Katie McGuire

I am currently senior editor at Alcove Press / Crooked Lane Books. Alcove is my main editorial focus, though I’m looking an array of adult commercial fiction projects, especially in the romance, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and crime fiction spaces.

Previously, I’ve held editorial roles at Pegasus Books, Tapas Entertainment, and the Quarto Group. At Pegasus, I acquired and edited both fiction and nonfiction; at Tapas, I acquired and then developed webnovels, especially in the romance, fantasy, and action/adventure genres; and at Quarto, I edited illustrated nonfiction titles, primarily in the pop culture and entertainment categories. I also hold an MFA from Emerson College in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing.

In both my personal and professional lives, I’m a huge genre reader, and I especially enjoy stories that blend genres and put tropes into brave new worlds. I love character-focused stories that delve into interpersonal relationships—be they romantic, found family, or otherwise—and that really focus on the characters interacting with each other and the surroundings in which they find themselves. I’m a sucker for voice, especially a narrator with a dry wit.

I’m interested in seeing exciting new takes on superheroes and spies in any of the genres listed above! Anything that takes place backstage or behind the scenes, showing readers the lives of performers or creators in public and private, is my catnip. For horror, I’ll pretty much try anything once—slashers, supernatural, body horror, etc.—as long as it has something to say. For romance, I’ll pick rivals- or enemies-to-lovers over friends-to-lovers any day of the week, I love a complication (family, society, cultural differences, etc.) on the way to the HEA, and I adore a seemingly impossible/against-all-odds/we-found-love-in-a-hopeless-place kind of love story.

I’m open to standalone projects and those with series potential. I’ve listed as many favorite books, authors, shows, and movies as I could think of below, to give you a better idea of the vibes that speak to me.

My biggest wishes right now:

• Horror!! (I’m a huge horror nerd and deeply want to work on more of it in 2026)
• Urban fantasy/contemporary fantasy
• Something about a team of superheroes (or just folks with powers) that gives 1970s/80s X-Men vibes, with high stakes and juicy interpersonal drama
• Some kind of nostalgic/campy/self-aware horror about a group of friends (or folks who become friends) who have to take on a Big Bad (think ’90s teen horror, especially The Faculty, but in prose and for adults)
• Fairy tale tropes and settings (witches in candy houses, spooky castles full of enchantments, etc.) reexamined a la Angela Carter or used in new and exciting ways
• Gothic trappings in any of the above genres
• Romance set at an amusement/theme park or another off-the-wall/unique location
• Horror-romance, especially a love story between paranormal researchers/ghost hunters, with real scares to make them want to cuddle up together

I am not the right fit for:

• YA or MG. New adult is okay, as long as the issues the characters face skew more complex.
• High/epic fantasy
• Space opera or other sci-fi stories that focus more on the science than the characters
• Dark romance

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be emailed to katie.mcguire@alcovepress.com

Alcove is open to both agented and unagented manuscripts. Agents, feel free to send pitches directly to me at ka***********@*********ss.com. Authors, if you’re planning to submit without an agent, see the link below to Alcove’s QueryTracker.

Guidelines & Details