Erika DiPasquale

I have a wide range of tastes and interests and am open to projects for all age ranges, 0-18. Working with BIPOC creators and creators of marginalized identities is a priority for me. Here are some specific categories that I’d love to see in my inbox, though I am also open to anything that may surprise me.

• Stories in all age ranges told with innovative storytelling structures (in which the structure is important to the story’s message). For illustrated books, this may look like creative ways that the text and images work together or a structure we’ve never seen before. For novels, this may look like mixed medium, backwards timelines, rotating perspectives, etc. or a structure we’ve never seen before.
• Empowering, boundary-pushing non-fiction for all age ranges, particularly anything about climate change, food revolution, disability, and mental health. I’d especially love a period revolution middle grade.
• Queer characters of all intersections, especially asexual characters in all age ranges.
• Disabled characters, neurodiverse characters, and characters with chronic diseases of all intersections in all age ranges.
• Body positive and fat positive stories in all age ranges.
• The next star human picture book character with series potential.
• Contemporary realistic novels with strong commercial hooks, particularly those that could be described as bright, light, and funny or that tackle difficult topics in digestible ways.
• Chapter books and early middle grade with quirky characters like The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes.
• Speculative fiction that reads like realistic fiction in the vein of Adam Silvera.
• Afterlife stories, like Elsewhere and Everlost and the shows The Good Place and Upload.
• Commercial thrillers in the vein of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Sadie, and Karen M. McManus.
• Retellings of classic books/stories, history etc., in the vein of My Lady Jane, The Bird and the Blade, and Where I End and You Begin.

I am not the right fit for:

• Claymation or similar illustration styles
• Photographic picture books
• Stories about medical emergencies (I will faint)
• High Fantasy
• Horror

At this time, I am not interested in:

• Fantasy
• Sci-Fi (though I am interested in speculative fiction grounded in the real world/that reads like realistic fiction)
• Board Books & Novelty (due to invasive production costs)
• Predominantly food-driven picture books (due to oversaturation)
• Picture book biographies (due to over saturation)
• Epistolary picture books

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to erika.dipasquale@harpercollins.com

Unfortunately, HarperCollins doesn’t accept unagented submissions.

Agents, please email submissions to me at HarperCollins.