Nicole Payne

Copps Literary Services

My Manuscript Wish List®

In general, I represent young adult and adult fiction novels, preferably in romance, women’s fiction, literary fiction, mystery, suspense, thriller, and speculative fiction. They hold a special place in my heart. As I slowly delve into non-fiction, I would love to see more science-based books, especially biology and forensic, as well as medicine, travel, and cookbooks in my queue. I’m also actively seeking diverse voices and stories across the board. Give me all the books!

The type of stories I drool over should have:

  1. An amazing voice
    • Voice is everything. Without it, I won’t connect with the story.
  2. Words that touch my heart.
    • Words are magic, so the books I’ll represent have to make me spellbound.
  3. A killer plot
    • The story is everything, so it has to keep me riveted from start to finish.
    • Please don’t start books with a lot of backstory. I don’t need to know what the character looks like or their entire life story right out of the gate.
  4. Uniqueness
    •  I think that speaks for itself lol.
  5. Realistic characters
    • I always love having strong characters or will become strong as they evolve. So, any stories with characters like that are a definite plus in my book.

Stories I’m NOT seeking at this time:

  1. Early readers
  2. Picture Books
  3. Middle grade
  4. Political novels
  5. Erotica
  6. Short stories/novellas

Some of my past wish lists have included:

  • A YA or A romance featuring travel to Alternate Universes or time travel.
  • Southern belle in antebellum era breaking all the rules of society/propriety for the one who has her heart. HEA ending.
  • I’d love a YA or Adult contemporary with a setting in an exotic rainforest or a foreign country (non-European).
  • Adult thriller with Olicity romance/chemistry (think more from Season 2 and not the later seasons, lol)
  • Suspenseful YA or Adult with a questionable heroine not afraid to bend the rules. Lots of action please.
  • Mysteries or thrillers with an unreliable narrator.
  • Being an anime/manga lover, Kaikan Phrase-esque Adult romances (with the innocence of the anime but the depth of the manga). For non-anime lovers who won’t know what this is, think romance between cold teen rock star and normal girl but with a twist would be nice.
  • I normally post some wishlists on my tweets featuring #MSWL so make sure to go follow me to see what’s next on the menu! 🙂

Fun facts about me:

I used to give sponge baths to dead bodies. It was my side job while I was in grad school. And what’s worse, it didn’t bother me at all. Even when some of them grew mold on them. I did always have this fear that one of the bodies would suddenly wake up and try to attack me. Thankfully, they never did…

Submission Guidelines

I don’t take email submissions. Please query me at http://querymanager.com/npayne for any queries to be considered. Thanks!

Guidelines & Details

Vital Info

@tnicolepayne

Website

Agent

Fiction:

Commercial, Family Saga, Fantasy, Historical, Humor, Literary, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller, Women’s Fiction, Young Adult

Non-Fiction:

Cookbooks, Science, Travel

Favorite sub-genres:

diverse and own voices

I’d like the next…

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My favorites include…

  1. Favorite Books: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The River of Time series by Lisa T. Bergren, The Flight and Glory series by Rebecca Yarros, The Consolation series by Corinne Michaels, Pretty much everything Colleen Hoover and Amy Harmon writes, The Lux series by Jennifer Armentrout, and The Broken series by J.L. Drake.

Favorite Tv shows/movies: Outlander, The Vampire Diaries, Once Upon a Time, Arrow, The Flash, Charmed, Gilmore Girls, Heroes, Mulan, Tarzan (the cartoon and the new movie), Forensic Files, Pride and Prejudice, Fushigi Yuugi, Terminator (all of the movies), and a bazillion kdramas lol.