Gemma Cooper

Gemma Cooper Literary

My Manuscript Wish List®

I’ve been a literary agent since 2011, including as a director at The Bent Agency, and set up my own agency, Gemma Cooper Literary, in 2024. I represent #1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers, Barnes & Noble Children’s Book Award winners, Waterstones Children’s Book Prize winners, the Australian Book Industry Overall Children’s Book of the Year, and books that have been shortlisted for the Edgar Award, the Carnegie Medal, and many more.

My list is typified by big-concept, commercial series fiction. My current clients are a great snapshot of my taste. The best part of my job is getting to be the first fan of an unpublished book and then its champion – nothing beats talking about your favourite stories with other book lovers.

I’m lucky to have lived and worked in New York, Chicago and London, experience that has given me a global approach to representation. I work with authors all over the world and sell directly to publishers in the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.

What I’m looking for

Children’s and YA

If you can describe your children’s book in one line, or in an ‘X meets Y’ elevator pitch, I want to read it. I like books that have obvious potential for dramatic adaptation, whether that be a funny pre-school TV series or a big-budget feature film. I’m very keen to see submissions from writers from underrepresented communities, particularly those who write chapter books and middle-grade fiction.

I adore middle-grade fiction and have the widest taste in this readership: anything from mystery to fantasy, historical to funny, adventure stories to serious topics, verse, illustrated, animal perspectives and everything in between. Really, any middle-grade novel with a strong voice and/or a big hook will get my attention. Bonus points if it’s also funny.

In young adult fiction, I want contemporary novels – I’d love a rom-com with a hook, or something high-concept with strong friendships or sibling relationships. I’m not the agent for YA fantasy, but will consider light speculative fiction with a twist.

I enjoy high-concept funny chapter books with series potential aimed at ages 7+. I’m also looking for graphic novels across all ages of children’s and YA. I am not currently taking on picture books clients and will not reply to these submissions.

Adult

Right now, I’m only open to the following adult genres: cosy crime, smart contemporary crime with humour like Everyone On this Train is a Suspect, and crime with a fantasy twist like Rivers of London or Thursday Next series. I’m looking for something on the lighthearted side – a clever story with an unusual or interesting hook – and not dark thrillers or anything gritty. Please don’t send me anything with child death or gratuitous violence.

I’m not open to contemporary adult fiction, adult non-fiction, literary novels, romance, nor poetry.

A few more things about me: I love Christmas, travel, choosing the perfect present, ‘90s movies, Murder She Wrote, Red Dwarf, cinematic world-building, being a bit extra, theme parks (especially impeccable attention to detail in theming), and a good twist I didn’t see coming.

More specifically right now I would like to see:

Romance, romance, romance for contemporary YA. I love to fall in love
Big concept, commercial MG
An original take on the amateur detectives set up for adult fiction
Something you can comp to DIARY OF A WIMPY KID
A clever parody on the paranormal trope
A last human on earth set up
Time travel or sliding doors concept
The movie Pump Up The Volume in book form (maybe with podcasts)
Contemporary’ish YA/YA with a twist, like THE SQUARE ROOT OF SUMMER
My own DASH AND LILY’S BOOK OF DARES
Meta books — books that break the fourth wall, a book within a book, books with in-jokes, books that reference themselves
Chapter books that remind me of shows like Phineas & Ferb or Dangermouse

Things that aren’t for me

YA fantasy or romantasy
I’m not the person for books involving self harm, anxiety, abuse and depression
Historical fiction that is very American – Civil War era for example.
Picture books
Child death or gratuitous violence

Fun facts about me:

I have a twin brother.

As a kid, I was obsessed with Egyptian history, and could write the alphabet in hieroglyphics.

I worked in NYC as a real estate agent for two years. Chicago is my favourite place I’ve ever lived.

I love Disney and Lego.

I enjoy running and open water swimming.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to gemmaqueries@gemmacooperliterary.com

For the fastest response, please follow our submission requirements below. Please check Gemma’s agent page for what she is currently looking for before you submit. Queries sent outside these genres will be deleted unread.

Please send your submission to: ge**********@ge*****************.com

Your submission should include:

The title of your book.
A short pitch describing your book.
A bio – a few lines about you and why you wrote your book.
The first ten pages of your book pasted into the body of the email. Please don’t send this as an attachment.

If you are submitting a graphic novel or a non-fiction project with illustrations, please link to your website or social media, if you share your work there, or attach up to five low-res images.

We aim to respond to all queries within eight weeks. We have an autoresponder so you know your query has been received safely. If you haven’t heard from us after eight weeks, feel free to resubmit. We do not accept postal submissions, and any mail sent to us will be recycled.

If you receive an offer of representation from another agency before you’ve heard from us, please let us know.

Please email in**@ge*****************.com if you require this submission information in an accessible format, or if you have accessibility requirements that mean you need an alternative way of submitting. Queries sent to in**@ge*****************.com will be deleted unread.

Guidelines & Details