James is looking for fantasy and speculative fiction in all its forms—from sweeping epic fantasies in intricate second worlds, to space operas, to grounded stories where magic reshapes ordinary lives. He is drawn to plot-driven books with strong characters, commercial hooks, and sentences that stick with you. Foremost, James looks for stories that readers can obsess over and build fandoms around.
James is especially drawn to:

• Epic and political fantasy: books with immersive worldbuilding, complex characters, political intrigue, dangerous magic, and high stakes. He loves flipping back to a map to understand where a character’s going, or referencing a family tree to understand the implications of a certain dynamic. He likes lots of scheming or morally complicated characters like in The Fifth Season, City of Brass, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, The Poet Empress and The Raven Scholar. He loves books that have a unique pantheon of gods, or that retell myths, legends, and folklore from cultures around the world.

• Cozy fantasy, but especially books with stakes or something unexpected beneath the surface. A strong sense of humor is always a plus.

• For contemporary fantasy, he loves seeing magic, mythology, or the supernatural brought into recognizable modern settings like in AM Kvita’s An Unlikely Coven. Distinctive magical systems and protagonists with something to lose (or everything to gain) are key.

• James loves historical fantasy and would love to find more books that use a real historical period/event as the foundation for a story that feels fresh, immersive, and transformative. Think The Familiar, Babel, or a more epic fantasy.

• Science fiction—from the epic space operas like Red Rising to the more intimate, speculative stories like Ted Chiang’s short stories, The Tusks of Extinction, Sublimation or Arrival

• Anything that blends/bends genre, whether it’s a horror-tinged fantasy, mystery in a secondary world like The Tainted Cup, a strong b-plot romance, or a blend between science fiction and fantasy like Jade City. Books that play with form, structure, perspective, or genre expectations are especially exciting.

Some specific things James is really keen to see: a dragon fantasy, a fantasy with time-related magic (time travel or otherwise), a book with a tight timeline (save the world in a week?), a space opera with deadly politics like Red Rising or The Expanse, a speculative spy/espionage story.

Above all, James is looking for a strong voice, unforgettable characters, emotional depth, and a premise that makes him eager to know what happens next. He’s happy to be surprised, so if your manuscript doesn’t fit neatly into one of these sub-categories, send it anyway!

(As Director of BookEnds Jr, James has an active list in children’s literature, but is not looking to expand it at this time. He is always happy to hear from illustrators, and make referrals to the BookEnds art agents as well.)