Sophie Sheumaker is a BookEnds Literary Agency assistant agent building her debut list, hunting cozy-to-epic fantasy, sapphic romance, and emotionally-driven speculative fiction from middle grade through adult — with a strong priority on underrepresented voices and queer stories.
In brief
Sheumaker is in the earliest stage of list-building — no confirmed public sales on record yet — making her a genuine ground-floor opportunity for writers whose work fits her taste.
Her wishlist is unusually specific and personal: she names K-dramas, Studio Ghibli films, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer as non-book touchstones, giving writers a rich map of the emotional register she's hunting for.
Sapphic romance is her single most-emphasized category — she names it multiple times and even lists hyper-niche sub-wants (lesbian vampires, sapphic hockey, sapphic F1), signaling she'll go deep if the voice is right.
She is an assistant agent working under Naomi Davis and also serves as Global Rights assistant — her list is new but her agency infrastructure is established, so clients get both hands-on attention and BookEnds' full deal-making machinery.
Middle grade is the category where her wishlist is most developed and most distinctive: she wants MG that respects readers' intelligence and rewards adult rereads, not the kind that condescends or simplifies.
Lately
Her current agency profile describes her as actively building her list across middle grade, YA, and adult fiction, with a particular emphasis on queer romance and emotionally driven speculative work — signaling she is in active acquisition mode.
What Sophie is looking for
Sheumaker wants MG fantasy that spans the cozy-to-adventurous spectrum — the fairy-tale feeling without the Disney-retelling formula. She's drawn to third-person narrators that carry personality and warmth, friendships at the emotional center, and the messy, evolving feelings of early adolescence. Subtle, quiet magic woven into the fabric of the story resonates more with her than showy power systems. She also loves big, complicated families and communities that function as characters in their own right. Crucially, she wants MG that doesn't talk down to its readers — books that hold up to adult rereads and treat young people as full human beings.
She welcomes the full range — soft magic, cozy settings, and intimate stakes at one end; intricate world-building and high-fantasy immersion at the other. The critical requirement is that the world feels genuinely lived-in and thought through. Romantasy is welcome here. She's equally interested in contemporary fantasy and any genre-bending speculative work that resists easy classification.
This is arguably her deepest personal passion. She's particularly seeking queer romance — and within that, sapphic stories are her top priority. The voice should crackle: witty banter, foot-kicking moments, the emotional escalation of a K-drama. She loves contemporary, fantasy, and romantasy frames equally. Tried-and-true romance tropes reimagined through a queer lens are highly welcome. Hyper-specific niche interests include lesbian vampires, sapphic hockey, and sapphic F1. A magical or speculative twist layered into an otherwise contemporary romance is something she's actively hunting.
She is not looking for hard sci-fi or space opera, but she is genuinely enthusiastic about genre-bending speculative work that leads with human emotion and engages with current events or environmental themes. High-concept plots with grounded, feeling-first execution are the sweet spot. Think mood and interiority more than technical extrapolation.
She's open to horror, but with clear conditions: she wants romance as a genuine element — an all-consuming love story set within a horror frame — not abuse romanticized. Themes of revenge, feminism, and female rage are strongly welcome. Dark female friendships, sisterhood, and even body horror are on the table. The horror should serve the emotional and thematic core, not overwhelm it.
She represents illustrators and author-illustrators as part of her list. Her non-book references (Studio Ghibli, animated films, visual storytelling) suggest she's drawn to artists with a strong, distinctive visual sensibility. Writers-only picture book manuscripts are not explicitly noted as welcome — those seeking illustration-only or author-illustrator projects should check her current submission guidelines.
Not the right fit
Taste fingerprint
How to query Sophie
Submit through the BookEnds online query form — she does not accept emailed queries; go through her specific submission link on the BookEnds site.
Lead with the emotional core of your story, not the plot summary — her wishlist is organized around feelings, relationships, and tone, which tells you what she reads for first.
If your book is sapphic romance, say so immediately and name the tropes you're using; she is actively hunting this and wants to know upfront whether yours is contemporary, fantasy, or romantasy.
For MG submissions, address how your book respects the reader's intelligence — she cares deeply about this and it's the detail most queriers will skip.
Comp to her named touchstones where genuinely appropriate: if your book shares DNA with One Last Stop's magical twist or The Jasmine Throne's world-building depth, say so specifically and briefly explain the connection.
If you're an illustrator or author-illustrator, the BookEnds Artists section is the relevant intake point — confirm whether a separate submission pathway applies.
She is building her list from scratch, so writers who match her taste closely have a real chance to be an early client — a well-targeted, specific query will stand out more here than with a fully-loaded agent.
Mention your identities or the diversity represented in your story if relevant — she explicitly prioritizes historically underrepresented voices and this is not just a courtesy note on her wishlist; it's central to her acquisitions philosophy.
Do not query hard sci-fi, dystopian/apocalyptic fiction, or space opera — these are flat rejections regardless of quality.
If your book has K-drama energy — emotional escalation, heightened stakes, will-they-won't-they tension — name that comp explicitly; she cited specific K-dramas as touchstones and will recognize the register immediately.