Hi, I’m Scott Rhoades. I have published a number of short stories and poems, and am currently trying to breakout with one of my eight novels (7 MG and one YA). I’ve recently started branching out into picture books. I make my living as a technical writer at Adobe and Love STEM books.

Recently I’ve been spending a lot of my time reading and writing novels in verse. If you have one to pitch to me, I’d love to hear about. I also love folklore, fairy tales, mythology, and Shakespeare, so show me your retellings for any age group. MG retellings are my sweet spot, in prose or verse, but that’s not all I like. I might not be the best choice for hard sci-fi, but I’m always happy to be surprised by something that includes some of the other elements I like.

For picture books and early readers, I especially love crazy humor and clever wordplay. Some of my favorites include:

The Pigeon books (My granddaughter loves those, so I do too.)

I Broke My Butt

Where Three Oceans Meet

The Hunger Heroes

For MG, my list of favorites is REALLY long. Send me your funny books, your sad books, your chilling mysteries, your scary books, and your stories of kids facing the difficulties of life–in any genre.

Jason Reynolds’s track series

EngiNERDS

Strangeville School is Totally NormalE

The Nest (The scary one with the wasps!)

The Magical Imperfect

Red, White, and Whole

For YA, I’m not afraid of serious or edgy topics. I like romance, but prefer it to be part of another story and not necessarily the focus.

Furia

The Chosen One

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

If you don’t see anything like your book in my list, you can still pitch to me. This list is far from complete, and I love to discover books that are different from what I usually read!

Prizes

I’ll tailor my prize to what the person I choose needs, whether it’s a first chapter or a full picture book, a query package, or whatever will be the most helpful.

I’m planning on picking a single winner, but show me some irresistable pitches and I might have to choose more!