Jenny Bent

Jenny Bent

President and Literary Agent
She/her

Jenny is closed to queries.

queries@thebentagency.com

Jenny’s clients

In the course of my career, I have represented a great many award-winning and New York Times-bestselling authors, a list which includes Stephanie Garber, Liv Constantine, Gary John Bishop, Lori Nelson Spielman, Goldy Moldavsky, Tiffany D. Jackson, Elise Kova, Yangsze Choo, Dustin Thao, Arvin Ahmadi, Lynsay Sands, JT Geissinger and Samantha Bailey.

I’m currently looking for clients I can co-rep with my colleague James Mustelier. We are looking for all kinds of high concept genre fiction for adults and young adults: horror, fantasy, suspense/thriller, romantasy and romance. Of particular interest are authors who have successfully been working in the indie space and are now looking to transition into traditional or hybrid publishing. We additionally welcome submissions from BIPOC authors.

In general, I tend to prefer plot-driven books to character-driven ones and pacing is very important to me. I also love novels — for adults or young adults — that have an element of magic or fantasy to them or that take me into a world that is new to me, whether real or imaginary. And while I love books to be dark and weird in terms of content, I find that I am more drawn to traditional, rather than experimental, methods of structure and storytelling. Finally, I am not the right fit for books with overtly political or extremely complicated plotlines.  

All of the books that I represent speak to the heart in some way: they are linked by genuine emotion, inspiration, and great writing and storytelling. I love books that make me laugh, make me cry, or ideally do both.

Please note: I regret that I can no longer respond to every submission. If you do not hear from me with a request within a month, please consider that a respectful pass.