Hillary Fazzari

About Me:

Hi!  I’m Hillary (she/her), and I’m an agent at the Bradford Literary Agency! As an agent, I’m a generalist and acquire widely across genres, age bands, and book types. I’m not always open to unsolicited queries in all of the areas I represent, and at the moment I am only open to unsolicited queries in the following:

• Middle-Grade Mystery: this includes all subgenres, although I’m most looking for humorous contemporary MG mysteries, voice-y school-yard mysteries or school yard “crime” stories, and mysteries set in interesting locations: at magic schools, in space, inside fairytale worlds, and more. Some favorite titles for me are FUNJUNGLE, TIMOTHY FAILURE, SPACE CASE, THE FOURTH STALL. And I’d love to see projects like THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL but make it a mystery instead or PERCY JACKSON but make it a mystery instead.

Overall, when I am more broadly open to queries, I acquire:

• Picture books:  fiction, nonfiction, and novelty, and I look for both picture books for young readers (pre-K audiences) and older elementary-aged kids.
• Chapter books and easy readers, primarily fiction
• Graphic Novels for kids, primarily fiction with limited nonfiction
• Middle-grade fiction (both illustrated and non-illustrated) along with very limited MG nonfiction and novelty books
• YA fiction
• Crossover and New Adult fiction
• Adult fiction
• Adult nonfiction (predominately in areas of history, pop culture, and esoterica that can produce mainstream books)

I often have areas of higher focus within each of these age bands or categories, depending on where my list stands.

For Nonfiction and Novelty Picture Books, I’m usually most looking for:

• “How things work” books;
• Hands-on books, including STEM-focused;
• Search-and-find books and other types of interactive narratives;
• History, folklore, fairytales, and mythology;
• Oddities books and humor.

For Picture books in fiction, I’m usually looking for:

• Funny, lush, or voice-y character-centric picture books (like ELIOSE or DON’T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS!);
• Offbeat or unexpected ecosystem-centric books (like CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS or BROWN BEAR WOOD: IT’S BUSY DOWN IN THE WOODS TODAY).

For Middle-grade, I typically look for:

• Humor;
• Stories for kids who are “scrollers” and need consistent input to transition to reading;
• Interactive, interesting format, and illustrated stories;
• Adventure, quest, and mystery books with voice-y, sometimes oddball protagonists. (THE FOURTH STALL, TIMMY FAILURE, SPACE CASE, DRAGON RUN, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, and the FUNJUNGLE books are very indicative of my taste). I also like big fantasy or second-world adventure (magical and non-magical), eco-adventure, and school/daily life-adventure books (think THE WORST SCHOOL TRIP EVER, HOOT, TAPPER TWINS, THE CHRONICLES OF EGG, LEMONY SNICKET, HALF UPON A TIME, LIAR & SPY, and anything that can make me laugh!);
• Shorter books for lower middle-grade readers and books for upper middle-grade readers.

For YA, I usually most look for:

• Material that wraps around a simple, high impact hook regardless of genre;
• Books with characters and relationships that jump off the page; or
• Unreliable narrators you can’t help but love who lead you on twists and turns.
• Some books indicative of my taste in YA include:
  • THE FALSE PRINCE series by Jennifer A. Nielsen
  • The HEIST SOCIETY and EMBASSY ROW series by Ally Carter
  • Maurene Goo’s books
  • Holly Black’s THE FOLK OF THE AIR series
  • Brigid Kemmerer’s books
  • Megan Whalen Turner’s books
  • A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE and its sequels by Brittany Cavallaro
  • Heather Fawcett’s books
  • The LEGENDBORN series by Tracy Deonn
  • TROUBLE IS A FRIEND OF MINE and its sequel by Stephanie Tromly
  • IVORY AND BONE and its sequel by Julie Eshbaugh

In New Adult/Crossover, I’m most looking for:

• Material with a flavor similar to my YA list but for readers who are adults or “new” adults themselves; or
• Authors with buzzy, hyper-fresh, or daring self-published work who are looking to transition to traditional publishing

For Adult fiction, I’m leaning less commercial (or purely commercial) these days and am most looking for:

• Elegant, deeply thematic, feminist fantasy in the vein of THE KNIGHT AND THE MOTH;
• Lyrical historical fantasy or historically-inspired contemporary or futuristic fantasy — I’d love an adult RAVEN BOYS or something with the stunning writing of Megan Whelan Turner’s books;
• Books with strong fantasy, historical, or other genre elements that have something important to say; examples: BLACK WATER SISTER by Zen Cho; THE RESURRECTIONIST by A. Rae Dunlap;
• Feminist-centric novels: commercial, upmarket, literary;
• Elevated dark academia with strong themes:  think like BABEL and beyond; or
• Upmarket and literary work in all genres from BIPOC and queer writers.

For Adult nonfiction, I’m most interested in:

• History for a mainstream audience that focuses in on interesting topics, time periods, places, or themes;
• Feminist pop culture; or
• Esoteric topics that have mainstream appeal, particularly from authors with a platform in the area in which they are working.

For Graphic Novels, I only represent graphic novels for kids and am most looking for projects from author-illustrators with:

• A strong sense of place and character; and
• Elements of fantasy and/or simple, concise, high-impact hooks.

Submission Guidelines

I only accept unsolicited queries through QueryManager.  You can reach my QueryManager page here: https://bradfordlit.com/submission-guidelines

No use of Generative AI:

Protecting author’s and illustrators’ work is extremely important to me; I never use AI to review or read queries/submissions and do not represent material that has been created or edited by generative AI.

For Fiction:

Guidelines & Details