YA Books are Booming: What’s driving the surge + what’s trending now, with literary agent and owner of the Reading Chamber, Jess Taylor

In this engaging conversation, Jess Taylor shares her journey of opening an online bookstore dedicated to young adult literature and her role as a literary agent. The discussion explores the evolution of YA fiction, the importance of addressing banned books, and the unique challenges of running a bookstore in a digital age. Jess emphasizes the joy of connecting with readers and authors alike, highlighting the need for more diverse representation in literature, particularly for younger audiences and male protagonists. The conversation concludes with insights into the current trends in YA literature and the significance of passion in writing and publishing.

Takeaways

• Jess Taylor opened an online bookstore to fill a gap in YA literature.
• The joy of seeing teens excited about books is validating.
• YA literature allows for creativity and exploration of complex themes.
• Banned books discussions highlight the importance of exposure to diverse topics.
• Personalization in online bookstores can differentiate from larger retailers.
• Social media content creation is a significant challenge for online sellers.
• Jess transitioned from publishing to agenting to advocate for authors.
• The YA audience is growing up, leading to a demand for new adult stories.
• There is a need for more books featuring younger protagonists in YA.
• Jess is open to queries for contemporary YA fiction. 

Connect with Jess Taylor

• Shop The Reading Chamber
• Follow on TikTok
• Follow on Instagram

Discount Code

• Shop The Reading Chamber and use the code MARGS at checkout for 15% off your entire purchase including the first month of a subscription!

Querying Jess

• Jess is currently open to queries and can be found on Query Tracker

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Bookstore Dream

02:17 Inspiration Behind the Reading Chamber

03:39 Nostalgic Reading Experiences

05:11 The Appeal of YA Literature

07:53 The Journey of Opening a Bookstore

10:21 Current Trends in YA Literature

12:50 The Evolution of Young Adult Readers

13:40 Navigating Content in YA Books

14:29 Addressing Difficult Topics in YA Literature

17:20 The Need for Diverse Protagonists in YA

17:46 The Importance of Passion in Writing

18:38 Understanding Young Adult Literature

19:11 Curating a Bookstore: Personal Touches and Choices

21:08 Challenges of Running an Online Bookstore

23:59 The Journey to Becoming a Literary Agent

26:32 Open for Queries: Insights into the Agenting Process

26:41 Quirks that Capture an Agent's Interest

26:48 Expanding Genres: YA and Beyond

29:40 105-End Credits Animation .mp4

Transcript

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Jenna G Judith (00:00)
They are the debut adult novels from YA authors. And I feel like this is a not an abnormal way for authors to really like get their feet wet and grow an audience.

Jess Taylor (00:12)
that's so true. mean, you're looking at developing an audience over time because your audience is growing up.

And so these writers who have a YA audience, ⁓ like Carrie Maniscalgo with the Kingdom of the Wicked series, ⁓ that audience grew up. And so now they're interested in her adult books, The Throne of the Fallen series. So you're just kind of building that audience from the ground up and hoping to be as

as you keep writing and it's a really smart way to just you make a name for yourself because with YA like I said like you can be so creative so you can really have you're more of a book that ⁓ speaks to a very specific audience and then also a larger audience at the same time

Cait (00:58)
you are a girl,

who reads books, or you just like romanticizing about your life, if it were a rom-com. You have had the idea that maybe one day you will open a bookshop,

we are super excited today because Jess Taylor is our guest and she owns the Reading Chamber, which is an online YA only bookstore. She's also a new agent. So you are just doing like the beginning of the process for authors and then supporting the end of the process for authors. So I love how involved you are in the entire thing.

But she did it. She started her own online bookshop. She is living the dream currently. So I have a lot of questions about what that actually looks like. What are even the steps? How do you get there? seriously. Were you like the rest of us? And did you just have this romantic idea that I want to be a bookseller?

Jenna G Judith (01:46)
inspired you outside of obviously Beauty and the Beast. Like, let's be real.

