I read Several excellent queries today 👀

If you’d like to do something nice for an autistic person in light of today, consider me for a freelance edit. I have ten years’ work experience in book publishing, this is my primary form of income, and my bookings have dried up. bookmarkobrien.com

If you’d like to do something nice for an autistic person in light of today, consider me for a freelance edit. I have ten years’ work experience in book publishing, this is my primary form of income, and my bookings have dried up. bookmarkobrien.com

I think it’s cool and fun when an administration in love with eradication is trying to pretend they found “an answer” to autism, and I, an autistic person, can’t access a single article to find out whatever the hell they’re about to do because every news source is paywalled

Monroe loves fridge naps

Gonna go even further: don't refer to it as "consuming media" when doing this. You aren't a consumer - it's not a product. You read books. You look at art. You watch movies and/or videos. Be careful about word choice. Reject "consume" and REJECT "CONTENT." IT IS ART. YOU ARE ENGAGING WITH ART.

Got out of bed at 5 am today because I had ideas for a pitch letter I’ve been working on. Humbly honored to be the best agent of all time

This meeting could have been a veiled threat, communicated solely by floral bouquets being sent back and forth, utilizing the Victorian language of flowers.

This was never about Charlie Kirk, it was about finding an excuse to do what Trump and his team already had planned. Read more in my column for @lgbtqnation.com

I love when the Jeopardy category is bookish but I don’t know the answer and whoever I’m watching it with turns on me so quickly

Authors I have worked with in my ten years in book publishing include: •Becky Albertalli •Gabe Cole Novoa •Varian Johnson •Kelly Loy Gilbert •Victoria Aveyard •J. Elle •Ryan La Sala •Jessica Kim •maybe you next? bookmarkobrien.com

Listening to music by drag queens & reading queries with my cat napping at my feet. Can’t complain

so many dead canaries and we just keep on mining

Break up with him

🎶 I’m just a boy who wants to rewatch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and cannot do so on any streaming service at all / I can’t be held responsible for my actions 🎶

I’m open to queries again! I’m an associate literary agent at Azantian Literary, repping YA, queer adult romance, and some nonfiction. I’ve worked in book publishing for ten years at NetGalley, Writers House, Entangled, Triada US, and more. I’d love to hear from you! querytracker.net/query/bookma...

Please get off of substack so I and many others can subscribe to your writing, boost your links, etc. I don’t get on mailing lists run by white supremacist platforms & I don’t post/repost/boost them either.

Reminder that interns and assistants carry the book publishing industry on their backs

Ms Piggy is an important concept for children to be exposed to: an absolute ten who can do anything

My favorite part of going to church as a kid was when, after spending an entire morning bored out of my mind, God presented me with the exhilarating opportunity to tip

The American Library Association is accepting applications for the 2026 Jason Reynolds/Simon & Schuster Travel Grant. Grant covers expenses of 5 Black/African American youth/teen services librarians or school librarians/media specialists who work in public or school libraries. #BlackSky #LibrarySky

It’s an absolute farce for Scholastic to have Lauren Bezos be a “literary champion” along with providing her book in English & Spanish when she attended the inauguration of the man whose administration is leading country-wide book bans, unlawful ICE raids & deportations, & the defunding of libraries

this weird little book has been out in the world for just over one wild year, and I'm very very proud of it

Just wrote a single sentence that included both an em-dash and a semicolon, and frankly that line has the structural integrity of Aunt Josephine’s house in The Wide Window (2000)

“Bluesky has bookmarks now!” I’ve literally been here since 2023

Spider pronouns be like: it/ze/bit/xe

I hope this ishmael finds you whale

I can't believe I need to have an AI policy! I made it pretty short though: Using AI is cheating, yourself mostly. In addition to the environmental blight created by AI, it makes no sense to use it in your intellectual and creative work. Why would you outsource your innate intelligence?

this bread is terrible. but the circuses? also really terrible

"but we can't support trans rights, it's unpopular!" just a reminder that US approval for marriage between black and white people at the start of the civil rights movement was 4%, reaching a whopping 20% by the end of the movement it's 95% now you don't wait for popularity for a rights movement

For context that's a third the price the RIAA expected a single human to pay for just downloading 24 songs a decade ago (after cutting the ruling down from $1.5m, or $62,000 per song), and that's not adjusting for inflation:

Today I received a query via email from someone the author hired to contact agents on their behalf with the query attached. Meanwhile, I’m closed to queries, I only accept them via QueryManager, I always want to hear from authors directly, and I don’t open attachments from people I don’t know.

Please consider me for a freelance edit! I have immediate availability for query letters and pages, and I’m booking manuscript edits for mid-September. bookmarkobrien.com

When I was a baby, I auditioned for a soft pretzel commercial. They liked me, but they went with another ginger kid who cried less. This is what the casting agent said about me.

did you know that september is library card signup month? @queerliblib.bsky.social is such a fantastic FREE resource www.queerliberationlibrary.org/members

Trans people have been around your whole life. You’ve been sharing bathrooms with them your whole life. They’ve been in your communities your whole life. They’ve even been playing sport your whole life. And you didn’t care *at all* till a few years ago when every right wing org decided you should

Housekeeping: •I’m caught up on queries. If you haven’t received a reply, either I didn’t get it or you didn’t follow submission guidelines. •I have full requests dating back to February. Working on it—thanks for your patience! •Please keep communication to QueryManager, not social media or email.

ME: The last few days have been fun and all, but I worry that in a world where all better futures have been foreclosed upon, the only fleeting joy to experience will be the deaths of monsters. COWBOY LAWYER: I just made pardner at my firm

Tired: unputdownable Inspired: unpickupable

Trying something new! I look like I’m about to deliver a pizza to a customer who doesn’t have any money with this mustache, but like, someone has to be the pizza delivery guy

Described my posts to my boyfriend, who doesn’t use Bluesky: “It’s really just shitposts, pictures of Monroe, and trans rights”

If you are okay with this, if you think this is justified, if you think people living on the street have brought this upon themselves, if you think this is good leadership, you may be able to fool yourself that you care about others but you don’t fool me

Asked my boyfriend to bring home chicken from the grocery store. He got dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. He gets me 🥹

“‘If people don’t know who we are, we’re never going to be safe. They will never know how to take care of our needs when we are elderly, infirm, vulnerable in any way. […] I think if people understand our bodies and who we are, we’ll be safer in the world.’” Excellent article, @faefyx.bsky.social!

Too often, trans men are left out of the conversations that we have. I set out to answer "why?" Thank you to Rae Timberlake with SPARTA Pride, @harperseldin.bsky.social of the @aclu.org, and Jamison Green for talking to me for this piece.

opening a Spirit Halloween where my patience used to be

what’s going on here

#DVpit 2025 is coming up! 🎉And we have over 70 agents & editors committed to participate in this pitch event for marginalized creators!🎉 ✍️Polish up those pitches before October 8, 2025 🔗And go to dvpit.carrd.co for more info #writersky #authorsky #booksky