Mentor: Anahita Karthik (she/her)
Category: Young Adult, New Adult, Adult
Sub Genres: Contemporary Romance, Rom Com, Historical Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Dark Romance, Romantic Suspense, Paranormal, Fiction with strong romantic elements, Romantasy, Horroromance, Women’s Fiction, Holiday Romance
Bio
Anahita Karthik is a desi, queer, and multilingual writer of stories heavily inspired by Indian mythology, history, and culture. She has an MSt in Creative Writing from University of Cambridge and a tech degree she’ll probably never use in her life. While she writes across genres, her stories usually include road trips, a slow burn romance, and nods to Indian cinema (both explicit and thematic). ‘Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar’ is her debut novel, but her first feature was in ‘My Big, Fat Desi Wedding’ anthology. When not reading or writing, she designs social media graphics, conducts publishing workshops, and mentors querying authors via SmoochPit. She can be found posting excessively across platforms @ana_scribe. Anahita is represented by the wonderful Rebecca Podos at Neighborhood Literary.
Manuscript
Wishlist
(MSWL)
I would love to see books that are YA/NA/Adult/crossovers and written by BIPOC writers, especially (but not limited to) queer, disabled, and neurodivergent BIPOC writers.
I read widely, so I’m open to all genres, sub-genres, or genre mashups, but they must have a strong or dominant romantic subplot. I love smut and spice, so don't hesitate to submit novels that have these! And I can take super dark content, so don't hesitate to submit dark novels either. My recent favourites and reading patterns can be found on my Goodreads profile!
A more specific MSWL:
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Fluffy, trope-y rom-coms in all the aforementioned age categories that embrace all the cliches. Especially when they're tropes that publishing would like to believe are "overused" but BIPOC authors haven't had a chance to experiment with yet. Tropes I love include: grumpy x sunshine, fake dating, celebrity romance, academic rivals, childhood friends to lovers, enemies/rivals to lovers, exes to lovers, etc.
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Romances based around a specific setting—café, spaceship, bakery, tattoo shop, library, small town, spellshop, reality show etc
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Cozy fantasy romances
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Historical settings! Bonus points if it’s a non-Western setting.
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Paranormal romance (give me vampires, werewolves, faeries, witches, warlocks, demons, etc)
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Urban/Contemporary Fantasy romance
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Horror Romance. I especially love when cannibalism is being used as a metaphor for love.
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Space Opera/Sci-Fi Romance
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Morally gray characters (give me assassins, spies, hackers, mafia dons, pirates, thieves, etc)
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Sapphic stories with lesbian/bi/pan/enby/trans stakes
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Books inspired by BIPOC myths/mythical creatures/gods/goddesses of the past! Do you have books centering on rakshasas, gumiho, djinns, kappas, and dokkaebi, etc? Send them to me!
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Dark Academia (bonus points if it’s an all-girls boarding school)
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College romances
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This might be personal, but please give me more South Asian rep in any/all genres (especially from SA countries historically underrepresented in publishing, like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Bhutan)
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Fairy tales retold from a BIPOC lens: if it’s a lesser known fairytale, even better
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Anything that can be compared to a Bollywood movie
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More Polyamorous stories, PLEASE
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If you can comp your book to any book by Ann Liang, Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, Axie Oh, Cassandra Clare, Leigh Bardugo, or Sujin Witherspoon, I’d LOVE to read your book!
Here's what I don't want to see/what I wouldn't be a good champion for:
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Younger or lower YA
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Novels that aren’t by BIPOC authors
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Novels longer than 100k words
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Novels that don’t have a primary/strong romantic plot/sub-plot
Mentoring Style
When I've picked my mentee, I first send over a detailed edit letter and a copy of their full manuscript with my initial thoughts/comments. Then I hop on a call to address any queries they might have before they begin developmental edits. Of course, none of my revisions/suggestions are compulsory, because no one knows your story better than you, and you’re free to take or pass on whatever notes you like! After those are done, I might send over more revisions, or move on to line edits with more comprehensive thoughts in the comments of the revised manuscript. While they tackle further revisions/edits, I would ask the mentee to send over their pitch + query letter + synopsis, and help tighten their submission package.
Even after the mentorship and showcase, I'd love to discuss querying strategies and potential offers. As for during the course of the mentorship, I will be available to communicate and chat via Email/WhatsApp/Zoom/Google Meet. I am a friend first and a mentor second, and I hope to be there for the mentee even after the mentorship is over. I hope to be the person that the mentee can excitedly text no matter where they are in their writing journey, someone they can confide in about moving on and growing with each rejection they might receive, and someone who not just encourages them to power on, but also reminds them to take breaks.
As for my prior experience, my first SmoochPit mentee, Cynthia Timoti, went on to receive two offers of representation from agents after the mentorship was over, and eventually clinched a two-book deal with Bramble, a romance imprint at Macmillan. The same book, “Salty, Spiced, and a Little Bit Nice”, is out now. My second mentee, Yi-Jun O, whom I mentored last year for their alternate historical science-fantasy, "Fractured Beginnings, Fracturing Ends", received an offer of representation within ten days of the SmoochPit showcase. I know exactly what it takes to make an agent hit the full request button, because I've gone from receiving 300+ query rejections on three consecutive projects to garnering 30+ full/partial requests for the novel that got me my agent. I have conducted multiple successful publishing workshops, and done hundreds of query and submission package critiques.
To see how I edited my prior mentees' query letters that got them their offers of rep and gauge my editing style, head over to my blog:
Applications
from Connections
Please do not apply to me if we've ever beta read for each other or have had extensive conversations online. If we're in the same discord(s) or mutuals on social media but haven't talked more than a comment on a post here or there, feel free to apply. If you've ever DMed me with a publishing query, that's okay, you can submit to me.