This page is for un-agented authors and author-illustrators pitching Young Adult (YA) projects. The comments section won’t be visible until 8 a.m. EDT on the Saturday before the pitch event opens for editors and agents.
How to Pitch:
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Add your pitch as a comment below.
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Keep your pitch at 600-characters or less, including any hashtags you want to use (as seen here).
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Author-Illustrators: You can upload one file 5MB or under that includes multiple pieces of project art.
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Writers-only: You may upload an image file with your bio plus a PDF of up to 4 script pages if you’d like. Both together cannot exceed 5MB.
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Be sure to review the full How to Pitch guide before posting.
Very Important:
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Only agents and editors are allowed to comment on pitches. GN creators, if you reply to a pitch your comment will be removed. We want to keep the pages as easy to navigate as possible, so please respect this rule.
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Illustrators, if you want to reply to an author who has indicated a wish to find a collaborator, please DO NOT reply to their pitch, use the contact info they provided to reach out to them instead.
Thanks for being part of KidLitGN — we can’t wait to see your stories!
Gwen Gordon wants to be a superhero, mostly because she’s obsessed with comic books. The only problem? Superheroes don’t actually exist! And she doesn’t have any actual powers… Instead, she invents her own robotic prosthetics and gadgets and tries to become the crime-fighting, gadget-wielding vigilante, Rocket Fist!
Rocket Fist is part action, part comedy, and a bit ridiculous. It feels like a Saturday morning cartoon, like My Life as a Teenage Robot, Danny Phantom, or Kim Possible. Rocket Fist has crossover appeal for kids, teens, and young adults.
#AC #AD #HA
Taj, a spirited young girl, unknowingly awakens the Soul Ring, one of five legendary Lokai Rings. Now warlord Dubaku, leader of an animal uprising, is hunting for all five to strip humanity of its sentience. Trained by warrior monks and joined by a defector and a distrustful prince, Taj must uncover the truth behind a centuries-old war and a slave culture. So, when the opportunity arises, she’s forced to make a hard choice to save her world. Kasar Rana is a third world fantasy with themes around Myth, Memory & Identity; What makes us who we are when magic changes everything? #FA #AC
Despite graphic novels being studied in many classes, there is no must-have book for teens and adults that breaks down how to do a deep reading of a comic. Next Levelism: Deep Reading for Comic Fans and Creators is a roughly 120 page, digest-sized, fully-illustrated, nonfiction graphic novel – a perennial seller in the institutional market.
Since my ILA-award winning Draw Out The Story:10 Secrets to Creating Your Own Comics, I’ve been thinking more deeply about comics and have new insights I’ve tested in lectures, articles and videos for many different audiences.
Hi Brian,
I would love to see the full proposal for this! Feel free to submit here: https://querytracker.net/query/Madelyn_Knecht/Requests
I look forward to hearing from you!
THE HUNGER GAMES X THE CRUEL PRINCE
Kidnapped and forced into a deadly faerie tournament, a mortal orphan carries a commander’s deadly secret in the form of a necklace. To defeat elite heirs, her greatest weapon is not her forbidden blood magic, but her ability to lie in a realm built on deceit.
#FA #AC
SOUNDS LIKE is a 200 page YA graphic memoir. Maria, a genderqueer youth worker, hates their voice – it doesn’t come out sounding the way they hear it in their head. Plus, racialized and gendered stereotypes haunt them. Maria contends with vocal dysphoria by trying hormone therapy and vocal lessons, but they will need more than testosterone to be confident taking up space. Maria must learn to quiet their own judgement, or else stop speaking up for what they believe in.
High contrast, ink on paper comics use text and abstract shapes to visualize sound and emotions.
#Mem #BIPOC #LGBT #OWN
Willy: The Twisted Little Man is a YA gateway horror collection of genre-bending tales narrated by, and often starring, a bitter ventriloquist doll named Willy. We’ll read about a Santa elf gone rogue… a diminutive madman with a lethal grudge against fairytale characters… a film noir detective willing to kill for a little color in his life… a doll with abandonment issues whose reunion with his ventriloquist turns tragic… a camp counselor who hates children (“unless they’re cooked just right”)… and more. Lots of dark humor.
