agent...
Liv Ivanov has always had a passion for reading wildly immersive, character-driven novels and is absolutely ecstatic that she now has a chance to champion new and underrepresented voices in the industry. After graduating from the University of Missouri and working in operations and video game development for several years, Liv returned to her first love and began volunteering as a reader and fiction editor for literary magazines before starting her internships at Triada US and Creative Media Agency in 2023. Now stepping into her role as an Associate Agent at CMA, Liv is excited to both discover refreshing, compelling, and fantastical stories and champion new creative voices in the industry. In her free time, Liv loves to go hiking in the Rocky Mountains near her home in Colorado Springs, as well as collect books as she slowly works toward making her home office a 1,000-book library.
submissions
what i'd like to represent...
adult
All genres can include romance, but I like when a story is multi-faceted.
- Coming-of-age (the coming-of-age can happen at any age!)
- Horror/Paranormal
- All things eerie and atmospheric, paranormal, monsters
- Not a huge fan of gore
- Mystery/Thriller (Bring on the twists & turns!)
- Small-town settings and eerie atmospheres (think Sharp Objects)
- Innovative whodunits (think Glass Onion, Knives Out, and The White Lotus)
- Psychological or domestic thrillers with a close first person POV (think Never Lie by Frieda McFadden)
- Dark Academia
- LGBTQIA+
- Would love a funny queer rom-com!
- Sci-Fi
- Anything from a light touch of sci-fi to dystopian to space-based settings
- Multiple Timelines
- Sci-Fantasy (Gideon the Ninth and The Fifth Season are my all time favorite books)
- Sci-Fi Thrillers (think Project Hail Mary or Recursion)
- Fantasy
- Light, Whimsical, or Humorous Fantasy (Assistant to the Villain)
- Urban and Paranormal Fantasy
- Gothic
- Romantasy (Would love a sapphic fantasy with messy, morally gray characters)
- Secondary worlds and high fantasy (think Foundryside or Mistborn)
young adult/children's
*Currently closed to all age categories in children’s books. When open, all genres can include romance, but I like when a story is multi-faceted.
- Young Adult
- LGBTQIA+
- Similar to Adult — would love a hilarious queer rom-com
- Mystery/Thriller/Horror
- Small-town settings and eerie atmospheres
- Whodunits and inheritance-based mysteries
- Fantasy
- Secondary worlds and High Fantasy only (Six of Crows and Strange the Dreamer are some favorites of mine)
- Not looking for Urban Fantasies or Fantasies set in our world
- Dark Academia in a Fantasy setting
- LGBTQIA+
- Middle Grade
- LGBTQIA+ (The Language of Seabirds)
- Sci-Fi — more of a light touch
- Huge fan of puzzle, conspiracy, and adventure stories (The York series, The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne)
- Mystery/Thriller/Horror
- Young Adult
I especially love a well-constructed heist, a sapphic fantasy full of messy, morally-gray characters, a bone-chilling psychological thriller, a hilarious queer rom-com, and stories where nature/settings are sentient. If your story has a music-related or computer science-influenced magic system, I want to see it! I’m also really interested in representing stories that focus on and/or are written by underrepresented voices and authors from a diverse set of cultures and backgrounds, such as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, disability, and mental health issues.
I’m not looking for children’s picture or chapter books, military thrillers, self-help and how-to nonfiction, or business books.
some of my favorite (non-client) authors
N.K. Jemisin, Tamsyn Muir, Brandon Sanderson, Laini Taylor, Aidan Thomas, Neal Shusterman, Leigh Bardugo, Gillian Flynn, TJ Klune, Stephen King, Robert Jackson Bennett, Blake Crouch, Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone, Rebecca Yarros, Andy Weir, John Sandford, R.F. Kuang, Rick Riordan, Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Gabrielle Zevin, Laura Ruby, Cormac McCarthy, Ray Bradbury.
what kind of writing inspires me?
As an agent, I’m looking for character-driven stories, compelling premises, fantastically immersive settings, and most of all — I want to find that next unputdownable story I can’t stop raving to my friends and family about! I’m particularly interested in:
- Well-developed, complex, and/or flawed main characters
- Enthralling, robustly-structured plots that are full of twists and tension
- A strong voice, witty banter, and well-written dialogue
- Prose that makes me want to laugh, cry, or think about life more deeply
- For SFF — creative, well-thought-out magic systems, as well as unique sci-fi elements that really make a story stand out in the genre
what I love about my job...
As someone who reads books voraciously and who loves writing stories of their own in their freetime, I’m absolutely ecstatic that I now have a chance to champion new voices in the industry who have the potential to make an impact on other people’s lives. Nothing makes me happier than when I find a manuscript that I just can’t stop thinking about — and stay up way too late at night reading. I can’t wait to develop long-lasting relationships with my authors and help them share their stories with the rest of the world!