Thais Afonso

ADULT & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

In both Adult and Young Adult Fiction, Thais is looking to represent Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Contemporary Romance, Mysteries and Thrillers.

She’s particularly keen on growing her contemporary and horror list right now, so if you have a project that doesn’t have any of her triggers and hard ‘no’s, send it to her! Even if it doesn’t a match an item in the wishlist. She very much welcomes surprises here (again, as long as there are no elements from her anti-MSWL, especially a heavy law enforcement presence in the story).

In Horror, she’s still looking for lesbians, lesbians, lesbians. Plus, the unsettling, the Gothic, folkloric horror, and all the social horror. She would especially love to find a horror-romance that hits the right balance of ‘we’re fighting the monsters and we’re kissing.’

She’s not looking for literary at this time, but focusing on commercial horror. She’s also seeking space horror: anything that could be comped to Alien: Romulus or Ghost Station, and anything underwater. She would love a deep ocean first contact horror!! Lastly, while she’s also not big on gore, she would love to see some gory body horror in the vein of The Substance.

In Mysteries and Thrillers, she’s looking for anything pacey, tense, and completely unrelated to law enforcement. She likes predictable but addictive, like Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets and Laura Dave’s The First Time I Saw Him. At the same time, she’s enjoying unexpected but clever concepts like Best Offer Wins, Harmless Women, Murder Bimbo, and Don’t Cross Mo Ellery, so feel free to surprise her. The only requirement in thrillers/suspense for her is that it be fast-paced.

She’s also still seeking lesbian thrillers, especially anything that could be pitched as Master of the House but lesbian, and anything that could be pitched as BIPOC Dan Brown (meaning that same tight formula and breakneck pace, but with different themes and relationships between the characters and the world).

She’s focused on commercial mysteries and thrillers. She’s not a good fit here for upmarket or literary, nor is she seeking psychological thrillers at this time. If there’s an element of the MC imagining things or not, or a big reliance on the narrator being unreliable, it’s not for her.

In Contemporary Romance, she’s eager to sign queer authors, and especially lesbians of color like her. Recently, she’s loving what K-dramas are doing with romance and high personal stakes, so think Crash Course in Romance, Tastefully Yours, and Forecasting Love and Weather. Speaking of weather, she’s loving the trend in contemporary romance, so if you can comp your book to B. K. Borison’s And Now Back to You or the upcoming In Stormy Weather by Chelsea Curto, she will probably go straight to the pages! She’s also a huge fan of forced proximity and nerdiness, so please someone send her something like a romance about researchers in Antarctica.

In sports romance, she’d still love a rivals-to-lovers, queer romance. Certainly, now someone will give it to her!!!! And as a Brazilian, she’d grew up watching F1 and as niche as that is, would love an #Ownvoices romance with a Brazilian pilot trying to live up to Senna’s legacy.

She’s still very selectively growing her Fantasy list.

She’s especially focused on cozy  whimsical stories, like The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches or the Emily Wilde series, and would love anything that can be comped to The Spellshop or The Teller of Small Fortunes as well.

She’s especially looking for steamy Romantasy at this time, as that’s a gap in her list. She’s still on the lookout for anything that could be described as Kushiel’s Dart for the Romantasy fans (though she’ll take anything that pushes the boundaries of spiciness beyond the vanilla, as long as it’s playful and consensual, not dark.)

In YA, she’s currently open to Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, and for the first time, Contemporary Mysteries and Thrillers.

She’s also super keen on growing her horror list in the category. 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, she’d love to see it.

In SFF, she’s always on the look-out for Global South authors, especially when it comes to stories about oppression. In Sci-Fi, she’s looking for anything fun. Epic adventures in space, dark academia in space, anything that feels like anime. She still loves anti-capitalist and anti-colonialist themes here, but she’s not a great fit for heavy dystopia or post-apocalyptic stories in YA either. However, she will take a Dystopian YA romance that scratches her nostalgia itch. Think Delirium. In Dystopian, especially if it’s YA, she’s not the right fit for anything that could be comped to Handmaid’s Tale.

In Fantasy, she’s specially looking for crossover titles. Recent favorites include Alwyn Hamilton’s Notorious Virtues, S. F. Williamson’s A Language of Dragons, and Sasha Peyton Smith’s The Rose Bargain.

In Mystery and Thrillers, her favorites include Holly Jackson’s The Reappearance of Rachel Price, Courtney Summers’ I’m the Girl, and Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s Where Sleeping Girls Lie.

Across all genres, Thais is especially interested in intersectionality. She wants to sign working class, Queer, BIPOC, disabled authors, and is keen on supporting authors whose marginalization intersect with other marginalizations, as she knows the paths to success in this industry get more limited if you have an intersectional identity.

She’s very keen on indigenous stories across age categories and in all genres—To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, Elatsoe, and Firekeeper’s Daughter are recent favorites, but she wants stories that don’t match any comps too. Thais especially wants to represent Global South authors. As someone born and raised and based in Brazil, Thais seeks to put Global South stories front and center, as she believes those voices are more needed than ever. She’s also, in both age categories and across all genres, committed to supporting Palestinian authors, whenever they are ready and able to share their stories—she’s always open to queries for Palestinian authors.

Anti-MSWL

Thais is not the best fit for Picture Books and Middle Grade. She’s not seeking to represent Military SFF, Literary Fiction, and non-speculative Historical Fiction in any age category (Historical Fantasy is ok, but alternative history without magic isn’t really for her). In all genres, she’s 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, Islamophobic, and anti-semitic tropes.

In romance, she’s specially not a fit for enemies-to-lovers where the enmity comes with major power imbalance and/or any form of systemic oppression, and relationships that involve indenture and debts that need to be repaid. She’s also a terrible fit for dark romance (she’s okay with toxic relationships if it’s not a romance, though). She’ll not represent romance with heroes that are in the military, the mafia, or law enforcement.

Please don’t send her books about Indigenous people if you’re not a culturally connected member of those Indigenous communities. That specially applies to Indigenous Brazilians, as she’s proud to see her country shifting away from appropriated Indigenous stories being repacked as folklore and ‘good savage’ narratives that have only caused harm.

Submission Guidelines

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

Only queries submitted through Query Manager will be considered. All queries submitted to her email will be deleted without response.

Please submit your query letter, a two-page synopsis, and the first 20 pages of your book. 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.

If you have a query with another agent on my team, please wait until they finish considering your manuscript before submitting to me. Our agency has a policy that you can only query one agent at a time.

I also have word-count limits that trigger auto-reject. That’s usually anything above 100k for non-fantasy books and 130k for adult fantasy (120k for YA). Please don’t submit anything above that. If it’s been auto-rejected, it means I won’t consider the manuscript at that word count. You’re welcome to resubmit if you make cuts.

Guidelines & Details