Sylvan Creekmore

I joined Avon Books / William Morrow in 2022 after almost a decade at St. Martin’s Publishing Group. My list now includes Cat Sebastian, Jennifer Dugan, Charis Michaels, and Emma R. Alban.

At Avon, I’m acquiring romance (contemporary, historical, and “romantasy”), new adult, commercial fiction, and book club fiction, for readers in their 20s and 30s. My reader is a multimedia reader: one who binges T.V. shows, loses themself to lush video games for hours, lives for fandom communities on Twitter and Tumblr, and who is still reading YA because there isn’t enough commercial adult fiction that speaks to their reading sensibility or generational perspective.

As I build my new list, I’m focusing on authors from marginalized backgrounds, particularly queer authors. I love all the classic tropes but I want to see them done in a new way, which usually means an author who has traditionally been kept out of the space is finally getting a crack at it! I think a high-concept hook is a must, and I’m always looking for characters that feel specific and nuanced, and a relationship between at least two characters with a clear emotional arc that drives the narrative forward.

At SMPG, I had the privilege of working with authors such as Elin Hildebrand, Tatiana de Rosnay, Lauren Willig, Caitlin Starling, Sophie Gonzales, Jonny Garza Villa, Edward Underhill, Lex Croucher, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Bill Nye the Science Guy.

I’m not as good for writing that’s literary or that would be described as lyrical; a plot that’s more internal or contemplative; themes of suicide or eating disorders; and any fiction where the world-building, not the characters, is the biggest hook.

Submission Guidelines

Agented submissions only, please.