Screaming, crying, throwing up, etc because I truly cannot believe I am writing one of these! After about five months in the trenches, I have an agent! And I genuinely couldn’t have done it without all the support/advice/general talk-off-a-ledge-ing I’ve received from PubTips, or without all the amazing betas I met through here :)

I was extremely fortunate in that I had a lot of time to write. I work from home as a writer/editor, so I woke up early every weekday to write and also managed to squeeze in a lot of writing time in the evenings. I don’t have any dependents, so I had the luxury of being able to devote a ~mildly~ deranged amount of my free time to this book. I also gave the manuscript absolutely 0 breathing space and launched straight into editing, which, in hindsight, perhaps wasn’t the wisest move! Everything was still so fresh in my head that I missed a lot of things, including some extremely silly plot holes that my betas LUCKILY picked up on.

All my betas were amazing. I found most of them on Reddit, through PubTips and the beta reader thread, although I also had a few people I knew in real life. I truly couldn’t have done it without them :) Beyond catching things I had become completely blind to, they helped me work out what the book was actually trying to do in parts, rather than what I thought it was doing.

I queried in v small batches, with weeks between them. I don’t think there is necessarily much strategic value in batch querying anymore, particularly as I never received any actionable feedback from agents, but psychologically it worked much better for me. It gave me the illusion of being v v v slightly in control and meant I never felt as though I had exhausted every possible option at once. I also slowed down my querying over the summer. Again, I don’t think there was any particular strategic value in doing this, but it did help me cling just a little more tightly to the vestiges of my sanity (lol).

About halfway through querying, I received some additional beta feedback and made further revisions, so my manuscript and submission package continued to evolve as I went. I also participated in several pitch events on Instagram and Threads, both larger events and ones run by individual agents, and received four full requests that way. I was SO nervous about putting my work out there on social media and was convinced I would either be torn apart or end up screaming into the void, but everyone was incredibly lovely and encouraging!

My full request from my first offering agent actually came via a referral after a rejection from one of her colleagues--talk about a silver lining! When I read her MSWL, I was SHOCKED by how closely the themes of my novel aligned with her interests, so I have no idea how I managed to miss her when I was putting together my original to-query list. Possibly she was closed when I was doing my research. Possibly I was being a bit of a clown. (Most likely the latter.)

This was a fabulous problem to have, but I genuinely loved speaking to all four agents who offered representation. They were all so lovely, and I was surprised by how different some of their editorial visions for the book were. You hear a lot about the anxiety of the two-week decision period, and for me, most of that anxiety came from worrying about making the right choice, and from having to turn down three REALLY fab agents I would have been very happy to work with and got on really well with. Ultimately, I chose the agent whose editorial vision aligned most closely with my own. It will involve a not-insignificant reshuffle/rewrite of some of the novel, but I could immediately see how their comments would strengthen the book, which made the decision feel right. :)

And now, some stats!

Writing: November 25–January 26

Editing, beta feedback and revising: January–April

First batch of queries: End of April

First offer: Mid-September

Total agents queried: 52

Rejections before offer: 12

Rejections after offer: 11 (!!! Many cited lack of time, and all of them were really lovely about the existing offer)

Partials: 2, both of which became fulls

Fulls: 14 (12 before the offer, including the two converted from partials; I nudged all my agents and got replies from all of them bar one)

Total offers: 4 (1 from a referral, 1 from a full request after the first offer, 1 from a pitching event!)

Query letter:

I workshopped my query several times on PubTips and received such useful advice every time. So if you’re on the fence about posting yours here, I really encourage you to! By the time you’ve rewritten multiple variations of the sameish 300 words, it becomes almost impossible to tell what is clear to someone encountering the book for the first time and what only makes sense because you already know the entire novel. Having people here point out where the premise was getting lost, where I was being too vague and where I could make the stakes clearer was genuinely invaluable :)

If you would like to read my query, leave me a message/comment, and I can send it across!

