Adria Goetz

Spooky PBs! 👻🖤✨💀🎃

Ghosts, haunted houses, cobwebs. I would die for a picture book about rusalka.

See How to Make Friends with a Ghost for my spooky book crush, as well as an upcoming picture book called The Ugly Doodles by my client @vwicker2478. #MSWL

MG + YA Magical Realism—I’m looking for the next The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. #MSWL

MG + YA Historical Fiction/Historical Fantasy—I am a history buff myself + would particularly love to see stories which highlight a marginalized narrative that hasn’t been explored as much as the white narrative has in this space. #MSWL

MG + YA Graphic Novels. Some recent faves of mine: Pumpkinheads, Pashmina, and Making Friends. I’d also LOVE to work with someone who has a hybrid format similar to Brian Selznick’s works, which is primarily visual but not in a traditional graphic novel sense. #MSWL

Mermaids! PB, MG, YA, GNs.✨🧜‍♀️ I'm not looking for an epic fantasy, or a story in which someone discovers they’re a mermaid, or a romance in which a mermaid falls in love with a human. I'd love for it to be something a non-genre reader could get into. #MSWL

Funny PBs! I loved Maria the Matador, Dragons Love Tacos, The Bad Seed, I Don’t Like Koala, Miss Hazeltime’s Home for Shy and Fearful Cats, Brunhilda’s Backwards Day, and Even Superheroes Make Mistakes. #MSWL

Magical PBs! A few favorites: The Night Gardener, The Antlered Ship, Ocean Meets Sky, The Bear and the Piano, Remarkables, Lights on Cotton Rock, The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore, Lola Shapes the Sky, Dream Animals. #MSWL

PBs that reflect contemporary families + their real life experiences. Examples: Hair Love, My Papi Has a Motorcycle, Tell Me a Tattoo Story, Honeysmoke, Under My Hijab, Alma, Julian is a Mermaid. #MSWL

And now I’ll start listing off some specifics! At the top of my #MSWL: PB author/illustrators w/ a very distinctive signature look.

Some of my faves: Juana Martinez-Neal, Vashti Harrison, the Fan Brothers, Emily Winfield Martin, David Litchfield, Anne Lambelet, Sophie Blackall.

If you’re a visual person like me, here is a link to my #MSWL Pinterest board which has some books I love:

pinterest.com/adriaMLM/mswl/

Since it’s #MSWL Day, I’m going to post a thread of the types of projects I'd love to see in my inbox. I’ll kick it off with a link to my MSWL, which I update frequently, and which I have heard described as “very oddly specific."

adriagoetz.com

Goth chicken picture book send tweet #MSWL

Hey, look, I updated my manuscript wishlist! #MSWL

adriagoetz.com

This is my annual reminder to the world that though I primarily represent children's books, I also represent gift books and devotionals. I'd love to see more of these submissions in my inbox! #MSWL

When I saw the mail carrier put REMARKABLES (@lisamantchev + @dc_litchfield) in our mailbox, I literally ran outside in my pajamas to retrieve it. I deeply love this imaginative story. I mean, come on: Mermaids?! Circus performers?! @SimonKIDS
P.S. This is extremely #MSWL for me.

I created a MSWL Pinterest board to give you a sense for the kinds of books I love. (My visual learner brain loves seeing all of these book covers side by side.)

Happy to answer any questions about this list! 💜
#MSWL #amwriting #amquerying

pinterest.com/adriaMLM/mswl/

Would do backflips for a joyful picture book about karaoke—sort of like the karaoke equivalent of HIP-HOP LOLLIPOP. 🎤♥️✨ #MSWL

Trends I’ve noticed in the projects I represent: lesser known traditions, magical foods, baking/cooking, celebrating differences, women doing amazing things, fantastical creatures, art/creativity, themes of home/belonging, creepy stuff, characters who choose kindness. ✨📚#MSWL

I'm still on the hunt for a mermaid novel! MG or YA. The catch is that I'm not looking for the falls-in-love-with-a-human trope, or something that features wars and kingdoms and sea politics. So I guess I want a... quiet mermaid novel? #MSWL ✨🐚🧜🏿‍♀️🧜🏽‍♀️🌊

I’d love to work with a PB author/illustrator who uses paint/texture the way Alena Shymchonak does in her art! #MSWL