Jess Taylor (01:51)
You

Yeah, well, thank you for having me. This is so great to talk about books in the bookstore. I love everything that has to do with the written word, obviously. ⁓ Really what inspired me was my love for reading when I was in high school and middle there just weren't enough books in the YA section at my local Barnes and Nobles. And then even going into like independent bookstores, they had like maybe one shelf of

books and they were typically titles that I already read so I had this idea of having a bookstore where teens could come in looking for young adult books it was just this particular genre it can be you know lower YA upper YA but these were all books for teens and just create like a safe space for them

I was kind of burnt out in my last job working for a hybrid publisher and I started losing my love of reading and the fact that that happened I was like I need to change something I need to get out of this situation and I was planning to just quit anyway but then I saw a TikTok of somebody

who made an online bookstore for romance books and I was like well like if someone did an online bookstore for romance like why can't I do that for YA and so that's kind of what like started that process I hope to have a physical bookstore eventually but I don't have like a place that I've settled down just yet so that's something that's just online at the moment and I've reached you know audiences all across the US and then

I obviously have pop-ups near me, so it's been just a wonderful experience so far.

Jenna G Judith (03:21)
I love that when you were talking, literally every single book that I was obsessed with, like in middle school and high school, is like flooding back through my brain. I'm like, this is magical.

Cait (03:29)
I know, same. What kind

Jess Taylor (03:30)
you

Cait (03:33)
of reader were you guys in?

Jenna G Judith (03:35)
was

like really heavy and like historical YA fiction

there were all of the different wives of Henry VIII and then other princesses and queens and stuff. It was almost a diary-esque. they were so good. They were my favorite things in the world.

Jess Taylor (03:43)
⁓ yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Jenna G Judith (03:55)
I read so much historical fiction it was like not even fair.

But yeah, definitely like a ferocious reader, like I wouldn't stop, I would play library in my room by myself all of the time.

Jess Taylor (04:07)
I mainly read a lot of contemporary fiction, like the YA romances. mean, Princess Diaries is just a classic. I obviously read a lot of Meg Cabot, a lot of Sarah Duffin, the really classic YA 2000s books. ⁓ And then I went through all the 2010s dystopia, like the Selection series and Divergent and Hunger Games. so it was pretty much like, if it was popular, I read it. ⁓ And if it had characters that had some type of love story, that was my jam was,

Cait (04:27)
Yeah.

Jess Taylor (04:37)
Wanted to have like at least a little bit of a romance thread the ones that didn't I was like not as interested in

Jenna G Judith (04:42)
Yeah. Yeah, Gossip Girl was up there too for me. Like the entire Gossip Girl series.

Jess Taylor (04:45)
Mm.

Cait (04:45)
gossip girl. That's awesome.

Jess Taylor (04:48)
I wasn't allowed to.

Cait (04:48)
I forgot that that was like, yeah, we were reading that first. I liked the classics. had this like, think I as a teenager, I think I thought that like, I needed to read like every classic.

Like it was like the secret competition I was having with myself to see if I could read them all. I just want all the Penguin classics. I want to have read them and I want to sound smart when I talk about them.

That literally was it. was like, just want to be like, because smart people have read this, like Moby Dick. Like smart people have read, like, whatever it was. And I just wanted, that's it. I just wanted that clout. yeah. And it was a collection. was definitely like, that's when the collection desire really started, right? Like, I just want the books in front of me on the shelf looking really pretty.

Jenna G Judith (05:20)
She and Austin.

Jess Taylor (05:25)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna G Judith (05:25)
didn't blame you, I did too.

Cait (05:38)
Like you connected with your younger self as a reader and that's like the sweetest thing ever because we forget about that person

Jess Taylor (05:41)
Yeah.

I just like YA I've read since I was like 12 at this point and I still like consistently read it with like the YA bookstore and like when I read for fun and then, you know, being a literary agent, I mainly take on YA books. I'm like, I never really grew up, I guess, but like, my reading taste have matured a little bit. I am interested in like more like dark romance and, you know, alley hazel with books, things like that. But the YA area, like it's just, I love it so much. I love how it changes.

people's lives.

Cait (06:16)
I didn't know that like adults, this is a new thing to me that like adults are reading YA. Is that like, how did I not? I didn't know that like this was such a popular genre adults.

Jess Taylor (06:22)
yeah, yeah, the Twilight craze started it.

Jenna G Judith (06:23)
yeah.

why

do you think that is, Jess? Like, what is it that you like, what's the spark you see in grownups doing the YA stuff and like, gravitating towards it? Like, it's not just like a little minor audience group. It's like a significant one. Yeah.

Jess Taylor (06:35)
Yes.

It's a big deal.

Cait (06:45)
Yeah.