Written in the spirit of the Oni Press revival of EC Comics and Ice Cream Man.
#H #HA
Toby’s War is an empowering YA adventure graphic novel complete at 205 fully colored, lettered pages by Marvel veterans. Fourteen-year-old bookworm Toby Pendleton escapes the 1940 London Blitz when he ends up in his favorite medieval story. As he struggles to save the kingdom from invasion, he finds the German battleship Bismarck at the Tower of London and realizes he is in England’s post-apocalyptic future. To prevent the apocalypse, Toby must steal the ship’s logbook and return it to 1940 so the Bismarck can be located and sunk before reaching London with its secret weapon.
Comps: Neverlanders + Squire
#AD #FA #TT
A mysterious forest, Nell’s little sister Abby goes missing, Nell blames herself. She isn’t sure if her Mother doesn’t blame her as well. Nell resolves to find her missing sister. She soon begins to suspect that there may or they may be supernatural forces happening in the forest. Nell’s greatest challenge becomes believing in herself, even if others don’t believe her.
This YA Folk/Fairy tale inspired story has crossover appeal for both younger and older audiences.
Allowing readers to explore themes of self doubt and self reliance in the face of an overly critical parent.
Riley is a high school freshman with severe anxiety. While taking over their school’s production of Twelfth Night is most set crew members’ dream, it’s Riley’s nightmare. But, she experiences something new in the costume for Cesario: gender euphoria. Off the stage, Riley makes new relationships dressed as a boy, mirroring the events of Twelfth Night.
This story explores anxiety, the transgender youth experience, and navigating relationships. It centers anxiety as the main oppositional force, allowing the queer identity to be a source of joy, thus avoiding the outdated cliche of a forced outing or hate crime.
#own #lgbt
Hi Ansley,
This sounds great. I would love to read more! Feel free to submit here: https://querytracker.net/query/Madelyn_Knecht/Requests
I look forward to hearing from you!
I would love to read! Please email a copy to mgottlieb@tridentmediagroup.com
Hi Ansley–would love to see more (pitch/script/pages/whatever you have!) you can email me at jerrera(at)janerotrosen(dot)com with KidLitGN in the subject please!
Spine: a YA GN road-trip adventure where a teen couple try to undo the spell that turned one into a cactus 🌵
At a traveling magic show, Jill (she/her, shy) accidentally wishes her partner Cal (they/them, bold) into a cactus only she can understand, one week before Cal would start T for a med transition Jill secretly fears (can Jill still call herself a lesbian?). The only way to undo the spell is to catch the magician whose spell caused this prickly predicament. Jill’s always taken Cal’s lead. With Cal in-need, Jill grows what Cal used to tease her she lacked: spine.
#AC #AD #CON #HA #LGBT
17 year old Dex says he only wants to help his family move up in the world by being the best. But second best is not thee best, and every single time his rival gets thee best test scores at school everyone knows it. Dex could use his fists to beat him down, which he did try once, or he can think out of the box. However when his mother becomes injured on the job and can’t work as much, an eviction looms. Faced with his family being torn apart and his desperate mother contacting his wayward father, Dex knows that out of the box is not enough. He needs a special type of help, a different type of help, an otherworldly type of help.
Radhika is a bisexual Indian woman with a lesbian partner.She has a tumultuous relationship with her parents,who do not accept her queerness.She craves parental love & acceptance but their emotional whiplash leads to a lot of pain.She turns to queer friends & community who have each made different compromises in their varied dynamics with biological family.
Will she continue to live with the immense pain of a toxic parental relationship or will she have to learn to live without them for good?
