K.L. Johnson | Author

Oof thanks for the warning. I just started watching it.

What’s your handle?

It always hurts. Always.

Hahahaha I feel this 😂.

Right? I need sleep but I also need more time to absorb the entire history of Ireland.

a cartoon of belle in a library with the words happy book lover 's day above her ALT: a cartoon of belle in a library with the words happy book lover 's day above her

I feel like #NationalBookLoversDay should be a holiday on which we get a day off from work. How do we start a petition? And can someone make a cake? This feels like a “We need a cake” situation.

#WritingCommunity #LiteraryAgent #OpenQueries #Booksky

Thanks! Even the portal fantasy has a twist! The portals don’t always work, they only open in certain places and certain times, the hero isn’t trying to save the world or rule over it, and the portals don’t allow you to escape your reality…they make you face it.

This sounds absolutely enchanting! ✨ I love a good portal fantasy, especially with a twist like a subverted Chosen One! Can’t wait to see The Fairy King take flight! 💖🧚‍♀️ #Romantasy #

This is hilarious. Administrators love a word cloud.

Images of a woman looking in a mirror, a woman's hand, a spooky group of trees, a devil's hand. The title Beauty is a Brittle Glass.

Images of a woman looking in a mirror, a devil's hand, a spooky group of trees, a woman on a Catwalk, a pier.

Three book covers, The Push with twin faces, The Picture of Dorian Gray a diseased man's face, Blue Sisters, a painting of a sad young woman's face.

Beauty is a Brittle Glass
💎 Adult contemporary, 83k
💎 Sisters, dual POV
💎 Slow burn romance
💎 Speculative elements
💎 LGBTQ MC
💎 Disability rep
Querying soon 👀
#questpit #A #Q

An agent's guide to "Dissonance," an adult psychological thriller by Lilith Murphy

Comps The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins Amazing sister dynamic Unreliable narrator Paranoid protagonist Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn Domestic thriller Complicated family dynamics Family secrets dragged into the open Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll FMC (Female Main Character) who isn’t believed by men Imperfect victims

The Pitch Three years after the death of their parents, college dropout Alex Doyle must learn to take care of herself and her teenage sister Charlie. When Charlie disappears without a trace, Alex realizes she doesn’t know as much about her sister as she thought. Now, she must completely throw away everything she thought she knew-about her sister and their hometown-if she wants to find Charlie alive.

Tropes Unreliable narrator Paranoid protagonist Stalker Kidnapping Betrayal & Revenge

BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN x SHARP OBJECTS x THE HUNGER GAMES

🔪 Unhinged women
🩸 Family who will do ANYTHING for each other
😱 Unreliable narrator
👻 Neurodivergent & LGBTQ protagonist
🫣 Secrets, lies, and skeletons in the closet!

#questpit #W #A #T #H

17-year-old RocsAnne must learn to trust herself and unyielding rage—the only weapon capable of saving all she loves—as she is caught between becoming a target of the god-titan of earth and an unexpected love triangle. #questpit #agentsguide #q #f #litagents

A photograph of purple flowers on a blue background. An editor's guide to The Roots of Destiny, a near future sci-fantasy novel by Q'Zion T. Gipson.

Pitch: After a failed experiment to make plants live forever, humans burned all toxic vegetation for the sake of humanity, leaving Earth as an artificial shell of its former light. In 2091, sixteen-year-old Vee Arrowood is sheltered from the dark world Earth has become, with only the shadows in a forgotten forest keeping her grounded. But when the shadows come alive, her escape leads her to Evergreen: a land of elves with plants as their lifeline. Vee discovers the plant magic blooming in her veins before she’s enlisted by the Everlife–the group of outlandish individuals who protect the enchanted gardens–to help them solve the mystery of a deadly virus spreading within. While Vee aids the Everlife, she opens the petals of her own budding magic, her mother’s legacy, and feelings for a fellow member. And as the shadows follow her trail, Vee must learn how to bloom in the darkness before it consumes herself, The Human World and Evergreen forever.

COMPS & TROPES -Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek: enchanted forest, nature as a character -House of Marionne by J. Elle: magic boarding school -Legendborn by Tracy Deonn: Black girl magic, monster hunting -Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat: found family, human vs. fae -A Curse So Dark And Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer: secret society, romantic subplot, rival worlds

First Lines ' ‘It took me sixteen years to find a bloom. Wrapped in darkness, breathing in the manufactured oxygen that rafts through the world. I cradle it close, its white limbs glowing beneath the moon that parts the leaves above me. This bloom is the Moonflower: what Gran described as the rarest plant of the century. And, just like every other flower, one that seemingly doesn’t exist. Yet, in my palm, it reaches for the white sun, glowing with a similar light. No friends to bloom beside it. It reminds me of myself. Bright. Alone. All the words Gran would use to describe something beautiful. And it grew just past the trees I’ve never dared to cross since she was buried between them. Until I found this bloom—the very one we searched for—right beside her grave.’ Represented by Najla Mamou at Savvy Literary

#Editors, if you're looking for near-future YA sci-fantasy featuring:
🩵 nature as a character
🌸Black girl magic
🍃plant magic system
🩵 found family
🌸 Botany boarding school
🍃 shadow monsters
🩵 secret society

-- you'll love THE ROOTS OF DESTINY!