Jess Taylor (06:45)
Yeah, I think a

lot of it is you can be really creative with YA. There's so many different, like, storylines. You have a lot more freedom in, like, how you create the different worlds, how you talk about the characters. There's a lot of growing up the characters do, and so it's a lot of, like, relating to your past self and your younger self, solving, you know, childhood trauma. If you are like, well, like, I had a horrible time in high school, but I'm going to read a book that was, like, a good time, and it's kind of healing to read that. So there's just,

so much overlap of people being like they want to go back to how they felt reading you know books when they were younger but then also like they're just more inventive you know there's much more restrictions when it comes to adult literature of like well this is how like the story structure has to be it has to have um you these elements it has to you know be portrayed this way this is how it's marketed but for you know ya books you just have so much more flexibility with it and then you know adults are the ones writing ya books so if they're writing it they

to be reading it and learning what's making this book really great. And then they've also just been incredibly popular. The Twilight craze, the Hunger Games, those are both YA books that really crossed over into the adult space. And so I think people kind of still think of YA books, that's really where a lot of things are hitting and it really can take off from there.

Cait (07:54)
No.

I never thought about it like that before. But it is true that like the Hunger Games, that's, yeah, that's like why I ate. I don't know why this is blowing my mind right now.

Jenna G Judith (08:12)
God,

like, I could seriously like spend like the next like hour of our time together just like reminiscing. But I digress, like I will keep that to myself. ⁓ But I, what was your moment of like opening this bookstore? And you're like, it was affirming, like, what was that moment where you're like, this is exactly what I needed to do?

Jess Taylor (08:19)
Yeah.

you

That's a really great question. ⁓ It didn't happen for me until about a year after I opened it. ⁓ I had a lot of feedback from ⁓ friends and ⁓ people who were purchasing offline or online and were saying this is a really great idea, but seeing it in person when I did my first pop-up in October of this past year, I got a moment where there were teenagers who came into my booth at Oktoberfest and just lit up when I said that this was all YA books. And that was the moment where I was like, okay, this is

this is a good idea and just seeing like the joy of their faces like looking at all the books and they were excited about the blind dates I had and then their moms came in and they started asking questions about the books and were like well are these blind dates like appropriate and I was explaining like you know this is all YA like you really don't have to worry about it being you know too inappropriate I mean you can come in here and it's a safe space and it's all YA and they were all thrilled about

it so it was really just validating.

Cait (09:31)
That's super cool. What's a really hot YA book right now? What's really selling?

Jess Taylor (09:35)
Gosh,

Soul Match by Rebecca Danzenbacher.

Cait (09:39)
my.

Jenna G Judith (09:38)
I have seen that cover.

Jess Taylor (09:39)
Okay.

Jenna G Judith (09:40)
I've seen it floating around a lot.

Jess Taylor (09:41)
She is actually

a local author to me. She lives like right down the road. We're in the same town. And so I went to her book opening just like before I even knew about the book and it was like my favorite read of 2025. And so almost everybody that I talked about the bookstore, I'm like, you need to read this book because it brought dystopia back. So it's very nostalgic for me because, know, the 2010s dystopia era kind of ended when, you know, with the Divergent series, like people not really like in the ending of that series. This one is like, oh my gosh, this is what

Cait (09:54)
Hmm.

Jess Taylor (10:11)
dystopia is this is what good writing is. ⁓ So I talk about that book a lot and I sell that one at almost every pop-up I do well actually every pop-up I do just because it's just so good I talk about it a lot so that's really popular. Immortal Consequences by Ivy Marie that book is gorgeous and that is also like talked about very frequently.

Cait (10:22)
Okay.

Jess Taylor (10:30)
There's just so many. know K. L Wather is like one of the big names in YA books right now. So I have all of her out, her titles out. She's one of my favorites. I feel like she's a great ⁓ parallel for Sarah Dustin. Like Sarah Dustin was the queen of YA in the 2000s. It feels like K. L. Wather is the queen of YA in the 2020s. ⁓ So there's just been like such a boom with YA. There's so many amazing titles that I feel like every book I talk about, I'm like, yes, this is actually really good.

Jenna G Judith (10:56)
before we dive into the agent, like how you got into agenting, talk to me about like the authors. And do you

Because I have read a lot of a lot of like my like adult romance books, my adult fantasy.

They are the debut adult novels from YA authors. And I feel like this is a not an abnormal way for authors to really like get their feet wet and grow an audience.