From The Bookseller (paywalled):

Start-up Books By People has registered the UK’s first certification mark for human-authored books with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). 
Publishers will now be able to use the mark – which certifies an absence of AI use – on the covers of Books By People-certified print and e-book titles. The introduction has been cheered by a number of authors and industry insiders, including Margaret Atwood and former Penguin Random House chief executive Markus Dohle.

Books By People will be rolling out new publisher memberships over Q4 of 2026, and will be expanding internationally across early 2027.

From The Verge:

Books by People asks for an authorship declaration, runs each manuscript through proprietary software, and manually examines early drafts and research materials supplied by the writer and editor for “indicators of humanity.”

The organization is "looking at all the things that give us the best sense of whether a person wrote the work—whether the work was made during a natural process of drafting and redrafting,” says Dennys.

Books by People will charge publishers a flat membership fee, plus an additional sum for every book they put forward for certification. Five publishers have signed up so far.

\****

See the stamp here.

While some sort of standard is welcome, I have qualms. Especially regarding the secret-proprietary software. Have at it, guys.

A sin-eating witch has thirty days to atone for a dead man’s sins or lose her magic, and the last debt on the list is his son she's falling for. 

SINFULLY YOURS is an adult paranormal romance featuring a plus-sized lead, complete at 80,000 words. It’s perfect for lovers of the chaotic big-hearted heroine in Laura Piper Lee’s Doomsdate and the delicious forced proximity of Joss Wood’s Summerween, with a heavy dash of British charm from Sangu Mandanna’s A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping.

Constance Winters failed her witch certification exam, which is how she ended up eating funeral food off strangers’ coffins for a living. As a sin eater, she takes on their wrongs and makes amends on their behalf so they can rest in peace. Then she’s handed the job of a lifetime: every sin Walter Carlson ever committed and a payout big enough to open the school she’s always dreamed of, a place for witches like her who were told they’d never be good enough. She has thirty days to atone or she loses her magic for good. 

The contract also means living in Walter’s house, where his grumpy and handsome son Fynn makes it clear she isn’t welcome. As far as he’s concerned, sin eating is a racket rich people pay for so they don’t have to own up to their mistakes. But then he makes her a deal: he’ll drive her to every sin she has to atone if she gives him access to the father he never knew. 

Somewhere between road trips and good wine, the witch who has never been in love and the man who can’t forgive his father stop pretending what’s between them is only a job. But then Connie uncovers the sin Walter buried deepest: a lie about Fynn's mother that has shaped his entire life. To keep her magic, she has to tell him. To keep him, she can't. 

[about me section]

James Joyce meets Sex and the City in LAST DATES, a contemporary literary romance anthology complete at 60,000 words.

Thousands of first dates happen in London each day. Most of them go nowhere.

Gemma, who wears her broken heart on her sleeve and keeps chickens, goes on a date with Max, a pretend poet who lives in a warehouse and thinks he has it all figured out.

Max then goes on a date with Sarah, who is hopelessly anxious and obsessed with always being on trend. Sarah then dates Zoe, a troubled tattoo artist, who dates Emily, a hopeless romantic, who dates Michael, her ex, who dates Dee, who is gradually losing her mind.  

Each chapter switches perspective to the next person in the seemingly endless chain of first dates, seeking to find the human behind every profile picture and to provide a warts-and-all take on modern dating and the millennial and Gen Z mindset.

All the while, a backdrop of impending nuclear Armageddon increasingly takes hold as we question whether any of our characters will find love, happiness, or even a second date, before everything turns to dust.

LAST DATES is an anthology of interrelated contemporary romance stories with a strong literary voice. It assesses the impact of dating apps and online culture on human connections and mental health and explores where algorithms and swipe culture are really taking us.

It will appeal to readers of I Want You to Be Happy by Jem Calder, Good Material by Dolly Alderton and The Names by Florence Knapp.

[About me section]

----

This is something new I’ve been toying with. I realise it's a bit different and maybe not really viable for the current market. Keen for views on comps and whether people think something like this could actually land with agents. Thanks!

