Roger Copenhaver
Yes & Literary
My Manuscript Wish List®
Hi! I’m Roger Copenhaver and I’m the founder of Yes & Literary, launched in April 2025. My pronouns are he/they and I’m a gender non-conforming nerd who’s passionate about books, video games, and food.
Yes & is a literary agency dedicated to amplifying LGBTQIA+ voices and other marginalized storytellers. My goal in launching the agency was to help enrich the kinds of stories that are told by queer people about queer experiences as all our stories have unique elements to them that deserve to be celebrated.
2025 was primarily a year for networking with publishers and editors while starting to sign my first few authors that I’m now working on pitching. In 2026, my goal is to grow my list and double down on securing book deals for the authors I have the pleasure of working with.
I’m interested in fiction and select non-fiction. For June 2026, I’m opening submissions each Friday to celebrate Pride Month.
June Submission Schedule –Â
June 5th: Queer Joy and Love
- Stories about love, success, family and friendships, and moments worth celebrating
June 12th: Monsters, Magic & Mayhem
- Fantasy, sci-fi, and speculative fiction
June 19th: The Future is Queer
- Featuring the next generation of queer storytelling and imaginations for a better future
June 26th: Stories Unbound
- A place to feature stories where labels don’t make sense featuring great literary works and things we didn’t know we needed
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Speculative –Â
I’m most interested in dark and urban fantasy, unique takes on dystopian, climate fiction, and magical realism. I’ve been on the search for a great queer pirate adventure. I’d love to see stories with themes that involve nature like magical plants, animals that talk, tree spirits, etc. I’d love to see more witchy books with unique and realized magic systems and new takes on magical creatures: some of my favorite being zombies, dryads, dwarves, dragons, and elementals. Speculative and magical elements involving food always excite me.
Romance –
I’m primarily interested in contemporary romance and want stories that really capture the idea of queer desire. Give me the next Heated Rivalry. I’m interested in everything from hot and steamy high heat moments, to non-traditional and non-monogamous relationships, to stories about asexual characters. While I love romantasy, I’m only interested if there’s a unique hook that pushes the boundaries of the genre.
General and Literary Fiction –Â
I’m looking for unique, edgy, and strong voices with upmarket literary sensibility. I’d love to see more weird and unusual fiction. I’d also enjoy more stories about siblings or ways to highlight family relationships in new ways. I’m always interested in smart historical reimaginations and thinking through the what-ifs. I’m interested in a range of queer stories that are unapologetically about queer identity to stories with subtle hints where queerness is inherent to the story, but the story isn’t about identity itself.
Non-fiction –Â
I’m interested in very select memoirs, ideally ones with humor or just a really unique life experience. I’m less likely to pick up a memoir that is primarily about a trauma unless it has a very unique hook. Expert driven non-fiction is something that excites me and I love things about pop culture, food, and entertainment.
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Prior to launching Yes &, I worked in-house at Amazon Publishing where I was involved in our largest and most complex vendor contract negotiations with editorial and design firms, image stock houses, font foundries, and other creative service providers. I led our vendor management team and coached others in contract negotiation, which I describe as my bread and butter and I feel is one of the strengths I offer as an agent. I’ve supported in-house projects for new and emerging authors to best selling and celebrity authors.
Fun facts about me:
I’m a big gamer and Teamfight Tactics is my current go-to, but I play a variety of games.
I love good food and whiskey, specifically bourbon. Weller 107 is a favorite.
I used to compete and the coach competitive collegiate debate at the highest levels.