Jess Taylor (11:26)
that's so true. mean, you're looking at developing an audience over time because your audience is growing up. I mean, it takes a couple years to write a manuscript and then also to get it published. know, authors that I'll be doing the submission process for right now, like their book is probably going to come out in 2027 at the earliest just because it takes so long to edit the manuscript, to lay it out, to get the cover design. Like I come from the background of knowing that it takes at least a year to get a book in the production world. And that is that's kind of conservative. You know, there's books

out there that takes it multiple years. So if you're on social media as an author and you're talking to your audience, you're really kind of hoping to cultivate them for multiple years to come. And so these writers who have a YA audience, ⁓ like Carrie Maniscalgo with the Kingdom of the Wicked series, ⁓ that audience grew up. And so now they're interested in her adult books, The Throne of the Fallen series. So you're just kind of building that audience from the ground up and hoping to be as

as you keep writing and it's a really smart way to just you make a name for yourself because with YA like I said like you can be so creative so you can really have you're more of a book that ⁓ speaks to a very specific audience and then also a larger audience at the same time which I think is very unique you know if you're doing an adult romance book or even adult romantasy you like you can only speak to an adult audience but with YA you have a broader

topic.

Cait (12:50)
That is really cool. I love that quote just saying that like their readers are literally growing up. Like you have to like, you like work so hard to find your audience, find your readers and like get to them. And then by the time the book comes out, it's like they're like older.

Jess Taylor (12:57)
Yeah.

I mean the same kind of thing happened with like the Percy Jackson series for me like that series lasted so long I got embarrassed going into Barnes & Noble's like kids section while I was like 17 and 18 being like I don't read these books anymore I'm just going to pick up a Percy Jackson book so like I aged out of that series and I mean it's it's transcendent time my nephew loves it and so it's like I've seen it obviously develop further and it has a consistent audience but I'm like you're losing the audience that you originally established because they age out

Jenna G Judith (13:11)
Yes.

Cait (13:12)
Hello.

Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (13:37)
Takes so long. ⁓

Jess Taylor (13:38)
Yes.

Jenna G Judith (13:40)
So this is probably maybe a hot take for you. Why do people keep trying to ban books that like show these like difficult things, you can't always experience things like firsthand. And I feel like reading is like the best way to talk about some of these hard topics.

Cait (13:58)
Yeah.

Jess Taylor (13:58)
Yeah.

I think it's closed-mindedness. They think that somebody who's still a teenager should not be experiencing life at all, but then you're not setting them up for life. If all of a sudden they're 18, they're going out into college, they're going out into the world, and they don't know about it, you're setting them up for failure. And so the banned books are like, I don't even think it comes from a perspective of love where it's like, hey, I want to protect you. It's like, no, no, no, I think this is not appropriate for you, so I'm going to kind of control that. So to me, it's like you're not

really doing the reader a favor. And if it's a book that you are not personally comfortable with and you don't want your child reading, maybe it's time to have a conversation or talk about a different topic. Maybe they don't have to read that particular book. Maybe find something that is a similar one that doesn't have as much graphic in it or whatever the case is, whatever you're uncomfortable with. But they have to be exposed to different topics, different avenues because you're sending them out into the world.

as an adult and they need to be prepared for it.

Jenna G Judith (14:58)
Do you have one topic that you wish that there were more YA books covering? Or one topic that you as yourself as an agent are kind of seeking out?

Jess Taylor (15:05)
you

Cait (15:10)
Yeah, like where are the fools in the YA market?

Jess Taylor (15:10)
Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (15:12)
Yes,

tell me, tell me all the secrets.

Jess Taylor (15:15)
Well, one big hole that I haven't really been seeking out but I know is like if I'm getting books like this, like I'm gonna be excited for is books that feature protagonists who are like 14, 15, 16. There are not many YA books like that. They're typically like 17, 18, and even 19 at this point. So having one that are like a freshman in high school, you just don't have as many books like that. So if I'm getting like a contemporary fiction about somebody's first year at high school, like I'm definitely more interested in that than somebody who's going into their senior year just because there's

so many books of that sort. So that's a big whole books that appeal to boys too. A lot of the romantasy craze has kind of. ⁓

taken over a little bit of the YA market. And so there's not as many books that like boys feel like, oh, I can be seen reading this in public. It's gotten better over the years. And I recommend books all the time to boys of kind of like what they would like. But I think there does need to be having like some more male protagonists where it's not like a sci fi heavy book. It's not, you know, different topics. It's like ones that are regular everyday life for them.