#QuestPit #YA #AG #F #SF

#QuestPit #AgentsGuide
Introducing ✨ ALICE & THE AFTERLIFE ✨

Perfect if you’re looking for…
🌊 spooky vibes by the sea
👻 ghosts, ghosts & more ghosts
🧽 cleaning haunted houses
🔪 stabby serial killers
🧠 neurodivergent rep
🏳️‍🌈 queer & trans rep

GIDEON THE NINTH X THE FOXGLOVE KING
A sapphic political intrigue fantasy that features:
- a twisty murder mystery
- sentient, decaying magic with a price
- magical history lost to corruption
- childhood friends-to-enemies-to-????
- women’s wrongs
#QuestPit #AG #A #F

An Agent’s Guide To The Land of Undying Summer by Ivy T. Woods Adult Romantic Fantasy 103,600 words On a background with a map

With a picture of a mountain, forest, and a lake on the left and text on the right: Pitch When a half-dead priestess is forced to work with the wandering mage who nearly killed her, they develop a reluctant camaraderie. But when he kills a guard, her people’s distrust of the newcomer escalates into a full-scale uprising. His presence risks the lives of the only family she has left, leaving her to choose once and for all: is she beholden to the living, the dead, or herself? With roots in animistic religion and a setting inspired by the Canadian sub-arctic, THE LAND OF UNDYING SUMMER is a stand-alone romantic fantasy

Comps The atmosphere and vibes of: The Gilded Crown by Marianne Gordon Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang The Humour of: Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Chapter One - The End of Darkness By the time Tilaani stepped through the Wolf’s Fangs, the screaming emptiness of her abandoned soul was almost bearable. Cool air gusted across the mountain, whipping her face with snow. Instead of barely cresting the horizon like she had expected, the sun was high overhead. “Shit!” She snatched her cloak from an icy stalagmite and darted into a slim crack in the cliff face. The frozen stone was jagged from when the cliff had split last century and the edges tugged at her shirt as she sidled through, cloak still clutched in one hand. Time warped within the cavern, stretching and compressing at random. Sometimes she would emerge to find that only a few minutes had passed outside. Today, the few hours she had spent being lectured by the Ancients had become nearly an entire night and day in the land of the living. The dead delighted in wasting her time, especially when she had actual duties to perform. Allak would be insufferable if she was late.

#agentsguide to 🌲THE LAND OF UNDYING SUMMER🌲
This romantic fantasy has:
🐻‍❄️ A setting inspired by the Canadian subarctic
🌋Roots in animistic religion
⚡️A physics based magic system
👵🏽 Crotchety immortals
🏠 Complex family dynamics
🗺️ Neurodivergent MMC #ownvoices

#A #F #R #FR #Q #QuestPit

She’s not chosen. She’s trapped.

🌿THE EMERALD KINGDOM is a romantic fantasy inspired by The Wizard of Oz, where the not-chosen-one lies to her found family, takes control of her magical bond and rescues a prince.🌿

#questpit #Q #SFF #R #RF

Cover of the book A LEGACY OF BLOOD AND BONE, showing the silhouette of a woman over a red and gold background.

BLOOD IS LIFE. BONES ARE STRENGTH. FLESH IS CONTROL. SKIN IS DEATH.

🌹 Historical fantasy
🇫🇷 Belle Époque
🔥 Slow-burn sapphic romance
🩸 Body-based magic system
🗡️ Family feuds
🗝️ Gothic vibes

Coming 10/21/2025, a spellbinding debut brimming with intrigue & dangerous magic.

#QuestPit #P #A #F #HF #R

Mood board/Agent's guide for my novel CARGO - a queer SF/heist/romance - 110,000 words "Did you hear? There's a human on board." A graphic of the wall of a spaceship with sticky notes and polaroid photos taped up. There are twinkle lights hanging from the ceiling. alien ship's cook (fussy, anxious) + terrifying monster (ordinary human)