Submission Guidelines
Queries can be submitted here: https://www.yesandlit.com/query
Vital Info
Favorite sub-genres:
"Big Idea/Think", #ownvoices, #wndb, AAPI Fantasy, Accessible Literary Fiction, Action-Adventure, Activism, Adult, Adult Rom Com, Adult Romantasy, Adult SFF, Adventure, African Diaspora, African Fantasy, African Sci-Fi, Africanfuturism, Apocalyptic, Asian Diaspora, Asian Fantasy, Asian Sci-Fi, BIPOC, BIPOC Fantasy, BIPOC Mystery, BIPOC Sci-Fi, Biography & Memoir, Category Romance, Classic retellings with BIPOC characters, Climate Fiction, Commercial YA, Commercial and Literary, Complicated Relationships, Contemporary Culture, Contemporary Fantasy, Contemporary Inspirational Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary YA, Contemporary Young Adult, Cozy Fantasy, Cultural Criticism, Cyberpunk, Dark Female Friendships, Dark Humor, Dark topics with a light touch, Diaspora Narratives, Disability, Diverse Protagonists, Diversity, Dystopia, Dystopian, Engaged Activism, Fairytale Retellings, Fantasy, Fantasy Grounded in Reality, Fantasy YA, Feminism, Feminist SF/F, Food, Food Writing, Gaming, Geek Culture, High-Concept Literary Commercial Fiction, High-concept YA, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction YA, Historical RomCom, Humor, Immigrant Voices, Indigenous Futurism, Indigenous Sciences, Inspirational, Inspirational Fiction, Intersectional Feminism, Intersectionality, Issue-Driven, LGBT YA, LGBTQ Contemporary, LGBTQ Romance, LGBTQ+, LGBTQ+ Fantasy, LGBTQ+ Sci-Fi, LGBTQ+ rom coms, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIAP, Latine Diaspora, Latinx Fantasy, Latinx Sci-Fi, Latinx stories, Literary Crossover, Literary Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Literary Science Fiction, Literary YA, Magic, Magical Realism, Magical Realism YA, Marginalized Voices, Mental Health, Mind/Body/Spirit, Minority Voices, Modern Dating, Modern Retellings of Fairy Tales, Monsters, Multicultural, Multicultural Romance, Narrative Nonfiction, Neurodiversity, New Adult, Occult, POC, Personal Development, Politics/Current Affairs, Pop Culture, Pop History, Racial Justice, Relationships, Religion, Rom-com, RomCom, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Drama, Same-Sex Romance, Science Fiction YA, Self-help, Sexuality, Social Issues, Social Justice, Southern Fiction, Speculative, Speculative Fiction, Spirituality, Strong Females, Supernatural, Supernatural Elements, Time Travel, Transformative Justice, Trauma, Underrepresented Voices, Upmarket Commercial Fiction, Upmarket Fiction, Upmarket Nonfiction, Upmarket YA, Urban Fantasy, Wisdom, YA, YA Contemporary, YA Contemporary Romance, YA Contemporary Romance with layers, YA Crossover, YA Fantasy, YA fantasy/light sci-fi, YA memoir, Young Adult, advice, afrofuturism, alternate history, animal fantasy, anti-capitalist sci fi, beach reads, book club fiction, celebrity, contemporary, cook book, current affairs, dark fantasy, diverse and own voices, diverse heroines, diverse voices, fairy tales, faith-based stories, feminine narratives, friendship, friendship stories, gender, historical romance, immigration, indigenous futurisms, invisible disability, light Sci-Fi, light fantasy, literary, love stories, memoir, narrative non-fiction, non-Western fantasy, non-Western historical fiction, non-western settings, nonfiction, queer, queer narratives, rom-coms, romantacy, romantic New Adult, sci-fi, science fiction, science fiction epic, sweet romance, upmarket genre fiction, visible disability, weird fiction, witches
I’d like the next…
The City We Became by: N.K. Jemisin
Annihilation by: Jeff VanderMeer
Over the Top by: Jonathan Van Ness
They Both Die at the End by: Adam Silvera
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by: Bob the Drag Queen
Red, White, & Royal Blue by: Casey McQuiston
The Frame-Up by: Meghan Scott Molin
Pet by: Akwaeke Emezi
There There by: Tommy Orange
Wolf Song by: TJ Klune
All Boys Aren’t Blue by: George M. Johnson
My favorites include…
Books:Â
The City We Became by: N.K. Jemisin
Sourdough by: Robin Sloan
There There by: Tommy Orange
Eragon by: Christopher Paolini
Game of Thrones by: George R.R. Martin
The Wize Wize Beasts of Wizarding Wizdoms by: Nagabe
Film & TV:Â
The Devil Wears Prada
Game of Thrones
The Menu
Crazy Rich Asians
White Lotus
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Sense8
Heartstopper
Theatre:Â
Hadestown
Into the Woods
Waitress
Torch Song
Wicked
Dear Evan Hansen
The Prom
The Bands Visit
Kimberly Akimbo
