Gina Kammer's Manuscript Wishlist

Gina Kammer Author

Sep 02, 2026 |

Book coach and editor Gina Kammer shares a sample of her eclectic taste in novels as well as favorite tropes, character types, + other story elements.

Every so often, literary agents and editors publish their manuscript wishlists: the stories they’re longing to discover in their inboxes.

But as a book coach and developmental editor, I have a wishlist too—not of polished manuscripts I’m looking to acquire, but of the gloriously strange science fiction and fantasy stories I would love to help authors bring into existence and finally, publication.

So if you’ve ever wondered what this particular book dragon’s claws can't help but sink into…

Here’s an entirely non-exhaustive peek inside my hoard.

Books that Mix Their Magic

My tastes are eclectic. Give me stories in the veins of:
• The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
• The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
• The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
• Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
• The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman
• Remarkably Bright Creatures—over on the more literary end

On screen, I’m drawn to the worldbuilding, characters, and storytelling of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Arcane, The Apothecary Diaries, and Wednesday…
(Although perhaps we can agree to revise that Wednesday season-one finale...)

In other words: I like stories that know what kind of experience they’re creating but aren’t afraid to combine unexpected flavors.

Characters I Would Follow Anywhere

I love a character with a distinctive—and occasionally dangerous—personality.

Give me:
• snarky, murdery robots like Murderbot or K-2SO
• intelligent familiars and animal companions like Nighteyes, Doomslug, and the talking cats of The Cinder Spires
• delightfully chaotic creatures like Brightwing from Hearthstone or Talon from Jenn Lyons’s A Chorus of Dragons
• wonderfully practical oddballs like Steris from Brandon Sanderson’s Wax and Wayne books
• deliciously dark vampires like Lestat—or the vampires found in Carissa Broadbent’s worlds
• fascinating curmudgeons like Sand dan Glokta from Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series

I want characters who could not be swapped for just anyone without changing the entire story.

Dragons, Retellings, and My Other Guaranteed Weaknesses

ALL THE DRAGONS.

Anne McCaffrey claimed an early place in my dragon heart, and apparently there is no removing her—or the dragons—from it now.

I’m also always interested in fairy-tale and mythological retellings, from the work of Robin McKinley and Marissa Meyer to entirely unexpected takes on stories I thought I knew.

And if you’ve combined a retelling with dragons?

Well. You clearly understand how traps work...

Schemes, Secrets, and Impeccable Structure

I love a really, really well-done heist: think Skin Game by Jim Butcher or Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

I love secret societies, puzzles, riddles, forbidden magic, and plots in which all the pieces click satisfyingly into place.

Give me the structural perfection of Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince. Revelations that were hiding in plain sight. Capital C Consequences that make earlier choices matter.

I want to reach the ending and think inevitable perfection.

Angst, Atmosphere, Heart, and Other Necessities

I will happily take Young Adult with ALL the angst—especially if it comes with the ’90s setting and atmosphere of Susan Dennard’s The Executioners Three and The Luminaries trilogy. (She does it so so well!) I also have a lasting fondness for The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare.

Meaningful, heartfelt middle grade with all the cute, whimsy, quirky, and wonder are more than welcome! Of course, I will always cherish Howl's Moving Castle (I have a laser cut, wood sign that says "Calcifer's Bed and Breakfast" in my kitchen—a gift from my husband who knows me so well—because Calcifer is another of those odd yet so endearing characters my heart yearns for!), and classics such as Tuck Everlasting, Ella Enchanted, The Eye, the Ear, and the Arm, The Giver, A Series of Unfortunate Events... But I also grew up on The Hardy Boys mysteries and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. I loved wilderness adventures and historical fiction. I read Little Women in second grade and never got over it (yes, it took me absolutely forever, and perhaps some things went over my head, but it very much stuck with me nonetheless!).

More generally, my genre interests include:
• epic fantasy and science fiction
• cozy fantasy
• space opera
• medieval fantasy
• romantasy
• paranormal fantasy
• dystopian fiction
• steampunk, cyberpunk, solarpunk, (all the 'punks!)
• dark academia and magic schools
• bureaucratic witches
• snarky robots

I contain multitudes. Many of them have swords.

Tropes that Will Make Me Perk Up

Marriage of convenience may be my reigning champion.

Fake dating is a close runner-up.

But I’m also highly susceptible to:
• found family
• reluctant rulers
• outsiders searching for belonging (or just finding humans icky)
• social constraints and impossible choices
• secret societies
• isolated or remote settings
• forbidden magic
• talking animals
• misunderstood monsters
• self-sacrifice

Extra points if you combine several and make them meaningfully shape the characters—not merely an inclusion in the premise.

Characters Whose Differences Matter

I would especially love to see thoughtful, well-integrated representation of neurodivergence and disability.

I’m particularly interested in making sure we represent more characters with ADHD, hypermobility, chronic pain, and other chronic conditions whose experiences have shaped them as specific individuals or causes real struggle... but also how strong they are despite it.

So... definitely not a diagnostic checklist pasted onto the character or a difference that appears only when the plot finds it convenient...

I want characters whose minds and bodies affect how they move through their worlds—and whose strengths, struggles, choices, and personalities remain entirely their own.

But here’s the most important part of my wishlist!

I don’t need any of these stories to come to me already perfectly drafted.

That’s rather the point! And many of these wishlist items are examples of where we'll get your story.

I love working with the author who has something vivid, strange, funny, dark, meaningful, or impossible living in their imagination—but can tell it isn’t fully coming alive on the page yet. Or maybe the story just isn't forming up much at all even though the idea is there.

I'm the editor/coach you hire when you know there’s something powerful about this story, this idea... but can’t quite puzzle out what isn’t working, why the pieces aren’t connecting, or where and how to strengthen them.

That’s the work we do inside Enchant Your Readers.

It’s my small-group coaching program where science fiction and fantasy authors receive my direct, individualized help planning, drafting, and revising the particular stories they’re trying to create. And they really do range across all my eclectic tastes!

I love nothing more than to make sure the dark elf lord romantasy scene (with the marriage of convenience trope!!!)

... is especially swoon-worthy and then hop over to helping configure the plot of the weary/drug-addicted, battle-hardened commander in her fight against a necromancer!

And I currently have room for a few more of those stories.
[Learn more about Enchant Your Readers]

Does your novel or story idea contain something from my wishlist?

I would sincerely love to know what strange and wonderful thing you’re creating.

Remember: your novel doesn’t need to check every item—or even one of them!—to belong inside Enchant Your Readers. This is my personal collection of whims, and I'm probably missing a whole 'nother half of them I simply couldn't think of just now! So this is NOT a dark academia-styled entrance exam.

The most important item on my wishlist is a sci-fi/fantasy (or their subgenres!) novelist who cares deeply about their story and is ready to make it stronger.

If that's you, CLICK HERE!

Categories: : book coaching, editing