Brianne Johnson

An agent with HG Literary (see other agents at this agency).

About

After working at independent bookstores, a book warehouse, a literary magazine, and in book publishing, Brianne started as a starry-eyed intern at Writer’s House in 2007. She worked her way up to Senior Agent before moving to HG Literary in 2021.

Country

United States

AI Policy

Unknown AI policy

104 members set this agent as a Favorite.

Statistics Synopsis

Slower: Brianne Johnson's overall average response time is slower than most agents.

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Fiction Temp Closed

Brianne represents children’s books of all stripes, with a particular focus on character-driven middle grade and young adult fiction. She also selectively represents picture books and adult fiction.
Some of her clients include: winner of the Edgar Award and #1 New York Times bestselling author Wesley King, authors of the recent HBO Max film UNPREGNANT Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan, Edgar nominated author Greg Howard, award winning playwright and author Kate Scelsa, Joya Goffney, Heather Fawcett, Laura Sibson, Cheryl Klein, Camilla Bruce, and others.
Brianne is particularly passionate about social justice stories, amplifying under-represented voices and perspectives, sex positivity, alternative lifestyles, quirky romances, well-researched historical fiction, and witchy/mythy genre benders. She loves pushing the envelope on balancing big, universally important themes with hope and humor in unexpected ways.
The one link Brianne has throughout the genres she focuses on is humor and whimsy, particularly in darker settings. She loves stories that can illuminate something about humanity in a fresh and quirky way, AND make her laugh. Life is serious enough. Reading should be a joy.

Audience:

Open to a broad Audience, including: Adults, Children, Middle grades, Young adults, All ethnic groups/populations, All genders, All sexual identities.

Genres:

Open to all/most Genres, including:
General Open to all/most Subgenres, including: Cross-Genre, Historical, Magic Realism
Fantasy Open to all/most Subgenres, including: Cross-Genre, Historical, Magic Realism
Romance Open to all/most Subgenres, including: Cross-Genre, Historical

Lengths:

Novel

Styles:

Open to all/most Styles, including: Dark, Humorous, Literary, Mainstream, Quirky.

Topics:

Open to all/most Topics including...
Sexuality/Gender: LGBTQ issues, Women/Female issues.
Society/Culture: General, Social issues.

Submissions:

Method: QueryTracker.
Simultaneous submissions: Simultaneous submissions are allowed.

Always check guidelines for details and restrictions. If you aren't familiar with these terms, see our glossary.

No recent cover image of a book represented by Brianne Johnson available.

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Social:
Instagram @hgliterary
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Brianne Johnson Submission Statistics

The statistics in this section are compiled from submission reports sent to us through our submission tracker. They are not provided by the agency or by Duotrope's admins. Information in this section is updated a few times per day. Learn more about the statistics.

This agent ranks among the 25 Slowest Fiction Agents in our database.

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Accuracy

We have received 9 reports from 9 different members within the past 12 months, not including pending responses (see below). The more responses reported, the more accurate the information.

Days Reported

35 min | 205.0 mean avg | 226.0 median | 246 max days (74.7 std dev)

Pending

1 response is pending (219 days waiting).

Other Information

The agent will try to make a decision within 56 days. (88.9 % of the responses reported to us for this listing have taken longer than 56 days.)
Most submissions are acknowledged on the same day.
Most recent response reported was received on 28 Jul 2026.
Responses have been received for submissions sent as recently as 13 Apr 2026.
Date compiled: 20 Sep 2026 22:21 UTC (less than a minute ago).

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Your Submissions

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Soumeya Bendimerad Roberts
Jonathan Cobb
Josh Getzler
Ellen Goff
Wendi Gu
Carrie Hannigan

Julia Kardon
Rhea Lyons CLOSED
Alex Reubert
Jillian Schelzi
Natalie Sun
Victoria Jane Wells

Before Submitting

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Unless the agency's guidelines state otherwise, always use industry standard manuscript formatting.
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Dates

Last Updated: 15 Jun 2026

We check their guidelines for changes every four weeks, and we audit the listing twice a year.