About Us


Susan Rabiner
co-founded Susan Rabiner Literary with Alfred Fortunato (with whom she co-wrote Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction and Get It Published) as a boutique agency dedicated to big idea books, the type of books she published as a senior editor at a number of major New York publishing houses and as editorial director of Basic Books, then a division of HarperCollins. Since then, the agency has won a slew of awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes in biography (Hirohito by Herbert Bix and The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate), two Bancrofts, (Fordlandia by Greg Grandin, and The Other Slavery, which was also named a finalist in nonfiction for the 2017 National Book Award, by Andres Resendez), as well as the Penn and Plutarch prizes in biography (Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore by Linda Leavell).  Other authors she currently represents include Mario Livio, Bruce Schneier, Holger Hoock, David Lindley, Pamela Haag, Bruce Tulgan, Carlo Rotella, and Nancy MacLean.
susan@rabiner.net

Sydelle Kramer is an agency partner and has over twenty-five years of experience as an agent. Her clients are a diverse group of academics, journalists, sportswriters, and memoirists. Among the authors she currently represents are bestselling authors Nate Silver, Alison Bechdel, Martha Nussbaum, Marya Hornbacher, Jacob Hacker and Paul Pearson, Dalton Conley, Chris Mooney, and Jonah Keri.
sydellek@rabiner.net

Susan and Sydelle also represent a number of clients jointly, including bestselling author Larry Sabato, Washington Post reporter Amy Goldstein, and Bancroft-winner Anne Hyde.

Holly Bemiss joined the agency in 2007, bringing with her over a decade of book publishing experience. Her client roster includes graphic novelists, journalists, memoirists, comedians, crafters, and entertainment writers. Recent sales include New York Timesbestseller Marbles by Ellen Forney (to Gotham/Penguin), How to Sew a Button by Erin Bried (to Random House), Grow Your Handmade Business by Kari Chapin (to Storey), New Kid by New York Times bestseller Lucy Knisley (to First Second Books), and Calling Dr. Laura: A Graphic Memoir by Nicole J. Georges (to Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Twitter/BeMissH hollyb@rabiner.net

Please send all queries by e-mail. Note: Because of the number of queries we receive, we cannot respond to every one. If your project fits the profile of the agency, we will be in touch within two weeks.