Here are two opportunities to find out what agents and editors are looking for right this minute. Really. You don’t have to guess any more, you don’t have to waste your time sending in that 150,000-word dystopian-Regency vampire-werewolf romance you just finished. You can check out these wish lists and see just exactly what the market is looking for.

agentandeditorwishlist.tumblr.com

The first site was set up as an archive but has evolved into an active resource. It’s on tumblr.com, a popular social media site whose members share an eclectic mix of stuff: music, videos, photos, graphics and text. Travel to agentandeditorwishlist.tumblr.com and you’ll find a chronological listing of agent/editor wishes.

Some are vague but interesting:

“Heists, Pirates, Spies,” from Victoria Marini (@litagentmarini)

Some are a lot more specific:

“Any type of project that can successfully remind me of a Miyazaki movie. Strange, fantastical, vivid, quirky characters,” from Hali Baumstein (@halibaumstein)

or

“Give me anything with Hasidic or Orthodox Jewish characters either memoirs or fiction MG/YA/NA/Adult,” from Rena Bunder Rossner (@renarossner)

And sometimes you’ll get several who all want the same thing:

“The speculative version of the TV show Leverage. YA or adult.”

Many, but not all of these wishes come from one source…

#MSWL on twitter

Every six months or so, agent/editor wishes start pouring in to an online event with this twitter hashtag.

Susan Hawk at the Bent Agency recapped the highlights of the #mswl event last February on her agency blog. From time to time, agents and editors still continue to drop in with posts.

But the good news is this fantastic event will begin again September 3, on twitter, at the hashtag #mswl. It’s lots of fun to watch the wish-tweets come in, one by one, in real time. And be sure to keep checking back to see what new wishes are added during the year.

More twitter hashtags you might find useful are #askagent, #tenqueries and #amwriting.

Note: #MSWL is not a pitch event. If you think your manuscript is exactly what someone says they are looking for, go ahead and send a short message directly to the requester. But do not pitch, especially not that dystopian-Regency vampire-werewolf romance.