Thais Afonso

To Add to Wishlist in January:

This year, I’m eager to grow my contemporary and horror list. Send me all the swoony contemporary romance, all the pacey suspense and thrillers, and anything weird and spooky.

In Horror, my wishlist remains the same: lesbians, lesbians, lesbians. Plus, the unsettling, the Gothic, folkloric horror, horror mixed with fantasy or romance, and all the social horror. Just no slasher, and jump scares are not very effective on me.

I like my horror atmospheric, but unrelenting. I would especially love vampire horror, like House of Hunger and Our Share of Night, or anything borderline Literary but super weird, like Our Wives Under the Sea and Chlorine. I’m also still looking for space horror, anything that could be comped to Alien: Romulus or Ghost Station, and anything underwater! I would love a deep ocean first contact horror!!

In Suspense and Thrillers, I’m looking for anything pacey, tense, and completely unrelated to law enforcement. I would particularly love a romance-thriller that could be comped to Twisters, anything that draws on the type of vigilante story that so resonated with everyone last year (for reasons), and any book that could even remotely be compared to Jane Pek’s The Rivals. I’m also hungry for anything that could be comped to The God of the Woods. Other recent favorites Society of Lies, The Night We Lost Him, and Freida McFadden’s The Crash.

I’m still also looking for lesbian thrillers, especially anything that could be pitched as Master of the House, but lesbian. Or anything super gay that can be comped to Michele Campbell’s The Intern, Catherine Steadman’s The Family Game, or Amanda Pellegrino’s The Social Climber.

And speaking of Thai shows, I was also a huge fan of Ready, Set, Love and the dramatization of the cave rescue from 2018. Lastly, I continue to hunger for anything that could be pitched as BIPOC Dan Brown (meaning that same formula, but with different themes and relationships between the characters and the world).

In Contemporary Romance, I’m ever eager to sign queer authors, and especially lesbians of color like me. I’m still not the best fit for category romance, and mostly seeking single-title romance dramas and rom-coms with character arcs that have a lot of depth. If you can comp your book to Emily Henry, Tia Williams, Alison Cochrum, B.K. Borison, Kennedy Ryan, Jessica Joyce, Ashley Herring Blake, or Abby Jimenez, it’ll probably appeal to me.

In sports romance, hockey is still king, and I’d love a rivals-to-lovers, queer romance in that niche. But I also loved Challengers and am looking for anything in that vein. And as a Brazilian, I love soccer and I love surfing, and you’ll go further with me if you pitch me those kinds of books than ones that center more American sports (I really do not understand American Football, I’m sorry.)

I also read quite a lot of Indie romance (especially sapphic Indie romance), so if you’re an Indie Romance writer looking to go trad or hybrid, feel free to reach out. I know how much great work it’s been done in those spaces, especially by marginalized authors.

All of that said, I’m still actively growing my SFF list. In Sci-Fi, anti-capitalism continues to be welcome. And I continue to love and seek cyberpunk, solarpunk, and silkpunk. I’m also still looking for Kaiju or epic monster stories set in the Global South, by GS-based authors; African, Afro, and Afro-Latine-Futurism; and absolutely anything that could be comped to Hammajang Luck.

I’ve however found I’m not a great fit for dystopia that mirrors our currently events too much or anything post-apocalyptic. If it could be comped to The Road, I’m definitively not a fit for it.

I’m still signing all sub-genres of Fantasy, except Grimdark and Military. I’m especially looking for steamy Romantasy at this time, as that’s a gap I still haven’t filled on my list. BIPOC Romantasy, in particular, is something that I’m super hungry for. I’m also hungry for cozy fantasy with some tension, anything similar to Emily Wilde or The Teller of Small Fortunes.

I’m also keen on taking on indie authors who want to transition to trad or have a hybrid career. I’d especially love to connect with BIPOC in Romantasy.

In YA, my main goal is to start building an eclectic horror list. If you can comp your manuscript to Justina Ireland, Krystal Sutherland, Jamison Shea, C.G. Andrews, Trang Thanh Tran, Andrew Joseph White, Courtney Gould, Tiffany D. Jackson, Vincent Tirado, or Kalynn Baron, I’d love to see it.

I’m still open to YA SFF, I’m just really hungry for horror right now.

In SFF, I’m always on the look-out for Global South authors, especially when it comes to stories about oppression. In Sci-Fi, I’m looking for anything fun. Epic adventures in space, dark academia in space, anything that feels like anime. I still love anti-capitalist and anti-colonialist themes here, as I said above, but I’ve found I’m not a great fit for dystopia or post-apocalyptic stories here either.

In Fantasy, I’m specially looking for crossover titles, and if there’s a competition, I’ll probably love it, unless it’s a marriage competition. I’m not the best fit for those. On the very specific wish list item spectrum, I was obsessed with Alwyn Hamilton’s Notorious Virtues for weeks after I read it, and would love something that is that pacey and high-stakes but that feels very melodramatic, ripe with complicated family dynamics and feelings.

I would also love a crossover YA/NA high-concept romance here, something that puts a new twist on beloved tropes, or sets a familiar a love story in an original, lush world.

Anti-MSWL

I’m not currently taking queries for Picture Books, Middle Grade, and Contemporary YA. I also don’t represent Non-Fiction—but there are many agents at ALA who are experts at that. I’m also not seeking to represent Military SFF, Literary Fiction, and non-speculative Historical Fiction in any age category.

In all genres, I’m not a good fit for any sort of positive spin on war, Monarchy, colonization, or genocide. She will not represent books with Zionist and imperialist propaganda, copaganda, or racist, queerphobic, transphobic, islamophobic, and antisemitic tropes. And a lesbian, I’m pretty sensitive to the lesbian character being killed off in the end. I’m not a fit for books where that happens, even if the character was a villain.

With very few exceptions (Kimberly Lemming being the main one), I’m not a monster romance person, and will send all of those to Claire anyway, so you’re better off querying them with that first. I’m also very much not into dark romance, especially if it’s bully romance or stalker romance. Apparently, people still write N*azi romances—I will never consider those. Please, do not query those to me. Same with colonizer/colonized, Israeli/Palestinian romance, and all iterations where genocide gets diminished for the sake of romance.

I don’t do mafia/cartel stories in any genre. And I absolutely do not do stories that involve cops. I don’t want detectives in space, mage cops, cops that are only really side characters (but are good people), cops who are complicated and tortured. Just, please, no cops. Ever. I have yet to make an exception for my distaste for characters involved in any type of law enforcement, and I don’t see myself making an exception in the future.

As mentioned above, I’m also a poor fit for dystopias or post-apocalyptic stories right now.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to https://QueryManager.com/ThaisAfonso

Please submit your query letter, a two-page synopsis, and the first 20 pages of your book through Query Manager. I don’t accept submissions via email.

If there is triggering content in your manuscript, please add warnings to your submission package.

I don’t have a maximum word-count for query letters, so you can add any and all content warnings to the end of the letter. In addition to CWs, I recommend your query letter feature a pitch, your bio, and basic information about the manuscript’s word count, title, and potential audience. Comps are super welcome, but not mandatory.

If I requested this submission from a pitch contest, please include a link to the pitch. If there’s a particular item in my MSWL you think your manuscript fills, I’d love for you to highlight it. And don’t worry about mistakes. I’ll give equal consideration to all queries.

Guidelines & Details