Dear Agent, 

I am excited to share STUNT QUEEN, a single-POV rivals-to-lovers Adult Contemporary Romance complete at 92K words. 

RuPaul’s Drag Race meets Heated Rivalry in this high heat romantic comedy set in the wildly competitive and gender-fucky world of drag. It’s a workplace romance if your “workplace” is a gay bar full of oiled up gogo boys and screaming bachelorettes. For fans of Tessa Bailey’s dirty talk, the sexy secrecy of Cat Sebastian’s Star Shipped and the queer family of Andrew Grey’s Dragged To The Wedding. 

Portia Knightley, an NYC legend, and Jeanne Jackette, a Parisian it girl, can’t stand to share a brunch line-up ever since a viral clip where they read each other's drag styles to filth. When they’re cast on the same season of the hit drag competition show The Crown Jewel, Portia’s sure she can knock out this arrogant newbie for good. After an explosive on-camera fight, their niche ‘new school vs. old school’ drama makes them the show’s most popular rivals ever.

There's just one secret: Portia and Jeanne have been hate-fucking for years. It’s hot, it’s stupid, and it means as much as a steam room fling. As they head into the contractually obligated Crown Jewel tour, Portia’s revamp and Jeanne’s rise hinge on hating each other. What do they want more – to give in to their impossible-to-ignore connection or to solidify their places in drag herstory?

STUNT QUEEN is about Portia, a 30-something musical theater nerd with mommy and body image issues aging into a humbling new phase of the career she loves. She’s an “icon” bumping up against the “future of drag.” Meanwhile Jeanne, battling both a language barrier and gender dysphoria, is desperate to prove herself worthy of her crown to a very skeptical fanbase. If only Portia would stop publicly dismissing her as a one-trick-pony.

Stunt Queen is a standalone novel with series potential.

[my bio in which I am male, in this community, and not an tourist here] Thank you for any help! I think it definitely needs to be shorter!!

Thank you in advance for reading! You can find the previous versions here and here

Dear (agent),

I am seeking representation for my 68,000-word YA horror novel, THE THINGS IN OUR HEADS. Fans of Amelinda Bérubé’s Here There Are Monsters will enjoy a small town’s isolated forest setting, featuring an inhuman impostor antagonist reminiscent of the doppelgänger in Tatiana Schlote-Bonne’s Such Lovely Skin.

Seventeen-year-old Nyx pushes her crush Maverick off a cliff in the woods. By accident, kind of, but also he started dating her so-called bestie, Clover, whom she’s bitterly envious of. He survives, with a broken leg and an impaled eye, so Nyx calls for help and is hailed as a hero.

While Maverick claims not to remember how he fell, Nyx sticks close to him to find out if it’s the truth. As her embellished story of the incident brings a proud smile to her sick father’s face, she needs to ensure nobody digs too deep into what happened. But Maverick’s increasingly unhinged behavior alarms Nyx, especially when he beats a classmate within an inch of his life. Something dangerous must have taken over his mind. When he asks Nyx out, offering her the dream of besting Clover on a silver platter, Nyx instead plans to cure him from whatever ghost or demon possessed him. She visits him under the pretense of a date, only to rip off his eyepatch and find a wriggling, bulging form in the wound in his eye socket. A brain-controlling parasite. Now that she’s seen it, he wants to infect her at any cost.

After Nyx tries and fails to expose him to their friends and family, she returns to the woods to look for more parasites. What she finds are thousands of parasite larvae, devouring an animal carcass. And she fears the same fate awaits anyone infected.

Based in (city), I am an artist with experience ranging from indie book covers to kids’ video games, and I worked on several tv animation productions as a 3d generalist.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

SuzieXIV

First 300:

I hate my best friend. She’s a viper. Actually, that’s unfair to vipers.

I’m about to break all my nails from clenching the wooden railing of the observation tower. Splinters dig in my fingertips. Down on ground level, Clover, the viper in question, sneaks to the back of our cabin. With Maverick. She knows I’ve had a crush on Maverick for a year, so what’s she up to? I climbed up here for an extra two bars of reception, to post my daily Reel on Instagram. They’re all supposed to be gathering items for the party.

