Overall I'm looking for queer, BIPOC and diverse stories that surprise me—you don't have to reinvent the wheel, but I'd like known tropes with fresh twists or told from underrepresented perspectives. Across genres what speaks most to me is creativity, voice and characters (+ a sprinkle of weird and dark). My goal is to uplift marginalized voices: disabled, trans, neurodivergent etc.. Also, I encourage you to apply if English isn’t your first language/you’re not located in the US. 

YA

I'm not the best pick for YA manuscripts, but to give you an overview of the kind of YA I love:

• Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

• Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

• Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

• Lockwood & Co by Jonathan Stroud

Basically, if it's YA I want it to read like YA. 

Adult/NA

A few very specific things I'd love to see: 

• all things fantasy. Fantasy is my home turf. All the subgenres. Everything. Romantasy, paranormal investigations, cozy fantasy, EPIC and political fantasy. (I'll list my favorites further down)

• I love books with complicated family dynamics. Give me Targaryen, Mikaelson, Roy, Kaul kind of drama.

• a queer and/or non western mystery (think A Master of Djinn or Slow Horses but queer!) 

• villains!! Give me the dark side. Disney villain types cackling in the dark (most recently I became completely obsessed with Krennic from Andor). Villains I can't help but love and sympathize with. Villains as the protagonists. All the twists and turns. Klaus Mikaelson formed me, so do with that what you like. I'd pick Klaus over Stefan and Damon and Rumpelstilzkin over Charming any day 

• I want morally questionable, dark stories. I like dark content, as well as dark aesthetics. I don't mind violence displayed in books as long as it has a good reason to be there and is strategically/critically placed. 

• If you want to send me horror, I'd like it to be in the vein of Haunting of Hill House, Starling House, Mexican Gothic, Tim Burton etc. (Exception: a creative, cozy or romantic horror). More Gothic, haunted mansion than slasher. Buildings/setting as characters is a big YES 

• magical gangs / heists (think adult Six of Crows)

• ghosts. Always ghosts. Across all genres. 

• I'm more interested in working on stories with casual queerness than coming out stories or characters still on a self-finding journey.

• with sci-fi I'm leaning more toward character driven stories than books full of technical terms. I like large- scale world-buildings, but dislike magic systems that feel like math (if your magic systems can be compared to Brandon Sanderson’s, I’m probably not the best mentor to help you work on it.) Recent titles I enjoyed: Gideon the Ninth, Of Monsters & Mainframes, Monk & Robot and Red Rising

• overthrowing empires/regimes. Let's kill the gods!! Or a post "we killed the gods" world.

• women's wrongs 

• stories that can make me cry and/or laugh out loud

• DnD inspired cozy fantasy or romantasy (think Homegrown Magic or Legends & Lattes)

Things I love/if you can comp to any of these, send it to MEEE:

• Captive Prince by C. S. Pacat

• Andor (give me a well written story of resistance) 

• The Bone Season 

• R. F. Kuang 

• City of Brass 

• The Raven Scholar (my favorite book of the year) 

• The Secret History 

• V. E. Schwab 

• Realm of the Elderlings 

• Her Majesty's Royal Coven 

• A Marvellous Light 

• Hunchback of Notre Dame

• Lord of the Rings 

• House of the Dragon (did I mention that I love family drama?)

• KJ Charles

• The Vampire Diaries 

• ATLA

• Will of the Many 

• Legends & Lattes 

• Nimona 

• Black Sails 

• Greenbone Saga 

• Blood over Bright Haven 

• Daughters of Izdihar 

• Tim Burton 

• The Boys

• Interview with the Vampire 

• Succession (+ magic)

• Hannibal (NBC)

• Studio Ghibli 

• Haunting of Hill House

• Sherlock (but queer)

• Critical Role 

• What We Do In The Shadows

Anti MSWL:

I’m not the best fit for manuscripts intended for self-publishing—as I don’t have the expertise to give advice in this field and am much more comfortable in assisting with traditional publishing.

Also not the best fit for pro military/police stories that aren’t critical of those forces. 

I won’t work on anything AI generated