Send a Query to Paige Sisley at CookeMcDermid Literary Management
Hello! I am actively seeking new clients. Please see my #MSWL below, updated as of May 2025.
I read and respond to ALL queries, though I've learned that I can't commit to doing so within a specific timeframe, despite my best intentions and efforts. Please feel free to follow up if you haven't heard within two months of submitting your query.
I AM SPECIFICALLY SEEKING:
- Smart, sexy romance with a strong conceit
- A food memoir and/or food-centric novel
- Accredited expertise and science-backed ideas about health and general wellbeing (bonus points if the science is counterintuitive to popular thinking!)
- Narrative non-fiction that braids the personal with a bigger social/cultural story
- Novels with heart that will appeal to 20- and 30-something men (no spy thrillers, hard crime novels or other man-with-a-gun narratives please)
I GET EXCITED ABOUT:
- Setting as a character (with a personal connection to and affection for the east coast and southern US)
- Books that might require a map at the beginning (except for hard SFF)
- Playful/thoughtful structure that serves the story
- Multi-POV and/or dual timeline narratives where the structure helps to gradually reveal a bigger picture
- A speculative edge that moves the story forward and allows for deeper exploration of the human experience
- Realistic portraits of marriage and parenting
- Complicated/messy relationship dynamics (especially when followed over a long period of time)
- Feminist leanings
- Insight into new-to-most worlds like specific industries/professional settings, cults, etc.
I AM NOT CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR:
- Historical fiction centered around WWI or WWII
- Spy or military novels
- Hard science fiction/fantasy
- Unreliable narrators (this isn’t a hard no, but the unreliability needs to be hard won)
- Aliens
- Dystopian/apocalyptic narratives
- Teenaged/child POVs or protagonists
- Planned series (I am looking for self-contained books, but of course if success warrants more books in the series then I’m all for it!)
BOOKS I WISH I REPPED:
- EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL SOMEDAY BE DEAD
- THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO
- THE IMMORTALISTS
- STATION ELEVEN
- UNCANNY VALLEY
- BLOOD, BONES AND BUTTER
- THE INTERESTINGS
- SWEETBITTER
- JUST FOR THE SUMMER
Thanks very much for your time and attention. I look forward to engaging with your work!
All my best,
Paige
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