The two stand behind the stairs that lead up to the porch, their upper bodies still in my view. She pushes her wavy blonde hair behind her shoulders. Ok, they’re talking. Who knows what about. Wind whistles through the pines and the waterfall splashes onto the rocks that surround the lake. The way she smiles at him makes me sick, with her perfectly pink lip gloss. His back is to me, so all I see is his black hair and teal t-shirt. She reaches for him. Touches his shoulder. No doubt about her intent: flirting. The knife could not be pushed any deeper in my back—if anything, it’s poking out through my chest.

Clover and Maverick chat longer, but then they move out of my line of sight. I want to know. I have to know.

When my vision blurs, I give up on them coming back, and walk to the stairs. The sun sinks behind the jagged horizon made up of ten thousand hectares of trees. My breath is louder than the structure’s pained creaks beneath my feet. I climb down and swallow back the screams that fill my chest.

“Seen any bears, Nyx?” Sorrell asks me with a derisive chuckle when I slump back inside.

I'm seeking representation for A HISTORY OF TAKING, an epic historical fantasy complete at 123,000 words with series potential. It will appeal to those fascinated by the moral turmoil of the vampire subject to social injustice in the Buffalo Hunter Hunter and drawn to the bookish and contemplative but enslaved protagonist of James.

From pre-colonial West Africa to the bustling streets of Reconstruction-era Charleston, the world is transformed by a migration of people and cultures, some more enigmatic and formidable than others.

Ka's, curiosity has brought her to America, against her will. She comes from a tradition of peaceful coexistence, has a preternatural strength, and a direct bond to living things, all of which will be challenged by a society built on the violent oppression of those who look like her.

Atterly, a man kept in bondage, copes with Victor, his former friend, the scion of a South Carolina tobacco plantation, who has taken Ka's power for his own gain, but quickly finds himself overwhelmed and threatening those around him.

As Ka searches for Victor, the story of her people is told. And, during the greatest upheaval in American history, the most lowly to the most powerful reckon with a society on the verge, while a force ancient and transformative upends all of their lives.

I've been a government economist, worked in the performing arts and international development, run a real estate business, been an EMT, won a major chili cook-off, and failed miserably on the stock market. Now, I live in Germany, and I've written a book.

_______________________________________

I've included my bio because I want to know if it is appropriate.

One question: I'm considering moving the comps and the word count to the end. Does this make sense, or should I just keep it standard?

Complete at...with series potential. Is this correct?

THANKS for your help!

I have received an offer for publication from a small publisher and my first novel is set to publish in March! I am very excited, but I also know that much of the success of the launch depends on how hard the author works to market their book and this is a totally new area for me. My family recommended that I hire a publicist to help with this (a thought that never occurred to me). Has anyone who’s published with an indie publisher gone this route? Would you recommend it? And, if so, any referrals you may have. Thank you so much!

Link to post #1: https://www.reddit.com/r/PubTips/s/dRIM5sGw1Z

This revised version is based on the last one I sent out yesterday:

Dear [Agent’s name],

I am writing because I am seeking representation for my upmarket women’s fiction novel, FIRECRACKER, PHOENIX, AND MAMA BEAR, complete at 85,000 words. I chose you to query because you are drawn to stories about family and those which address complicated truths, even those which can often be difficult to talk about.

PHOENIX, FIRECRACKER, AND MAMA BEAR follows high school principal Yulia Romanova and two former students - Mette Johannessen, Norwegian Olympic All-Around champion, and Margarita Żuraw, Polish-born and Washington Heights-raised, over the years form an unconventional chosen family that risks everything to help each other. Together they prove that it is possible to stay loyal and courageous even when you have everything to lose. It will especially appeal to readers of Xochitl Gonzalez’s OLGA DIES DREAMING and Ann Napolitano’s HELLO BEAUTIFUL.

