Manuscript Wish List (MSWL) is a website, manuscriptwishlist.com, where literary agents and editors describe the books they want to find in their inboxes, and #MSWL is the hashtag where they post the same kind of wish on social media. Writers search both to find agents who want books like theirs, then query those agents through their normal submission guidelines. Writers shouldn't post on the hashtag, the site's FAQ says: it belongs to agents and editors.
A wish list is research, not an invitation. It tells you who is likely to read your query with interest, and it gives you one honest sentence of personalization. A fit means your manuscript delivers what the wish asks for, not that the two share a keyword. Here is the whole method on one invented wish:
The wish. An agent's #MSWL post of March 3, 2026: “Cozy mysteries where the sleuth's job is the superpower. Beekeepers, piano tuners, court stenographers.”
The check, in November. Her Manuscript Wish List profile, updated in September, still lists cozy mystery. Her agency's page says she is open to queries, and nothing on her “not for me” list rules the book out. And in the manuscript, the beekeeping solves the case instead of decorating it.
The opening it supports. “Your #MSWL post in March asked for cozies where the sleuth's job does the solving, so I hope you'll enjoy a beekeeper who reads hives like witnesses.”
What Manuscript Wish List is
The site says it is designed to answer one question in the submissions process: what do you wish you had in your inbox? It started as a hashtag and a Tumblr in 2013, became a blog the team edited by hand, and then a site where agents and editors log in and update their own wishes. Its About page says it is brought to you by The Manuscript Academy.
| The website | The hashtag | |
|---|---|---|
| Who posts | The websiteAgents and editors with a profile | The hashtagAgents and editors only |
| What you find | The websiteA profile per agent or editor, searchable by genre and age group | The hashtagShort, specific wishes in the agent's own words |
| How to search | The websiteGenre and name search, keyword search, a recently updated list | The hashtagThe platform's search: #MSWL plus your keywords |
| How current | The websiteAgents can update a profile at any time, and each links to their latest #MSWL posts | The hashtagEach post is dated |
Agents and editors apply for a profile with an email address at their company, and people at the site approve each new account and update. That keeps the profiles in agents' own words, but it doesn't make the site the final word on whether an agent is open to queries.
How agents and editors use it
An agency page lists the categories an agent represents. A wish list names the book they would drop everything for. Agents use it to draw the queries they most want out of the slush pile, and some ask in their submission guidelines for a line on why you chose them, which a wish answers neatly.
Editors post too. The site's guide notes that editors at Big Five publishers generally take only agented submissions, though you can mention an editor's wish in a query to an agent when the fit is clear. Some smaller presses accept manuscripts directly; confirm that before you send anything.
How to search Manuscript Wish List
- Start with genre and age group
The genre and name search uses checkboxes: agent or editor, then genre and age group. The site's guide says to check every box that could apply, so a dark academic thriller gets both the thriller and the literary boxes. Its Smartlinks run ready-made searches by genre, age group and keyword; scroll down for the results.
- Search the hooks in your book
Use the keyword search for the setting, a profession, a trope, an era or a theme, and try related words, because agents describe the same wish differently: “boarding school”, “dark academia” and “campus novel” may all lead to your book.
- Read the whole profile
One matching phrase isn't a match. Read what the agent represents, what they don't want and their latest #MSWL posts, which each profile links to. The guide's question for every match: do they still match your manuscript? If your synopsis is in Strokes, paste the profile into a chat with the Strokes Assistant, attach the synopsis and ask which parts of the wish the book delivers and which it only shares words with.
- Confirm on the agency's website
The guide calls the agency website the likeliest place for up-to-date submission guidelines. Check that the agent is open to queries, what to send, and whether the agency wants one of its agents queried at a time.
- Record the match
Note the wish word for word, where it appeared and the date. The guide to getting a literary agent has a format for that research note and a query log.
Wish list examples, decoded
Wishes are short and full of trade shorthand. These eleven are invented, in the style agents use, with what each asks for and when it is worth a query.
| The wish (invented) | What it's asking for | Query it if your book… |
|---|---|---|
| The wish (invented)“Upmarket book club fiction with a big hook and a small town. A family secret, the worst possible wedding.” | What it's asking forLiterary-quality prose with a commercial premise, the kind reading groups pick | Query it if your book…is adult fiction built on one secret and one event |
| The wish (invented)“Cozy mysteries where the sleuth's job is the superpower. Beekeepers, piano tuners, court stenographers.” | What it's asking forAn amateur sleuth, a close community, violence off the page | Query it if your book…lets the profession solve the case, not just decorate it |
| The wish (invented)“Voice-driven YA thrillers with a narrator who's lying to me.” | What it's asking forA narrator whose way of talking sells the book. Here, an unreliable narrator | Query it if your book…is young adult, in first person, and the lie is the plot |
| The wish (invented)“Romantasy where the court intrigue matters as much as the kissing.” | What it's asking forFantasy with the romance at the center and a political plot with stakes | Query it if your book…has a full romance arc and a power struggle that would stand alone |
| The wish (invented)“Narrative nonfiction about overlooked women in science, ideally from authors with a research background.” | What it's asking forA true story with a novel's pull, from an author with credentials (platform) | Query it if your book…is nonfiction and you can show the expertise in a proposal |
| The wish (invented)“Middle grade with heart and humor: kids fixing a real problem in their town. Story first, message second.” | What it's asking forBooks for readers of roughly 8 to 12, with emotional stakes and no lecture | Query it if your book…lets the kids drive the plot |
| The wish (invented)“Retellings of lesser-known myths and folktales. Not Greek, please.” | What it's asking forA new version of an old story from outside the most retold tradition | Query it if your book…retells a specific tale and changes what it means |
| The wish (invented)“Literary fiction set at work: a kitchen, a newsroom, a hospital night shift.” | What it's asking forCharacter and prose over plot speed, with the texture of real work | Query it if your book…gets the job right and lets it shape the people |
| The wish (invented)“Horror that's really about grief. The ghost should be the second-scariest thing in the book.” | What it's asking forHorror with an emotional core, where the real fear is the loss | Query it if your book…uses the supernatural to carry a character's grief |
| The wish (invented)“[Comp] meets [comp]: a heist with the warmth of a family saga.” | What it's asking forTwo comp titles, one for the plot and one for the feel | Query it if your book…shares the first one's plot engine and the second one's tone |
| The wish (invented)“Not for me: villain-POV prologues, chosen ones, dream openings.” | What it's asking forHard passes, however good the book | Query it if your book…opens with none of them. If it does, skip this agent |
Read the last row as carefully as the first ten: a “not for me” list saves you a query. If you aren't sure whether your book is upmarket, literary or commercial, see literary fiction vs genre fiction.
