Jon Cobb

Jon graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature, and later completed a Master’s degree in Publishing: Digital and Print Media at NYU. After gaining experience at Writers House and NYU Press, he joined HG Literary to assist partner and agent Josh Getzler on a wide variety of titles in fiction and nonfiction. In addition to being an agent, Jon also coordinates HG Literary’s internship program. Jon reads all genres of fiction but has a particular interest in contemporary middle grade and YA, science fiction and fantasy, African-American fiction, literary fiction, and mysteries and thrillers. He also has a soft spot for anything related to track and field, geek culture, weird science or cutting-edge technology.

Things I’m looking for:

• BIPOC stories of all kinds, especially Black or Filipino stories
• Romances between two characters of color
• Black joy! Stories that center the Black American experience without centering Black trauma
• Stories that revolve around a character’s return to their ancestral home
• Fantasy or speculative stories leveraging non-European folklore, mythology and cosmology
• Contemporary fantasy, urban fantasy or magical realism–stories set firmly in our world but with a unique twist
• Smart, taut spy thrillers channeling the late Robert Ludlum, with a modern voice
• BIPOC amateur sleuths taking on entrenched power structures
• Thoughtful, cerebral science fiction focused on big ideas
• Anything involving time travel or parallel worlds, especially if used to comment on real-life sociopolitical issues

More specific:

• A literary or upmarket novel set during a big, multigenerational Black family reunion
• A speculative novel that leverages video game or tabletop mechanics like Ready Player One (but with less nostalgia-baiting)
• A horror or mystery novel set during a Civil War reenactment, on a historic plantation, etc.–where the present-day story links thematically with America’s dark past
• A speculative take on an enclosed, high-pressure, professional environment–fantasy Law & Order, The Newsroom or Grey’s Anatomy
• A dark academia novel with unique, creative magic systems like A Deadly Education
• A speculative novel where characters use metaphysics to steer social change like The Future of Another Timeline

Submission Guidelines

Jon accepts unsolicited queries through Query Tracker at QueryMe.Online/Cobb.

Guidelines & Details