Erin Malone

Erin Malone is a literary agent and partner at WME. Originally from the Midwest, Erin began her career in film and television development and production. She is based in Los Angeles where she lives with her husband, a novelist, and their two kids, but she came up in the book department in the agency's New York office and is frequently found there.

For the past 20 years, Erin has represented a wide-ranging list of bestselling and critically acclaimed writers. She is a fierce advocate for her authors, and relishes in fostering long-running publishing careers from the ground up.

Erin represents fiction and non-fiction for adults and children. More than any specific category or genre, she’s drawn to good stories and distinct points of view; writers who make us think and also those who provide a great escape. Across all she ascribes ardently to Carrie Fisher’s adage that “if life weren’t funny it would just be true, and that’s unacceptable.”

In fiction, she loves plot-driven stories with a singular voice, a wonderfully weird or absurd premise, intricate plotting, and/or an unexpected twist, sharp social commentary, complex female characters and friendships, and sibling dynamics. She is actively looking for innovative and grounded takes on the LitRPG and domestic suspense genres; a fun mashup of a comedy of manners and grounded fantasy; upmarket, book club fiction; psychological thrillers; and locked-room contemporary murder mysteries.

In the children’s space she represents a small number of heavily illustrated books—primarily picture and graphic novel. Thanks to her two elementary-age kids, she is both a former and current voracious reader of chapter books and middle grade across fiction, graphic hybrid and graphic novels, and is selectively interested in projects in the space—particularly imaginary realism, childhood innocence, and portal fantasy with well-built worlds that center around sibling and friendship dynamics, mental health & anxiety, and creative expression with empathy and humor.

In non-fiction her list spans narrative (personal and investigative) and platform-driven, as well as occasional lifestyle titles across memoir; cultural anthropology and sociology; pop culture and science; applied philosophy; and narratives or collective biographies that combine cultural, revisionist, industrial, and/or natural/science history. Erin is actively looking for an unputdownable read in the latter category and is perpetually on the hunt for untold or revisionist stories about great American locales, particularly Los Angeles, Rust Belt cities, and the Outer Banks.

In children’s nonfiction, she craves platform-driven and select middle grade stories that engage the reluctant reader across science, history and culture in ways that don’t talk down to kids and that viscerally connect them to history, the world around them, and how we got from then to now.

Among the clients she has had the privilege to represent are Mike Birbiglia, Felicia Day, Tory Henwood Hoen, Pete Holmes, Victoria Jamieson, Bess Kalb, Priyanka Mattoo, Brad & Kristi Montague, Bob Odenkirk, Amy Poehler, Ke Huy Quan, Keanu Reeves, Rebecca Serle, Chrissy Teigen, Evan Winter, and Hillary Yablon. She represents multiple #1 New York Times bestsellers and her authors' works include major book club selections, National Book Award finalists, a Newbery Honoree, Thurber Prize finalists, Hugo and Edgar Award nominees, Fulbright Scholars, Goodreads Choice Award winners, and combinations thereof.

For fiction projects, please submit a query letter and the first chapter. For nonfiction projects, please submit a query letter and a bio. Currently not seeking text-only queries for picture books and graphic novels; those authors should be both writer and illustrator.