Thais Afonso
Associate Agent
Azantian Literary Agency
About
Thais is an Associate Agent with Azantian Literary Agency. She has eight years of experience in publishing between Brazil, China, and the United States. More recently, she interned at Writers House, where she honed her skills while supporting the desks of Amy Berkower and Johanna Castillo, and she was mentored by Jennifer Azantian before stepping up to the Associate Agent role at ALA.She intends to represent marginalized authors, and she’s especially seeking to uplift indigenous voices of the Global South.An Afro-Brazilian lesbian, Thais currently lives and works out of Rio de Janeiro. She helps care for her grandmother when she’s not editing books and she’s one of those terrible people who calls the gym her hobby (even though she currently doesn’t go).
MSWL
This year, I’m eager to grow my contemporary and horror list. Send me all the swoony contemporary romance, all the pacey suspense and thrillers, and anything weird and spooky.
In Horror, my wishlist remains the same: lesbians, lesbians, lesbians. Plus, the unsettling, the Gothic, folkloric horror, horror mixed with fantasy or romance, and all the social horror. Just no slasher, and jump scares are not very effective on me. I like my horror atmospheric, but unrelenting. I would especially love vampire horror, like House of Hunger and Our Share of Night, or anything borderline Literary but super weird, like Our Wives Under the Sea and Chlorine. I’m also still looking for space horror, anything that could be comped to Alien: Romulus or Ghost Station, and anything underwater! I would love a deep ocean first contact horror!! Lastly, I also tend not to work well with gore, but I really enjoyed The Substance, and would love to see some gory body horror in that vein.
In Suspense and Thrillers, I’m looking for anything pacey, tense, and completely unrelated to law enforcement. I would particularly love anything that draws on the type of vigilante story that so resonated with everyone last year (for reasons), and any book that could even remotely be compared to Jane Pek’s The Rivals or Liz Moore's The God of the Woods. Other recent favorites include Society of Lies, Freida McFadden’s The Crash, and Kashana Cauley's upcoming The Payback.
I’m also still looking for lesbian thrillers, especially anything that could be pitched as Master of the House, but lesbian. Or anything super gay that can be comped to Michele Campbell’s The Intern, Catherine Steadman’s The Family Game, or Amanda Pellegrino’s The Social Climber.
And speaking of Thai shows, I was also a huge fan of Ready, Set, Love (usually I'm not big on dystopia, but that was weird and fun!) and I'm currently watching and loving Death and the Flowers. Lastly, I continue to hunger for anything that could be pitched as BIPOC Dan Brown (meaning that same formula, but with different themes and relationships between the characters and the world).
In Contemporary Romance, I’m ever eager to sign queer authors, and especially lesbians of color like me. I’m still not the best fit for category romance, and mostly seeking single-title romance dramas and rom-coms with character arcs that have a lot of depth. If you can comp your book to Emily Henry, Tia Williams, Alison Cochrum, B.K. Borison, Kennedy Ryan, Jessica Joyce, Ashley Herring Blake, or Abby Jimenez, it’ll probably appeal to me.
In sports romance, I’d love a rivals-to-lovers, queer romance. And as a Brazilian, I love soccer and I love surfing, and you’ll go further with me if you pitch me those kinds of books than ones that center more American sports (I really do not understand American Football, I’m sorry.) I do love a winter sport, though, and I grew up watching F1 and as niche as that is, would love a romance with a Brazilian pilot trying to live up to Senna's legacy.
I also read quite a lot of Indie romance (especially sapphic Indie romance), so if you’re an Indie Romance writer looking to go trad or hybrid, feel free to reach out. I know how much great work it’s being done in those spaces, especially by marginalized authors.
All of that said, I’m still actively growing my SFF list. In Sci-Fi, anti-capitalism continues to be welcomed and appreciated. And I continue to love and seek cyberpunk, solarpunk, and silkpunk (though I removed those categories in my form to streamline my backend). I’m also still looking for Kaiju or epic monster stories set in the Global South, by GS-based authors; African, Afro, and Afro-Latine-Futurism; and absolutely anything that could be comped to Hammajang Luck.
I’ve however found I’m not a great fit for dystopia that mirrors our currently events too much or anything post-apocalyptic. If it could be comped to The Road, I’m definitively not a fit for it. My taste in sci-fi leans very commercial. I tend to go for books that could attract an audience that reads other genre fiction, less so than a literary audience.
I’m still signing all sub-genres of Fantasy, except Grimdark and Military. I’m especially looking for steamy Romantasy at this time, as that’s a gap I still haven’t filled on my list. BIPOC Romantasy, in particular, is something that I’m super hungry for. I’m also hungry for cozy fantasy with some tension, anything similar to Emily Wilde, The Spellshop, or The Teller of Small Fortunes.
I’m also keen on taking on indie authors who want to transition to trad or have a hybrid career. I’d especially love to connect with indie BIPOC authors in Romantasy.In YA, my main goal is to start building an eclectic horror list. If you can comp your manuscript to Justina Ireland, Krystal Sutherland, Jamison Shea, C.G. Andrews, Trang Thanh Tran, Andrew Joseph White, Courtney Gould, Tiffany D. Jackson, Vincent Tirado, or Kalynn Baron, I’d love to see it.
