Adriana Dominguez Joins Full Circle Literary

Adriana Dominguez has over 10 years of experience in Latino publishing, most recently as Executive Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where she managed the children´s division of the Latino imprint, Rayo. Prior to that, she was Children’s Reviews Editor at Criticas magazine, published by Library Journal. She has worked for a number of publishers, both on a full time basis and as a freelance consultant, on English and Spanish language books. She is also a professional translator and has served as a market consultant. In an effort to reach out to Latino authors and book lovers of all types, Domínguez contacted Latino Book News and BronzeWord Latino Authors to share some big news with our readers:

1. What are you doing now?

After my departure from HarperCollins last year, I began to think long and hard about what I wanted to do next. I wanted to do something that enabled me to take advantage of the experience I’ve amassed as an imprint manager, editor, book reviewer, translator, and public speaker. I spent the past year involved in a variety of projects, and having discussions with many colleagues in the industry. After much consideration, I decided that becoming an agent is the next logical step in my career, and I am just thrilled with my decision! I joined Full Circle Literary because I had a wonderful experience working with them as an editor (I acquired a number of their projects for Rayo, among them, the recently published Pelé, King of Soccer/Pelé, El rey del fútbol by award winning author Monica Brown), and I know other editors do too. The enthusiasm, professionalism, and attention to detail they put into their presentations to publishers make them ideal agents in my opinion. I am hoping that those elements, combined with my years of editorial experience, will make Full Circle Literary the destination for published and aspiring writers seeking representation.

2. Your goal in your new endeavor?

Whether as editor, book reviewer, or translator, my goal has always been the same: To be involved in the development of quality books that enrich people’s lives and bring something new to the market. And as a Latina myself, I am especially interested in helping publishers to increase their output of books of all kinds written by Latinos.

3. What are you looking for?

I am interested in building a strong list of children’s picture books, middle grade novels, and literary young adult novels. On the adult side, I am looking for literary, women’s, and historical fiction, and in the area of non-fiction, for multicultural, pop culture, how-to, and titles geared toward women of all ages.

4. What makes for the best query/proposal?

One of the things I love about Full Circle Literary is that it really is author oriented, and that the agency does the most it can to help authors get published from the very start, beginning with their proposal. The agency’s website (fullcircleliterary.com) offers detailed submission guidelines, along with clear instructions on the type of material that it will and will not consider. I strongly recommend that authors take advantage of the “Proposal Cheat Sheet” posted on the site. In terms of my personal preference, I simply need to know, from the query letter alone, what the project/book is about. I would suggest that authors belonging to critique groups bring their query letters to their groups to have them evaluated by others and most importantly, to make sure that they make sense. It is sometimes difficult to tell when you are so close to a project, and having that feedback can help you to write your proposal from the perspective of the reader, rather than that of the writer.

5. Best advice.

Not everyone agrees on this, but I would advise authors to join a critique group. Most of the mistakes I find in otherwise well-written query letters and manuscripts clearly indicate a serious lack of feedback. A poorly written query letter has the unfortunate ability to instantly deflate an agent or editor’s interest in a project. You need to remind yourself that you are not submitting your work to an agent or editor for feedback, you are submitting it for publication, along with a few thousand others. So you need to make sure that your first impression is you absolute best impression. Editors and agents want to sell and publish your work as much as you do, you just need to make sure that you are doing everything in your power to make that easier for them to do so! And these days, I would say that every writer should work on creating a platform for him or herself. Present that platform along with your proposal; let the agent know that you know your stuff and will do everything possible to sell the book after it’s been acquired by an editor, and both your agent and editor will love you for it!


Ms. Domínguez will be based in New York City and will serve as Full Circle Literary’s East Coast representative. She can be contacted by e-mail at Adriana@fullcircleliterary.com


For more information, visit their website: www.fullcircleliterary.com

Tags: Adriana Dominguez, Criticas, Full Circle Literary, King of Soccer, Pelé, Stefanie Von Borstel