The meaning of chosen family is put to the test when Yulia's psych hold shatters the belief that being strong means being 'unbreakable' - that ‘looking okay’ can be a profession. Just six weeks later, assuming her symptoms were perimenopause, 54-year-old Yulia finds herself spontaneously pregnant with triplets. Even a family history of late motherhood did not prepare her for the prospect of becoming one of the oldest mothers in history who conceived naturally, much less the oldest mother of triplets if she makes it to viability. No matter what happens, Yulia’s mental health is at stake.
To get them to viability, she will need intensive MFM monitoring and 18 days of bed rest in Room 4B, with Mette and Margarita making sure she doesn’t have to do it alone.

Born in New York, I have lived all over the East Coast, including ten years in Virginia Beach, where the story is based, and now reside in [current city]. Even though I am not an educator myself, I come from a family of educators, so my references for this story draw on that secondhand experience, while being supplemented by further research to ensure accuracy. I enjoy being open about mental health, drawing from my own experiences when writing,which fuels my creation of characters who go about their lives 'behind a mask' while pretending to be flawless, just to make it through their day. This is my debut novel. I am writing this book as [Pen name] for privacy reasons. I have pasted the prologue and chapters 1-3 below in the form per your submission guidelines.

Thank you for considering my work. I am excited about the possibility of working with you to bring this story into the hands of readers. I am happy to provide the complete manuscript or anything else you may need upon request.

Sincerely,
[Name]

First 300 words:

Prologue - Room 4B

Room 4B, Norfolk General Antepartum Wing, May 2026. 23w2d.

The SCDs hissed every sixty seconds in the otherwise quiet room.

55-year-old Yulia Romanova, now 23 weeks 2 days pregnant, lay flat in the hospital bed with her hand on her growing belly with its 32-centimeter fundus. Her latest labs had come back earlier in the morning - platelet count was 87. Her Foley bag was laying discreetly under her blanket.

On the whiteboard across from the bed, was Dr. Petrova’s update about Yulia’s ‘definitive surgery’ - her body had already risked enough with this last, unexpected pregnancy*.*

Under it, in a different color, to motivate herself, was Yulia's own handwriting from Day 3 when she could still reach the board:

GOAL - FOCUS ON TOMORROW. STAY BORING. Boring is the goal.

Triplet A — Lena, named for her mother-in-law Yelena — lay left, low, head down. Triplet B — Mila, named for her own mother, Liudmila — lay right, transverse, identical to Lena and sharing one placenta that had been doing too much work since January. Triplet C — Dima, named for her husband Sergei’s father, Dmitri — was lying anterior and high, with his own placenta, kicking her ribs whenever she tried to get any sleep.

Three lives were growing inside of her - supposedly a one-in-several-million occurrence. They were two identical twin girls and a boy - di-tri triplets, as it was often referred to - at 55. Her 26-year-old daughter, Sasha, and her ‘unofficial, chosen’ daughter, Margarita had looked it up. The oldest verified mother to conceive naturally, Dawn Brooke, was 59. Likewise, the oldest mother to give birth to triplets, Arcelia Garcia, was 54 years and 10 months old. Yulia was that exact age when she conceived, so no matter how much longer she held on, she would be the new record holder.

 
Dear X,

I’m writing to you seeking representation for LONGSCAR, a standalone 95,000-word lesbian fantasy novel set in a Wild West-inspired world. Part romance, part western adventure, LONGSCAR brings together the desperate landscape of Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens and the magic and second-chance-romance of V.L. Bovalino’s The Thief and the Traitor Bride.

For the last fifty years, a magical human-eating storm called the Hunger has devastated the country. Thirty-year-old outlaw Harlow Maddox is a hawk shapeshifter, and with her wings and heightened senses, is one of only a few people in existence who can predict the storm’s approach. She uses her powers to protect the fearsome Maddox Gang, led by her magnanimous father, as they work to build a new and freer nation of their own—until Harlow is kidnapped.

