Kristin Jacques
Jul 29, 20202 min
Good morning and welcome to the middle of the week, authors. We are bringing a special edition Writer Wednesday to you this week in preparation for our Sword and Silk #SSPitch Event coming, next week, August 7th, to a Twitterverse near you.
Today we are tapping the S & S submission staff about incoming manuscripts we’d love to see, tropes, and wishlists.
MB: I could definitely go for some adult horror. I know vampires are hot right now but I’m hoping to get maybe some other hellspawn in the mix, like demons and the like.
Nicole: Horror! Suspense! Thriller! Anything with ghosts and mermaids and sirens or to do with life under the ocean.
Laynie: Echoing Nicole here to say I'd love to see some more suspenseful submissions. Also I'm a sucker for retellings (especially outside of the box retellings that haven't been done before) and extended world type fantasy a la Shadowhunters or Sherrilyn Kenyon. Paranormal too!
Nicole: I’d love to get a solid YA mystery with a romance subplot as well - it feels like there’s a shortage of these types of stories and I’d love to have one on our list.
MB: Give me enemies to lovers all the time, please and thank you. Slow burn romances also win me over.
Laynie: I love to see mentor-like characters, friends to lovers romances and second chance romances, books that emphasize teams or intense friendships, books that tackle sensitive subjects like disability/mental health/chronic illness with an underlying message of hope.
Laynie: Wacky wishlist? Contemporaries that can be compared to My Best Friend's Wedding, While You Were Sleeping, or any other 90's/Early 00's romcoms. Offbeat and unique concepts like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Donnie Darko, Cloud Atlas, or Practical Magic.
Nicole: I’d also really enjoy a semi-historical adventure fantasy romance that can be compared to The Witcher, anything that can be comp’d to Lucifer, and a new adult Riverdale.
MB: I would love some true crime-like murder mysteries. Think Gillian Flynn meets Michelle McNamara.