Katharine Sands is a literary agent at the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency who specializes in practical and narrative nonfiction — food, lifestyle, self-help, memoir, and pop culture — while also welcoming commercial fiction driven by urgent storytelling and compelling characters.
In brief
Sands operates within one of the more nonfiction-dominant boutique agencies in the business — her agency home has placed serious self-help and spiritual titles with 100,000+ copy track records and counts at least five Julia Child Award-winning cookbook authors among its clients, signaling genuine commercial muscle in both wellness and food publishing.
Her stated wishlist is notably reader-benefit-oriented: she gravitates toward nonfiction that tangibly improves or reframes a reader's life rather than simply informs, spanning food, travel, home arts, beauty, relationships, and parenting.
Her fiction bar is high and specific — she uses language like 'compelled and propelled,' signaling she wants narrative momentum above all else; character-driven literary quiet is not what she's after.
The 'femoir' category (memoir by and for women, often with cultural or confessional edges) is a genuine specialty she names explicitly and separately from general memoir — writers in this lane should lean into that framing in their query.
Her submissions are currently closed as of May 2026 — writers should verify the live status of her form before querying, as this can change without announcement.
Lately
Sands is described on her agency's current roster page as actively building her client list, with a focus on nonfiction that delivers clear benefit to readers across food, travel, lifestyle, home arts, beauty, relationships, and parenting — as well as fiction that hooks immediately and sustains momentum.
What Katharine is looking for
Sands explicitly distinguishes 'femoir' — women's memoir with a distinct cultural, confessional, or identity-driven voice — as its own category alongside general memoir. In both, she wants to be transported to a world that feels rare or newly observed. Novelty of perspective and specificity of setting or experience matter more than celebrity platform.
Her agency home has a formidable track record here, with multiple Julia Child Award winners. Sands herself lists food as a core interest. Expect a high bar for voice and concept distinctiveness — this is a category the agency knows well and sells seriously.
She actively seeks books in home arts, beauty, and broader lifestyle that offer readers a clear, tangible benefit or a fresh lens on how they live. Concept books with practical application and strong visual or cultural identity tend to fit this lane.
Self-help — particularly serious, insight-driven titles — is a core pillar of the agency. Sands extends this to relationships, parenting, and wisdom literature. The framing that matters to her: what concrete benefit does this book deliver to a reader's life? Books that answer that question clearly are well-positioned.
Travel writing and pop culture analysis both appear on her list. She favors fresh angles — a new take on a familiar subject, or an underexplored corner of culture examined with personality and rigor.
Humor is listed as a nonfiction category she represents. The strongest fit is likely humor that intersects with her other interests — lifestyle, relationships, pop culture — rather than pure comedy writing.
Sands reads fiction with urgency as her primary filter — she wants to be 'compelled and propelled' by the storytelling and immediately hooked by characters. Slow-burn literary fiction or quiet character studies are unlikely to be the right match. The agency also notes it represents a 'growing number' of literary, commercial, and YA fiction titles, but fiction remains secondary to nonfiction in actual volume.
Not the right fit
On Katharine's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Katharine
Her submissions are currently closed (confirmed May 2026) — check the live status of her submission form before sending anything.
When open, she accepts a query letter plus the first ten pages of the manuscript or proposal pasted into the email body; follow this format exactly.
Lead your query with the reader benefit: what does this book do for the person who reads it? This framing is central to how she evaluates nonfiction.
For memoir and femoir, open with the world you are transporting the reader into — make the specificity and novelty of your vantage point vivid in the first lines.
For fiction, demonstrate narrative momentum in your query prose itself — if your pitch reads as urgent, she'll believe the manuscript does too.
She edited a book on how to pitch literary agents, which means she will notice a sloppy or generic query more readily than most. Precision and originality in the query letter are non-negotiable.
Avoid lengthy credentials-first openings; she has signaled that the pitch itself — the hook — is the priority.
Address her directly and personally; she is an individual agent within a boutique agency, not a submissions inbox for a large firm.
Use the email address listed on her agency's current page (Katharine@SarahJaneFreymann.com) only for vital/consultation matters; follow the submission instructions on the live form for actual queries when she reopens.