Shannon Gallagher

My career in publishing began at trade book publishers, and I I spent more than twelve years in the marketing departments of Rodale, Macmillan, Random House, and Simon & Schuster. During this time I developed campaigns tailored to booksellers, librarians, academic markets, and consumers, and have produced sales and marketing materials including advertising and online campaigns, academic brochures and sell sheets. I have written and edited catalog and jacket copy, sales tip sheets, and I have presented titles at sales conferences. I have represented publishers at industry trade shows including BookExpo America, the American Library Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and regional trade show including the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. I have also spent time as a freelance copywriter and book reviewer with Kirkus, where my focus was on independent titles in the parenting, thriller, memoir, literary fiction, and nonfiction genres. I began working at Wernick & Pratt Agency, LLC in the beginning of 2018. What drew me to a literary agency was the fact that I knew so little about what agents do! For some reason agents and "marketeers" did not frequently cross paths, and I developed a strong curiosity about the agenting world. I was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to work with--and learn from--the strong, opinionated, and completely wonderful agents here. I was promoted to Associate Agent in 2020, and because I am actively building my client list, I hope membership to the AALA can help me connect with other new agents. I'm eager to learn from different experiences and styles of agenting, and hopefully learn what has worked for them in helping to get more amazing books out in the world!