Liz Nealon

PROFESSIONAL BIO: Prior to working in publishing, Liz Nealon was an award-winning executive producer and media industry leader who played an integral role in shaping the indelible youth brands Sesame Street, Kidz Bop, and MTV. She served as Worldwide Creative Director for Sesame Street and traveled the world as SVP of MTV International, launching channels in Europe, Brazil, Japan, and Australia.

I am the President and Founder of Great Dog Literary, where I represent both adult and children’s books, largely non-fiction.

Not surprisingly, given my many years working in television and interactive media, I am drawn to illustrated books, for both children and adults. My tastes skew strongly to non-fiction and my instincts are decidedly commercial, so I’m always looking for just the right mix of pop appeal plus intellectual content. I like nothing more than packaging serious non-fiction in an alternative, surprising frame.I am more interested in thought-provoking than provocative, though I’ve been known to represent some deeply edgy content.

Across all of the media in which I have worked, I have been committed to seeking out and amplifying diverse creative voices, starting with recruiting, mentoring, and supporting a diverse staff, and then empowering that team to source and develop breakthrough content.

Specific genres I’m looking for:

ADULT NON-FICTION: Pop Culture, Illustrated Memoir, Art/Illustrated books, Graphic Memoirs, Current Affairs/Fresh Takes, Tarot, Spiritual/Inspirational.

ADULT FICTION: Literary fiction, Graphic Novels, Poetry (very selective, underrepresented voices)

CHILDREN’S NON-FICTION: Science & Nature, Biography, Graphic Novel.

CHILDREN’S FICTION: Author/Illustrators only for Picture Books. Illustrated Middle Grade. I love informational fiction, novels-in-verse, and graphic novels.

I do NOT agent: SciFi, Fantasy, Horror.

Some of the current and forthcoming titles from my clients include…

• Diane deGroat’s The Adventures of Robo-Kid (Neal Porter Books, 2022), a picture book/graphic novel hybrid that is a Jr. Library Guild Gold Standard Selection.
• Crystal Simone Smith’s Dark Testament (Holt, 2023), a volume of YA erasure poetry drawn from text “found” in the George Saunders’s novel Lincoln in the Bardo which connects the agonized voices haunting Lincoln to the grieving chorus of protests in today’s Black Lives Matter movement.
• Shelley Rotner & Gwen Agna’s True You: A Gender Journey (Clarion, 2022), an affirming photographic picture book of trans and gender nonconforming kids that leads with inclusivity, love, and empathy. Booklist starred review.
• Emma Fick’s Border Crossings: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway (Harper Design, 2022), documenting the longest railway journey in the world—from Beijing, through Mongolia and Siberia to Moscow—in watercolor illustrations and hand-written text.
• Regina Linke’s The Oxherd Boy (Potter Gift, 2024), based on the hit webcomic of the same name, featuring a series of parables about a boy, an ox, and a rabbit who work to live compassionately and mindfully while engaged in the daily work of building their community.
• Lynn Curlee’s YA memoir The Other Pandemic: An AIDS Memoir, a deeply personal, illustrated account of coming of age during the gay liberation movement in New York City and living through the AIDS pandemic, losing multiple friends and his life partner (Charlesbridge Teen, 2023).
• Borderlands Tarot by Enid Baxter Ryce and Luis Cámara (Running Press, 2024). The artistic, emotionally evocative, bilingual tarot deck and guide are rooted in the unique and magical natural world of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. The cards are hand-painted with natural inks and bursting with color.
• 108 Awesome Yoga Poses for Kids by Lauren and Brian Chaitoff, founders of YogiBeans, the leading children’s yoga and wellness brand (Page Street Kids, 2023). Designed to teach children how to practice popular yoga poses utilizing fun and engaging photographs with correct alignment, and child-friendly cues that help get children moving efficiently through the poses.
• Trespass: Stories of Homelessness, Love and Understanding, a relentlessly thought-provoking, brutally honest series of photo essays that dares us to confront our own biases as writer/photographer Kim Watson explores the lives of unhoused people in Los Angeles (Broadleaf Books, 2024).
• Ashley Wilda’s YA novel The Night Fox employs magical realism along with a mix of poetry and prose to tell the tale of a teen struggling with heartbreak and depression. She is sent to a remote mountain retreat to recover, and soon discovers that her surreal surroundings change every time she ventures out, challenging her reality. (Rocky Pond Books/Penguin Young Readers)
• I Think I Am…Meep Meep by debut picture book author/illustrator Angel Tate featuring a young girl who loves science and who has decided to prove that she is a robot. Why else would she be so smart? Acquired as a three-book informational fiction series, publication is planned for Spring 2024, with two additional books featuring young scientist Milla Meeply planned for Spring 2025 and 2026 (Hippo Park/Astra House Publishing).

Submission Guidelines

I only accept submissions through QueryManager.

• Please fill out the query form. If I want to read a complete manuscript or dummy, I will request it AFTER you have filled out the query form.
• If I request a file upload, please upload all manuscripts in Word, and graphics/illustrations as a PDF.
• If the PDF is too large to upload, please include a link where I can view your work.
• If you do not hear from me within three months you can assume that I am not interested in your work.

Guidelines & Details