Welcome back, beloved. Take a sip of sacred wine and light your offertory tapers. I’m back with another newsletter for you, and it’s a big one.
News
I have officially opened to queries, and I just wrapped my first week as an agent! I’ve received almost 300 queries already, but I’m still hungry for more. When I finish out my first month, I’ll send out statistics about how many books I requested and how many offers I made, because I always found that interesting when I was querying, but until then, know that I’ve found some diamonds among the slush!
Balancing work, life, and agenting is a challenge, but it’s one that I’m up for. My rhythm right now is starting my morning by checking my agent inbox and reading some queries, then working my day job until five o clock or so, having dinner with my fiancé, attending to life stuff, and then settling in to read submissions in the evening before bed. My weekends are pretty much dedicated to agenting, although I make space for naps and excursions with friends.
If you’d like me to take a look at your book, query me here: querymanager.com/query/saint. As a reminder, I represent adult romance, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In particular, I would love to see more romance in my inbox. If you’d like to learn more about what exactly I’m looking to represent, jump to the next section.
Manuscript Wishlist
My full manuscript wishlist is now live on my website, but I thought it would be fun to share a shortened version of it with you all so you can get a sense of what I’m seeking.
In romance, I’m most interested in representing queer and polyamorous love stories of all kinds, especially historicals that read like KJ Charles or Cat Sebastian, or high heat, high angst contemporary romances that feel like Sierra Simone or Tiffany Reisz books. Bruise my heart on the way to a hard-won HEA! That said, I would also love to lose myself in a witty romcom like GET A LIFE, CHLOE BROWN, or a steamy adventure like Katee Robert’s Dark Olympus series.
I’m a sucker for atmospheric, character-driven contemporary fantasy stories with supernatural or psychological themes, especially gothics of all subgenres. In high fantasy, I love stories that center relationships or politics, with intricate religious, magical, and sexual worldbuilding, such as the Kushiel’s Legacy series. Fantasy romance is more than welcome here, particularly anything in the vein of Grace Draven or Naomi Novik.
I prefer my science fiction philosophical and character-centered as opposed to action-packed. I love existential sci-fi, cosmic horror, and science fiction that engages with religion, spirituality, and the ephemeral.
I’m looking for horror that is as beautiful as it is gruesome, religious horror, queer horror, feminist horror. Mind-bending psychological terrors and quiet atmospheric dread.
Some specifics I’m hungry for include:
Occult fantasy. Send me your demon deals, your secret societies, your hereditary and self-taught witches.
A novel or graphic novel that feels like THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, I still haven’t recovered from reading it. Mixing magic and pop culture and rock and roll is a siren song to me. Similarly, I’d love a folkloric, musical fever dream like WYLDING HALL.
Historical romance that centers on working class people, marginalized groups, and sex workers, though I love a duke as much as the next girl. On that note, I love the Regency and Victorian periods, but I’m hungry for historical romance that takes place in less conventional time periods or locales.
Dark academia that engages with the elitism and colonial legacy of ivory tower academia, but also dark academia that takes place in unusual contexts, like community colleges, specialty schools, or immersion programs. Send me something that feels like THE SECRET HISTORY or IF WE WERE VILLAINS but with fresh characters in a new setting.
Kinky romcoms that explore BDSM in an enthusiastic, consensual, and trope bending way. Bonus points if it’s done with humor!
Villain and monster romances. I fell head over heels for THE MONSTER OF ELENDHAVEN and would love to represent a readalike.
Going on Submission(!)
On the note of writing, I just finished revising my occult fantasy romance EVOCATION and sent it into my agent for final feedback, and we’re going to be on submission so soon! Like, before autumn is over soon. It’s baby’s first time on sub, so send me good vibes that the book finds the perfect home! Submission can be gruelingly long or over in the blink of an eye, it really depends on luck, timing, and which editors you’re working with. I hope I can write to you with good news soon.
Events
I’ve got a couple great events coming up that I’m so excited for. First up, I’m going to be in conversation with friend Caitlin Starling about her new book THE DEATH OF JANE LAWRENCE and about gothic marriages! We’re going to be hosted by The Book Cellar at 7pm CST on October 13th, and you don’t want to miss it! The event is free but you do need to register in advance at the link right here.
Then, I’m going to be talking with the moderators of the Queer Romance Readers discord about A DOWRY OF BLOOD on October 22nd at 3pm ET. You can join the server right here and catch me chatting via audio about vampires, the inspiration behind the book, and my love of queer gothic literature.
That’s all I have for you this week, dear reader.
Be safe and well until we two meet again.
-Saint