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Welcome, potential future mentees! I'm so excited to be mentoring Young Adult this year for my second year as a Pitch Wars mentor.

 

FOR THE UNINITIATED:

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Pitch Wars is a mentoring program where published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each to spend three months revising their manuscript. It ends in February with an Agent Showcase, where agents can read a pitch and first page and can request to read more.

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ABOUT ME

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  • I'm Sonora Reyes, author of the YA contemporary novel THE LESBIANA'S GUIDE TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL, which comes out with Balzer & Bray/HarperCollins May 17 2022! I also have a second, currently untitled book coming out in 2023.
     

  • I'm the creator and host of the Twitter chat #QPOCChat, a space for queer writers of color to come together once a month and chat about our projects, writing, and publishing.
     

  • I write in multiple genres from contemporary to SFF, but the common thread in all of the books I've written is a queer Mexican protagonist.
     

  • I'm a first-generation Mexican-American, and my pronouns are they/them.

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WHAT TO EXPECT FROM ME AS A MENTOR

 

If I'm lucky enough to work with you, I will help you workshop your manuscript, query letter, and synopsis. I'm open to whatever methods of communication work best for you. Want to stick with emails? Great. Want to hop on the phone to brainstorm? Let's do it! Want to text me or DM me on Twitter about that epiphany you just had? Feel free!

 

I want this to be a collaborative partnership. While I will definitely have suggestions of my own for how to improve your manuscript, I don't want to pressure you to make a change that doesn't feel right. If any of my suggestions don't sit well with you, we can talk about it and figure out a solution you can be proud of. My main concern is that we address the things in the manuscript that need to be addressed, but how we do that is completely up to you. I will never force a change you don't want to make. This is ultimately your book, and whatever changes you do or don't make will be your own choice.

 

I will also try my best to mentor in other ways besides just looking at the words on the page. You need a sounding board to vent about revision, the querying trenches, or submission? I'm your guy. I can help you revise your query letter and research agents to query. I'm an open book, and will share to the best of my knowledge what I can about the publishing industry and how to navigate it.

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WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

 

The basics: I'm mostly interested in YA contemporary, romance, and SFF, but if after reading through my wishlist, if you wrote outside these genres and still think we're a good match, feel free to submit to me! I'm especially looking for stories from historically marginalized authors. I will accept New Adult, but it has to be able to be aged down to YA (first or second year college is fine).

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TROPES I LOVE

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Disclaimer: if you don't have these tropes, that's totally fine! If you feel we'd be a good match, submit to me anyway. That said, these tropes are my weaknesses and if you do have them, gimme!

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  • Character tropes: Himbos, cinnamon rolls, loveable assholes, losers. If you have a himbo with a heart of gold or a good old fashioned cinnamon roll I can fall in love with in your story, I want it! If you can write an asshole who is secretly soft and just wants to be loved, I WANT IT! I also love a good loser, and I say loser in the most endearing way possible lol. Like, incompetent characters? Awkward characters? Clueless characters? GIMME.
     

  • Slow burn. I am a sucker for the longing. The pining. I want to die a slow, painful death waiting for the characters to finally get together.
     

  • Hate to love or enemies to lovers. This trope is my kryptonite, but I do think this one can be tough to pull off. For example, if the characters are enemies because one of them did something completely unforgivable or is a racist or a bigot, it's not really my cup of tea. But misunderstandings? Family feuds? Rivalry? Long-time childhood grudges? Give me all of that!
     

  • Found family. I am weak for this one. Family is so much deeper than just blood connections, and I absolutely love to see characters forge their own bonds outside of blood.
     

  • Fake dating. Are the feelings real, or were they just faking? SCREAM.
     

  • Childhood best friends to lovers. Something about the idea of a love that has the foundation of knowing each other since childhood just sits right with my soul. The memories! The bonds! The fear of messing something up that's been there since as long as they can remember! Give it to me!
     

  • Hurt/comfort.  Go ahead, hurt me, then heal my sad little heart!
     

  • I also love a good trope subversion! If you flipped a trope on its head in a creative or clever way, I'd love to see it!

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PLEASE SEND ME...

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  • Anything with LGBTQ+, people of color, mental illness, disability, and any intersections and combinations of these identities! That said, if you're writing about a disabled or LGBTQ+ character or anything else you want to keep private, please don't feel like you have to disclose to me that it's own voices unless you feel comfortable doing so.
     

  • Rom coms! I want to laugh one minute and squeal at the cuteness the next. If you can make me cry, extra points!
     

  • Underrepresented mythology/fantasy
     

  • Anything queer and/or trans, please!
     

  • Multigenerational stories
     

  • Immigrant families or immigrant parents
     

  • QPOC love stories with happy endings
     

  • Queer and trans re-imaginings
     

  • Anything that will give me a good cry. I want to feel all the feelings. Tears of joy, anger, sadness, I don't care! Just make me cry lol.
     

  • Voicey manuscripts! I LOVE a good voice.
     

  • If you have a book that handles any important topics like grief, abuse, consent, etc. handled sensitively I would love to read it!
     

  • Contrary to the last point, if you have a book that is just full of marginalized people being joyful, finding love and having a blast without having to deal with pain, I want that too!

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PLEASE DON'T SEND ME...

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  • If the only disabled character in your book is evil, it's not for me.
     

  • If there's a magical cure for disability keeping disabled people from existing in your world
     

  • Horror. I'm way too much of a scaredy-cat!
     

  • Anything with excessive graphic sex scenes (please no describing genitalia)
     

  • If the main character's arc centers around learning how to not be racist

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AUTHOR COMPS

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If you can compare your work to any of the following authors or books, send it to me!​

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  • Adam Silvera
     

  • Don't Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno
     

  • the We Set The Dark on Fire duology by Tehlor Kay Mejia
     

  • Becky Albertalli
     

  • the Brooklyn Brujas series by Zoraida Córdova
     

  • The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
     

  • Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
     

  • Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee
     

  • Fifteen Hundred Miles From the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa
     

  • Elizabeth Acevedo
     

  • Slay by Brittney Morris

 

PLEASE USE TRIGGER WARNINGS IN YOUR QUERY LETTER WHEN APPLICABLE

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Last but not least, if you've got a word count that you think is too high or too low, please don't worry about it when sending to me. I won't reject based on word count alone, and if you otherwise fit into my wishlist, I still definitely want to see your submission!

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That's basically it! If you finished reading this and feel like we might be a good match, please do submit to me! Wishing you all the luck in the world with your submissions! It takes a lot to write a whole book and put yourself out there, and for that I applaud you. If you have any questions for me about my wishlist, please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter.

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