Liv Ivanov
Creative Media Agency
My Manuscript Wish List®
Open to Queries
I’ve always had a passion for reading wildly immersive, character-driven novels and am absolutely ecstatic that I now have a chance to champion new voices in the industry who have the potential to make an impact on other people’s lives.
Overall, I’m looking for character-driven stories, compelling premises, fantastically immersive settings, and most of all — I want to find that next unputdownable story I can’t stop raving to my friends and family about! I’m particularly interested in:
- Stories written by authors who identify with a marginalized or traditionally underrepresented group
- A strong voice — this is especially important to me; I want to be fully immersed in the mind and world of the main character
- Well-developed, complex, and/or flawed main characters
- Enthralling, robustly-structured plots that are full of twists and tension
- Witty banter, and well-written dialogue
- Prose that makes me want to laugh, cry, or think about life more deeply (I want to feel ALL the feelings)
- For SFF — creative, well-thought-out magic systems, as well as unique sci-fi elements that really make a story stand out in the genre
MSWL
I’m especially on the lookout for a well-constructed heist, a bone-chilling psychological thriller, stories where nature/settings are sentient, as well as projects that involve characters unraveling a puzzle or a conspiracy. If your story has a music-related or computer science-based magic system, I want to see it! I’m also really interested in representing stories that focus on and/or are written by underrepresented voices and authors from a diverse set of cultures and backgrounds, such as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, disability, and mental health issues.
Adult
All genres can include romance, but I like when the story is multi-faceted
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Women’s Fiction
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Coming-of-age
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Contemporary/Upmarket Fiction
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Horror/Paranormal
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All things eerie and atmospheric, paranormal, monsters
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Not a huge fan of gore
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Mystery/Thriller (Bring on the twists & turns!)
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Spies & Espionage
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Small-town settings and eerie atmospheres (think Sharp Objects)
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Race against time
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Innovative whodunits (think Glass Onion, Knives out, and The White Lotus)
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Dark Academia
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LGBTQIA+
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Sci-Fi (Currently closed to this category on QM but will open back up in the future!)
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Anything from a light touch of sci-fi, to dystopian, to space-based settings, to a full on space opera
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Multiple timelines
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Sci-Fantasy (Gideon the Ninth and The Fifth Season are my all time favorite books)
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Sci-Fi Thrillers (think Project Hail Mary or Recursion)
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Slipstream
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Magical Realism
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Fantasy
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Light and/or Whimsical Fantasy
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Urban and Paranormal Fantasy
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Romantasy
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Different worlds and high fantasy (think Foundryside or Mistborn)
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Historical Fantasy
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YA
All genres can include romance, but I like when the story is multi-faceted
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Contemporary/Upmarket
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LGBTQIA+
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Mystery/Thriller
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Small-town settings and eerie atmospheres
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Race against time
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Whodunits and character unraveling conspiracies
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Dark Academia
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Sci-Fi
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Anything from a light touch of sci-fi, to dystopian, to space-based settings
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Adventures and races against time
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Fantasy
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Light Touch and Urban Fantasy
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Paranormal/Supernatural (The Bone Houses, Cemetery Boys)
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Different worlds, Low and some High Fantasy (Six of Crows and Strange the Dreamer are some favorites of mine)
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(Not Currently Accepting MG Submissions) Middle Grade
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LGBTQIA+ (The Language of Seabirds)
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Mythological/Fairy Tale/Classics Retellings and Reimaginings
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Sci-Fi — more of a light touch
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Huge fan of puzzle, conspiracy, and adventure stories (The York series, The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne)
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Fantasy —
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Light touch to high fantasy, with innovative, yet digestible magic systems
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Mystery/Thriller/Horror
Not Looking For
- Children’s picture or chapter books
- Military thrillers
- Nonfiction projects
Submission Guidelines
Liv only accepts queries via Query Manager
Vital Info
Favorite sub-genres:
#ownvoices, AAPI Fantasy, AAPI Horror, AAPI Sci-Fi, Adult, Adult Horror, Adult Romantasy, Adult SFF, Adventure, African Fantasy, African Sci-Fi, Apocalyptic, Asian Fantasy, Asian Horror, Asian Sci-Fi, BIPOC, BIPOC Fantasy, BIPOC Horror, BIPOC Mystery, BIPOC Sci-Fi, Classic retellings with BIPOC characters, Contemporary Fantasy, Cozy Fantasy, Disability, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, Fantasy YA, Folklore, Gothic, Gothic Fantasy, Gothic Horror, Hard Science Fiction, High Concept, Historical Fantasy, LGBT YA, LGBTQ+, LGBTQ+ Fantasy, LGBTQ+ Sci-Fi, Latinx Fantasy, Latinx Horror, Latinx Sci-Fi, Magic, Neurodiversity, Paranormal, Paranormal Horror, Paranormal Thriller, Psychological Horror, Psychological Thrillers, Sci-fi Thriller, Thriller, Underrepresented Voices, Urban Fantasy, Whodunit, Women's Fiction, YA, YA Fantasy, YA Mystery, YA Sci-fi, YA Thrillers, classic retellings, coming of age, crossover, dark academia, dark fantasy, romantasy, sci-fi, science fantasy
I’d like the next…
My favorites include…
Favorite Books (there’s so many more that I love, but these are some at the top of my list)
- The Fifth Season (& the entire Broken Earth trilogy)
- Gideon the Ninth & Harrow the Ninth
- Foundryside
- Strange the Dreamer
- The Way of Kings, Mistborn — and pretty much anything by Brandon Sanderson
- This Is How You Lose The Time War
- Six of Crows
- Cemetery Boys
- Sharp Objects
- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
- Project Hail Mary
- Ninth House
- No Country For Old Men
- Fahrenheit 451
Favorite Movies, TV & Anime
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Inception
- Interstellar
- Dune
- Parasite
- Breaking Bad
- Attack on Titan
- Oppenheimer
- Knives Out
- Shutter Island
- Arcane
- The Good Place
- The Last Of Us (the game & the show)
- Black Mirror
- Chernobyl
- Severance
- Death Note
- The Mandalorian
- Mr. Robot
