Ivanka Perez

I’m a junior editor at Ballantine Bantam Dell, where I acquire a wide range of adult fiction and nonfiction. In fiction, I’m looking for romance and rom-coms, fantasy, heist thrillers, and book club fiction. I’m always drawn to a speculative or magical element in pretty much anything.

In nonfiction, I’m interested in expert-driven self-help; particularly books about time management, productivity, habits, and how to manage the role of technology in our lives. As a philosophy major, I’d love to acquire pop philosophy or self help-meets-philosophy books, aimed at a general audience, that teach us how to live well.

I am not a good fit for horror or psychological suspense.

I’m always looking for:

• Romance that toes the line with women’s fiction, like Carley Fortune’s novels, or incorporates a magical element a la Ashley Poston
• Grounded fantasy like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, or high fantasy with a found family element such as Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
• Speculative book club fiction with a hopeful uplift, like The Midnight Library or This Time Tomorrow
• Sweeping genre-blending reads like The Unmaking of June Farrow
• Book club fiction about what it takes to find community, such as Anxious People, How to Read a Book, or The Wedding People
• Fresh mystery/thriller premises, along the lines of First Lie Wins

Some concepts that I’d love to see more of:

• Time travel stories; I’d love the movie About Time in book form
• Heist thrillers in the vein of Portrait of a Thief and Ocean’s 8, particularly if it centers a diverse cast of characters
• Unexpected trope and genre mashups: fantasy sports romance, Regency cozy small town romance, fantasy murder mystery, Groundhog Day murder mystery, etc.
• Seasonal romance for any and every season; bonus points for a Christmas love story with Dash & Lily energy
• Novels centering a friend group ensemble cast

Some of my favorite nonfiction reads include: Atomic Habits (who doesn’t love it?), The Power of Habit, Dopamine Nation, Stolen Focus, Supercommunicators, Everything I Know About Love.