Ali Herring
Literary Agent
Spencerhill Associates
Asst. Literary Agent, Spencerhill Associates. Twin mom+1. Eclectic in life & books. I 💙 Jane Austen & SFF in equal doses. Uses ‘ya'll.’ Proud Atlantan.

Literary Agent
#MSWL Middle Grade Mystery w/a girl protag! Think THE INHERITANCE GAMES but for middle grade (not that exact concept; I’m just giving an example of 🔥-high-concept mystery). Fast plotting. Short chapters. Chapter cliff hangers, pls. Commercial but some emotional nuance too pls!

Literary Agent
#MSWL A take on Red, White and Royal Blue but with rival mafia kids. Lots of adventure please.

Literary Agent
zoë @filmsbyzoe
wait omg nicola and david yoon are so cute i’m gonna scream pic.twitter.com/okD8fRl8qO#MSWL I would love to discover a heart-melting swoon-inducing debut author for Nicola and David’s new Joy Revolution imprint at Random House—publishing teen love stories *by and about people of color!* If you have the kissy books for Joy Revolution, query me!!! 💋💋📚

Literary Agent
#MSWL “Clean” (for lack of a better term) contemporary YA romance with all the yummy feels.

Literary Agent
Sarah McCabe @sarahrmccabe
Dear agents,Just want to put out the call again that I'd love to see more fantasy/sci-fi middle grade submissions in my inbox! I have a TON of space for mg on my list right now, so [*insert grabby hands here*]!! #MSWL pic.twitter.com/ra3pNds2li
I’d love some middle grade sci-fi too! #MSWL

Literary Agent
#MSWL Someone write me a book called CARRION, just as dark & dangerous as it sounds, but w/expansive, lush world building. Epic fantasy would be cool here, an alternate, dangerous world where nothing is ever safe & little is sacred, except among a small few who carry the torch.

Literary Agent
Really happy to see my MIDDLE GRADE HORROR list growing with @saskwriter and @Lora013's debuts. I'm always looking for horror across the board from MG to YA to Adult, though not of the gross-out variety, but do give me eerie, tension-filled, scary with heart! #MSWL #MG #horror

Literary Agent
Would love a YA I Dream of Genie meets Weird Science #MSWL. Think two high school boys end up with magic lantern, hijinks ensue. Awkward male coming of age but more heartfelt emotions, not sexed up fantasy. But super fun and funny.

Literary Agent
Ali Herring (is closed to queries) @HerringAli
It’s a weird goal, but I really want to be known as the middle grade horror queen literary agent extraordinaire (flashy title, ha!). I love MG horror. I love how it stretches kids. How it can be used as a vehicle for talking about things like anxiety, grief & other big emotions.So send me your MG horror #MSWL when I reopen. I’m picky as all get-out, so the road is narrow. And obviously if I sign several authors in the same genre, they have to have different flavors to set them apart. But I want to see it.

Literary Agent
#MSWL Would really love to be considered for any authors who identify as part of the Cherokee Nation or other indigenous people. I’m proud to have several Cherokee in my lineage. Would even be open to chatting offline with these authors as they pursue publication as time permits!

Literary Agent
#MSWL When I reopen in Jan 2021, I will be looking to grow my list of CATEGORY Christian & Secular romance authors for the Harlequin lines: Love Inspired, LI Suspense, Heartwarming, Intrigue & Medical, Read here SPECIFIC guidelines like word count, etc: harlequin.submittable.com/submit

Literary Agent
This lovely young lady from Kentucky told me about "The Cornbread Mafia" today, and now all I want is a highly funny romp featuring this WILD group. #MSWL
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornbread…

Literary Agent
#MSWL Give me Space Western SFF, lawless new frontiers, Serendipity, Firefly-esque, but with African American space cowboys who mean business written by POC authors! Cinematic in scope, make me swoon, make me sit up, take notice, stay up all night reading! bit.ly/3lsXobY

Literary Agent

Literary Agent
Ali Herring (is closed to queries) @HerringAli
#MSWL but in books. PLEASE.#SFF #fantasy #scifi #POC #black #characters YA AND Adult. twitter.com/sa1ntcake/stat…
Absolutely love creators writing stories that reflect the diversity of the world we live in, but I’d be remiss to say that I wasn’t highly interested in seeing stories like these written by diverse creators themselves. #MSWL

Literary Agent

Literary Agent
#MSWL 4/ Thing is, I don’t ever want to know what is or was real (meaning motivations, intentions) of both the alien and the human, until the very end.

Literary Agent
#MSWL 3/ And then the alien’s goal is of course human subjugation, whether as a host to the alien or other. Not sure if it ends badly (or at least for a while) or this alien has kind of an Evan Walker, The 5th Wave, moment which changes their plans.

Literary Agent
#MSWL 2/ There’s no verbal communication. But if they touch, there’s some sort of psychic connection, very unexpected for the alien. I’m thinking written in 2 perspectives, with the alien a bit of an unreliable narrator.

Literary Agent
#MSWL 1/ When I reopen to queries, I would really dig a “host” type SFF. Super atmospheric & BEAUTIFUL in which a human meets an alien life form in the woods/wild & begins a friendship. Almost starting off very Bridge to Terabithia—secret, private, magical ...