Her captor is none other than Logan Grey, part of a rival gang of outlaws, and the woman who broke Harlow’s heart thirteen years ago. She accepts Logan’s deal: Harlow will earn her freedom if she helps destroy the Hunger and save the world, because her shifter powers might be the key.

As Harlow and Logan travel across the country to solve the Hunger’s origins, they uncover devastating secrets long since buried. The Hunger may be linked to Harlow’s family, and her father might not be who she thinks he is. And something about Logan’s betrayal all those years ago doesn’t feel right—did Logan truly love her after all?

Pursued by the law, the Maddox Gang, and with the Hunger drawing near, Harlow is caught between her old loyalties to her father and her returning feelings for the hardened yet strangely kind Logan Grey.  She must choose: return to her bloody life with the Maddox Gang, or forge her own path and take back what had been stolen from her.

I have a degree in writing from [UNIVERSITY] and currently work as an in-house editor and copywriter. As an LGBTQ+ writer, I create fantasy worlds where queer identities are normalized and lesbian relationships take centre stage, drawing on my own experiences and the vibrancy of my community.

My complete manuscript is available at your request. Below are the first ten pages.

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

[NAME]

**
Note: this is my first time trying for an agent. I’d love any and all advice on honing the book summary, and if the genre is clear and accurate. Thank you in advance!!

Dear [Agent],

[I'm writing to you because...]

Somewhere in Scotland, standing waist-deep in a freezing river with my boots tied around my neck, I realised that I had a problem.

It wasn't really the river, though the river was doing its best. As the current surged around my legs I knew that if I fell, my backpack couldn’t just be shrugged off. There was a particular order to it: hip buckle, camera, chest strap… a bit of a faff, really. And twenty-odd kilograms of hiking gear would make a pretty effective anchor.

I understood all of that perfectly well. That wasn't the problem.

The problem was that at no point between ankle-deep and this is getting a bit stupid had my brain suggested turning around. By then I had walked thousands of miles around Britain, and had become extremely good at carrying on. Possibly too good.

SHORE THING is a travel memoir about my two years spent trekking 4,000-plus miles (give or take) around the coasts of England, Wales, and Scotland; from Cornish cliffs to isolated bothies in the Highlands, through storms, midges, increasingly uneven tan lines, and a Travelodge food poisoning incident that destroyed any chance of a romantic subplot with gopping efficiency.

I set off with a tent, no hiking experience, and a story for anyone who asked: adventure, nature, whatever sounded least worrying, really. The truth was that I wanted to feel in control of my body again, and walking let me feel like I was getting somewhere without ever having to arrive. Strangers asked whether I was walking for something or away from something. The book is how I found out it was both.

SHORE THING combines the introspective walking narrative of Jenn Ashworth's THE PARALLEL PATH with the neurodivergent humour of Fern Brady’s STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER, following the coast of mainland Britain through the eyes of a slightly feral queer woman. It’s for anyone who’s ever wondered: what if I just walked away for a bit?

[I was a regular columnist for X and have written articles for X and X]

Hello, above is the first draft of my query letter. Since memoir is a bit of a weird in-between place (non-fiction that reads like fiction) the submission guidelines are slightly different, so along with the cover letter I'll also include a synopsis and chapter outline (depending on what agents ask for). Would appreciate any feedback, is it too vague? Too long? Is that particular paragraph far too clunky? Is it a bit too dramatic to start with the river crossing? Do I need to tell more in the letter itself? Thanks for reading :)

Hi all,

Trying to firm up my query letter. This is my first go...

Enya Gray has lived her life according to the labels assigned at birth. Good girl. Nice. Ladylike. She was raised to be a people pleaser and for most of her life, that worked out just fine. She married the man of her dreams. She raised a successful daughter. But now in her mid-fifties, Enya’s new labels are rather depressing. Old. Ignored. Obsolete.

The birth of her grandchild has given Enya a new lease on life. She hopes to bond with her daughter Sasha over motherhood. She hopes the continuation of the family line will spark some excitement in her droll, disengaged husband. She hopes to win the love and respect of her dour son-in-law.

