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.
What are some subgenres you would love to see in submissions!
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!
Tropes! We love them. What are some of your favorite tropes? What are some tropes you would love to see inverted or given a new twist?
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.
What is on your secret wishlist? Share some of the oddly specific and perfectly wacky wishlist stories you hope land in your inbox one day.
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.
