What We Believe
It used to be that writers had editors to watch their backs, but over the past century the literary agent has risen to stand by the writer, to help them birth their literary works, to polish them until they are ready for submission, and to help authors find the best publishing homes – eventually leading their works to widespread markets and audiences.
This is what we do at TRF. Whether you are a debut author just finishing your first novel, an expert, teacher or journalist working on a narrative non-fiction or prescriptive work, someone with a memoir or great life story to tell, or a graphic novelist, we’re interested in hearing from you – if you haven’t heard from us first.
Every agent at TRF is looking for work they can get excited about, in every genre and category. If you’re in the market, we encourage you to look at the agents here and see if one of them seems like the perfect business partner for you.
Film & TV
A strong story in book form is the perfect – and most common – raw material for film and TV adaptation. Selling great stories into other media is something we explore actively, with close ties to film and TV agents across the entertainment landscape, locally and internationally.
Origins
The Rights Factory was founded in 2004 with a handful of clients and a massive search for new talent in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. We now have nine different agents and represent hundreds of clients from around the world.
Editorial Feedback
We are an editorial agency and we will be tough on your work, because we are committed to developing your project until it is absolutely ready to take to market. Along the way, we will champion you across the industry and media and make sure what you wrote is seen by the best editors, and we will provide you with professional insight to help your project become the best book it can be, for the audience that will love it.
About Us
Staff
Sam Hiyate
President
Since 1990 Sam has worked at literary magazines, small presses and with New York Times bestselling authors, editing and representing everything from debut fiction, memoir and narrative non-fiction to graphic novels. He has taught writing and publishing privately since 2000 and also at various universities. His most recent project is an online magazine, Don’t Talk to Me About Love, exploring love in literary and artistic works.
Celina Fazio
Editorial and Film/TV Assistant
Celina is a writer and editor living in Toronto. After completing an undergraduate degree in English Literature and a certificate in Publishing, she confirmed her own suspicions that her heart belongs to books and storytelling.
She joins The Rights Factory as an assistant, her love of books in one hand and her love of film in the other. With a specific interest in genre-bending narratives, dark humour, and horror, Celina finds inspiration in all things strange.
Maria Luigia Donati
Social Media Associate
Maria's first job after university was as a social media manager for her university Instagram account. She then became a strategist for "Dieci04", a literary social media agency based in Turin. During that time, she gained skills in creating social media strategies for books and participated in the social media coverage of the Turin International Book Fair. In 2021, she moved to Toronto to study Strategic Relationship Marketing at George Brown College. She has a strong passion for marketing and books and being able to connect authors with their audiences.
Amanda Lang
Editorial Assistant
Amanda Lang is a first year MFA candidate at the New School with a love of monster stories and any fiction that transports her to a new world. Amanda has a background in freelance journalism and is a writer herself as well as an avid fiction reader. Amanda will be working with agent Natalie Kimber starting in January 2023.
Morinobu Yoshida
Rights Assistant
Morinobu Yoshida is a publishing professional from Yokohama, Japan. After working at a publishing house in Tokyo for five years, he decided to dive into international publishing and began pursuing the publishing certificate at Toronto Metropolitan University. With his passion to promote the global exchange of cultures and ideas through books, he currently works as a rights assistant at the Rights Factory, while working as a freelance editor/copyeditor and also a kitchen assistant at an awesome Indian restaurant in downtown Toronto. He has a taste for literary fiction, literary journalism, and history books.
Andrew Kane
Editorial Assistant
Andrew graduated with an MA in political science in 2022, focusing on Hannah Arendt's theory, after earning a bachelor's in politics and philosophy at the University of Colorado at Denver. As a nontraditional student, Andrew's attention toward communication and organization is balanced by a love of the obtuse and absurd. A detail and research-oriented professional, his desire for the best version of the author's vision is supported by a dedication to storytelling with attention to perspective and voice. Driven by the quote: "Philosophy begins in wonder," accessible material guides his editorial perspective.
Yejin Suh
Editorial Assistant
Yejin Suh studies literature and creative writing at Princeton University. She enjoys SFF, YA, and literary fiction.
Kodie Van Dusen
Editorial Assistant
Kodie Van Dusen won awards and was published in poetry anthologies from a young age, writing sporadically for the Western Gazette newspaper while pursuing her BA in Psychology. In 2022 she published her debut novel, BIRDS IN THE BLACK WATER, which placed in several competitions including the IndiesToday and ReadersFavorite Awards. Her passion has always been long-form narratives that force perspective changes in the reader and connect on a deeply emotional level.
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