Zabé Ellor's Avatar

Zabé Ellor

@zrellor

SFF author / lit agent / latest: NO BETTER THAN BEASTS / opinions mine

499
Followers
333
Following
1,281
Posts
24.07.2023
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Zabé Ellor @zrellor

I see a LOT of fantasy books beginning with a battle scene, the end of the world, mortal danger—these things don’t really hook readers until they care about the plot and characters

04.03.2026 02:00 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Building off this—the best way to get me to request a MS is for your opening pages to showcase smooth, professional prose with a clear and interesting voice, and then to introduce me to a character and give me an emotional hook

04.03.2026 01:57 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

The best thing you can do in light of the Ellison takeover of Warner Brothers invest your time, energy, and money in supporting independent creators and independent distribution networks and independent venues. It is absolutely crucial to make independence a viable option.

27.02.2026 00:14 👍 1491 🔁 585 💬 11 📌 19

💙💙💙

26.02.2026 21:31 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

👀👀👀

26.02.2026 21:31 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The number one reason I reject an SFF manuscript has nothing to do with big things like worldbuilding or plot. It’s often that the first few pages don’t do the micro-level work of emotionally hooking the reader and then developing that hook

19.02.2026 23:36 👍 13 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1

Just announced a new house ban list for commander night!

But seriously, my local game store customer base is like 10% trans people, and we won’t go for this shit. If WotC tries to force a HP set on their distributors it will be a Bad Time

10.02.2026 15:31 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Fuck ICE

Fuck ICE

09.02.2026 01:31 👍 6426 🔁 1765 💬 35 📌 107
Post image

Good morning! I’m drawing a Neolithic pig cauldron

08.02.2026 14:29 👍 858 🔁 137 💬 20 📌 7

This is honestly what makes a difference between a reject and a request from me. Do the sample pages make me feel something?

06.02.2026 20:59 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Note: I am not open to YA queries at the moment; please do not send me YA.

29.01.2026 19:47 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Post image

This is as finished as it's going to get lol I need to pivot back into commissions. 💜

#dragon #fantasyart #bookart #authorartist

27.01.2026 02:46 👍 98 🔁 38 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
Protester blinded, skull fractured by DHS agent during Santa Ana demonstration, family says A young protester narrowly avoided being killed but was left permanently blind after a Department of Homeland Security agent fired a nonlethal round at close range during a Santa Ana protest last week...

Protester is 21 yrs old. ICE agent dragged him and held his head down in his own pool of blood, mocked him about losing his eye. They fired pepper pellets at the HEAD of a witness recording the incident.

13.01.2026 15:20 👍 2009 🔁 1297 💬 66 📌 141

Soon, but not for MG. I would recommend one of my colleagues

14.01.2026 16:17 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

This book is the only thing I’ve ever read that made my skin crawl (in a good way!) and also contains one of the best allegories for transness I’ve ever read. It’s surreal, unsettling, and evocative

08.01.2026 05:46 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Blurbs by Bitter Karella, Hailey Piper and Briar Ripley Page beside the front cover of OLYOKE drawn by Jenna Cha, featuring a human form flapping bonelessly, like a kite made of sloughed skin, over a ferris wheel and other landmarks in the town of Olyoke.

Blurbs by Bitter Karella, Hailey Piper and Briar Ripley Page beside the front cover of OLYOKE drawn by Jenna Cha, featuring a human form flapping bonelessly, like a kite made of sloughed skin, over a ferris wheel and other landmarks in the town of Olyoke.

THE END TYMES ARE SOON, BUT PREORDERS ARE NOW🖤☠️

Secure your copy of @endwellian.bsky.social's Twin-Peaks-by-way-of-Appalachia experimental novel OLYOKE today!

FOR FANS OF:
Dollywood🔥
Plague-inspired fashion accessories💀
Dogs who speak in the voice of your dead mother🐾🪱

store.tenebrouspress.com

07.01.2026 21:23 👍 39 🔁 13 💬 1 📌 5

Agents aren’t just experts in reading contracts, but in understanding how a given contract fits into an author’s career. You absolutely cannot outsource this to AI. And no agent I know does!

28.12.2025 20:10 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

As an agent, I absolutely do not use AI to do any of these things, and I recommend not working with any agent who would. You need a human to do this.

28.12.2025 20:08 👍 9 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

😂😂😂

25.12.2025 22:02 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Merry Christmas, and may you know the pleasure of imprisoning your enemies in a magical snowglobe through the power of dance

25.12.2025 20:35 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 2 📌 0

Anyways, if you want to help trans people, please give to a GoFundMe instead of buying MAY THE BEST MAN WIN. I make about a dollar per copy and I don’t really need it right now anyway. Help trans folks in direct need.

18.12.2025 18:14 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

You and me both!

18.12.2025 17:45 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I think it’s an (understandable!) error to frame the way bigots talk about trans people as “invalidating” or as thinking we’re “not real”

They know we exist! The point is that they want to exterminate us, in whatever ways they can, because they’re seeking a world where that’s no longer the case

18.12.2025 17:30 👍 61 🔁 17 💬 0 📌 0

We have far more dialogue about successful cis women who write MM then the near-total absence of trans women from the traditional publishing ecosystem. This is a problem.

18.12.2025 17:38 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

People *can* write whatever they wish! But the authors chosen for success are the ones who project an image that is marketable and lines up neatly with the larger image around the book the publisher is trying to sell.

18.12.2025 17:36 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

One thing I think that happens in this discussion is that it’s always about the authors who are *succeeding* and never the authors who are being pushed out of the industry or never allowed contracts because they do not fit the industry standards of what a queer author and queer book should be.

18.12.2025 17:31 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

A lot of time this marketing involves relying on the free labor of others in this community, usually with the promise a rising tide lifts all boats. But that community energy is often exhausted before everyone can benefit.

18.12.2025 17:27 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

in a very diverse area no less!!! 🙃🙃🙃

17.12.2025 06:29 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

What’s absolutely nuts is that they cut and re-arranged SO many parts of the ballet and moved whole numbers around! They added in whole new costumes! But they kept the racist parts and amped them up to eleven!

17.12.2025 05:56 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

They also did the Arabian Dance with four women in a harem with one man …

17.12.2025 05:55 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0