Across all genres, Katie is looking for what all readers want in a good story: characters that leap off the page, conflict and tension that grips her in the story, and strong prose that can compete with similar titles in that space.
What we are looking for….
Bring us stories with a marketable hook and fresh perspectives, especially those that elevate underrepresented voices.
Please read submission guidelines on Query Tracker prior to submitting your query. We try to keep our response times to around 12 weeks for a query and 6-8 weeks for a submission.
Thank you for considering Katie Reed Literary for your project!
Romance
A dear friend once said that romance is the literature of hope. Whether reading an evocative, edgy, cuts you to your very soul dark romance or a heartwarming, feel good small town romance, we want to feel that message of hope somewhere—in the resiliency of the character’s determination to hold onto love at all costs during the hardest times, or a fun, humorous hooky concept full of banter and shenanigans!
Following is a more detailed breakdown of Katie’s tastes in some of the romance subgenres she works in. She accepts projects of all heat levels with the exception of erotica.
Contemporary Romance/Rom Com
Must Haves:
Fresh, hooky concept that can be conveyed in one or two sentences
Fun, witty banter full of tension and subtext
Sizzling chemistry
Both an external and internal conflict for the FMC and MMC
Bonus points if she laughs and cries while reading!
Some of her favorites:
Stories that tackle hard subjects at their centers, like the way P.S. I Hate You by Lauren Connolly is an examination of grief
Stories that have the emotional narratives and inner character conflict of women’s fiction alongside a fun, high concept plot, like works by Emily Henry, Christina Lauren, and Abby Jiminez
Other Specifics She Would Love to Find:
Sports romance, legal/law settings like Suits, MC Club (or anything with Sons of Anarchy vibes) like the Ravenhood series by Kate Stewart)
Romantasy/Fantasy Romance
Must Haves:
Fresh takes on well loved tropes, or subversive tropes
Premise that brings something unique to the crowded space
Characters/Perspectives/Voices that feel different from what is on the shelf
Page turning plot--”Unputdownable”
An epic romance for the ages--think Jamie and Claire (Outlander), Gavin and Ary (The Silversmith), Xaden and Violet (Fourth Wing), Feyre and Rhysand (ACOTAR), or Kaine and Helena (Alchemised).
Romantic tension and chemistry, whether the romance is the focal point (romantasy) or fantasy forward but still includes a strong romance that develops over the series arc (fantasy romance)
Would love to find projects from underrepresented perspectives--queer/sapphic romantasy, neurodivergent MMC/FMC, older protagonists
Tropes I Love:
Slow burn/yearning
Touch her and die
I burn for you
Forced proximity
Morally grey/black
Enemies to lovers
Dark Romance
Preferences:
If it is dark dark romance, the strength and resiliency of the character’s spirit must shine through (like Helena in Alchemised by SenLin Yu). A glimmer of light in the darkness, please!
The character must always have some form of agency, even in situations that seem powerless (like Mireille in Souls in Ruin by Jacqueline White).
Humor! Katie loves laughing her way through a dark romance! Anything that can sit on the shelf next to books like Butcher and Blackbird by Brynn Weaver or Lights Out by Navessa Allen is a fit for her.
NOTE: Katie does not need trigger warnings and has very few triggers, but please do not send anything with prolonged, explicit torture/SA scenes (again especially where we are questioning the character’s agency) or gory or overtly violent/grotesque scenes that exist for shock value and are not integral to the plot in some way. Absolutely no child harm on the page, please.
Upmarket/Book Club Fiction
When Katie reads upmarket fiction, she wants the characters to pull me through the story and to think about them long after she has closed the book. Give her rich, layered, unforgettable stories with standout themes (Katie is a theme girl at heart!) and emotional complexity that will make her both laugh and cry!
Some of Katie’s favorites:
Beartown by Frederick Bachman
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Chris Whittaker’s All the Colors of the Dark
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
Suspense/Thriller
Katie is specifically looking for domestic suspense or psychological thriller with lots of page turning tension and a character transformation that happens alongside the mystery; for example, a dark secret or wound in the protagonist’s backstory that they must overcome or heal from alongside working to solve the mystery in the external plot.
Please, do not send:
Crime fiction
International/spy thrillers
Military thrillers
Eco/climate thrillers
Political thrillers
Cozy mystery
Tropes Katie Loves:
Locked door
Island setting
Toxic friendships/cults
“I know who you are” or “I know what you’ve done
Unreliable narrator
Secrets buried in the backstory
Dual timeline
Favorite Authors:
Lisa Jewell, Lucy Foley, Ruth Ware, Ande Pliego, Stacy Willingham, Alice Feeny, Rachel Hawkins, Gillian Flynn, Gillian McAllister
Other Genres
Epic Fantasy: Katie does work with fantasy that fits outside of the romantasy space, but in order for her to fall in love with a project, there usually must be some element of romance or a romance subplot (think Throne of Glass by Sara J. Maas).
Science Fiction: Dystopian only. Would love to find something similar to Silver Elite by Dani Francis or Conform by Ariel Sullivan.
Literary Fiction: Would love to find a big book like Shark Heart by Emily Habek or All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (wouldn’t we all) or a deeply introspective, thought provoking literary thriller like I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai or All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whittaker.
Fiction with a Fantastical Angle: in the vein of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab, The Measure by Nikki Erlick, or The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
YA/NA Crossover: Please note that Katie ONLY accepts projects that have crossover potential, meaning they might fit in the new adult category as well (older YA) and must have a strong romance. Examples include Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven or Silver Elite by Dani Francis.
Mythology Retellings: Some of her favorites include Circe and Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec, and Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood. She tends to gravitate towards lyrical, atmospheric prose for this type of project.
Submission Guidelines
Please follow the instructions on query tracker. We try to keep our response times to around 12 weeks for a query and 6-8 weeks for a submission.
Thank you for considering Katie Reed Literary for your project!
Please Note: Katie Reed Literary is unable to offer representation to clients who have worked with her for developmental manuscript editing through either of her editing platforms (Reedsy and www.fatcatediting.com). Katie’s agency is kept entirely separate from her editorial businesses. Katie will never charge her agency clients for editing, and any editing that takes place is done as part of the author-agent partnership. Similarly, Katie is unable to perform paid editorial services (again, through either of her editing platforms) for authors who have first approached her through the agency. We recommend you think carefully about how you’d like to work with Katie before querying or inquiring about editorial services and choose what is best for you. Thank you!