Cait (16:21)
Right.

like boys books get so goofy because they're just trying to appeal to boys so much. It'll be like, don't read this book unless you're a ninja. They're like, well, they're like weird. I don't know, just like, this is what we think boys will like or something. instead of just like a good, yeah, it's hilarious. Like they just get really kitschy.

Jess Taylor (16:27)
Okay.

Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (16:35)
What?

Jess Taylor (16:50)
Yeah,

and then it needs to be like just more like contemporary books that like deal with everyday issues with boys, especially like now it's kind of helpful to like have those experiences and show like just more I guess acceptance of them to say like, hey, it's okay, you can cry. Like this character is crying and he's not like a bad person for doing that. So that's a big, you whole different and then like I personally I love mermaid books. So that is on my manuscript wishlist of like, give me all the mermaid books. I love them. I want to find you some really great series.

Jenna G Judith (17:06)
you

Jess Taylor (17:20)
with that.

Cait (17:20)
Need books for boys.

Jess Taylor (17:22)
Mm-hmm. yeah.

Jenna G Judith (17:23)
With mermaids.

Cait (17:24)
Yeah,

we need emotionally resonant and deeper books for boys and mermaids. We need more mermaids. Where's somebody out there right now who's gonna hear this and be like, get me a mermaid book. We're gonna get you a mermaid book. I love knowing that, yeah.

Jess Taylor (17:32)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna G Judith (17:32)
Mm-hmm.

Yes. Yes.

Jess Taylor (17:37)
I have

a couple I'm reading right now, so here's a pause.

Jenna G Judith (17:41)
Got it.

Absolutely.

Cait (17:47)
Cause we're all writers and we all just wanna like, we wanna write for the market. It's just what are we writing? Are we writing for the holes in the market? Are we writing for what's popular right now? Or are

Jess Taylor (17:52)
Yeah.

Also, you have to

Jenna G Judith (17:59)
So.

Jess Taylor (17:59)
write what you love too. I mean if it's a topic you're just writing to fill the hole like you're not gonna be as passionate about that I would tell authors all the time at my previous role that like you know, they would say I have multiple books right now Which one do we want to start with and like well? are you most passionate about because that really comes across in your writing if it's just something that you're You have been right because you know that somebody's like gonna read it and like it that's very different than like I am obsessed with these characters I'm obsessed with this plot. I'm obsessed with this world building that is very apparent. So even if it's something you're like, I don't know

market for it. Still write it, still put it out into the world because you can always find like a niche market who's gonna love it.

Jenna G Judith (18:35)
Absolutely.

Cait (18:36)
⁓

Jenna G Judith (18:38)
I know, like my wheels are just like spinning now. like, I feel there's so many different stories that are always like floating in my head because I'm a crazy person. So it's inspiring like to talk to like agents and people that are like book buyers and like in the publishing world and they're like throwing out all these ideas. I'm like, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Jess Taylor (18:57)
Yeah.

Cait (18:58)
I know. How do

you decide what books you want to or sell? Let's go back to the bookseller part of this, that's... How do you even decide what you want in your online bookshop?

Jess Taylor (19:03)
like in the books, right? Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, well, I started with what were books that I loved, you what are ones that I continuously still think about and talk about to other people and some of them are older, older books. I'm like, it's been like over 20 years now. But you know, this is still something that I think is really relevant, like the Galaga Girl series by Ali Carter. I remember going to I think it was like the third or fourth book it came out. I like went to her like author signing for it. So like they're they're older books now, but they're so

Cait (19:30)
Mm-hmm.

Well, not already.

Jess Taylor (19:41)
And they're really good for like introducing people to YA So I have her first three books in the store because I know that like these are ones that will help get readers into YA It's really great for events when you somebody who's 13 comes along and says you know I'm looking for an age-appropriate book. That's a good one. So like I started with what were books that I personally adored and then I went to Looking at current lists of what are books that are coming out that I know are gonna be really people are gonna be excited about it

I have a lot of LGBTQ representation so I got some books that you know feature just different you know sexualities because I think those are all important to house and I also went through independently published books I don't have just traditionally published books and so those were titles that like I personally read or like somebody reached out to me and like I thought this sounded really great I want to give a home for people who aren't typically in bookstores, you know when you go into a bookstore It might be some local authors but a lot of bookstores don't take a chance on independently published books because you can't

return them So I'm taking a chance on these books but I know that I don't have as much time to sell them. I do have a limited space for my inventory but I'm choosing titles that I know I'm going to talk up, that I know that I can hand sell at some events and then all my book boxes that I do are independently published books as another way to get those books out to different readers because then I know that they're not going to have these books when they order the book boxes. It's something new for them.

