alterean.

Stevie Finegan

Zeno Agency Ltd

Submission status
Closed
Submission route
Website
Response time
Aims to reply within 12 weeks
Last checked
Yesterday

About

Stevie is a literary agent at Zeno Agency Ltd. Stevie joined Zeno at the beginning of 2020, having previously worked at Gollancz, Icon, and in Waterstones bookshops across London.

Stevie's degree specialised in children's literature, including a dissertation on Young Adult fiction. These experiences shape Stevie's interest in stories that explore LGBTQIA+, BAME, disability, mental health and other marginalised experiences.

Genres

Children's BooksCommercial FictionFantasyGraphic NovelsHealth & WellnessMemoirMiddle GradeNarrative Non-FictionOther Non-FictionParanormal RomancePoliticsPsychological SuspenseRomanceScience FictionYoung Adult

Looking for

  • big epic fantasies with strong characters and something new, particular favourites of theirs are Brandon Sanderson and N.K. Jemisin, they love a world that feels original, China Mieville-esque weird is right up their street, books about books, or with some clever meta-stories, like Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series or Lev Grossman's The Magicians
  • often quite soft on the science, but they love character driven stories that imagine a more egalitarian future like Becky Chambers' Wayfarers Series or The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal, also high concept questions like those found in the stories of Ken Liu and Ted Chiang
  • Picture Books, early reader, middle grade and young adult, they are a big fan of queer romance at any level and across all settings from Micheal Hall's Red: A Crayon's Story to Benjamin Alire Sáenz's Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, they are a sucker for a boarding school story and would love something Enid Blyton-esque that contained a more inclusive cast of characters, they like whimsical, soft magic systems like those found in Diana Wynne Jones, Eva Ibbotson's Middle Grade or Dave Rudden's Knights of the Borrowed Dark, they also like books with a good sense of humour such as Holly Smale's Geek Girl series or Libba Bray's Beauty Queens, in picture books they go for beautiful art with a deeper message like The Red Tree by Shaun Tan or Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love and works that contain as much of the story in the art as the language, like Oliver Jeffers or Jon Klassen
  • strong feminist and LGBTQIA+ themes with real heart like Isabel Greenberg's The One Hundred Nights of Hero, Jen Wang's The Prince and the Dressmaker or Alice Oseman's Heartstopper, funny cartoonists like Tom Gauld, Sarah Andersen and Kate Beaton are also a plus
  • books that comes with a clear promise, such as Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Philippa Perry's The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read or Isabel Hardman's Why We Get the Wrong Politicians, strong feminist themes like Caroline Criado Perez's Invisible Women or stories of women and other marginalised groups travelling or otherwise undertaking an amazing task, they would love to find an Eat, Pray, Love or a Wild for a new generation, books that address struggles with mental health they also find very interesting, such a Bella Mackie's Jog On, Nancy's Tucker's The Time in Between or David Adam's The Man Who Couldn't Stop

Agency submission guidelines

The agency accepts fiction submissions by email (except where noted otherwise) that fit its current requirements. What to send: the first three chapters (or an equivalent segment of around 50 double-spaced pages), a synopsis, and a covering letter. Formatting: chapters should be sent as attachments in.doc,.docx or PDF format, in a legible font no smaller than 12pt, double spaced, with pages numbered. The name, email address and a contact number should appear on the title page. The text of the submission should not be pasted into the email body; only attachments in the requested formats will be considered. Word count: adult novels of less than 75,000 words are not accepted. Children's fiction should be no less than 50,000 words. Synopsis: should be a simple explanation of the story from chapter one to the end, not proposed cover copy, and should not run over two pages. Covering letter: should include an elevator pitch and a few lines about the writer and their writing career to date. Mention should be made if another novel has previously been sent to Zeno. Submissions should not be sent again if a previous submission was declined. Submissions by post are not accepted. Subject line should read 'SUBMISSION [title of novel] by [name]'. Only one agent should be submitted to at a time. Per-agent method: John Berlyne accepts submissions by email. Stevie Finegan accepts submissions via QueryManager only.

Links

Clients include

  • Travis Baldree
  • Alice Bell
  • Cierra Block
  • Marie Brennan
  • Peter V. Brett
  • Beatrijs Brouwer
  • Rebecca Brownlie
  • Andrew Cartmel
  • Megan Chee
  • Mário Coelho
  • C. N. Crawford
  • Vida Cruz-Borja
  • J.R. Dawson
  • Samantha Devereaux
  • Clio Evans

Other agents at Zeno Agency Ltd