Literary Agent Interview: GiannaMarie Dobson

Today I’m thrilled to have agent GiannaMarie Dobson here. She’s an associate literary agent at Neighborhood Literary. 

Hi­ GiannaMarie! Thanks so much for joining us. 

About GiannaMarie: 

1. Tell us how you became an agent, how long you’ve been one, and what you’ve been doing as an agent. 

I always wanted to work in publishing! I spent 5 years interning, working freelance in publishing, and networking before I made the jump up to agent in June 2025 when I joined Neighborhood. By the time this interview is posted, it’ll be about a year! I’ve spent that year learning as much as I possibly can from my bosses, my colleagues, and my peers; meeting as many editors as possible; and building my client list very slowly and deliberately. 

About the Agency: 

2. Share a bit about your agency and what it offers to its authors. 

Neighborhood is a boutique literary agency led by Eric Smith and Rebecca Podos, who are some of the kindest people in publishing! Eric’s vision is very community-focused, and he runs events both virtually and IRL in Philadelphia to offer resources and help demystify publishing. Additionally, all the agents on our team are very focused on finding and uplifting diverse voices. 

What She’s Looking For: 

3. What age groups do you represent—picture books, MG, and/or YA? What genres do you represent, and what are you looking for in submissions for these genres? 

In kidlit, I’m looking for MG and YA novels of all genres. In adult, I’m looking for SFFH and romance. Across all my genres and age categories, my priority is to find books about disability, featuring disabled characters, or written by disabled authors. 

4.  Is there anything you would be especially excited to seeing in the genres you are interested in? 

Inside the umbrella of disability, I’m very focused on finding intersectional disability stories too, especially queer and BIPOC. If you’re a disabled author of color and write in my categories, please query me! More specifically: 

In MG, my heart lies with serious stories about the unique circumstances of being disabled when you’re a child, like Aniana Del Mar Jumps In, Iveliz Explains It All, and Hear Me by Kerry O’Malley Cerra. The first time I read Aniana, I was listening to the audiobook, and I had to keep pausing because it was so intense I wanted to throw my phone across the room! Please make me upset! Up until recently, the only intense disability stories were objectifying and written for the abled gaze, so I’m so excited that these other books are starting to pop up, ones that are written from an authentic disability perspective and reflect the very real hard parts of disability that have so far been invisible to the mainstream––Aniana wrestles with cultural moralizing of chronic illness and generational trauma; Iveliz centers a grieving child who experiences hallucinations and struggles to care for her grandmother with memory loss; Hear Me is about parental rights and the violence of inflicting unwanted healthcare on a child who legally has no medical autonomy. On the more fun side, I would also love to see a Percy Jackson-esque story where disabled kids get to be heroes and go on adventures but have disabilities that realistically limit them––Vanya and the Wild Hunt is a great example of what I mean by this, reinventing the familiar (magic school) through a disability lens!   

In YA and adult, I’m especially eager for some disability SFFH. I am dying for disability horror that interrogates ableism/sanism as the source of the horror (rather than disability itself), and I’m always, always, always dying for disabled dragons, dragon riders, and anything like that. Please send me Eragon-but-he-stays-disabled or How to Train Your Dragon where the disabilities are relevant and respectfully portrayed––please no more magicures or supercrips! We need to carve out a space for ourselves in sweeping, epic fantasy! 

I’m also perpetually looking for disability romance––badly enough that I’ve opened up to adult romance specifically for this purpose. If you’re an author with a romance like Sick Kids in Love, Kissing Kosher, or It’s All in Your Head in your back pocket, I need to see it! I love disability-focused romance in particular because a close examination of disability requires a story—and potential couple—to break down what intimacy means for them, and build a relationship around unique characters’ needs, desires, and vulnerabilities, rather than defaulting to more familiar allo, hetero relationship beats and structures. 

Lastly, I would just love to see a broader variety of disabled authors in my inbox! When I say I’m looking for neurodivergence and disability, I mean it in the broadest possible sense––I am actively looking for projects that deal with other neurodivergences, especially more stigmatized mental illnesses and brain injury. So far, my inbox has trended very heavily towards autism and ADHD––and please know, I’m autistic and I’ve signed two incredible autistic authors already!––and I would love to mix it up and get some more physical disabilities, mobility impairments, chronic illness, and chronic pain! 

 If any of that sounds like you, I have a thorough MSWL here: https://manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/giannamarie-dobson/. 

