Leila Siddiqui

Welcome to my wishlist, Pitch Wars hopefuls! This is my first time mentoring and I’m so excited to see your submissions! Pitch Wars is a mentoring program where published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each to spend three months revising their manuscript. It ends in February with an Agent Showcase, where agents can read a pitch/first page and can request to read more. Learn more at pitchwars.org.

Who I Am:

I work in marketing at Penguin Random House and my debut THE DARKENED LANDS OF THE EARTH is coming out in 2021 from Yali Books. It’s a YA historical magical realism novel about British colonialism and WWII in India. I’m represented by Cate Hart at the Harvey Klinger agency.

Both as a publishing professional and a writer, I know the steep climb marginalized authors have to gain a foothold in the industry, and I’m prepared to fully get behind and champion a work I believe in. My mentoring style is first to look at the big picture – plot points, pacing, and character development. Then I like to look at the nitty gritty – dialogue, prose, and subtext, although I will not be able to do any line-editing.

Preferably we’d communicate over email, but can move into phone calls and texts in the later stages of editing and after the editor letter. I aim to be as helfpul as possible, and will not expect my mentee to take my every suggestion into consideration if it doesn’t work with their vision. Still, I would hope and expect my mentee to be eager to receive revision suggestions and put in the work. I’m also looking forward to helping with agent submissions, but keep in mind I can’t offer any suggestions or insight on agent response rates. They are enigmatic, elusive creatures even to me!

What I Want:

I’m looking for #OwnVoice YA fiction in most genres. I’m open to sci-fi, magical realism, horror, historical, contemporary, literary, mystery/thrillers, speculative, or any genre-bending works, as long as it is #OwnVoice from a marginalized author. I’m looking for something fresh and unique that doesn’t employ too flowery of language with crisp dialogue and clean prose. If one of your comps are Pan’s Labyrinth, I want to read it! Some books I’ve read and enjoyed recently are Adam Silvera’s THEY BOTH DIE AT THE END, Hank Green’s AN ABSOLUTELY REMARKABLE THING, and DARIUS THE GREAT IS NOT OKAY by Adib Khorram. A few books on my TBR are FROM TWINKLE, WITH LOVE, I AM NOT YOUR PERFECT MEXICAN DAUGHTER and BLOOD AND SALT. I think that gives you the sort of idea of what I like to read, though I’m open to any of the genres listed above!

What I Don’t Want:

I’m probably not the best fit for fantasy or romance since I have the least experience with these two genres. Books that feature Muslim protagonists dealing with Islamophobia or accused of terrorism are unfortunately not right for me.

Congrats on finishing your manuscript and coming this far! It really is a journey and I look forward to working with you on your amazing work!

Pitch Wars 2019 Young Adult Mentors’ Wish Lists