Jenna G Judith (21:05)
I feel like you're the fairy godmother of YA.

Cait (21:05)
That's a good idea.

Jess Taylor (21:07)
Sure.

Cait (21:08)
I just love that idea. I don't know why I'm getting very romantic in my head about it right now. So I need you, I need you to bring me back down to earth and tell me some of the challenges that you've been facing. What, what's not romantic about this?

Jenna G Judith (21:12)
I am too, like.

Yeah, what magic wand do you want to wave?

Jess Taylor (21:21)
Really?

Jenna G Judith (21:25)
Yeah, let's wave a magic wand. What would you like to make be a little bit easier about your job?

Jess Taylor (21:25)
Yeah.

Cait (21:30)
Yeah.

Jess Taylor (21:31)
Yeah, just getting the word out about the bookstore. It's so hard to penetrate the audience of getting into their heads of you can buy from other stores than just Barnes & Noble, just Amazon. There's so many online bookstores now, so it has become a little easier to say, purchase from me, and showing the differences of if you purchase from Amazon, you're just getting a box of books. There's nothing special to it, but if you purchase from me, you have more personalization. So that's a ⁓ really big point of just

Getting people to purchase from you. ⁓ I don't try and like compete with Amazon of like hi, you know these lower prices I have this like you're just not gonna be able to so I just kind of focus on like the personalization of things ⁓ I Like I actually handpack everything my parents when we were talking about the books or really didn't understand that It's not like a dropship kind of thing ⁓ Which a lot of bookstores when they have like an online presence like the online presence through like bookshop.org They are a drop shipping company, but I'm like I'm not doing that like I love

Cait (22:21)
Thank

Jess Taylor (22:31)
packing the physical orders. I like putting in like extra goodies. ⁓ that's like little... Yes, adding the magic. Just making it like a good customer experience. ⁓ And like the social media. Like I did not anticipate how much content creation goes into running an online store. I'm like burnt out from it after doing it for a year and a half. So I'm kind of like trying to adjust like...

Cait (22:34)
really cool.

Jenna G Judith (22:35)
Love magic.

Jess Taylor (22:54)
how I produce the content. I was doing like, you know, three posts a day on TikTok as they say you to do and I'm like, well that combined with a post every day on Instagram and Facebook, it's like, that's a whole other job that I just like. I was doing that for like over a year and I just started scaling back to just posting like three times a week on Instagram. TikTok is still like now once a day, but I'm like, it's a little easier. Like I've come up with like what I can do now, but that is

Jenna G Judith (23:07)
Yeah, that's like crazy numbers.

Cait (23:10)
That is crazy. How do you show up?

Jess Taylor (23:22)
The big challenge is like you get very burnt out doing the social media.

Jenna G Judith (23:27)
I swear, Cait is our communications manager for the pod.

Cait (23:32)
If

there wasn't two of us, neither one of us would be doing this. So you doing it by yourself is so much work. It's so much. Yeah, we have very specific jobs. She does a lot of the cool posts and design and stuff. And then I'm doing all the communication stuff, like she said. I don't know how I would survive what you're doing. That's so much.

Jenna G Judith (23:36)
Absolutely not.

Jess Taylor (23:39)
It's a lot of work.

a walk.

Jenna G Judith (23:59)
And,

and you're an agent. Like, to hell, like, how did you get there? Obviously, I understand the path, but like, what, what was what happened in your brain? You're like, that's a good idea.

Cait (24:02)
And now...

Jess Taylor (24:08)
Yeah.

⁓

Cait (24:13)
you

Jess Taylor (24:15)
I always wanted to be an agent. ⁓

that was what I originally wanted to be in the publishing industry. When I first decided in high school that I was going to go to college for publishing, I specifically chose a college that had a publishing program so that I could be a literary agent in the future. So my plan has been like kind of, you know, set in stone for a while. And then when I was in college and, talking to other literary agents there, you know, we had like guest speakers, things like that. I started realizing like I want the books pitched to me. I didn't want to be the one pitching the books.

Cait (24:31)
Yeah.

