SOLD OUT! 17th December Becca Langton #Agent121. Looking for: MG, YA, CROSSOVER into NA FICTION

Description

LOOKING FOR: MG, YA, CROSSOVER into NA FICTION

Becca joined the Darley Anderson Children's Book Agency team in 2021 after ten years working in IP development, editorial consultancy and scouting (the super sleuth of the publishing world). She has spent four years building a Children’s, illustration, YA and Crossover to New Adult list with a focus on the North American market. Recent deals have resulted in USA Today and NY Times Bestsellers, YALSA Award winners and deals across all Big 5 publishers as well as a host of brilliant indies.

Becca is an editorial agent and is particularly keen to work with authors and illustrators who are looking for a close partnership in developing books from concept to fully fledged manuscript. Career focused she is always interested in developing talented creators, particularly those writing from marginalised perspectives.

The stories she is in search of are those predominantly suited to the US market. Books that are as ambitious and exciting as the scale of that market demands. This means she is looking for stories that have an epic quality in imaginative ambition, unrelenting plot or in originality of concept. Becca wants stories that are in the perfect middle ground of quality and commercial. She likes page-turners, plot twists and big feels but is a sucker for lush writing, beautiful world building and show stopping prose.

At the top end of the market Becca is looking for YA and Crossover stories in the speculative, fantasy, horror and romance spaces. She is particularly keen to find stories structured for pace and plot, romance that leans into all the tropes and characters that surprise you (and not always in the good way.)

She would love to find stories in the ‘cosy’ space, either cosy fantasy (think Legends and Lattes for younger readers) or cosy romance (Heart Stopper or contemporary romance with a domestic/coffee shop cosiness).

Other stories Becca would love to find include something like Sleepless in Seattle in book form for younger readers, or the next Nora Ephron. She loves humour with bite and grew up on Georgia Nicholson so anything that has the touch of the absurd is absolutely for her. She is all about the big hook and has a big soft spot for speculative or fantasy stories with a trial or competition at their heart (The Hunger Games, Inheritance Games or Thieves Gambit all spring to mind!).

Becca is particularly keen to see stories centring LGBTQ+ characters and relationships, both contemporary, fantasy and in between. In the Middle Grade space she is seeking big fantasy or speculative stories that will create a reader for life – the kind of story that have kids reading by torchlight long after lights out. She would like to find a really lush transition story for the ambitious middle grader who wants to read up as well as the young adult who likes the safe space of children’s fiction but isn’t quite ready for the content of the upper-end YA space. She loves magic and world building that feels so real it might just be true. Becca would love to find a story that has ‘classic’ written all over it. If you have a story that has mythology, folk lore or an historical angle from a marginalised perspective please do send it her way.

She is taking on a very select number of picture book authors but is still looking for author-illustrators at every age range, from picture book all the way up to Young Adult. Her favourite recent reads include Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama and The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer.

Becca would like you to submit a covering letter, 1 page synopsis or overview and the opening three chapters (max 5,000 words) of your manuscript in a single word document. For picture books, please submit a covering letter and up to three completed texts all in the same document.

(In addition to the paid sessions, Becca is kindly offering one free session for low income/under-represented writers. Please email agent121@iaminprint.co.uk to apply, outlining your case for this option which is offered at the discretion of I Am In Print). 

By booking you understand you need to conduct an internet connection test with I Am In Print prior to the event. You also agree to email your material in one document to reach I Am In Print by the stated submission deadline and note that I Am In Print take no responsibility for the advice received during your agent meeting.

The submission deadline is: Wednesday 10th December 2025