The Team

Kimberley Cameron, President

Kimberley Cameron grew up loving books—going to the library was the highlight of her week during her early years. New adventures beckoned behind every spine and now she feels the same way when she reads a manuscript. She wants to fall in love with a writer’s words…

Her great-grandfather, Rupert Hughes, wrote over 50 books and was one of the founders of what became The Author’s Guild. Her mother would talk about the time she came to Los Angeles to work for him, as he had seven desks with seven books he was writing at the same time in a grand home in Los Feliz, CA. He died the year she was born, and her mother always said, “Rupert passed you his literary baton!” She began her literary career as an agent trainee at the Marjel de Lauer Agency in association with Jay Garon in New York, then worked for several years at MGM developing books for motion pictures, and then was the co-founder of Knightsbridge Publishing Company with offices in New York and Los Angeles. In 1992, she was asked to become partners with Dorris Halsey of The Reece Halsey Agency. After her beloved partner Dorris passed away, she came to her in a dream and said, “Now it’s your turn,” and in 2009 the agency became Kimberley Cameron & Associates. She resides and works from Tiburon, California with many visits to New York to make the rounds of editorial offices.

She was educated at Marlborough School for Girls in Los Angeles, Humboldt State University, and Mount St. Mary’s College. She has been a guest speaker at numerous writer’s conferences over the years which include but are not limited to: The Maui Writer’s Conference, Pacific Northwest, Aspen, Book Passage Mystery, Cape Cod, Kentucky Writer’s Retreat, Boise, Idaho, San Diego State University, Austin, Texas, Jackson Hole, Thrillerfest, Left Coast Crime, Bouchercon, and many others.

As she has been a successful agent for 30 years, she is enjoying mentoring and fostering the careers of her agents. While working largely by referral, she’s always looking for exceptional writing in any field, particularly writing that touches the heart and makes us feel something. She’s found success with many different genres, and especially loves the thrill of securing representation for debut authors. She represents both fiction and nonfiction manuscripts, with the exception of romance, children’s books, and screenplays.

She appreciates writers that show patience, understanding, politeness, and trust.

Kimberley is a current member of the AALA and The Authors Guild.

Elizabeth Kracht

Elizabeth Kracht joined Kimberley Cameron & Associates in the fall of 2010 and is the author of The Author’s Checklist: An Agent’s Guide to Developing and Editing Your Manuscript. She represents both literary and commercial fiction as well as nonfiction, and brings to the agency experience as a former acquisitions editor, freelance publicist, and writer.

Elizabeth’s career in publishing took root in Puerto Rico where she completed her BA in English and worked as a copyeditor and proofreader for an English-language newspaper. When she returned to the mainland, she found her “vein of gold” in book publishing. She thrives on working closely with authors to build their careers, and is currently in graduate school earning her MFA in creative writing at San Jose State University.

Elizabeth’s eclectic life experience drives her interests. She appreciates writing that has depth, an introspective voice, and is thematically layered. Having lived in cities such as New York, San Francisco, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, she is compelled by multicultural themes and characters and is drawn toward strong settings.

In fiction, she represents literary, commercial, women’s, thrillers, mysteries, historical, and crossover YA. In nonfiction, she is interested in high concept, health, science, environment, prescriptive, investigative, true crime, voice- or adventure-driven memoir, sexuality, spirituality, and animal/pet stories.

[Elizabeth is currently only open to queries and pitches through conferences, online events, and referrals.]

Amy Cloughley

Amy has studied creative writing, journalism, and literature and holds a B.S. in magazine journalism. She worked in editorial and marketing roles in magazine publishing and corporate business before shifting her professional focus to her lifelong love of books in 2013 when she joined Kimberley Cameron & Associates. She now leverages her background in both words and business to benefit her clients. She seeks authors with unique, clear voices who put forth smart, tightly-written prose. She is actively building her client list with both debut and veteran writers.

Whether literary, upmarket, or commercial, she leans toward grounded novels with a distinct sense of place. She loves a page-turning mystery or domestic suspense with sharp wit and unexpected twists and turns. She also loves well-researched historicals as well as bookclub fiction that has a fresh perspective. She has a soft spot for distinctive, strong, contemporary characters set in small towns. Amy always looks for an unexpected story arc, a suitable pace, and a compelling protagonist.

She is interested in narrative nonfiction that is immersed in a culture, lifestyle, discipline, or industry. She does not represent childrens/YA literature of any kind, science fiction, fantasy, or self-published books.

Amy is a current member of the AALA. Check out her Manuscript Wish and her Publisher’s Marketplace pages to get a sense of the types of projects she represents.

Lisa Abellera

Lisa Abellera joined Kimberley Cameron and Associates in 2013 with a background in management, marketing, and finance. She has studied creative writing, design, and business, earning her BA in Strategic Management from Dominican University of CA and her MFA in Creative Writing from University of San Francisco. In 2015, she was promoted to literary agent, and in 2020, she became a member of the Association of American Literary Agents.

