Sara Shandler, Senior agent

Sara Shandler joined The Book Group in 2025 and primarily represents upmarket and book club fiction, psychological suspense, layered family dramas, and high-concept contemporary YA with a fresh, singular voice. She’s especially drawn to fiction that moves—stories with energy, tension, humor, and an emotional throughline that keeps the pages turning. In non-fiction, she’s drawn to memoir that places a personal narrative in conversation with the broader world, and big-idea nonfiction with a practical application. 

Prior to joining The Book Group, Sara served as Editor-in-Chief of Alloy Entertainment, where she developed and edited bestselling novels, book club selections, and award-winning fiction from initial concept through publication. Many of the novels she championed have been successfully adapted to TV and film. Sara is especially proud of the long-term creative partnerships she builds with her authors.

Sara’s introduction to publishing began around the dinner table with her can-do-anything hippie parents who encouraged her to write the bestselling book Ophelia Speaks, which gave voice to the experience of teenage girls and was published when she was a freshman at Wesleyan University. This early experience inspired Sara’s lifelong interest in how a blue-sky idea becomes a best seller. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, three children and dog, and spends summers in Fire Island.    

A few books Sara loved... Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe, The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, The Wedding People by Susan Rieger, The Guest by Emma Cline, None of This is True by Lisa Jewell, Untangled by Lisa Damour, Ph.D., Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman, You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith.

Sara Shandler’s client list includes:

Upasna Barath
Dr. Bronwen Carroll
Cathryn Free
Adele Griffin
Lucy Keating
Caroline Langerman
Galt Niederhoffer
Iva-Marie Palmer
Sarah Sutton
Mimi Tega
Cecily von Ziegesar