Let’s get to know Tom Colgan, an executive editor at
Penguin/Berkley. Tom is a 27-year veteran of the publishing industry. He started
in 1985 at Berkley Books, and has been there ever since, except for a brief job
at Avon/Morrow. He has edited just about all types of fiction, other than
romance. And on the nonfiction side he’s worked on everything from history to
true crime.
I had the chance to meet Tom at the PNWA 2012 conference.
He was asked what he’s looking for right now. He told us he is into all sorts
of things, from boy books, thriller, mystery and historical. Pretty much
anything but kids books.
His advice to writers- Don’t write to trends, it is a
mistake. You can’t fake your interest in something. And if you pull a story
straight from the headlines, by the time you write it, it is no longer a top
story. Instead you need to write what you want to write. He said, “Write it the
best you can. Good writing will be what sells.”
What if you want to pitch or query him? His advice is to
relax. He mentioned that people who get upset and hyper are hard to deal with.
Does he accept unagented manuscripts? Yes.
You can follow him on twitter @TomColgan14. In fact he recently
tweeted some great advice-“If
you are sending me a manuscript, please do it as an email attachment. Have just
received two of the largest emails in history.”
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