Resource review: Manuscript Wish List

Manuscript Wish List is an amazing concept and tool that helps authors target and personalize their queries. It's both a website (manuscriptwishlist.com) and a hashtag (#MSWL). 

The concept is simple: agents share topics and story ideas that they would like to see in their query inbox. 

The website allows agents to create a profile linked to their Twitter account. You could do combo searches on Twitter for an agent's handle and the hashtag, or just go to the site and search for the agent. All of their #MSWL tweets will be linked. Also, the agent bios on here are often more extensive than on agency websites, and they can include other tidbits like favourite books, fun facts, and submission guidelines.

Here are some examples:

I would love to find more authors who can write about immigration (whether US or European) from an authentic POV. The painful experience of being considered "other" in some way. Fiction or NF. #MSWL

— Sarah سارة Davies (@SarahGreenhouse) June 20, 2018

And can we talk about sisters? Maybe witchy ones? In a queer & diverse YA novel? In a small town where douche bags get what’s coming to them? Just saying, I’d read it. #MSWL

— Ashley Herring Blake (@ashleyhblake) April 6, 2020

I really want an adult ballet contemporary romance or WF. No Swan Lake retellings... I am fatigued on those. LGBTQ+ or neurodiverse welcome and preferred. #MSWL

— Naomi Davis, literary agent (@NaomisLitPix) May 24, 2020