Joshua Getzler

About the Agent

Josh left Harcourt in 1993 to get an MBA from Columbia Business School. After Business School, Josh spent 11 years owning and operating a minor league baseball team (the Staten Island Yankees). He left baseball in late 2006 and rejoined the book world on the agent side. Josh worked at Writers House until November 2009, building a list of adult novelists, YA and middle grade authors, and the occasional nonfiction writer; then joined Russell and Volkening. In May 2011 he partnered with Carrie Hannigan and Jesseca Salky, and has been actively and happily running his list. In November, 2019, Carrie and Josh renamed the agency HG Literary after Jesseca left the agency. Josh represents more than 60 authors, including Rev. Al Sharpton, S.A. Cosby (BLACKTOP WASTELAND and NY Times Best Selling RAZORBLADE TEARS and ALL THE SINNERS BLEED--Flatiron), Geoff Rodkey (NYT Best Selling THE TAPPER TWINS series from Little, Brown), Rob Hart (ASSASSINS ANONYMOUS--Putnam, THE WAREHOUSE and THE PARADOX HOTEL--Crown), Alex Segura (SECRET IDENTITY, POE DAMERON), SJ Rozan (The Bill Smith/Lydia Chin mysteries and The Murder of Mr Ma), Linda Keir (THE ROYAL GAME, THE THREE MRS. WRIGHTS and DROWNING WITH OTHERS), Paul Goldberg (THE YID—Picador), EJ Copperman/Jeff Cohen (The best-selling HAUNTED GUEST HOUSE series from Berkley Prime Crime among others), EM Powell (The FIFTH KNIGHT series from Thomas & Mercer with more than 500,000 sales), Edgar Award Winner Eli Cranor, and Former US Secretary of Agriculture Linda Chavez. Josh is particularly into foreign and historical fiction; both women’s fiction (your Downton Abbey/Philippa Gregory Mashups), straight ahead historical fiction (think Wolf Hall or The Road to Wellville); and thrillers and mysteries (The Alienist, say; or Donna Leon or Arianna Franklin). He’d LOVE a strong French Revolution novel. He loves ruthless doges and impious cardinals…and farmhouse cozies! (He does love cozies…) Give him atmosphere, let him learn something about another time or another place (or both), and kill off nasty Uncle Mortimer in the process! Josh has represented a significant amount of middle grade fiction, though he's doing less MG and more adult books at this time. Settings that are just a little off seem to be a real favorite, along with contemporary/funny books about kids. Not so much high fantasy and definitely not picture books. (There are many others who specialize in these books, including Carrie Hannigan, Ellen Goff, Jon Cobb, Bri Johnson, Wendi Gu, and Victoria Wells Arms at HGL.) Please don’t send religious fiction–he doesn’t have contacts in the Christian book market. In nonfiction, he’s very interested in history (including micro-histories), business, and political thought–but not screeds. Josh is currently CLOSED TO UNSOLICITED QUERIES, in order to concentrate on his work with his current list of clients.

Represented authors

• Jessica Burkhart
• Dana Cameron
• S. A. Cosby
• James Crowley
• Gerald Elias
• Paul Goldberg
• Keir Graff
• Rob Hart
• Todd Moss
• Delia Pitts
• E.M. Powell
• Geoff Rodkey
• Alex Segura