Mara Hollander

FICTION

I’m seeking accessibly-written novels for Adult and YA audiences that transport you and make you forget the world around you. I love deep POV, a hook that makes my jaw drop, and a confident voice. If you can make me laugh, cry, and scream in the same novel, you’ll win me over.

• Fantasy (including political, epic, and romantasy)
• Romance
• Mystery
• Horror
• Women’s fiction
• Upmarket + book club/commercial fiction (especially if it has a speculative edge)

I’m most excited about fantasy (including political, epic, and romantasy), romance, mystery, horror, and upmarket or book club/commercial fiction, especially if it has a speculative edge. I am also open to thrillers and sci-fi, although I am much pickier about these genres. At this time, I am not open to non-speculative historical or literary fiction.

While I love books that feel distinctly Jewish, I’m not a great fit for books about the Holocaust or that focus on real-world antisemitism. I don’t love detective/police POVs and/or procedurals.

Please do not send books centering a culture/experience that doesn’t belong to you (i.e. a White author writing a US slavery narrative). In particular, please do not send me books that use Dissociative Identity Disorder or schizophrenia as a plot device unless you have DID or schizophrenia.

Please don’t send me:

• Literary fiction
• Historical fiction without a speculative element
• Books about the Holocaust and antisemitism
• Main characters who are droids/androids, and stories about AI
• Competitions and trials as plot devices in fantasy settings (fantasy sports are okay)
• Middle grade, chapter books, or picture books
• Books that center around child sexual abuse
• Stories centering a culture/experience that belong to a minoritized group the writer is not a part of (i.e. a White author writing a US slavery narrative)
• Dissociative Identity Disorder as a plot device, unless the author has DID
• Romance tropes: pregnancy/secret baby, bully romance, fated mates (without a unique twist)
• I’m really picky about pirates. Will Turner was my first love and it’s sort of ruined the whole thing.

NONFICTION

I’m looking for paradigm-shifting, platform-driven books that make readers reconsider what we think we know about the world, or that teach us something new through storytelling. If your book is a narrative, make it as un-put-down-able as BAD BLOOD by John Carreyou, or something I can’t stop listening to like Slate’s SLOW BURN or Dana Schwartz’s NOBLE BLOOD.

Because of my background in health care research, I’m particularly interested in finding books about US health care and navigating the health care system. If you have a book interrogating the culture of modern competitive figure skating, please send it to me immediately!

I do not represent memoirs. I’m also not interested in prescriptive books about Christianity, astrology, or magic and/or witchcraft. I do not represent memoirs.

Here’s an example of some of the things I’d love to see, but if your topic isn’t here, please consider sending your proposal anyway:

• Mental health care, substance use disorder treatment (this interest is specific to nonfiction) (no memoirs)
• The American health care system (no memoirs)
• Academic research for a commercial audience
• Making business better
• Sports (literally anything in sports)
• Gender + sexuality, focused on queer identities
• The role of women in _________
• The role of race or ethnicity in _________
• Psychology, neuroscience, and the human brain
• Parasocial relationships
• Multilevel marketing
• Cults, scams, and Fyre Festival-style disastres
• Politics, policy, and the future of government
• Climate change
• Science in modern life

Please don’t send me:

• Memoirs
• Prescriptive books about Christianity
• Astrology
• Magic and witchcraft how-tos

IN ALL CATEGORIES

I’d love to see the following hyper-specific and not-so-specific things:

• Books that are Jewish without being about Judaism. Give me Jewish main characters, Jewish families, Jewish traditions, and Jewish…easter eggs, if you will.
• Yearning. Between lovers, between estranged friends, between siblings, between parents and their children, for an experience.
• Fat characters who are known for something other than being fat.
• Adult novels that feel YA in their pacing and use of tropes.
• Fantasy political stories that are super accessibly written.
• Rebellions and revolutions. Give me anti-monarchy stories, give me anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism stories, give me stories about who has power and what that means.
• Explorations of the line between religion, magic, and science
• Angry women and non-binary characters.
• Accurate sports. If your pitchers can correctly describe the grip for a curveball, or your figure skaters know the difference between a lutz and a flutz, please send me your book.
• Queer romance!
• Horror about MLMs, like LuLaRoe or Young Living
• Horror that captures the vibe of What Happened in Skinner in book form

Tropes and themes I can’t get enough of:

• Women’s Wrongs/Good For Her™
• Well-written love triangles (including if they end in polyamory)
• Relationships that skirt the line between platonic and romantic
• Hate-to-love
• I Can Make Them Worse / I’ll Be Worse Than Them

Tropes, themes, and other settings/characters/premises I don’t love:

• The Status Quo Was Right All Along
• Competitions, trials, and games as plot devices in fantasy settings
• Pregnancy/secret baby as a romance plot device
• Billionaire love interests
• Bully romance
• Fated mates (without a unique twist)
• Androids / AI

Submission Guidelines

I am available to query at https://QueryManager.com/mhollander.

If you’re submitting a fiction query, you’ll need:

• A QUERY. I recommend looking at Jane Friedman’s guide (https://janefriedman.com/query-letters/). Please scroll down to “Describing your story (the hook).” Queries that don’t include a brief description—including at least one named character—are typically passed very quickly, because I don’t know what your book is about.
• 10 SAMPLE PAGES. These must be the first 10 pages of the book, double-spaced. If there’s a prologue, please make sure the prologue is included.
• COMPARABLE BOOKS. What books will your book sit next to in your favorite bookstore?
• SYNOPSIS. I no longer require a synopsis—but if you have one, please include it!

If you’re submitting a non-fiction query, you’ll need:

• A QUERY. I recommend looking at Jane Friedman’s guide (https://janefriedman.com/query-letters-nonfiction-memoir/).
• A COMPLETED BOOK PROPOSAL. Jane Friedman has a great template and suggestions available: https://janefriedman.com/start-here-how-to-write-a-book-proposal/.
• COMPARABLE BOOKS. What books will your book sit next to in your favorite bookstore?