PITCH: Tai’s terrified of humans. Everyone is. Violent pack hunters, humans are notorious for their strength, sharp teeth, and carnivorous appetites. But the ship’s cook is safe among the multispecies crew of the cargo hauler Coreward Baker: everyone knows the warrior species rarely leave their own space. Then Captain Raz hires Clarke, a human horticulturist. Even after Tai overcomes their fear, they can’t stand Clarke. She’s bossy. Annoying. Useless in the galley, bad in a space suit. She might as well be cargo. Worse, she’s intent on befriending Tai—and why can’t they stop thinking about her, anyway? That’s when things go wrong. As Tai starts to realize their feelings for Clarke, they’re horrified to learn that nobody on their crew of dropouts and runaways is quite who they seem, least of all Clarke. And it’s no coincidence. Raz reveals they’ve each been handpicked for a heist he’s spent years planning—and no one’s allowed to say no. PRIORITIES: make dinner remain cozy haul cargo go for drinks pull off one last score try not to fall in love

FIRST PAGE: “Did you hear? There’s a Human on board.” I choked on my noodles and turned to stare at the diners at the next table. Like most of the restaurant’s patrons, the pair had hidden their profiles, a halfhearted attempt at anonymity. “Gross,” the speaker’s crewmate said, oblivious to my alarm. “I hope it leaves soon.” “Don’t let it hear you say that,” the first worker laughed. She made a show of looking for Humans, her eyes darting from table to table. It. I frowned. I knew the workers’ language distinguished between people and things, and ‘it’ was an unkind choice of words at best. The second worker shuddered. “I don’t know why we let themcome here.” The first laughed. “Are you going to stop them?”

COMPS: Murderbot by Martha Wells Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wisewell The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers TROPES: Non-binary narrator masking anxiety with sarcasm lying to themselves non-human perspective (afraid of humans) neurodivergent main characters metaphorically disabled protagonist slow-burn friends-to-lovers and enemies to lovers in the same relationship disabilitynorm and queernorm setting found family loveable pet/terrifying monster

WAYFARERS x MURDERBOT x SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN

Everything fell apart when the human came aboard. Instead of nice meals and quiet cargo runs, Tai's stuck with bickering crewmates, sinister criminals, explosions, and worse, a human who wants to be friends. #QuestPit #A #Q #R #SF #OV #LGBTQ

A collage of Viking and medieval themed images including a goblet, warriors, and nuns, French lavender, a castle and Nunnery a random chicken and a very cold you woman wrapped in a grey blanket.

Vikings x Derry Girls = Viking, Nun, Murder, Chicken.

A chance encounter between a Viking and a fake nun leads to murder, mystery, and romance. And chickens. The chickens are important.
#questpit #q #YA #R #HR

A HOUSE OF SALT AND SORROWS X HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE

Magical creatures were only threats in the stories Kit’s late mother used to tell. Now, Kit is faced with the real dangers of chaotic magic when she releases a memory-eating fae upon her grieving father.
#questpit #F #W

THE GREAT ALONE x LOVE & OTHER WORDS

UNDER MY OWN MAKING, an upmarket women’s fiction with:

🌊 a scarred heiress
🌊 estranged childhood friends turned lovers
🌊 hard-earned slow-burn romance
🌊 toxic family
🌊 coastal small town
🌊 found family

#questpit #Q #A #R #WF

A fire background is behind images of a leaf, a building overrun with ivy, morel mushrooms with a variety of tiny faces, a woman's silhouette highlighted in a red hue, and a heart with vein like roots sticking out of it. The text says Morel Support. Featuring: A chaotic bisexual, sexy bandits, and a sentient mushroom with a vendetta against the government.

Introducing: MOREL SUPPORT

🍄 A Sentient Mushroom
❤️ Chronic Illness Rep
💰 Sexy Bandits
❤️‍🔥 Sapphic Romance
🔥 Anarchy
🫀 Literal Heartache

#QuestPit #A #Romantasy #R #F #OwnVoices #W #ChronicIllnessRep #SapphicRomance

Background: an island superimposed with a woman pressing money to her face with a blackened hand Title: An agent's guide to THE BOOKMAKER OF PELLMELL by P. A. Cochran Subtitle: Dystopian urban fantasy / 75k words

Background: a male fighter's back pressed against a chain-link cage For fans of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab, Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Peaky Blinders, and The Last of Us The pitch: Trapped in a bleak world, a cynical young woman with the ability to glimpse future possibilities grudgingly takes over running a cage fighting ring to save her sick friend--and is horrified to find that she's excellent at it.

Images: (1) a hand holding burning money (2) a figure walking down a city street filled with litter (3) an albatross flying across an orange sky (4) a crumbling hotel (5) a woman sitting at a red-lit bar (6) a fighter's back against a cage Text: gritty neo-noir vibes | grounded fantasy | lyrical prose | FMC w/ "Breaking Bad" arc | found family | romantic subplot | cost of talent & obsession | hope's ability to save & corrupt

Opening lines: It was the beginning of storm season, and Tremmel City was glossy and slick as a bloodied fist. Arin didn’t mind. The wet paths up the caldera wall were dicey, but at least the rain muted the stench of trash and mule excrement. She pulled her jacket closed, the same black leather jacket she always wore. A relic of the past she couldn’t part with that swallowed her whole. She crossed her arms over her chest and climbed up the stone steps. PENTA OR BUST BLESS THE BRICKERS CURB THE COGS The graffiti was so repetitive it had long ago taken a melody in Arin’s head. She used to argue internally with each one: Don’t put your faith in the Pentathlon—only a fool would trust those odds. Don’t glorify the brickers—they only saved us once. Don’t demonize the cogs—some of us exercise self-control. But eventually the arguments petered out until all that was left was a bleak refrain.

