Interview of new agent Andy Scheer by Diana

Joyce Hart and the entire staff of Hartline Literary Agency welcomes Andy Scheer to our Agency. Andy brings to Hartline a wealth of experience as a publishing professional since 1976, and we are delighted that he has accepted a position as agent with us. 

With 18 years on staff with Moody magazine (12 years as  managing editor), 8 years as managing editor for the Christian Writer’s Guild, and currently a free-lance writer and editor, Andy is a frequent instructor at writing conferences. A journalism graduate from Colorado State University, he also attended Denver Seminary. Andy writes:

As the Writers Guild’s first reader/screener in their Operation First Novel and Operation First Book contests, I am convinced of the importance of grabbing the reader with the first sentence and paragraph. Too many manuscripts show a good concept but lack the craft not only to keep readers engaged, but also to hook them in the first place. I sympathize with publishers’ insistence on looking only at material that’s been screened by agents who can find the grain of wheat in a stack of chaff.

I personally enjoy mysteries and writers who are able to immerse me in a story and transport me to another time and place. So I particularly like (in the general market) the work of such writers as Tony Hillerman, Aaron Elkins, Elizabeth Peters, Lawrence Block, and Patrick O'Brian.

A voracious reader, I also tend to read multiple books. I currently have open three nonfiction titles: The Spirit of St. Louis (Charles Lindbergh), Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared Diamond), and Hold the Enlightenment (Tim Cahill--a great adventure travel writer). In fiction, I’m re-reading The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco), I just finished Coyote Waits (Tony Hillerman), and because I was attracted by the author photo on his website (he’s standing in front of a 1936 Cord automobile), I’ve just started reading Farraday Road by Ace Collins.

In my spare time I enjoy hiking with my wife, photography, antique automobiles, and jazz music from the 1920s and ’30s.  The picture is of Andy and his wife on a hike in the Rockies.

Andy lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his wife, Carol, in a multi-generational home that includes their daughter, son-in-law, an incredibly cute granddaughter, their lab/chow mix, and Andy and Carol’s lab/bloodhound mix. Their son just graduated from college, moved out, got married, and began a job as a computer programmer.

Andy's first writers conference representing Hartline as an agent will be the Heart of America Christian Writers Conference, Kansas City, MO November 10-12 ( www.hacwn.org) where he will be taking author appointments. In fiction, Andy will be looking for a well-told story, and in nonfiction, a felt need with a strong platform.