Zoë Plant

Literary Agent

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Pronouns: She/her

Zoë is closed to queries.

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About Zoë

I grew up in London, studied for my degree in Russian and Spanish at Cambridge and lived in Moscow for a year, before making my way back to the UK to begin my publishing career. I started out as an intern at the Bent Agency in 2014 and went on to spend five years working as a literary scout, scouring the UK market for the very best children’s and adult books to recommend to international publishers. I was named as one of the ’30 under 30′ publishing professionals to watch on the London Book Fair Trailblazer Awards shortlist in 2018. As an agent, I am delighted to now have the opportunity to work with talented authors to bring their books into the world, and I welcome submissions from authors based anywhere.

I am looking for middle grade and young adult fiction across all genres, as well as adult science-fiction, fantasy, horror and speculative fiction. My tastes lean towards the commercial, and I am particularly interested in seeing submissions from writers from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds.

I love middle grade of all types, but my favourite books are those that combine a quirky voice or setting and a sense of fun with a strong emotional core. I’m not afraid of a little darkness, but for this age group I prefer books that have a spark of joy to temper it. That said, I love horror and am very open to stories with a spooky edge.

I adore YA fantasy and am on the hunt for books that can do something different with the genre in a very crowded market. Surprise me! Other things that I would like to find in YA include: scary books for teens, twisty thrillers, grounded sci-fi and fiery, feminist contemporary in the vein of Holly Bourne.

On the adult side, I like books that break away from very traditional epic fantasy – I’d love to find the next RF Kuang or Naomi Novik. I’m not the person for biblical retellings in a fantasy setting. Sci-fi doesn’t need to be grounded, but it does need to have an emotional heart to it, like A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet. And I prefer horror that has some kind of social conscience – scares for the Get Out audience. I am also open to general fiction with a speculative or gothic edge.

Other things that I enjoy across all age groups: dry humour, quests, boarding schools/academies, the performing arts and stories that make me cry.