THE BOOKMAKER OF PELLMELL
A cynical woman who can see the future grudgingly takes over a cage fighting ring to save her sick friend—and is horrified to find that she’s excellent at it.
🌘dystopian grounded fantasy
⚖️morally gray FMC
🔥romantic subplot
🫶found family
🌈diverse cast
#QuestPit #W #A #SFF

Collage of images, zodiac wheel, solar system planets in a straight line, scorpio constellation, virgo constellation, text saying the villain and text saying the hero

ATLA x WICKED

Calypso must steal 12 divine amulets in order to regain her powers and seek revenge against her enemies.

Villain FMC
Hero MMC
Hate at first sight
Destroy the world, dont save it

#questpit #Q #YA #F

A refreshed introduction to WHISPERS OF THE SEA, a YA Fantasy that will embark soon on its query journey. Featuring: Native Hawaiian Rep Cultural Identity Setting as a Character

The second slide showcases the pitch: WHISPERS OF THE SEA follows the story of a teenage girl who embarks on a journey to rescue her uncle after he was mysteriously captured by a group of uniformed men sailing under the royal flags of a faraway kingdom. Keahi must voyage across the seas to this distant isle where she’ll team up with a boy to track her uncle’s whereabouts. But in order to understand the dangers that lurk ahead, she’ll be forced to uncover a lifetime worth of secrets—and she must do so before it’s too late.

The third slide indicates that WHISPERS OF THE SEA might appeal to fans of: Disney’s Moana, Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, and Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle. The book includes the following tropes/themes: found family, self-discovery within cultural identity, Hawaiian-inspired mythology, and adventure.

The final slide includes a snippet from the book that reads: “Keahi’s legs were immobilized as her body tried to make the decision her mind could not. The feeling was strange for she had dreamt countless of times about leaving the island, only to seize the opportunity and awaken to find that she had been sold a nightmare instead.”

MOANA x SHADOW AND BONE

A refreshed introduction to WHISPERS OF THE SEA, a YA Fantasy that will embark soon on its query journey.

Featuring:
🌊 Native Hawaiian Rep
🌊 Cultural Identity
🌊 Setting as a Character

#QuestPit #YA #F #W #OwnVoices #AgentsGuide

Potions Unincorporated is written on a black journal with ivy stems and a mushroom on the cover. The tropes are listed with arrows on the right side: Grumpy x Sunshine, Found Family, Evil Pharma Potion Company, Plant Magic, Chronic Illness Rep, Cozy Vibes

The Pitch is written on a lavender field background: A curmudgeonly witch with a chronic illness must work with a cheerful thief to stand up to a greedy pharmaceutical company

A garden of comps is written on a leaf. The background is brown soil with plants next to comp titles: Legends and Lattes, The Spellshop, Howl's Moving Castle, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, and Under The Whispering Door.

A snippet highlights the main character's relationship with her familiar, Toad. In the snippet they discuss Linatta's ex girlfriend and Toad's hatred of hats. A book is open below the image and has wildflowers growing out of the inside spine.

POTIONS UNINCORPORATED

Think HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE x THE SPELLSHOP

💜 Chronic Illness Rep
🌱 Plant Magic
💚 Bisexual Witches
🐈‍⬛ A Snarky Familiar
😈 Evil Pharmaceutical Potion Company
☀️ Grumpy X Sunshine Romance
☕ Cozy Vibes

#QuestPit #Q #A #R #F #chronicillnessrep #ownvoices #LGBTQ #cozyfantasy

A pitch card for YA fantasy The Pirate, The Princess, and John by @saraduranauthor, marked “Now Querying” with a gold star noting “5 full requests and counting.” The book is a standalone, complete at 82,000 words.

I’m excited to share this #pitchcard for THE PIRATE, THE PRINCESS, and JOHN, the YA fantasy novel I #amquerying, feat:

🏴‍☠️ LGBTQIA+ rep
👑 non-western setting
🌸 anti-colonial lens
🏴‍☠️ girls w/ swords
👑 besties-to-lovers
🌸 friendship > everything

#QuestPit #YA #F #LGBT #Q

watching tv and laughing at all these pitiful struggling writers. the key to good writing is so obvious. you (a genius) saw it immediately: different geographic landscapes

Yes!