In adult fiction, she represents literary, upmarket/book club, and women’s fiction, historical fiction, mystery, suspense, thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, and crossover speculative fiction. With children’s fiction, she represents all fiction genres in Middle Grade and YA.

With adult and children’s fiction, Lisa responds to well-crafted prose, strong hooks, high personal stakes, complex and sympathetic characters, a tangible sense of place and lush world-building, non-Western cultural aspects, and emotionally-immersive fiction. Please take a look at her Manuscript Wish List for examples of the types of stories that appeal most to her.

Lisa is committed to uplifting underrepresented voices and infusing more diversity and inclusion in books, so she is actively looking for strong female characters, diverse characters, and stories by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and other authors who identify with marginalized or underrepresented communities.

Lisa is also looking to build her client list with limited nonfiction. With children’s nonfiction, she is primarily looking for Middle Grade prescriptive projects that are entertaining, informative, and inspire life-long-learning and curiosity in kids. With adult nonfiction, Lisa is only seeking prescriptive business books for women or by women.

Lisa does not represent memoir or nonfiction other than what is mentioned above, translations, poetry collections, picture books, early readers, screenplays or other works of drama, nor does she represent self-published or previously published books.

Dorian Maffei

From a young age, Dorian Maffei knew she wanted to work in the world of books. Her ambitions led her to get a degree in Creative Writing, and she later became a bookseller and a bookstore events coordinator before finding her way to Kimberley Cameron & Associates. Starting as an intern, she realized there was nothing more special than falling in love with a manuscript from a potential debut author. From there, she became KC&A’s Office Manager and later was given the opportunity to start signing her own clients as a literary agent. In 2021, she became a member of the Association of American Literary Agents.

Dorian is actively building her list in a variety of genres in both YA and adult. While she appreciates most fiction that blends genre lines, she is especially interested in speculative fiction, literary science fiction, upmarket book club fiction, thrillers, reimagined fairy tales, magical realism, unique voices, contemporary novels with a dash of mystery, horror and suspense, and innovative storytelling that sometimes veers on the weird. She’s a sucker for anything that can be described as both haunting and beautiful, and would love to find something in these genres that has twists and turns, lyrical writing, and keeps her up past her bedtime.

She values work that provokes a deep-rooted connection after the last page and explores the peculiar within the mundane. She is always open to submissions with diverse experiences and characters, and welcomes underrepresented and marginalized voices. She hopes to find work that features these experiences as the norm.

Dorian does not take unsolicited submissions in nonfiction, picture books, and middle grade at this time, nor does she represent poetry, self-published or previously published books, or screenplays.

Check out her Manuscript Wish List to get a better understanding of the types of books she gravitates toward. To view her recent sales, check out her Publisher’s Marketplace page.

Camille Kantor

Camille is a mother, scientist, and devoted New Yorker magazine reader. While completing a master’s degree in evolutionary biology, a journey that bridged the birth of her two sons, she became interested in how people communicate about nature and biology. Her pivot into publishing involved attending and graduating the renowned Columbia Publishing Program at Oxford. She now also works as a buyer at her local Indie bookstore: Copperfield’s Books. As an agent at Kimberley Cameron & Associates she is excited to work with authors who have a talent to catch a reader’s attention while describing complex topics and who share in the desire to broaden the general public’s understanding and appreciation of the natural world.

Camille is looking for titles, whether fiction or non-fiction, that will inspire the public to engage with nature while imparting fascinating knowledge about our planet and its inhabitants, whether fiction or non-fiction. She is particularly interested in popular science non-fiction work, such as Darkness Manifesto by Johan Eklöf or An Immense World by Ed Yong, where the author has a commanding voice that feels less like lecturing and more like storytelling.

Camille’s fiction tastes include books that immerse the reader in descriptive but clear imagery and that have themes of nature-human interactions. She especially loves interesting, well-developed characters and high concept literary fiction that approaches philosophical topics about our relationship with our planet, think Overstory by Richard Powers or Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet.

She is not currently looking for young adult literature or picture books.

Whitney Lee

A lifelong lover of books of all types, Whitney founded The Fielding Agency in 2003, which specializes in licensing UK and translation rights on behalf of a handful of prominent literary agencies, including the wonderful agents at Kimberley Cameron & Associates. Whitney partners with foreign co-agents and publishers in over 35 territories and helps agencies place a wide-range of books abroad.

Whitney began her publishing career in New York City working closely with Michael Carlisle to help establish a foreign rights department at Carlisle & Company, a boutique literary agency that handled many New York Times bestselling authors. She graduated from Northwestern University with a double major in English and Women Studies and attended the Radcliffe Publishing Course.

The Fielding Agency, LLC.
wlee@fieldingagency.com
1550-G Tiburon Boulevard #528
Tiburon, CA 94920