It’s Officially #MSWL Day!
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Jun 30 2016
Today is the day! The day when agents and editors from all over the world will be posting their #MSWL. Their hopes and desires for submissions.
Check Twitter and the official #MSWL website, but also check our blog.
Jessica Faust is still on the hunt for psychological suspense in the vein of the big ones–Gone Girl, Girl on a Train and the like. She also loves super dark suspense with damaged and maybe slightly demented protagonists, especially female protagonists, and would love to see more along the lines of Linda Castillo and Chelsea Cain (those authors are just a tad different she knows). Her #MSWL for Women’s fiction often contains some sort of magical realism. Recently she really enjoyed The Memory of Lemon and of course anything connected to Sara Addison Allen. Really though, she loves food and would love food related women’s fiction. Weird right?
Tracy Marchini is looking for picture book, middle grade and young adult submissions across a number of genres. Her #MSWL would include more middle grade with the feel of Rebecca Stead, or an epistolary YA that absolutely could not be told in any other format. She would really love a middle grade or YA starring a bat boy during Babe Ruth’s years with the New York Yankees. She’s also interested in books that feature girls and/or young women in STEM fields (be it fiction or non-fiction), and is still fascinated with the life and career of Madame Curie.
Jessica Alvarez is always looking for romance, women’s fiction, female-focused erotica, and suspense submissions. Across the board, she’d like to see books that celebrate diversity and underrepresented voices. She’d love to find some psychological suspense and domestic suspense. Dark, macabre, and gory are all encouraged. For her #MSWL, she’d love to see some books, particularly suspense, set at boarding schools–but for adults, not YA. She’s also on the hunt for more inspirational romance, particularly Amish and historicals. She’s also fascinated by medical examiners, and would love to see more books about them.
Kim Lionetti is hungry for some women’s fiction beach reads in the vein of Elin Hilderbrand. She’d also love to see women’s fiction on the more complex and darker side like Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. Overall, she gravitates toward stories that feature dynamic, complicated relationships between women (mother/daughter, sisters, friends) and also feature a strong romantic element. In addition, she’d really like to see some suspenseful YA. Something that puts her on the edge of her seat, but also stirs a lot of emotion.
Beth Campbell is always interested in YA, fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery/romantic suspense. She loves dark narratives in all genres but also connects strongly to stories with a lot of heart. For her #MSWL she’s especially interested in a sci-fi YA set in space, gritty, dark contemporary fantasies a la Holly Black (for YA or adults), and stories across the board featuring diversity–particularly YA books with some lesser-known sexuality and gender presentations.
Moe Ferrara is always looking for MG and YA, particularly in the realm of sci-fi, fantasy, and contemporary romance. For her #MSWL, she’s still on the hunt still on the hunt for a great YA horror (along the lines of ASYLUM. The creepy psychological stuff without the jump scares, please!) as well as fairytale and mythological re-tellings. She’d really love to find a m/m romance series focusing on gender-bent fairy tales with a similar tone to Gena Showalter.
In other words, write what has recently been successful. Anything outside those parameters don’t have a hope of being considered.
Great.
And WOMEN. Just women.
Wow.
You folks at the agency don’t need to remember me.
In all likelihood you’ve actually made yourself very memorable. I reread the post and I disagree with your statement. I think there’s a lot of variety in those wish lists. I’m not sure where you get the idea that anything outside of those perimeters won’t be considered, but that’s your interpretation. So that you understand, #MSWL does not include all of the books/genres we represent, just those areas where we might be the hungriest at the time. Already we’re receiving great response to this post and I know I can’t wait to dig into my inbox.
Interesting you all seem to be #MSWL-ing grittier/darker themed books this year. I’m curious as to why… because you recommend to each other? Have been reading more of that theme of late yourselves? Readers have swung that way? Coincidentally I’ve been reading grittier books myself recently but I’m now very ready to hit my TBR pile of cozies – need something lighter!
Best of luck to everyone who queries from the #MSWL shout out.
I’m not sure there’s a precise reason as to why we ask for anything. Often however it might have to do with adding diversity to our list. If we spent a few years building up a lighter list we might suddenly feel the need to add something darker or grittier and vice versa. Personally, I’ve also been reading darker books and I think with the trend toward psychological suspense a lot of others are too.
Thanks for posting your wishlists! It’s always so helpful to know which agents might be a good fit, and wishlists seem to provide further insight to what you’re looking for.