This is a story of queer love & queer grief. #BIPOC #LGBT #LF
Illustrated graphic novel in verse
Through the ages the love of Mother Earth and Father Time has kept the Earth turning and the seasons running. Their everlasting dance sends the rains, lights the sun, darkens the moon, colors the leaves, brings storms, melts ice, and makes seeds into flowers, grains, and crops. Their vitality is playful and forever youthful. Their love the subject of many songs and poems for eons. However, humans are falling out of love with Mother Earth and Father Time. The admiration humans once had is replaced with intensifying mistrust causing an illness which is tearing their dance apart piece by piece
For Malik work is his life. When work is not his life home sucks. He lives with his parents, which is not really all that bad. What is bad is everyone lives with his parents. His out of work older brother and his family. His older sister who hopefully will marry that guy and get out. Its a small three bedroom house and he’s delegated to the blow up bed in the corner of the family room which is the worst place to be when his parents are having yet another get together. Whether it be work or not, life just stinks until one day his colleagues turn into zombies. In order to help them, he must use the last thing he’s interested in: Family
Yizheng enters her final year of high school with a goal: ace her provincials for the top premed university and make her immigrant parents proud. Nevermind her love for drawing; she can do that when she’s retired. But when her counsellor suggested taking a creative writing class to prevent burn out, she finds herself reluctantly inspired by Artemis, whose imposing nature hides a critical eye for prose and striking stories. Torn between parental expectations and discovery of herself through writing, when Artemis falls ill, Yizheng has to figure out what truly matters to her.
#CON #IMM #BIPOC
I’d love to take a look at this! Please send to my QT – https://QueryTracker.net/query/holliemichaels/KIDLITGN
Thank you! I look forward to hearing from you.
Hollie, Martin-Newens Literary Management
Hi, I’d love to read this full pitch. Please email me at andrea@andreacolvincreative.com and put KidLitGN somewhere in the subject line.
Thanks!
Harmattan is a dry and cold wind blowing from northeast of western Sahara from November to mid-March through to the Atlantic. Most people know the Season of Harmattan as a period of very low humidity, reduced visibility, as well as dry and rough skin
But…
It is so much more, which over competitive twins, Taiwo, a nonchalant athlete, and Kehinde, an over serious genius, learn when they agree to settle their life long rivalry by competing in a trial that determines who becomes the next Chief of the Harmattan Kingdom- the only one who can bring back Harmattan and save the world.
[Script attached]
It’s too late for fairytales
A fire demon threatens Wispmire.
Formidable Knight Sigrid defends the town. When the demon’s power corrupts those closest to her, Sigrid must rally her remaining knights to maintain the strength to keep the town safe.
Idris, a powerful wizard who has given up on magic, must confront his inner conflict when he’s asked to help those that banished him as a child. The townsfolk are divided; magic could lead to more destruction, or it could be their salvation.
As forced allies become friends, they uncover more than they were expecting and realise that magic always has a cost.
#AD #FA #FTA #H #M
I’d love to take a look at this! Please send to my QT – https://QueryTracker.net/query/holliemichaels/KIDLITGN
Thank you! I look forward to hearing from you.
Hollie, Martin-Newens Literary Management
I am Mark Gottlieb, EVP and literary agent at Trident Media Group, a leading literary agency in book publishing. Please send your submissions here: https://www.tridentmediagroup.com/submissions/
The High Concept:
In exchange for resurrecting his late mother, a melancholic student uses mystic powers given to him by Death to apprehend its former assistant who committed an offence worthy of the capital punishment
From the creator of Grimm’s Assistant One Shot, Grimm’s Assistant: Inception is a fantasy story, based on Edo State mythology, about dealing with the loss of a loved one, understanding grief, how it affects people and how to deal with it.
Bio & Script attached.
#AC #FA #BIPOC
Ty, a wealthy, kind-hearted Black teenager is just about to start college when his father, AG, dies unexpectedly. A family friend suggests AG was actually murdered by Ty’s mother, Cleo, and her new fiancée, DeAndre, a professional boxer half her age. To find the truth, Ty must confront his ideas of himself, his family, and what it means to be a man.
Inspired by Greek tragedy, ORESTES is a meditative whoduntit akin to WATCHMEN and THE ONE HAND & THE SIX FINGERS. It’s perfect for families and educators focused on masculinity, personal accountability, and adolescence.
MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS
On the last night of a long voyage across the sea, the passengers and crew gather for one final dinner. The Captain toasts his companions and, moments later, collapses dead. This is an interactive murder mystery graphic novel. You, the reader, must search the ship for clues, interview the suspects, and expose secrets and lies. When you have gathered enough evidence, make your accusation. There are over a dozen different endings. But can you discover the secret ending that ties all the diverse narratives into one conclusive story?
Can you solve the Murder on the High Seas?