I’m still open to YA SFF, I’m just really hungry for horror right now.
In SFF, I’m always on the look-out for Global South authors, especially when it comes to stories about oppression. In Sci-Fi, I’m looking for anything fun. Epic adventures in space, dark academia in space, anything that feels like anime. I still love anti-capitalist and anti-colonialist themes here, but I’ve found I’m not a great fit for dystopia or post-apocalyptic stories in YA either.
In Fantasy, I’m specially looking for crossover titles, and if there’s a competition, I’ll probably love it, unless it’s a marriage competition. I’m not the best fit for those in YA. On the very specific wish list item spectrum, I was obsessed with Alwyn Hamilton’s Notorious Virtues for weeks after I read it, and would love something that is that pacey and high-stakes but that feels very melodramatic, ripe with complicated family dynamics and feelings.
I would also love a crossover YA/NA high-concept romance here, something that puts a new twist on beloved tropes, or sets a familiar a love story in an original, lush world.Anti-MSWL
I’m not currently taking queries for Picture Books, Middle Grade, and Contemporary YA. I also don’t represent Non-Fiction—but there are many agents at ALA who are experts at that!
I’m not seeking to represent Military SFF, Literary Fiction, and non-speculative Historical Fiction in any age category.
In all genres, I’m not a good fit for any sort of positive spin on war, Monarchy, colonization, or genocide. I will not represent books with Zionist propaganda, imperialist propaganda, copaganda, or racist, queerphobic, transphobic, islamophobic, and antisemitic tropes.
As a lesbian, I'm also pretty sensitive to the lesbian character being killed off at the end of the book. I'm not a fit for books where that happens, even if the character was a villain, or if it's #ownvoices.
With very few exceptions (Kimberly Lemming being the main one), I’m not a monster romance person, and will send all of those to Claire anyway, so you’re better off querying them first.
I’m also very much not into dark romance, especially if it’s bully romance or stalker romance. Apparently, people still write N*azi romances—I will never consider those. Please, do not query those to me. Same with colonizer/colonized, Israeli/Palestinian romance, and all iterations where genocide gets minized for the sake of the romance.
I don’t do mafia/cartel stories in any genre. And I absolutely do not do stories that involve cops, even in speculative. Just, please, no cops. Ever. Even if it's a nuance, complicated portrayal. It doesn't work for me.
As mentioned above, I’m also a poor fit for dystopias or post-apocalyptic stories right now.
And I'm a terrible fit for Indigenous stories told by people who are not Indigenous. I'm not American, so I might have different gauges on this means, but let's just say it is important to me to know that those stories are told by people who grew up connected to those communities. Brazil especially has had so many books about Indigenous people written by outsiders, some who even spent time with Indigenous communities, and my goal as an agent is to help Indigenous creatives tell their own stories, in their voices, not to add to that extensive canon of outside voices.
How to Query Me
I’m currently open to queries from all, but as always, I'm super keen on seeing marginalized voices in my inbox.You can query me through Query Manager:https://QueryManager.com/ThaisAfonsoPlease, do not try to query me through my email. Queries sent to my email will be deleted unread.Here are some tips that can make the process a bit smoother for both author and agent:If there is triggering content in your manuscript, please add warnings to your submission package. I don’t have a maximum word-count for query letters, so you can add any and all content warnings to the end of the letter. In addition to CWs, I recommend your query letter feature an industry standard pitch, your bio, and basic information about the manuscript’s word count, title, and potential audience. Comps are super welcome, but I don't consider them mandatory. When included, recent comps are, of course, preferable. Two-three years is the current industry standard due to the pandemic.If I requested this submission from a pitch contest, please include a link to the pitch or the text of the pitch. If there’s a particular item in my MSWL you think your manuscript fills, I’d love for you to highlight it, but personalization is also not mandatory. I assume every author queries me because they feel I'd be a good fit.Please keep the synopsis under two pages. A synopsis should be a dry description of the entire plot for the manuscript you’re querying. Remember to include the ending. It's not a spoiler. There's no need to put a spoiler tag in. And if the book is the first in a series, keep the synopsis to the book you’re submitting for consideration.Finally, don’t worry about mistakes! I give equal consideration to all queries.It is my goal to respond to every query. If you don’t receive a response within three months, please feel free to follow up on your query. However, a lack of response after that amount of time does not mean an automatic pass. It simply means I’ve fallen behind. I apologize in advance, and I promise there’ll be a response (but again, feel free to nudge if it’s been a while or you have an offer of representation).I am grateful for all queries and submissions, so thank you for considering me.PLEASE NOTE: I am also a freelance editor. If I’ve done paid editorial work for you or if you donated a critique for a marginalized author, I will not be able to represent you.
Contact
Please use this email to get in touch with me if you'd like to book me for workshops, conferences, events, presentations and so on.
I only accept queries via Query Manager.Do not use this email to send queries. Queries sent via this address will be deleted unread.