Adam Schear

Adam Schear is a graduate of Tulane University and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He has served on the board of directors of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA, formerly the AAR) as well as on the AALA contracts committee. He began his publishing career at the William Morris Agency and joined DeFiore and Company in 2009. His clients have won The Center for Fiction First Novel Award and the AWP Award for the Novel and have been finalists and longlisted for The Giller Prize, The New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and The Kobo Prize. For non-fiction, he loves popular science, deeply reported narratives, literary memoir, and big idea books. He’s always looking for a writer who can explain a complicated concept in a gripping way. For fiction, he is interested in seeing inspired literary novels, voice driven comedies, smart thrillers with sharp dialogue, debuts and short story collections. Send him flawed, unreliable, magnetic characters, quirky dark novels that retain their humor and heart, and novels that blur the distinction between literary and other genres. He has a soft spot for sci-fi, especially when it breaks the mold, and YA with an honest and compelling voice. Across the board, he’s looking for the type of book that you’re compelled to recommend to everyone you know, and then secretly feel jealous that they get to read it for the first time.

Fiction Highlights:

  • Jake Wolff (THE HISTORY OF LIVING FOREVER)
  • Julie Lekstrom Himes (MIKHAIL AND MARGARITA)
  • Sarah Cypher (THE SKIN AND ITS GIRL)
  • Erik Hoel (THE REVELATIONS)
  • Luke Dani Blue (PRETEND IT’S MY BODY)
  • Joseph Moldover (EVERY MOMENT AFTER)
  • Adrianne Finlay (YOUR ONE AND ONLY)
  • Andrew Battershill (MARRY, BANG, KILL)
  • Jennie Yabroff (IF YOU WERE HERE)
  • Sonya Terjanian (THE RUNAWAYS, THE OBJECTS OF HER AFFECTION)
  • Christian Schoon (ZENN SCARLETT, UNDER NAMELESS STARS)
     

Other highlights include novelists and short story writers Andrew Ladd, Steven Ramirez, and Erik Hoel among others.

Non-fiction Highlights:

  • Scott Bedford (MADE BY DAD)
  • Jen Adams (THE BOOKS THEY GAVE ME)

How To Submit To Adam Schear:

Please e-mail him at adam@defliterary.com with a query letter containing info on the book, your bio and the first five pages in the body of the e-mail.


Headshot for Adam Schear
  • THE HISTORY OF LIVING FOREVER
    Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2019
  • MIKHAIL AND MARGARITA
    Europa, 2017
  • EVERY MOMENT AFTER
    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019
  • YOUR ONE AND ONLY
    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018
  • MARRY, BANG, KILL
    Goose Lane Editions, 2018
  • THE OBJECTS OF HER AFFECTION
    Sourcebooks Landmark, 2014
  • THE RUNAWAYS
    Sourcebooks Landmark
  • MADE BY DAD
    Workman, 2013
  • ZENN SCARLET
    Strange Chemistry, 2013
  • THE BOOKS THEY GAVE ME
    Atria, 2012
  • UNDER NAMELESS STARS
    Strange Chemistry, 2014
  • IF YOU WERE HERE
    forthcoming from NAL/Penguin