Acquisitions and Editor Wish List

I’m honored to work with talented authors who write upmarket and literary-plus fiction that truly run the gamut. I joke that I started out “in a dark place” by acquiring thriller, suspense, mystery, and horror (Sarah Langan’s Good Neighbors is what launched my list), but what I really love is when characters confront their darkness and reach some sort of catharsis by the end. I’m also acquiring —and I say this with absolute love—truly weird fiction that toes the lines of genre. And in the past few years, I’ve been falling in love with “happier” fiction, especially when it’s multicultural family drama (see: Carolyn Huynh’s The Fortunes of Jaded Women).

Agents: I’m also offering a catalog each season, and if you’d like a copy of my catalog, please enter your info here. Thank you! I hope we can connect soon.

Some Notes

  1. I don’t really care if you email first and ask if a manuscript’s right for me OR email me with the manuscript already attached. But can you include the agent pitch in the attached manuscript? Here’s why: oftentimes, I forward documents to my Kindle, and it’s a bit of a hassle to save the pitch email as a PDF, then forward that to my Kindle as well. (I know: you’re thinking just do it, it’s not that big of a deal, geez but . . . honestly, have you ever felt like if one small thing goes wrong, it might push you over the edge? That’s me these days.)
  2. I prefer Word docs. Sometimes PDFs don’t convert well on my Kindle.
  3. Make sure the space breaks, if your client’s manuscript has them, are where they are meant to be. Anxious me when I see a random space break: “Wait is that on purpose? Am I reading it correctly?” An easy fix? Use # to indicate a break!
  4. Atria has several imprints, and you are free to submit to both at the same time. Example: Atria Books + Emily Bestler Books or Atria + One Signal. If we BOTH like it, the editors will just duel to the death.
  5. Add page numbers! Imagine clumsy me dropping my freshly printed pages and losing the will to leave because I can’t sort it by page numbers . . . Trust me: it happens whenever I decide to print anything.
  6. I LOVE author’s notes.
  7. Feel free to ignore this list. But if you follow it, I will 100% offer on your client’s book.