Kiana Nguyen

Submission Guidelines for Kiana Nguyen

Submitting Your Work to Kiana Nguyen

Before querying Kiana Nguyen

The Market List recommends you verify this agent is still active and open to submissions before sending a query. Check the agency website, recent deal announcements, and any posted guidelines.

To be sure your project is a fit, we recommend you familiarize yourself with Kiana Nguyen's list by reviewing recently represented titles and the agency's current submission guidelines before querying.

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From the Kiana Nguyen Submission Guidelines:

Queries are accepted only through Query Manager. Do not email queries.

• Include a query letter and the first ten pages of your novel
• She is not interested in AI-generated or AI-assisted work, including manuscripts polished by AI editors or critique partners
• Do not send: nonfiction; crime or military fiction; picture books, chapter books, or middle grade; poetry, screenplays, or short stories; religious fiction
• Word-count ranges on her form vary by genre (generally about 50,000–120,000 depending on category)

Donald Maass Literary Agency Submission Guidelines

• Address queries to a specific agent and follow that agent’s individual guidelines
• Query via the method each agent specifies; do not query by phone or social media
• Query only one DMLA agent at a time; if rejected, you may query another DMLA agent

Kiana Nguyen's Current Wishlist:

Twisty, soapy time-travel mystery; time loops or alternate universes in horror, thriller, SFF, and speculative fiction (YA or adult).

High-concept commercial YA and adult fiction featuring queer BIPOC characters; fast plots led by opinionated, often unlikable protagonists; unconventional settings.

Adult horror (slashers dark or comedic; meta/mixed-media; reality-blur supernatural); domestic and psychological suspense; grounded or non-Western SFF with intimate stakes; women’s fiction centered on millennial queer BIPOC lives.

YA: slackers and misfits outside Ivy-track ambition; contemporary, horror, thriller, mystery; select fantasy with a fresh twist; prefers stories not set primarily at school.

Hard passes include literary fiction, dystopian overthrow plots, conventional hero journeys, traditional vampires and werewolves, political thrillers, FBI/CIA/cop procedurals, COVID-set stories, magic schools, and dragons.