NICOLE CUBBA

BIO

Nicole Cubba is a USA Today bestselling indie author who writes romance novels with heart. She is the author of the self-published Field Guides for Love Series (Deep In Love, Wild in Love, and the forthcoming Lost in Love). She works as a marine biologist and has a deep passion for the ocean and the planet. Nicole was born in Michigan and is currently based in Massachusetts. She is represented by Nour Sallam at Helm Literary.

MSWL

I am open to all subgenres of romance because this is where I can offer the best editorial feedback and mentorship. I love sweeping, emotional, funny love stories where the characters have to go through personal growth journeys while falling in love! I’m especially eager to see diverse stories with rich, underrepresented settings and concepts.

  • Emotional, funny contemporary romances with diverse leads (bonus points if they have unique jobs or there’s a unique setting)

  • STEM romances of all types! However I would LOVE to see ones with less common fields (I’m talking underwater archaeology, zoology, botany, epidemiology, geology, cryptozoology, microbiology, etc). Bonus points for an unique subplot that forces the characters together!

  • Dystopian romance with reminiscent of The 100, Paradise, The Walking Dead, The Last of Us

  • Paranormal romances! Vampires, werewolves, give it all to me as long as it’s grounded in the real world. Think FANGS WITH BENEFITS by Kath Richards and BOUND and UNBOUND by Ali Hazelwood

  • Romance with a grounded speculative twist like TIME LOOPS AND MEET CUTES, ROMANTIC HERO, SEEING OTHER PEOPLE, THE DEAD ROMANTICS

  • Fantasy romance and romantasy with an easy entry magic system! Bonus points if the story subverts common tropes like “touch her and die” or “magic powers the hero/heroine must sacrifice at the end”

  • Yearning, banter, humor, lots of pining!

  • Found family & ensemble casts 

  • Marginalized characters from authors who share their marginalization

  • QUEER and BIPOC stories

  • Slow to medium burn (I am not the best fit for instalove)

  • Single or dual POV

  • I am open to all spice levels though I lean towards novels with medium spice (think 3-5 scenes)

Tropes I love: enemies/rivals to lovers, forced proximity, second chance/years of history, only one ____, embarrassing meet cutes, meddling family and friends, friends to enemies to lovers, messy, unapologetic women, miscommunication (controversial ones, I know)

If you can comp to any of the following, I’d love to see it: Bones, Jurassic Park, Uncharted, National Treasure, Voicemails for Isabelle, Set It Up, 13 going on 30, Ella Enchanted, a Noah Kahan song or album, The Amazing Race, Discovery Channel shows (Gold Rush, Deadliest Catch, River Monsters, etc), The 100, 9-11, New Girl, 

I am not the best fit for: 

  • Mafia or intense dark romances (dark rom coms [heavy on the com] are fine!)

  • Anything with strong religious storylines

  • Military or law enforcement romances

  • Anything with on-page sexual assault, child abuse or weight loss/diet culture. Off-page is fine but please share content warnings.