Sharon Pelletier

I’d like the next…

Currently hungry for:

• Hearty book club fiction bringing an uplifting reading experience while still engaging substantive issues of contemporary life with honesty and nuance.
• Also eager for propulsive, nuanced contemporary novels that are hilarious without being snarky and insightful without being quiet — think LUSTER’s whip-sharp darkly funny honesty, think QUEENIE, think Dolly Alderton.
• Unexpected, elevated love stories.
• Smart, propulsive workplace novels. Think The Good Wife / The Good Fight, TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW.

FICTION

The key to fiction, for me, is VOICE and STAKES! While I prioritize craft and am quite editorial, I value propulsive storytelling over artful reflection. I’m looking for that can’t put it down effect when I read your sample pages. My taste is the nebulous upmarket: not super literary, not super commercial, just right. Craft meets plot and makes a perfect porridge. Things I am eager for include:

• Juicy, hearty, smart-but-not-precious women’s fiction telling a story **outside** suburban white ladies or malaise-bound 20 somethings in NY and LA. Love to see career be truly meaningful in the character’s journey. Would love to see new relationships explored other than spouses, mothers, childhood besties.
• Rich, thoughtful book club fiction like ASK AGAIN YES by Mary Beth Keane, TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM by Yaa Gyasi, Leesa Cross-Smith, Kamila Shamsie
• Smart vacation fiction that explores career, friendships, not just love and romance. I also love a sense of humor with poignancy, like Katherine Center’s delightful books, or the sensationally fun QUEENIE.
• Suspense fiction with a fresh angle on the tropes we love. Especially excited to find underrepresented protagonists and settings we aren’t used to – no more bitter hard-drinking ex-cops who can’t trust anyone, please, or angry upper class wives poking into suspicious husbands and vice versa. Love suspense where setting is a vivid character as in Jane Harper and Attica Locke’s novels. And where character invests, absorbs the reader alongside the plot, like Ann Cleeves and Tana French. Despite the aforementioned authors I’m rarely into PIs or LEOs these days–I’d rather see a character get pulled into an investigation because of the vantage point their profession offers them on other people’s lives, habits, motivations. Also not interested in psychologists/therapists as the peekers-into other lives, that’s been very done.
• Open to romance/romcom with voice and actual stakes.

I occasionally fall for a speculative element, if it’s quite grounded and character-driven – such as Kevin Wilson’s NOTHING TO SEE HERE. Think our world with one twist; this is not an opportunity to send me sci-fi by labeling it speculative. In general SFF and otherworldly, supernatural, or fantasy elements in fiction are not for me. Same goes for dystopian, apocalyptic, and pandemic: it’s gonna be really tough to get me excited about that kind of story.

Other Not for Mes (never say never but these elements tend to be No)

• Currently not seeking historical fiction
• Currently burnt out on WF with a mother-daughter basis or focused entirely on marital woes
• Paranormal/supernatural explanations for mysteries
• Dreams, mental institutions, therapist bad guy in suspense
• Cults/megachurches/religious groups as setting or backstory
• Politics/politicians/elections/campaigns as topic or main character, especially national (local politics would be a maybe if everything else was amazing but presidents, senators, governors are a no-go for me)
• Substance abuse to create an unreliable narrator
• Sexual violence as origin story or victimology (especially tired of suspense that opens with prologue detailing a woman getting the sh*t beat out of her)
• Espionage/international thriller plots built on Islamic terrorism/suspicion thereof as the enemy
• Military/political thrillers aren’t my thing, especially not if they’re ripped from headlines past or present
• Pandemic novels are not for me

NONFICTION

I am open to voicey nonfiction if you have the platform publishers are looking for, and often respond strongly to reportage with an engrossing personal element. But at this time I am not seeking memoir unless you have that trifecta of incredible writing chops, a one-of-a-kind experience, and an extremely strong platform. And please note I very very rarely take on NF of any type. But if I do, it tends to be:

• Compelling narrative nonfiction – fierce reporting or an expert who’s an irresistible storyteller. Journalists especially welcome! Think JUST MERCY, AMERICAN WOLF, I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK.
• Emerging voices with a growing platform speaking to the current issues most important to us, from pop culture to feminism to sports to faith. Morgan Jerkins and Rachel Syme are examples of the kinds of voices I’d love to work with.
• Engaging, voice-driven practical nonfiction with a fresh approach to solving a pain point in our daily lives, whether concrete or relational. A la The Home Edit, Jessamyn Stanley. Podcast or Instagram voices especially welcome in this space–personality is key.
• Nonfiction topics I’d take a look at a smart, platform-based voice on: grief (especially outside the normal trio of spouses, parents, children); friendship (friendship in your 30s, friendship in your 40s, friendship as a substantive life partnership; friendship in groups); chosen childlessness and pouring into other people’s children (time for my Big Idea AUNT book!!), smart, passionate pop culture takes with access and/or platform.

In any of the above categories, I’d especially welcome submissions from marginalized writers telling stories (true or imagined) about societies, struggles, situations I haven’t experienced, whether that’s in cultures elsewhere on the globe or right in my neighborhood.

CATEGORIES I AM NOT SEEKING

• Poetry
• Fantasy/hard scifi
• Cookbooks
• Memoir w/out platform
• Political manifestos
• Children’s categories (picture books, MG, YA)

My favorites include…

RECENTLY LOVED: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson, The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane, I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger, The Five Star Weekend by Elin Hildebrand, God of the Woods by Liz Moore

RECENTLY HATED: just kidding, I’d never reveal that here!

TV: Schitt’s Creek, Criminal Minds, Beachfront Bargain Hunt, any BBC crime drama, Frasier, Derry Girls, Bad Sister

MOVIES: San Andreas, You’ve Got Mail, The Family Stone, White House Down, Something’s Gotta Give, Hobbs & Shaw, Dan in Real Life, Steel Magnolias.

MUSIC: Brandi Carlile, One Direction, Harry Styles, Pitbull, Kelly Clarkson, Niall Horan, The Piano Guys, Louis Tomlinson, Jonas Brothers, Lewis Capaldi, Only the Poets, Celine Dion, Zach Bryan, Giant Rooks, Michigander, Hans Zimmer movie soundtracks, Breland, Zayn, Mumford & Sons

CLASSICS: Les Mis, The Great Gatsby, The Secret History, Let the Great World Spin, I Capture the Castle