What She Isn’t Looking For: 

5. What types of submissions are you not interested in? 

Right now, I’m not looking for picture books, graphic novels, novels in verse, or nonfiction. I’ll give almost anything a shot if it’s through a disability lens, but I’m not interested in considering “inspirational” disability stories, stories centering able-bodied caregivers or siblings, or stories leaning on disability tropes (like amnesia, a last-minute psychosis reveal, or the supercrip) without deconstructing the harm they cause.   

Agent Philosophy: 

6. What is your philosophy as an agent both in terms of the authors you want to work with and the books you want to represent? 

My goal as an agent is to get more disability stories on shelves—art has a profound capacity to educate, humanize, destigmatize, and change the culture. As someone active in both the publishing industry and disability community, I’ve noticed that these two worlds don’t overlap much—the knowledge, culture, and history of the disability community rarely makes it into mainstream art, even art that centers disability. Thankfully, this has begun to change in the last 10-ish years, but there’s a lot farther to go! Disability is vast and complicated, but the authors and books I’m especially eager for are ones that understand it as a political category. 

Editorial Agent: 

7. Are you an editorial agent? If so, what is your process like when you’re working with your authors before submitting to editors? 

I am! I love editing. With the authors I’ve signed so far, I’ve given my most important editorial thoughts on the offer call, and then followed up with a detailed edit letter. Character and voice are the most important things to me, and I rarely want to edit those––but if those are solid and draw me in, anything else can be fixed! My edits usually focus on bringing out the wonderful parts of the manuscript and tweaking plot and worldbuilding to enhance the themes. 

Query Methods and Submission Guidelines: (Always verify before submitting) 

8. How should authors query you and what do you want to see with the query letter? 

QueryManager! What I ask for is a standard query and then the first 10 pages of your manuscript. 

9.  Do you have any specific dislikes in query letters or the first pages submitted to you? 

I have an accessibility note on my form, but other than that, I really recommend r/PubTips as a query resource. The community there is very active and will help you get your query into shape! 

Response Time: 

10. What’s your response time to queries and requests for more pages of a manuscript? 

I set aside one day a week to clear my query inbox. Currently, that’s Monday, so it should be under a week for a query response. I usually read partials and manuscripts within a week as well, too. If it’s taking longer than that, there’s a 99% chance I thought your project would be a better fit for one of my colleagues at Neighborhood and handed it off to them, so it’s in their queue! 

Self-Published and Small Press Authors: 

11.  Are you open to representing authors who have self-published or been published by smaller presses? What advice do you have for them if they want to try to find an agent to represent them? 

Most of the time, it’s all about framing. If you’ve got a poor sales history for your selfpub or small press book, drawing attention to that may lead industry professionals to believe that your books weren’t very good or that you weren’t a very savvy businessperson. On the other hand, if you’re very successful in either space, a lot of agents will be eager to partner with you! Regardless, write the strongest book and the strongest query you can––you can figure out the best strategy for the next step of your career once an agent falls in love with your work. 

Clients: 

12. Who are some of the authors you represent? 

My client list is very small at the moment, and all yet to debut! 

Interviews and Guest Posts: 

13. Please share the links to any interviews, guest posts, and podcasts you think would be helpful to writers interested in querying you. 

I was interviewed in the November/December 2025 issue of Writer’s Digest, but I’m not sure that that’s available anywhere online! 

Links and Contact Info:

 

14. Please share how writers should contact you to submit a query and your links on the Web. 

I only accept queries through QueryManager. My form is linked here: https://querytracker.net/query/3926 

Find me on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/giannamarie.bsky.social! That’s where I announce that I’m opening/closing to queries and where I participate in pitch events. 

Additional Advice: 

15. Is there any other advice you’d like to share with aspiring authors that we haven’t covered? 

Make use of free resources and communities online—there’s so much excellent information out there and generous people who will help you! 

Thanks for sharing all your advice, GiannaMarie! 

Have any experience with this agent? See something that needs updating? Please leave a comment or email me at natalieiaguirre7@gmail.com 

Note: These agent profiles and interviews presently focus on agents who accept children's fiction. Please take the time to verify anything you might use here before querying an agent. The information found here is subject to change.

 Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops 

Monday, June 29th, I’m participating in the Sparkle Time Giveaway Hop 

Monday, July 1st, I’m participating in the Sparkle Time Giveaway Hop 

Wednesday, July 3rd, I have an interview with Amanda Connolly and a giveaway of her YA romantasy The Lure of Wolves and Whispers and my IWSG post 

Monday, July 9th, I have an agent spotlight interview with Justina Ireland Handspun and query critique giveaway 

Monday, July 13th, I have an interview with Amy Tern and a giveaway of her MG Sneeks 

Thursday, July 16th, I’m participating in the Sip Sip Hooray Giveaway Hop 

I hope to see you on Monday!