Chad Luibl is a hands-on editorial agent at Janklow & Nesbit who hunts for fiction that fuses literary ambition with propulsive plotting—particularly horror, thrillers, speculative and historical fiction, and boundary-pushing graphic novels—alongside narrative nonfiction from journalists and memoirists with a social conscience.
In brief
His agency roster skews heavily toward literary fiction with dark or speculative edges and graphic novels—his actual client list includes horror novelist CJ Leede, graphic novelist Ezra Claytan Daniels, and comics-adjacent authors Ben Passmore and Margaret Kimball, signaling that graphic narrative is a genuine strength, not a side interest.
His personal reading list—spanning Cormac McCarthy, Stephen Graham Jones, Victor LaValle, and Donna Tartt—maps almost exactly onto his current wishlist: literate, emotionally weighty fiction that isn't afraid of genre darkness.
For nonfiction, his stated preference for journalists who 'challenge the status quo' is borne out by clients like Kristen Green (a journalist dealing with race and education) and Craig Grossi (narrative memoir), suggesting he wants reported nonfiction with a strong human story at its center, not essay collections or self-help.
He explicitly cites Benjamin Percy's craft book *Thrill Me* as the lens through which he evaluates manuscripts—a writer who hasn't read it is at a disadvantage in any pitch to him.
Children's content is largely off the table unless it takes the form of a graphic novel; middle grade and YA prose fiction should not be queried.
Lately
His agency bio frames his fiction interests around character- and plot-driven novels, inventive horror and thriller, speculative and historical fiction with a strong sense of place, and graphic novels that advance the form—a more focused articulation than earlier, broader genre lists he has been associated with.
What Chad is looking for
Luibl wants horror and thrillers that are as inventive as they are scary—he's drawn to work that uses genre machinery in service of literary ideas. Think atmosphere, dread, and character interiority rather than pure plot mechanics. His roster includes CJ Leede, a horror novelist, and his personal favorites include Victor LaValle's *The Changeling* and Stephen Graham Jones's *The Only Good Indians*, both of which blend literary prose with genuine horror.
He is particularly drawn to speculative and historical fiction that illuminates a specific place or moment with nuance—work that uses an unusual vantage point to reframe history or imagine futures. The emphasis is on perspective and texture, not just plot. His taste benchmark here runs from Junot Díaz's Caribbean American world-building to Hernán Díaz's revisionist West.
The sweet spot Luibl articulates most clearly is fiction that lives between genre and literary: books with a strong emotional core and fast, imaginative plotting. He is not interested in quiet domestic realism for its own sake. He wants voice, strangeness, and urgency alongside craft. His favorites—McCarthy, Vonnegut, Kundera, Carver—suggest he values economy and moral weight.
Graphic novels represent one of Luibl's clearest areas of deep engagement. Multiple clients—including Ezra Claytan Daniels, Ben Passmore, and Margaret Kimball—work in graphic narrative or illustrated memoir. He wants work that pushes the form forward, not licensed adaptations or conventional superhero fare. He also accepts graphic memoirs under his nonfiction umbrella. This is probably his most under-recognized specialty.
For nonfiction, Luibl is focused on two lanes: reported narrative nonfiction from journalists who take on systems, injustice, or underexplored social realities, and personal memoir with a strong emotional architecture. He is not a general nonfiction agent—self-help, business, and pop psychology are not where his passion lies. His touchstones here are Patrick Radden Keefe, Helen MacDonald, Tara Westover, and Kiese Laymon: deeply researched or deeply felt, never merely informational.
Luibl lists these as favorite sub-genres, and his personal reading—Daniel Woodrell, Hernán Díaz, Patrick DeWitt—confirms a genuine appetite for place-driven, morally complex regional fiction. These probably find a home under the broader literary fiction umbrella rather than as standalone categories, but writers working in this register should flag it.
He explicitly names graphic memoirs as a nonfiction interest. Given clients who work at the intersection of illustration and personal narrative, this is a real lane—though the pool of work that meets his literary bar is presumably narrow.
He is not broadly pursuing children's, middle grade, or YA—but graphic novels in those age categories are a conditional exception. The gate is strict: it must be a graphic novel, not prose YA or illustrated chapter books. Do not query YA prose fiction.
Not the right fit
On Chad's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Chad
Email cluibl@janklow.com with the word 'Query' in the subject line—this is not optional, as his submission guidelines specify it explicitly.
Attach your query letter, a synopsis, and the first fifty pages of your manuscript as a single Word document. Do not paste pages in the body of the email.
He only responds if he is interested, so silence is a rejection. Do not follow up expecting a personalized pass.
Read Benjamin Percy's *Thrill Me* before writing your query. Luibl has cited it as the clearest articulation of what he's looking for; framing your pitch in those terms—genre velocity combined with literary depth—will resonate far more than standard thriller or literary fiction positioning.
For fiction, lead with the emotional core and the element of strangeness or genre innovation. He is not persuaded by pure literary pedigree alone, nor by plot summary without interiority.
For nonfiction, establish your journalism credentials or your unique experiential authority in the first paragraph. He is drawn to writers who are embedded in the story they're telling, not generalists writing about a trend.
If you are submitting a graphic novel, note clearly that it is a complete or nearly complete visual work—he has a sophisticated eye for the form and is more likely to engage seriously with a project that treats the visual-verbal integration as intentional.
YA and middle grade queries will only receive serious consideration if the work is a graphic novel. Do not query prose YA.