Paige Sisley, Literary Agent, BOOKS AND FILM
Paige is a literary agent at CookeMcDermid. She represents upmarket and book club fiction that keeps readers turning the pages, and makes them think about the world and themselves in a new way. She also champions non-fiction authors that have a unique perspective, an important story to tell, and/or a strong platform, and who are writing into the memoir, narrative non-fiction, lifestyle, or health & wellness space. In addition to managing her own list, Paige is CookeMcDermid’s in-house film and TV agent. In this role, she coordinates screen rights across the agency, works with co-agents, and represents clients’ IP and creative services directly. Previously, she was a rights assistant at Cooke International, an agency specializing in foreign rights management for a diverse group of publishing clients.
Paige has her Master of Arts from Toronto Metropolitan University's Literatures of Modernity program and a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of King's College and Dalhousie University. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two young children, but is always up for an adventure. She has also resided in LA, New Zealand and Halifax.
You can query Paige here.
I AM SPECIFICALLY SEEKING:
Smart, sexy romance with a strong conceit
A food memoir and/or food-centric novel
Accredited expertise and science-backed ideas about health and general wellbeing (bonus points if the science is counterintuitive to popular thinking!)
Narrative non-fiction that braids the personal with a bigger social/cultural story
Novels with heart that will appeal to 20- and 30-something men (no spy thrillers, hard crime novels or other man-with-a-gun narratives)
I GET EXCITED ABOUT:
Setting as a character (with a personal connection to and affection for the east coast and southern US)
Books that might require a map at the beginning (except for hard SFF)
Playful/thoughtful structure that serves the story
Multi-POV and/or dual timeline narratives where the structure gradually reveals a bigger picture
A speculative edge that moves the story forward and allows for deeper exploration of the human experience
Realistic portraits of marriage and parenting
Complicated/messy relationship dynamics (especially when followed over a long period of time)
Feminist leanings
Insight into new-to-most worlds like specific industries/professional settings, cults, etc.
I AM NOT CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR:
Historical fiction centered around WWI or WWII
Spy or military novels
Hard science fiction/fantasy
Unreliable narrators (this isn’t a hard no, but the unreliability needs to be hard won)
Aliens
Dystopian/apocalyptic narratives
Teenaged/child POVs or protagonists
Planned series (I am looking for self-contained books, but of course if success warrants more books in the series then I’m all for it!)
BOOKS I WISH I REPPED:
EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL SOMEDAY BE DEAD
THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO
THE IMMORTALISTS
STATION ELEVEN
UNCANNY VALLEY
BLOOD, BONES AND BUTTER
THE INTERESTINGS
SWEETBITTER
JUST FOR THE SUMMER
Paige’s Represented BOOKS AND AUTHORS include