Jess Taylor (24:47)
So I switched to the publisher side of things and that's really where I spent the last eight years is in the publisher side of the business. And so when I was doing this and it would have been a little less than a year with the bookstore, I started missing talking to authors in the beginning stages of their book. I wanted to have that moment of helping them develop the book. I was freelance editing and I really enjoyed the beta reading part of things. I've discovered some really great authors that way. ⁓

just had that taste of I miss advocating for my authors and you just running something that was my own and being like a good advocate for them. ⁓ I didn't get that experience with my last role. I really kind of felt like I couldn't advocate for my authors anymore and I wanted to have that experience where now I'm like...

I four authors at this point. So I'm like, I have four authors who are relying just on me. I'm not controlling anybody else in my team what they're doing. They are really dependent on me and my work and that feels good because I know that I'm doing the best I can for them. So just kind of leading into that agency role, I did an internship. I had a great mentor for that. And then I luckily got, I applied for a job that came up and when I wasn't even finished my internship yet and they were like, yeah, I think you'd be a good fit. So I got really lucky.

A lot of people would do multiple internships, they'll do a literary assistant, but I kind of just jumped into the agenting role, but ⁓ it's not as different as my last role. So it's like, it feels good now to have a little bit more control over my day to day and really just being more in that space of helping authors get their book ready for publication.

Cait (26:28)
Super cool. Could we announce that you're open to queries? Are you open to queries?

Jess Taylor (26:32)
Yeah,

yeah, I've been open since December, so it's been really fun. I've had ⁓ hundreds of queries at this point.

Cait (26:39)
That is so crazy to me.

And do you just represent YA authors? you do? Are you in that realm? Or do you expand out?

Jess Taylor (26:48)
Yeah, Melee YA, that is like my area of expertise, obviously. So I'm doing all genres with that except for like tech heavy sci-fi because I do not understand it. So that's not for me. And then I have one adult paranormal romance. So that is like a niche area. I'm saying a very cozy adult paranormal romance. I think like witchy, like the X-Hacks, Loves of Witch, like those books. This one is with vampires. So also

Cait (26:51)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Taylor (27:18)
an option but it has to be like a good cozy adult book because there's like so many other agents at the agency like I don't want to step on any toes like I'm very making it like very niche and also that's what I like and then for new adult books specifically like coming of age stories with characters that are under 25 I think those are becoming more popular in the industry obviously like new adult has kind of really expanded again the YA readers are growing up but I really want like coming of age stories it's not just like a new adult

Romanticism is not like a new adult, ⁓ historical fiction, really just kind of coming of age, figuring out life either in college or post-college.

Jenna G Judith (27:56)
I know, I literally

see like your wheels are just like turning.

Jess Taylor (27:59)
you

Cait (28:00)
I don't always learn stuff on this podcast. I usually just drink and talk shit and I play a lot today. So thank you.

Jess Taylor (28:04)
you

Jenna G Judith (28:08)
think that's what I love about this so much is I know my little niche in the world of the book world, but there's thousands of them and they're so much fun. Every single person that we talk to, I'm like, tell me more. I want to just sit here and just digest it all. So I'm just like, what's the word? Voracious? Virocious? Vibacious? I don't know.

Jess Taylor (28:22)
you

Cait (28:22)
Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (28:31)
I write books. I don't know the English language.

Cait (28:34)
and I always feel like every episode I'm always like, does everybody know this but me? Like, or can I ask silly questions? You know what mean?

Jess Taylor (28:39)
you

Jenna G Judith (28:42)
I think maybe just let's just do like a quick little plug for you. Like what, what do you want people to do or know This is your time to shine.

Jess Taylor (28:56)
would say at the reading chamber, you know, you're going to have a good mix of

lower YA books, so ones that have younger protagonists that are good for readers that are like 16 and under, and then also ones for older than 16. And then the book boxes are very popular. They're a theme to each month.

but we also do like the book box subscriptions and then blind dates with books as well. So there's plenty at the reading chamber and it's just you know fun to peruse And then you know for query letters ⁓ anything YA. I'm open to all of it. I prefer to have a little bit more contemporary fiction. I'm getting a lot of fantasy at the moment so if you have a contemporary romance featuring you know people in high school then I'm interested.

Jenna G Judith (29:36)
I

why fantasy is so hot right now. No idea.

Jess Taylor (29:38)
Yeah.

Cait (29:40)
I