Amy Giuffrida is a Southern California–based associate agent at Belcastro Agency who champions emotionally intense, diverse fiction—especially horror, women's fiction, and romance—with a particular passion for Latinx and BIPOC voices.
In brief
Her wishlist skews heavily toward emotionally driven fiction: horror (including gothic, feminist, and paranormal), adult and YA romance (minus romantasy), and women's fiction with family/cultural depth—these are her clearest priority lanes.
She explicitly names multiple touchstone titles spanning literary-commercial women's fiction, vampire romance, and feminist horror, revealing a taste that bridges prestige readership and genre fandom—a useful positioning edge for dual-market manuscripts.
Repeat patterns in her named comps (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Yellowjackets, Buffy) signal she values stories with layered female characters, dark ensemble energy, and slow-burn emotional payoffs over fast-twitch plot mechanics.
Non-fiction is a secondary lane—she requires platform, credentials, and a unique hook, and is currently closed to memoir/biography; query her NF only if you have a demonstrable audience.
She is closed to ALL picture books and middle grade, romantasy, fairy-tale retellings, pandemic/military stories, previously self-published work, memoirs/biographies, and content heavy on religion, suicide, sexual abuse, child abuse, or animal cruelty—these are hard stops, not soft preferences.
Lately
She announced a query window opening the following day and running through February 7th, expressing genuine excitement about the incoming submissions.
What Amy is looking for
Her first instinct in adult fiction. She wants big emotional swings—laughs, tears, genuine surprise—alongside heat and real stakes. Subgenres she calls out explicitly: horror-romance, paranormal romance, dark romance (consent required), historical romance, and contemporary romance. Romantasy is a firm no at this time.
She wants horror and spec-fic with genuine thematic weight—trauma, feminism, identity, culture—not just scares. Genre blending is actively encouraged. Southern/Appalachian Gothic and grounded sci-fi/fantasy fall under this umbrella. Romantasy excluded.
Commercial, upmarket, and book-club-ready stories built around love, loss, grief, family secrets, cultural tradition, and female experience. She wants female-led narratives that earn a place in both a mainstream readership and a literary conversation.
High-stakes YA with genuine emotional depth exploring self-discovery, family, culture, identity, and mental health. Romantic threads and cozy tones are welcome. Horror, gothic, and grounded sci-fi/fantasy are all on the table. Fairy-tale retellings and pandemic/military premises are off.
Psychological thrillers with social commentary, unreliable narrators, and twists that genuinely surprise. She favors character-driven suspense over procedural plots.
She is interested in advice/relationships/self-help, food and beverage, lifestyle, narrative non-fiction, and how-to, but only from authors who bring a built social media platform, relevant professional experience, and a distinctive hook. Memoirs and biographies are explicitly closed at this time.
Not the right fit
On Amy's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Amy
Include a query letter, synopsis, and the first 10 pages of your manuscript—this is a firm requirement, not a suggestion; missing any element is grounds for a pass.
Lead your query with a clear genre label and comparative titles: she processes a wide range, and a crisp genre signal (e.g., 'feminist Southern Gothic horror' or 'contemporary dark romance') will orient her immediately.
If your book features Latinx, BIPOC, or other marginalized voices and is drawn from your own experience, flag it explicitly—she has made this a stated priority, and burying that signal wastes your strongest card.
Her emotional bar is high: she says it's genuinely hard to make her laugh or cry, so your query letter should convey the emotional register of your story, not just its plot mechanics. Show the feel, not just the concept.
Avoid any element on her hard-stop list before querying—romantasy, fairy-tale retellings, previously self-published work, and heavy content around suicide, sexual abuse, or animal cruelty are non-starters no matter how strong the writing.
For non-fiction, do not query without substantiating your platform and credentials in the letter itself; she will not infer them from your manuscript.
She has used time-limited submission windows before; confirm the form is currently open before spending time on your materials.