Andrea, a strong fortress sheltering a faltering core, Ginger, a mother torn between being a stay-at-home mom or following her career aspirations, and Iona, the oldest, whose feisty, no-nonsense attitude disarms even toughest of the tough. Not exactly the ingredients for the most cohesive cocktail . . . Until you add Paisely, the liveliest and friendliest of the clan, who breathed life into them all. But when their glowing leader falls ill with cancer, it's up to these women to do what Paisely has done for them since the beginning: lift her up. Overcoming and accepting the inevitability of loss, the women draw closer than ever; finding together the strength to embrace and cherish their lives with acceptance, gratitude and most importantly, love. Finally living with the vigor that Paisely has shown them from the start, they are able to see their lives in a new light, while learning to say goodbye to the brightest star they've ever known. Over the course of just three months, these four women will undergo a magnificent transformation that leaves nobody unchanged.
    Mothers and Other Liars
    Author:   Amy Bourret
    Genres:   Women's Fiction
    Publisher:   St. Martin's
    How far will a mother go to save her child? Ten years ago, Ruby Leander was a drifting nineteen-year-old who made a split-second decision at an Oklahoma rest stop. Fast forward nine years: Ruby and her daughter Lark live in New Mexico. Lark is a precocious, animal loving imp, and Ruby has built a family for them with a wonderful community of friends and her boyfriend of three years. Life is good. Until the day Ruby reads a magazine article about parents searching for an infant kidnapped by car-jackers. Then Ruby faces a choice no mother should have to make. A choice that will change both her and Lark's lives forever.
    The Life List
    Author:   Lori Nelson Spielman
    Genres:   Women's Fiction
    Publisher:   Random House
    Brett Bohlinger seems to have it all: a plum job, a spacious loft, an irresistibly handsome boyfriend. All in all, a charmed life. That is, until her beloved mother passes away, leaving behind a will with one big stipulation: In order to receive her inheritance, Brett must first complete the life list of goals she’d written when she was a naïve girl of fourteen. Grief-stricken, Brett can barely make sense of her mother’s decision—her childhood dreams don’t resemble her ambitions at age thirty-four in the slightest. Some seem impossible. How can she possibly have a relationship with a father who died seven years ago? Other goals (Be an awesome teacher!) would require her to reinvent her entire future. As Brett reluctantly embarks on a perplexing journey in search of her adolescent dreams, one thing becomes clear. Sometimes life’s sweetest gifts can be found in the most unexpected places. Translation rights sold in 14 territories, film rights to Fox 2000.
    The Ghost Bride
    Author:   Yangsze Choo
    Genres:  
    Publisher:   Morrow
    Part 19th century novel, part magical journey to the Chinese world of the dead, Yangsze Choo's debut novel The Ghost Bride is a startlingly original historical fantasy infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and unexpected supernatural twists. Reminiscent of Lisa See's Peony in Love and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, The Ghost Bride is a wondrous coming-of-age story from a remarkable new voice in fiction. Oprah.com's Book of the Week, Indie Next List pick, Good Housekeeping August Book Pick, Glamour Magazine Beach Read, The Bookseller Editor's Pick, Library Journal Barbara's Pick "Choo's clear and charming style creates an alternate reality where the stakes are just as high as in the real world, combining grounded period storytelling with the supernatural." Publishers Weekly "What makes all this work is the sumptuous world of Chinese émigré culture and the love story that flows under it all--the kind so full of longing, the pages practically sigh as you turn each one." Oprah.com - Book of the Week "'The Ghost Bride', an impressive first novel, takes readers on one of the wildest rides since Alice fell down the rabbit hole." San Jose Mercury News "Choo's remarkably strong and arresting first novel explores the concept of Chinese "spirit marriages" in late-nineteenth-century Malaya through the eyes of the highly relatable Li Lan...With its gripping tangles of plot and engaging characters, this truly compelling read is sure to garner much well deserved attention." Booklist Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family's only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price. After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lim's handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits and monstrous bureaucracy--including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit. Li Lan must uncover the Lim family's darkest secrets--and the truth about her own family--before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever.


    Splintered
    Author:   AG Howard
    Genres:   Young Adult
    Publisher:   Abrams/Amulet
    This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl's pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers--precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now. When her mother's mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice's tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice's mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.



    LINKS
    		 A great profile on Literary Rambles with other links to interviews
    http://www.literaryrambles.com/2011/07/agent-spotlight-jenny-bent.html
    My clients' covers on Pinterest
    http://pinterest.com/jennybent/my-clients/
    Our agency blog
    http://jennybent.blogspot.com/
    Publishers Marketplace Page
    http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/jennybent/
    PREVIOUS AGENCIES
    Harvey Klinger, Inc.
    Sagalyn Agency
    Trident Media Group, LLC