Courtney Miller-Callihan
Handspun Literary
My Manuscript Wish List®
Hi! I’m Courtney. I founded Handspun Literary Agency in 2016 and have been working in publishing for over 20 years, somehow. My list tends really eclectic and really commercial, with a strong emphasis on work from underrepresented voices. I love and work on relationship-driven fiction, romance and rom-coms, science fiction & fantasy, mysteries, book club fiction, historical fiction, horror, YA novels, humor, and nonfiction.
Real talk: I’ve been doing this a long time and my list is pretty full. But please send me your manuscript anyway.
An incomplete list of things I love:
- speculative fiction (all genres) that draws from the author’s culture, background, identity, and experience, especially stories that don’t (sorry) center an ordinary white boy who turns out to be the Chosen One TM (again, sorry).
- tropey love stories with a REALLY fresh take on their concept, particularly with historically underrepresented characters at their center
- cross-genre elements sprinkled into a story where you might not otherwise expect it. We watch a lot of Christmas rom-coms at our house (don’t judge me) and an example of what I mean there would be “and also Santa is real.”
- I pretty much want a love story in everything. I ship Murderbot and ART, so if you do too, let’s be friends.
- Really voicey, character-driven novels
- “Marmite books”
- I’m a sucker for a heist story, especially if you’re rooting for them to get away with it (I adored Grace D. Li’s Portrait of a Thief)
- Ensemble casts, especially in a found family/chosen family situation
- Stories that make me cry (but you have to earn it– I hate crying)
- Cozy and feelgood– with settings that you want to just move into
- Romances where the characters have really worked for their HEA or HFN (no “simple misunderstandings,” please)
- Books that are so out there that I’m left wondering “HOW did the author make this work”
An incomplete list of things that are not my thing:
- Apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic/dystopian stories, almost without exception (though I loveloveloved Monk and Robot)
- Dubcon and non-con
- Violence against children (and probably against animals as well– I’m struggling to think of an exception to this)
- Trauma porn, particularly if it’s not your trauma
- This is a really broad statement, but: anything that holds up MAGA values
- Stories that start happy and end sad
Submission Guidelines
Please fill out this form on Query Manager: https://querymanager.com/query/HandspunLit
For fiction: please have a query letter, short synopsis (ideally 5 pages or less), and the first three chapters or 50 pages of the novel, whichever is more. Attachments are best; we prefer Word docs to PDFs.
Vital Info
Favorite sub-genres:
#ownvoices, #wndb, AAPI Fantasy, AAPI Horror, AAPI Sci-Fi, Action-Adventure, Adult Horror, Adult Rom Com, Adult Romantasy, Adult SFF, Adventure, African Diaspora, African Fantasy, African Sci-Fi, Africanfuturism, Amateur Sleuth Mysteries, Asian American Literature, Asian Diaspora, Asian Fantasy, Asian Horror, Asian Sci-Fi, BIPOC, BIPOC Fantasy, BIPOC Horror, BIPOC Mystery, BIPOC Sci-Fi, Book Club, Books about books, California, Category Romance, Character-driven SciFi, Chick Lit, Chicklit, Classic retellings with BIPOC characters, Commercial Women's Fiction, Commercial YA, Commercial adult fiction, Commercial and Literary, Concept SF, Contemporary Fantasy, Contemporary Romance, Cozy Fantasy, Cozy Mystery, Cozy mysteries, Crime Fiction, Cross-genre, Dark Female Friendships, Diaspora Narratives, Disability, Diverse Protagonists, Diversity, Engaged Activism, Ensemble Casts, Epic Fantasy, Epistolary, Expat/Exile Literature, Fairytale Retellings, Family Drama, Fantasy, Fantasy Grounded in Reality, Fantasy Romance, Female Friendships, Feminism, Feminist, Feminist Horror, Feminist SF/F, First Person, Folklore, Found Families, Geek Culture, Gothic, Gothic Fantasy, Gothic Horror, Grounded fantasy, High Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Historical Fantasy; Fantasy Grounded In Reality, Historical Fiction, Historical RomCom, Historical Women's Fiction, Immigrant Experiences, Immigrant Voices, Indigenous Futurism, 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 Horror, Latinx Sci-Fi, Latinx stories, Layered Family Stories with multiple narrators, Layered Rom-Coms and Comedy of Manners with a cultural component, Low Fantasy, Magic, Magic Realism, Magical Realism, Magical Realism YA, Marginalized Voices, Mental Health, Minority Voices, Modern Retellings of Fairy Tales, Modernized Mythologies, Monsters, Mothers and Daughters, Multicultural, Multicultural Romance, Multicultural and Diverse Thriller and Mystery, Multigenerational, Multiple POV, Multiple Timelines, Mysteries, Mystery / Crime, Mythology, Neurodiversity, New Adult, Noir, POC, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Portal fantasy, Racial Justice, Regency Romance, Relationships, Rom-com, RomCom, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Drama, Romantic Suspense, Romantic Thriller, Same-Sex Romance, SciFi Romance, Shakespeare Retellings, Slipstream, Smart Beach Reads, Soft Fantasy, Soft Science Fiction, South Asian, Southern Fiction, Southern Gothic, Space Opera, Speculative Fiction, Steamy RomComs, Strong Females, Superheroes, Supernatural, Supernatural Elements, Supernatural Horror, Time Travel, Time Travel Romance, Transformative Justice, Travel, Underrepresented Voices, Upmarket Commercial Fiction, Upmarket Fiction, Upmarket Women's Fiction, Whodunit, Women's Fiction, Women's Issues, Worldbuilding, YA, YA Crossover, YA Fantasy, YA Historical Fantasy, YA Mystery, YA Rom-Coms, YA RomCom, YA Romance, YA Romantasy, YA SF/F, YA Sci-fi, YA Science Fiction, YA Thrillers, YA fantasy/light sci-fi, YA horror, YA rom com, YA thriller/mystery, Young Adult, afrofuturism, bad at feelings, beach reads, book club fiction, books in translation, campus novel, character-focused fiction, character-focused stories, classic retellings, coming of age, commercial, contemporary, contemporary women's fiction, crossover, crossover adult, dark academia, diasporic, diverse, diverse and own voices, diverse heroines, diverse voices, enemies to lovers, epic, epistolary novels, erotic romance, fairy tales, family saga, family stories, found family, friendship, friendship stories, fun SF/F, gender, generation ships, gothic romance, high-concept science fiction, historical romance, hopepunk, immigration, inclusive sf/f, indigenous futurisms, invisible disability, just one bed, light Sci-Fi, light fantasy, locked room, love stories, mental illness, mystery, non-Western fantasy, non-Western historical fiction, non-western settings, pining, queer, queer horror, queer narratives, quirky, rivals to lovers, rom-coms, romantacy, romantasy, romantic New Adult, romantic fantasy, romantic suspense/mystery, sci-fi, science fantasy, science fiction, slow burn, slow burn romance, small-town romance, stories that don't fit neatly into a genre, traditional fantasy, traditional mysteries, tropes tropes tropes, two people one bed, upmarket genre fiction, upmarket/book club with female protagonist, visible disability, who did this to you, witchcraft, witches, witty
I’d like the next…
