Kelsey Evans is OPEN to submissions. You can submit your query here.

Manuscript Wishlist:

FICTION

I’m actively looking for all subgenres of horror! Books that explore cults, religion, power dynamics; creepy, strange, unnerving stories that feel like a X-Files or Twin Peaks episode; unreliable narrators…I’m excited about it all. A few of my favorite authors in this genre are Riley Sager, Lisa Jewell, Cassandra Khaw, Stephen Graham Jones, Grady Hendrix, and Andrew Joseph White. I would love anything that can be comped to a Mike Flanagan show! Horror + romance is also a favorite here (I will read anything that Brynne Weaver writes). 

Mystery, thriller, and suspense are at the top of my list. That can be a super dry, superbly paced English or Scottish standalone like Dept. Q, a series like Slow Horses by Mick Herron, or a multi-timeline, interwoven mystery like Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. I also love Richard Osman, Stuart Turton, Jessica Knoll, and Oyinkan Braithwaite in this space. 

I’m very excited by romance across all subgenres. Send all the sports romances my way (I’m still waiting for a WNBA story to hit my inbox). I would love a grounded, laugh out loud grumpy x sunshine story like Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks, a paranormal story that balances heart and humor like Bride, or a speculative romance in the vein of Ashley Poston. 

For science fiction and fantasy, I’m selectively looking for magic-first books. That can be academic (Ninth House, Katabasis, Babel, The Magicians, The Historian). My favorite book in this area in the last few years is Kirsten Miller’s The Change. Please bring me supernatural investigators, spooky romantasy, heist stories, and folklore! 

In YA, I’m searching for compelling romance, mystery, thriller, and horror stories. 

Finally, I’m also incredibly excited by indie authors who are looking to move into the trad space! 

Overall, I’m not the best fit for picture books, chapter books, MG, novellas, screenplays, memoirs, short stories, or literary fiction.