Tia Mele is the founder of a boutique solo agency launched in 2023, hunting for voice-driven middle grade, young adult, and adult contemporary romance — with a particular soft spot for sports stories, spooky MG, and trope-heavy romance.
In brief
Tia Rose Mele Literary Agency is a solo shop founded in 2023, meaning Mele is actively building a list from scratch — a real opportunity for debut authors whose work fits the stated categories.
The agency's current page confirms three active lanes: Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Romance (adult). Mele explicitly states YA is selective right now and adult fiction is limited to contemporary romance only — pitch accordingly.
Baseball runs as a signature thread throughout Mele's taste: sports books, especially those featuring less-common sports at the MG level and baseball at any level, are a standing priority and not just a passing note.
No confirmed deal record is available for this agency, so commercial track record cannot be independently assessed — the wishlist and agency page are the primary taste signals writers should rely on.
Mele's agency page references a past public apology for tweets that ended a previous agency tenure; Mele states a commitment to allyship for marginalized communities, which is also reflected in the submission wishlist's emphasis on LGBTQ+, neurodiverse, and fat characters.
Lately
Mele's agency page confirms the three active categories as MG, YA, and Romance, and notes that only full-length novels are being considered at this time. The bio also reiterates that sports, trope-heavy romance, and spooky stories for young readers are the core taste pillars.
What Tia is looking for
This is Mele's stated primary focus right now. Priorities include magical realism, ghost stories, and dark/unsettling contemporary that genuinely frightens young readers. Mele wants stories featuring characters with visible or invisible disabilities, characters coping with a parent's mental illness, and LGBTQ+ themes woven throughout. Sweet friendship stories are welcome. Sports books — especially those built around less-represented sports like bowling, roller derby, ping-pong, or archery — are an active wish. Stories featuring animals are fine, but the animal must NOT serve as a point-of-view character. A young detective with a best friend and a dog sidekick is a specific, named want.
Mele's YA list is described as fairly full, so submissions here face a higher bar. That said, certain concepts will cut through: books prominently featuring baseball, a contemporary set around a baking competition, a story centered on ultimate Frisbee, and pen-pal romances between teens from different countries. Travel-heavy narratives — both domestic U.S. settings (Nashville is a named favorite) and international (Paris, Italy, India, Singapore, Brazil among others) — are welcome. Sweet contemporary romance is the core YA interest, with explicit enthusiasm for LGBTQ+, neurodiverse, and fat protagonists (where a larger body is not the entire plot). Road-trip stories, sister dynamics, characters attending comic-con, superhero narratives with real internal stakes, and stories capturing the feeling of a live concert all appear on the want list. Teens navigating psychological conditions (bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression) are also a named interest. Mele specifically references a nerdy-character energy and a superhero dynamic akin to Marvel's Runaways or Cloak and Dagger as touchstones.
Adult fiction is narrowly scoped: contemporary romance only, no other adult categories. Mele wants romances that take familiar tropes — enemies to lovers, fake relationship, friends to lovers — and execute them with a fresh angle. Trope-heavy is not a liability here; it is the explicit brief. Voice and a willingness to subvert expectations within a beloved formula are the differentiators Mele is signaling.
Not the right fit
Taste fingerprint
How to query Tia
Check the live query form first — status was unverified at the time this profile was compiled and could have changed.
Lead with category and age range in your first line; Mele is juggling MG, YA, and adult romance and needs to place your project immediately.
If your MG or YA features a sport — especially a less-common one like bowling, archery, or roller derby — say so upfront. Baseball at any age level is a named priority and worth mentioning explicitly.
For YA, frame why your concept is distinct before anything else. Mele is being selective about this category, so a generic sweet romance will not stand out; a baking-competition setting, a comic-con backdrop, or an ultimate Frisbee plot will.
For adult romance, name the trope(s) at work and describe the specific subversion or fresh angle your story brings. 'Enemies to lovers' alone is not a hook here — the twist on the trope is.
Mele's wishlist emphasizes strong voice and emotional range ('makes me laugh and cry'). A query that can demonstrate both tonal registers — even briefly — will resonate.
LGBTQ+, neurodiverse, and fat representation are explicitly named as interests across categories; if your work features any of these, be specific and upfront about the representation.
Mele accepts only full-length novels — do not query with a novella, linked short stories, or a manuscript that is substantially shorter than genre standard.
The agency is small and solo; personalization goes a long way. Reference a specific element from the wishlist that your book directly addresses rather than a generic compliment.