Citing a wish in your query
The site's guide suggests opening with the wish, in a line like “I noticed your #MSWL tweet asking for witches with real human emotions,” then a sentence or so on why your book fits. That's all. The personal line goes first and the pitch does the rest, as the guide to writing a query letter explains.
Lines that work
- Your profile, updated in September, asks for middle grade where kids fix a real problem in their town; in mine, three sixth-graders reopen the library branch the city closed.
- Your Manuscript Wish List profile mentions literary novels set at work. Mine follows one week of night shifts in a Toledo hospital laundry.
- Your #MSWL post asked for horror that's really about grief; in my novel, the haunting starts the day a widow cancels her husband's phone line.
Lines that don't
- I saw your MSWL and my book is a perfect fit!
- You want family secrets, and my fantasy epic has a secret in it.
- Your colleague's wish list asked for thrillers, so I'm sending mine to you.
The good lines name the wish, say where it appeared and prove the match with one concrete detail. The weak ones claim a fit, stretch a keyword across genres or borrow someone else's wish.
Dear [Agent's full name],
Your Manuscript Wish List profile asks for retellings of lesser-known folktales, so I hope you'll consider THE SALT WIFE, a retelling of the Armenian tale of Anahit and Vachagan, complete at 84,000 words.
In present-day Yerevan, a carpet restorer's daughter refuses to marry the mayor's son until he learns a trade with his hands…
Mistakes writers make with #MSWL
- Posting on the hashtag. The site's FAQ says writers should not post on #MSWL or use it in their own posts, and warns that agents who see it will be annoyed, which reflects poorly on you as a potential client. Pitches left in the site's comments aren't posted either.
- Matching on one keyword. A wish for “lighthouses” from an agent who represents only picture books doesn't make your lighthouse horror novel a fit.
- Citing an old wish unchecked. The site's guide says that in most cases wishes don't expire, but the longer ago one was posted, the less likely the agent still wants it, or is still open to queries.
- Sending straight to editors. The FAQ asks writers not to submit directly to editors who take only agented submissions, and the site won't forward notes to them.
- Re-querying after a pass. A new wish doesn't reopen a closed door. In general, the FAQ says, an agent's answer stands, unless the agent says they're open to seeing a work a second time.
Wish lists, guidelines and pitch events
| What it is | Who posts | What you do with it | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wish list | What it isWhat an agent hopes to find | Who postsThe agent | What you do with itDecide whom to query, and why |
| Submission guidelines | What it isHow to query this agent | Who postsThe agency | What you do with itFollow them exactly |
| Pitch event | What it isA day when writers post short pitches | Who postsWriters | What you do with itPitch, if the event's rules allow it |
Practice: match book and wish
For each pair, decide whether the book is worth a query. Answers below.
- Wish: “Cozy mysteries where the sleuth's job is the superpower.” Book: an adult cozy in which a piano tuner identifies a killer by the pitch of a door hinge.
- Wish: “Romantasy where the court intrigue matters.” Book: an epic fantasy war novel with a romance subplot that ends in chapter 6.
- Wish: “Literary fiction set at work.” Book: a literary novel about a sous-chef's last month at a closing restaurant, to an agent whose page lists literary fiction and memoir.
- Wish: “Horror that's really about grief,” posted three years ago. Book: a horror novel about a father who keeps hearing his son's video game in the empty house.
Frequently asked questions
Can writers post on #MSWL?
No. The site's FAQ says writers should not post on the hashtag or use it in their own posts, and that doing it reflects poorly on you as a potential client. Search the hashtag, note the wishes that fit your book and query those agents through their submission guidelines.
Should I mention MSWL in my query letter?
Yes, when your manuscript delivers what a specific wish asks for. Put one sentence near the top that names the wish, where it appeared and why the book fits, then go straight to the pitch. A vague line such as "my book is perfect for your MSWL" tells the agent nothing, and a stretched match can do more harm than leaving the line out.
Do #MSWL wishes expire?
The site's guide says that in most cases they don't, but time changes things. An agent may have signed a book like yours, closed to queries or moved agencies since posting. Check the date, the agent's latest posts and the agency's page before you cite an older wish.
