We do not charge writers any reading fees, and there are no other fees or charges with Black Hawk Literary Agency. We read manuscripts and consider them for representation as your potential literary agents. If we take you on as a client, we will professionally edit your manuscript, and other documents necessary for our submission to publishers. We will provide excellent training materials and phone meetings on marketing your book so you will be prepared to promote your published book.
Jan L. Kardys’ diverse book publishing career included executive positions at ten of the major book publishers – Doubleday, St. Martin’s Press, Scholastic, Macmillan, Scribner’s, Little, Brown & Company, Warner Books, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Lippincott & Crowell, Publishers, Simon & Schuster/Prentice Hall and Condé Nast Publications. Her book publishing positions have been in editorial, art/production, subsidiary rights, contracts, copyrights, permissions, book agenting, editing, teaching, and writers conferences (she created Unicorn Writers Conference) Jan also worked for Google for three years and has Internet sales/marketing training.
Barbara worked for Knight Ridder Newspapers as a feature writer, interviewing notable people and writing a sailing column. She became an editor and then editor-in-chief. She works with writers, doing everything from basic line-editing to plot and character development to complete manuscript evaluation. She can help you produce a dynamite query letter, do a book summary, or expertly guide you through the process of writing a non-fiction book proposal. And if you need it, she is a writing coach, or can even ghost write your book. Besides enjoying what Miamians call Paradise, Barbara and her kids are dog and cat lovers and rescuers.
Jenny is an editor with more than twenty-five years of experience in book publishing, specializing in memoir and nonfiction that moves readers and makes an impact.
During the course of her career, she’s worked on dozens of New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestsellers across genres.
She held senior roles at two of the industry’s top publishers, serving as Executive Editor at Hachette and Editorial Director at HarperCollins, where she helped shape books from a wide range of voices—seasoned experts, debut authors, pastors, therapists, creatives, and storytellers of all kinds.
Jenny brings that same publishing insight and editorial care to every project she takes on. Whether you’re writing your first book or refining your next one, she offers thoughtful collaboration—everything from big-picture structure and book doctoring to detailed line edits—with a focus on helping you communicate your message clearly and authentically.
When she’s not deep in a manuscript, Jenny is parenting her teenage twins, drinking too much coffee, and enjoying life in Nashville, TN.
Having worked inside major publishers, we know the world of publishing from the point of view of editors, art directors and publishers. For artists, we provide an artist’s portfolio, artist bio, and sample artwork. Our personalities – enthusiastic, passionate, thoughtful, kind, patient, loyal, devoted and hypersensitive to our clients.
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