Who We Are
Adiba: Though I have never been a mentee, I have been a mentor! I was an R7 mentor for Author Mentor Match, and a mentor for the inaugural round of Avengers Of Colour, a mentorship programme for authors of colour. Along with helping my mentees with their manuscripts, I have also aided them through querying and submission processes. I’m the author of THE HENNA WARS, which has been well-received by readers and has two starred reviews, and the upcoming HANI AND ISHU’S GUIDE TO FAKE DATING.
Image of Gabriela Martins and Adiba Jaigirdar on a pink background, with a rainbow image to one side
As a queer Bangladeshi Muslim author I also have a unique perspective on writing and publishing, and as a mentor to multiple marginalised writers I have experience in the hurdles that authors come up against in publishing.
When I’m not writing, I love reading extensively and playing video games. I’m represented by Uwe Stender at Triada US
Gabhi: Hi! I'm a kidlit author and linguist. My debut novel LIKE A LOVE SONG will be published by Underlined/Delacorte in summer 2021. I haven't had the experience of formally mentoring yet, but! I have been a teacher for the past ten years! Like Adiba, I am also a queer creator. I'm from the south of Brazil, and Latinidade is a topic very dear to me. I also have two cats, which is not super relevant for my CV, but I feel is extremely important to mention. Their names are Fitz and Simmons, they snuggle each other and me a lot, and we also spoon. They're the LOVES OF MY LIFE, along with languages and traveling, two things I love almost as much as my babies. (I am one of those women who call their pets children. I can't even pretend to be sorry.) I am represented by Chelsea Eberly at Greenhouse Literary
LET'S GO TEAM RAINBOW!!!!
Why You Should Submit To Us
BECAUSE WE ARE THE BEST MENTORS. No jk. (Unless…?)
We've both been through publishing- and life-rejections enough times that we know what it's like. We want to hold your hand through the nerve-wrecking process of revising and querying, and hopefully going on submission as well. We've been friends for years, and during our friendship, we've cheered each other on hard. We want to extend that cheerleading to you, as well as offer our experiences in revision, querying trenches, and submission, to help inform your choices as well as possible.
#TEAMRAINBOW GO!!!! 🌈🌈🌈
What We Want
Romcoms/Contemporary Romance/Historical Romance
At the top of our list is romcoms!!!! We’re both romcom authors and we love reading them. Some of our favourite romcom authors are Jenny Han, Sandhya Menon, Maurene Goo, Leah Johnson.
Some tropes we love are FAKE DATING!!!!!!! rivals-to-lovers, childhood enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, forced proximity/stuck together, second-chance romance, road trip romance.
Contemporary
We LOVE family-focused stories, especially sibling-stories. We want complex family dynamics!
Ambitious MCs, TORTURED I HATE MYSELF heroes, dysfunctional families, found family trope, niché interest, focus and spotlight on friendships, technology appearing (texts and stuff),
Some of our favourite contemporary books are WE ARE OKAY by Nina LaCour, LOVE FROM A TO Z by S.K. Ali, REALITY BOY by A.S. King, LATE TO THE PARTY by Kelly Quindlen, THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky, FELIX EVER AFTER by Kacen Callender, WINNING by Lara Deloza.
We're also interested in adventures and retellings with a twist.
Historical/Alternate History
We’re especially interested in underrepresented histories.
We want to see historicals from countries whose histories we don’t usually study/read about/hear about.
We really want to read about the history of marginalised characters
Some of our favourite historical books are A VERY LARGE EXPANSE OF SEA by Tahereh Mafi, LOVE IS THE HIGHER LAW by David Levithan, THE RADIUM GIRLS by Kate Moore, LIKE A LOVE STORY by Abdi Nazemien, THE WEIGHT OF OUR SKY by Hana Alkaf, MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
Thriller/Suspense/Mystery
MARGINALISED VOICES CENTERED IN THRILLER/SUSPENSE/MYSTERIES!! Give us all the chilly creepy stories with marginalised voices front-and-center.
We're especially interested in psychological thrillers! Eg in YOU WILL KNOW ME by Megan Abbott, who the killer is isn't as relevant as what the main character will do with that information.
We love who-dun-its and locked room mysteries, but with a twist!
If your thriller/mystery is a little bit unusual or outside the box, we want it (for example: YOU MUST NOT MISS by Katrina Leno)
Some thriller/suspense/mysteries we love are THE HALF LIFE OF MOLLY by Katrina Leno, PERLA by Carolina de Robertis, LITTLE MONSTERS by Kara Thomas, I KILLED ZOE SPANOS by Kit Frick.
We are big fans of books that can be comped with the TV shows Pretty Little Liars and Control Z, and the movie Get Out.
In all of the above genres
PLEASE (!!!!!!!) SEND US your stories that are set in the global south, primarily those stories set in Asia, Africa, Central and South America. Both of us are international authors so we really want to see stories from international authors.
Send us stories about marginalised characters. We are especially excited about stories by and about South Asians, South Americans, Muslims, and sapphic characters.
We really want stories that focus on intersectional identities. We especially want to see intersectional stories about BIPOC. That means QTBIPOC, disabled BIPOC, fat BIPOC, etc.
We're #TEAMRAINBOW🌈, so we're very into queer stories! Although we have a sweet spot for sapphic characters and narratives, we're here for all LGBTQIA+ stories! We especially especially want QTBIPOC stories.
We want books that can be comped to Hayley Kiyoko songs.
We love both upbeat and light stories and darker themes as long as they're explored with nuance. Among our fave books there's some of the darkest YA as well as the funniest romcoms. :)
What We Don’t Want
We won’t be mentoring adult, new adult, or MG, and we are not looking for any SFF work. We love these stories, but currently aren't the right mentors for them.
We are not the best fit for stories that focus primarily on: rape, eating disorders, self-harm, suicide, slavery. It’s okay if any of these things are mentioned in the story in passing, but they should not be on the page scenes, and they should not make up significant portions of the story.
For romance, we're not interested in teacher/student stories, or big age gaps.
We don't want the Bury Your Gays trope, or POC being Fridged. We're also not looking for a primarily allocishet white cast, and we don't want stories where marginalised characters are used to further the plot points of non-marginalised characters.
White savior narratives.
In historical fiction, we don’t want stories set in commonly represented historical periods UNLESS they feature marginalised characters. We also don’t want stories that center wars, though it’s okay if stories are set during wars (eg. the TV show Bomb Girls).
Mentoring Style
We will read through your manuscript and write an edit letter for developmental edits; including breakdown into plot, character, pacing, etc., and might include some small line-level things if there's anything that important that needs to be pointed out.
Then, we will do a second round to see how you have incorporated the developmental edits and suggest any line-level edits required.
Our edits will definitely use a sandwich method. We will combine all of the things that we love about your work, with the things that need a little bit more of a push to get your manuscript to where it needs to go. We might also ask questions that will hopefully help you figure out why you’re making the writing choices you are, and whether they’re the right choices to be making.
Remember, your manuscript is yours, and as mentors we are here to help you bring your vision to life. We want to make your book the best it can be, and so we never expect you to take all of our suggestions without any questions. We are here to talk through our editorial ideas and figure out the best way to make your story shine in the way that only your story can shine!
The best way of communication for us is through emails, or phone calls. We're open to questions throughout pitchwars, and we're here to guide you along your revisions if you have any concerns.
If you have any questions for us, Gabriela will be doing the Twitter chat on Sunday, September 8th, and both of us will be doing the Twitter chat on Friday September 25th!
Pitch Wars 2020 Young Adult Mentors' Wish Lists
