Uncharted Put Your Hook to the Test and Agent Ask Me Anything Panel

You’ve been agonizing over that first page for months or even years, revising and rewording until it feels perfect. Are you now ready to put your first page under scrutiny? For Uncharted’s Put Your Hook to the Test, imagine a version of America's Got Talent but for first pages of novels in progress, judged by a panel of publishing experts who will kindly, but honestly, show us when and why they would stop reading. A limited number of registrants will have their first page chosen randomly to be read anonymously in front of our panel of successful literary agents! 

This will be followed by an Ask Me Anything seminar with our agent panel. Want to know about word count limits? The currently hot genres? Curious how important comparable titles are? Our panel of agents is ready to answer your publishing questions. Here you can get honest, up-to-date responses from the people who talk to editors and sell books to publishers of all sizes!

Registration is open from June 08 to July 08, 2026.

Cost: $10 (to attend and/or receive the recording) 

The panel event will take place on Thursday, July 09, 2026, from 4-5:30 PT, 7:00-8:30 ET

A video recording will be made available to registrants who can't attend the live event.

You do not need to submit any writing to attend this panel.

Meet Our Agents!

Amy Collins is an agent with the Talcott Notch Literary Services agency. She has more than 30 years in the publishing industry as a book buyer, Sales Director for a large non-fiction publisher, and is the founder and President of New Shelves Books, one of the largest book sales and marketing companies in the US. Collins is a USA TODAY and WALL STREET JOURNAL bestselling author and has spent her career working with Barnes & Noble, Target, Costco, Books-A-Million, Wal-Mart, as well as bookstores and libraries. As well as an agent, Collins is a trusted expert, speaker, and recommended publishing consultant for some of the largest book and library retailers and wholesalers in the publishing industry. In her agent role, Collins focuses on romantasy, romance, fantasy, horror, sci-fi, pop culture, and cookbooks/lifestyle books.

Amy Collins has taught and spoken at many of the publishing industry’s top festivals and conferences including Publishers Weekly’s BookCon, Kauai Writers Conference, keynoting at Scottish Writer’s Conference, Hampton Roads Writers Conference, SCWA Conference, Oklahoma Writers Conference, Author U, AAPS, Dublin Writers Conference, BAIPA, IBPA’s Publishing University, Dallas Book Con, NY PitchFest, PALA, St. Louis Writers Conference, Writer’s Digest Annual and Novel Conferences, Las Vegas Writers Conference, and many others.

Najla is an avid reader and loves great first chapters, immersive world-building, deep character profiles, and well-rounded dialogue. She has taught courses at several writing conferences, including Common Mistakes In First Chapters, Writing Rules That Can Be Broken, Self-Editing Before the Query, Getting The History And Voice Right, and many other topics. She volunteers as co-chair of the American Association of Literary Agents’ Professional Development committee and as a member of the People of Publishing planning committee for the AALA’s annual meeting of literary agents, editors, and publishing professionals.

In fiction, she prioritizes family sagas, intergenerational stories, strong female leads, migration/immigration, expats or expat life, underrepresented protagonists (especially from marginalized communities), stories set in distant futures, journeys to other places and planets or returning home after a journey, alternating timelines, backward timelines, or dual timelines that interweave a present-day investigation with a historical crime. She also has room on her list for a realistic sci-fi thriller, military sci-fi, and a unique sleuth mystery.

In both fiction and nonfiction, she seeks underrepresented stories and writers across all genres. Strong loglines and pitches pull her in, and she carefully reviews each project submitted.

Jennifer Chevais is a generalist with a strong interest in commercial horror, speculative fiction, as well as children’s fiction and “just the right fit” nonfiction projects. As a generalist, she is primarily drawn to character-driven stories peopled by characters so strong they'll either break your heart or pull it right out of your body.  

 OPTIONAL FEEDBACK ON YOUR WRITING

You may choose to receive editorial feedback on your piece. We will provide a two-page global letter discussing the strengths of the writing and the recommended focus for revision. Our aim is to make our comments actionable and encouraging. These letters are written by editors and staff readers of Uncharted Magazine. A significant portion of the editorial letter fees is paid to our feedback editors. Should your story win, no feedback will be offered, and your fee will be refunded. (Please note that the agents participating in the panel will not be fulfilling this service. Our normal guest editors will complete this service.)