Josi Beck is the founder of Beck Literary Agency and a USA Today bestselling author who built a career from the inside out—representing herself before opening an agency focused on romance-forward genre fiction, marginalized voices, and cross-genre storytelling with commercial muscle.
In brief
Josi's wishlist skews heavily toward adult romance with edge—think dark contemporary, queer romance, omegaverse, supernatural/gothic, and genre mashups that resist easy shelving.
She brings a dual perspective that most agents lack: she has negotiated her own foreign and audio rights deals as an author, making her especially well-positioned for those markets.
Her stated identity as a USA Today bestselling author under the pen name JL Beck signals strong commercial instincts—she knows what sells, not just what's literary.
She explicitly wants messy, complicated characters and non-traditional relationship structures; polished, conventional romance with tidy tropes is unlikely to excite her.
Beck Literary is a small, growing agency with a team that includes a junior agent and foreign-rights support—Josi herself is the senior decision-maker, and her personal taste is the agency's north star.
Lately
Josi describes herself as deeply enthusiastic about omegaverse, cozy-dystopian hybrids, villainous heroines, and genre mashups that carry cross-market commercial potential—framing her wishlist around stories that challenge conventional shelving.
What Josi is looking for
This is her clearest priority. She wants romance that subverts expectations—enemies-to-lovers where the tension is genuinely sustained, queer romance of all kinds, non-traditional relationship structures, and stories centered on marginalized or underrepresented voices. Dark themes within contemporary romance are welcomed, provided the darkness does not exist between the hero and heroine. She is specifically drawn to own-voices and BIPOC-authored love stories.
Josi calls out omegaverse explicitly as an area of strong personal interest—a notably specific and enthusiastic signal. She also wants supernatural romance with gothic tones rather than straightforward paranormal. Atmosphere, dread, and dark romanticism matter here; she wants the gothic texture to permeate the story, not just decorate it.
She actively hunts for manuscripts that blur category lines—thriller plus romance plus speculative is her cited example. What unites these is commercial crossover potential and a romantic element woven through. Cozy-dystopian, romantasy, LGBTQ+ sci-fi or fantasy with romance at the center, and steampunk all fall within her stated range. If a manuscript defies easy shelving but has emotional and romantic stakes, she wants to see it.
She names thriller as a genuine area of interest and emphasizes page-turning pacing—she wants to be compelled to keep reading. Psychological suspense and romantic thrillers (where romance and danger intertwine) both fit her taste. Given her agency's romance-first identity, suspense projects with a romantic thread are likely the strongest fit.
She lists commercial women's fiction, upmarket fiction, and book-club-style reads with feminist or issue-driven angles. Dark female friendships and stories centered on women's experiences—especially from diverse or own-voices perspectives—are welcome. She appears more energized by the edgier end of this spectrum than by conventional book-club fare.
Adult horror, gothic horror, occult horror, and queer horror all appear in her interest list. She gravitates toward horror that intersects with romance or centers on marginalized characters—BIPOC horror and queer horror are specifically flagged. Pure horror with no romantic or speculative cross-genre angle is less clearly her wheelhouse.
She is interested in sports romance but explicitly not the dominant sub-genres. Hockey romance and football romance are off the table. She wants athletic settings and competitive-world tension in sports that rarely get the spotlight—the more unexpected the sport, the better.
Not the right fit
On Josi's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Josi
Lead with what makes your romance non-standard. Josi is explicitly bored by conventional tropes—open your query by naming the genre subversion or mashup at the heart of your manuscript.
Name your sport if querying sports romance, and confirm it isn't hockey or football. The more niche the sport, the better your odds of standing out.
If your work is own-voices, BIPOC, or queer, say so clearly and early. These are not box-checking qualifiers for her—they are active priorities.
Omegaverse writers: she called this out by name and with enthusiasm. You have a real audience here; state the trope directly in your query rather than burying it.
Distinguish where your darkness lives in romance submissions. She explicitly wants dark themes in contemporary romance but not darkness directed between the romantic leads—clarify this distinction in your pitch.
Genre mashup writers should highlight cross-market potential. Pitch the dual readership (e.g., 'appeals to thriller readers and romance readers equally') because that's how she thinks about these books.
She values long-term career partnership, so if you have a series or a clear next project, mention it briefly—she's signing people, not just books.
Avoid querying YA, historical romance, rockstar romance, political fiction, short fiction, scripts, or standard sports subgenres—these are firm exclusions, not soft preferences.