Send a Query to Paige Sisley at CookeMcDermid Literary Management

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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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