Mara Hollander

NOTE: I am closing to unsolicited queries on April 15, 2024. I will update this site and my website when I reopen.

Stories make us who we are, and everyone deserves a chance to write their own narrative. I’m actively seeking to represent authors from communities traditionally underrepresented in publishing, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA, people who are disabled, and people who are chronically ill.

In fiction, I’m seeking accessibly-written genre novels for Adult and YA audiences that rip your heart out and make you forget the world around you. I’m open to fantasy (including political and romantasy), romance, thrillers/mysteries (including political), horror, light sci-fi, and women’s fiction. I am not the best fit for literary fiction, historical fiction (historical romance is okay), or work written for middle graders or children younger than that. I do not represent new clients querying middle grade, chapter books, or picture books.

I’m also open to narrative nonfiction (non-memoir) for adult audiences about mental illness and/or substance use disorders, as well as the American health care system. This interest is specific to nonfiction.

In all categories, I’d love to see the following hyper-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.
• Unique takes on classic tropes.
• Yearning. Between lovers, between estranged friends, between siblings, between parents and their children, for an experience. Pull at my heartstrings.
• Believable, interesting characters, communities, and institutions that jump off the page and feel well-drawn enough to exist in the next town over.
• 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 or military stories that are super accessibly written (i.e. not LOTR, even though we all love it).
• 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, and anything that comps to What Happened in Skinner
• Angry women characters. Angry nonbinary 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 (yes, I know it’s on here twice; it’s good!)

Tropes and themes I can’t get enough of:

• Women’s Wrongs/Good For Her™
• Well-written love triangles.
  • Love triangles that end with one love interest’s death aren’t a good fit for me—make your character choose!
  • OR: I am open to love triangles that 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 and themes I don’t love:

• The Status Quo Was Right All Along
• Competitions, trials, and games as a plot device
• Magical boarding schools (magical college/universities are great; non-magical schooling is also great!)
• Pregnancy/secret baby
• Billionaire love interests
• Bully romance
• Fated mates (without a unique twist)