the drift

Jaclyn Gilbert founded Driftless in 2021. After her debut novel Late Air was published in 2018 she observed the many ways in which writers of literary fiction across genres—particularly non-categorical genres—fail to be served by the corporate book market. As a former literary agent at a large-scale agency, she realized how pressured agents are to take on work that sells rather than work they feel called to represent. Required to bring in high-income, commissioned-based earnings, agents often skew the scope of their projects to meet capricious market demands, confiscating the author’s original vision and voice in the process. We’ve all heard stories like these. An author signs with an agent with one impression about preparing a manuscript for submission to publishers, only to receive a confusing array of feedback that strays from the project’s core, making it impossible to implement. A character’s demographics are asked to be altered or whole chapters eliminated without clear explanation, let alone a digestible path forward. A novel intended for an adult audience is suddenly required to be YA friendly. Fear over metaphorical ambiguities is asked to be replaced by plot-driven action that undermines the emotional integrity of the book. More often than not, making these desired changes leads to the work not selling to a publisher. The agent then abandons the project, and the author is left feeling directionless, unsure of how to return to the “core” of their manuscript: the idea or inspiration that led the author to begin creating in the first place.

At Driftless, we remove the pressure to sell for a profit or to base the editorial process around that end goal. Instead, we turn inward to embrace the author’s original vision as the primary basis for revision. Our editorial insight is meant to amplify and celebrate a work-in-progress rather than omit ideas rooted in market-based fears. We do this as writers ourselves, all of us published authors who feel as committed to helping the work of our colleagues thrive as much as we are dedicated to honing our own craft after hours. Each manuscript we take on becomes a labor of love, a devotion to art-making, a chance to foster generative collaboration across our diverse list of voices.

s e r v i c e s

As we are author-oriented in our niche-approach, so are our services. We don’t work on a commission-only basis like most agencies do. Instead, we offer a fee-package that waives our commission on the smaller advances we expect from the independent presses we are targeting. Our services include crafting a wholly original submission letter and building a curated submission list that pulls from our robust network of independent presses and literary imprints within the Big 5. Publishers who have partnered with us in the past and/or look forward to receiving work from us are Dalkey Archive, Milkweed, Archway Editions, FSG/MCD, Riverhead, Hogarth, Scribner, Bloomsbury, Coffee House, Dorothy Project, DZANC, Tin House, Catapult, and Soft Skull, among others—all whom share our commitment to filling the void for experimental, process-driven storytelling that resists market trends, allowing our collective aims to diversify and evolve, all while building community and celebrating art for art’s sake across our increasingly modern literary landscape.

q u e r i e s

We are highly selective in building our client list in a seasonal way—meaning we can’t take on more than four projects a year—to ensure each project receives the quality time and upfront investment it needs to flourish long-term,

While we are not open for new projects at this time, we will announce when we re-open on X and Instagram.

t h e c o l l e c t i v e

In addition to benefiting from the shared resources and support of our collective agency model, Driftless authors have the opportunity to participate in readings and events through our connections to local reading series in NYC. We are also building a collective network across our author list to help with cross-promotion and publicity locally and internationally.