#HA #FA #AD #SP #M
LAG‘
Set in a dystopian future of Lagos, Tetisimi a low rank Traceur must set out across the wasteland that is now LAG, to deliver a package from AJ city to V.eye, a job meant for the highest rank. However he soon discovers that the delivery is way bigger than just his personal problems as the future of the entire LAG area hinges on his success or failure. Tetisimi must then decide if this job is worth the struggle and threat to his life, as he journeys across the brokenlands in a tale of parkour, high stakes and dystopian morals.
(The comic-book will be in greyscale colors with only sources of light having hues)
#SF #DS
There are no more monsters to slay. There are no more great deeds left to do. But long after necessity first drew them together, a black unicorn puts her peaceful life and career on hold, if only for the chance to convince the human she loves to come home anyway.
Hesper & Wren is a drama-comedy set in a fantasy world where the big bad has already been defeated. (Think Shrek meets Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.) But vanquishing evil doesn’t magically solve your interpersonal issues. If you love someone, you have to actually tell them that. Preferably, before you lose them forever…
#FA #HA #LGBT #BIPOC
Hi Melisa, I’d love to take a closer look at HESPER & WREN. You can use this link to submit a query and upload sample spreads (or include a link to where more artwork can be viewed) here: https://QueryTracker.net/query/michellewitte/kidlitgn
Thanks,
Michelle Witte, Mansion Street Literary Management
Hi Melisa,
I’d love to see more! Feel free to submit here: https://querytracker.net/query/Madelyn_Knecht/Requests
On the verge of eighteen, Freddy Perez is about to inherit a significant stake in his family’s collapsing corporation—a future he never asked for. But when a skiing accident leaves him stranded in the Montana wilderness, Freddy takes shelter in a cave inhabited by a lonely, frightened, and inconveniently handsome yeti.
FREDDY & THE YETI is a M/M YA Romantasy set near the Blackfeet Nation. This tender and richly scenic story explores first love, rewilding, connection and nature versus nurture. Sometimes the greatest threat isn’t intolerance—it’s isolation, and the monster it allows us to become. – #LGBT #OWN #BIPOC #AD
When two goofball graduates of the intergalactic mega-corporation Captrol start their new job as spaceship collections agents they quickly begin to suspect they are robbing the poor to pay the rich. Once they stumble onto Captrol’s plan to cloak and enslave an entire planet, they have to enlist the help of some new friends, old frienemies, and an inter-dimensional, semi-mythical, space-and-time-defying cat to evade Captrol’s top hit squad, gain their independence, and save everyone everywhere.
Full script and pitch packet available upon request
#AC #AD #SF #LGBT
There is so much to look forward to for Leena this school year. She’s finally
an upperclassman, she getting her drivers license, and visiting the art university of her dreams
But her routine visit to the eye doctor delivers some pretty devastating
news. Leena has a rare eye condition that has caused her to become
legally blind. With no cure on the horizon Leena is forced to find ways to
cope with her failing vision. #OWN
16-year old Lyra Song, daughter of THE most booked wedding planner in the city is the high school’s matchmaker but her mask is slipping: she believes love is nothing more than an elaborate (and expensive) illusion. When she is asked to set up dates for the quiet editor of the school’s newspaper through a family business connection, she must hide her true beliefs from this ostensibly unpleasant but astute classmate, keep up appearances for her mom’s career and secure a date and fast —- or she’ll find herself on the front page breaking news: THIS MATCHMAKER DOESN’T BELIEVE IN LOVE. #CON
Hi Yi Liu,
I’d love to take a look at this one as well. Only one submission is allowed at a time in my Query Manager, so you can include info or links for each one I requested but include them in the same query.
You can use this link to submit the query upload sample spreads (or include a link to where more illustrations can be seen): https://QueryTracker.net/query/michellewitte/kidlitgn
Thanks,
Michelle Witte, Mansion Street Literary Management
Hello! I’m Rebecca, and I’m an Assistant Agent at Sheldon Fogelman Agency. I really enjoyed this pitch and would love to see more. You can submit to the shared inbox at the email submissions@sheldonfogelmanagency.com and include this event in the subject line. For more information on what to submit you can check out this link: http://www.sheldonfogelmanagency.com/submit.html