Elisa Saphier

I am closed to submissions with the hope of reopening soon. I have finally made it to mid Jan for fulls, and the end of Jan for partials and initial queries. Yes, that’s up to date, and yes, I know. (I’ll try to keep this current so you can always check back and see where I am. I also try to post updates on Twitter and Spoutible; I always respond to a query eventually.)

I  am always most excited to find great writing and full characters, regardless of genre. I am focused on uplifting marginalized voices and want to be a part of seeing publishing become more equitable and less unbalanced of underrepresented writers. While I am mostly genre agnostic (quality of writing and everything else is much more important to me as both a reader and an agent) I gravitate more strongly toward stories of identity and self discovery in literary fiction, psychological thrillers and mysteries, memoir, and queer romance. I love to cry though a book but am not morally opposed to happy endings. In all genres I prefer standalone books over series. I am not actively looking for science fiction, although do keep reading queries that excite me so I’ll say that in spec fic I strongly prefer  “SFF lite,” and am turned off by vampires/aliens/shapeshifters etc. I am almost never the best fit for fantasy, although touches of magic can be okay.

I do have a significant soft spot no matter the genre for stories that reflect back our world, that challenge the status quo, that show the truth of white supremacy/patriarchy/oppression/trauma. I love character-heavy books that start conversations about race, class, gender, etc. But I do read almost anything and I’ve been a bookseller for many years and so have a good feeling for what people are looking for, even if it’s not my go-to. What I’m most looking for in my inbox, in no particular order:

Adult:
literary psychological thrillers/mystery;
queer romance (especially but not exclusively friends to lovers and forced proximity);
literary fiction;
literary memoir;
stories of marginalized people where the marginalization isn’t the story;
dark academia;
suburban malaise

Young Adult:
found family;
queer coming of age;
emerging awareness of identity;
amateur theater

Middle Grade:
true to life fiction;
questioning of self and belonging;
amateur theater

A few themes/genres I am not a good fit for:
pop-culture/fashion;
praising religion (don’t be fooled if you’ve found me because my agency has lots of Christian authors, I am the anomaly there);
hard sff or horror;
shape-shifting/vampires/zombies/etc
picture books;
technology;
power dynamic relationships in romance;
insta-love romance;
espionage
mob/mafia/military
conservative talking points

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to elisa@macgregorliterary.com

I am currently closed to submissions! Once I am open again, send a query with your pitch, synopsis, and first few pages directly to my email. I’ll get back to you just as soon as I can! (Which won’t be as soon as I’d like.) I’m not comfortable with formality so feel free to just call me Elisa.