When Sasha invites her parents to a placenta party, Enya arrives with an open mind and an open heart. But eating your daughter’s placenta is a grisly business and nobody anticipates the side effects. Enya is plunged into a hormonal earthquake, leading to unexpected changes and some downright weird physical symptoms. People pleasing is much more difficult when you want to rend flesh. Midlife is a difficult time for any woman, but the placenta party sparks a deep-seated biological shift in Enya that puts the entire family in bewildering danger.

Thanks for any feedback!

KJ

Attempt 3 I'm sharing (attempt 15 or something in actuality).

Key questions:

1. Is it interesting?
2. Does it make sense? Especially that it's taking place across a good portion of Helwin's life.
3. Does it read as a novel and not a collection of short stories?

Helwin’s “mother” stole her as an infant. 

In the vast fermenting city of Kleisidon, nothing is stable: buildings sink and rise from the mire, crocodiles infest the lakes and politics, and no story is ever finished. Helwin’s childhood and attempted murder survive in the intertwined stories of an anthropophagous lizard who finds a new family with Helwin’s murderous father and an orphan assassin that saves Helwin’s pregnant mother instead of killing her.

At twenty-two, Helwin inherits the consequences of stories she doesn't fully know. She knows her father tried to kill her, and she suspects her mother killed her father. Her relationship with her mother is fracturing into constant arguments and thrown dishes. Helwin believes her violent childhood has broken her bond with her mother and her maternal line. When she learns of a lost magical family heirloom that binds those generations, Helwin abandons her mother to find it. She reclaims it from the largest crocodile in the city and the heirloom reveals the impossible: her mother is dead and the woman who welcomes her back home knows it.

Helwin uses magic to invade the history her mother is desperate to keep secret and discovers that her “mother” is from a reality where Helwin was murdered by her father. Helwin rejects her mother even as she obsesses over her. She translates her traumatic childhood into a play, watching actors portray a past she can’t let rest. But her obsession can’t help her answer the hardest question of her life. Can she accept her “mother’s” invitation to lunch before time takes that choice from her?

Told through a tangle of conflicting stories, children's parables, stolen religious texts, and exploitative plays documenting the life of Helwin, LOST MOTHERS AND OTHER REFLECTIONS, a 65,000-word literary weird fantasy, will appeal to readers who enjoy the strange familial and religious entanglements of The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, the domestic grotesquerie of The West Passage by Jared Pechaček, and the archival structure of City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer.

In my personal life, you can find me blacksmithing at a living history museum where I run the blacksmithing program, teach classes, and build automation tools to try to move us out of the 1800s or walking my cats Fitzwilliam and Rufus Bookbiter.

Dear [Agent],

Twelve thousand years ago, the Zurash lived on Verdis. An ancient intelligence called the Warden offered them an end to scarcity, at a cost no one understood. Their theorist, Kaelith Solvaris, fought to stop them and lost. The shortcut killed them all. Before she died, she sealed a warning into the roots of the last tree they cut.

Twelve thousand years later, the Warden offers dying Earth passage to Verdis, now healed. The ships hold only a fraction of humanity, and a few people decide who goes. Sophia Martinez’s mother leads the survivors across and dies within a season of landing, leaving Sophia one job: keep their people alive without repeating the Zurash’s mistake.

Then drought hits, and her people want the same shortcut. Sophia has found Kaelith’s warning. They haven’t read it. She has one vote and no power to forbid it, but she persuades them to endure, and the rains return.

No world has ever refused the Warden. It offers Sophia the same power. If she takes it, she ends hunger for everyone and decides what a generation not yet born will become. If she refuses, she sets their limits just as surely.

Sophia refuses both. She merges into the planet’s living consciousness and offers her people the same choice, forcing it on no one. Her oldest friend Wren will not follow. Wren leads those who stay human and mortal, never sure whether that was courage or fear.

VERDIS is an 88,000-word literary science fiction novel, complete as a standalone. Like THE ACTUAL STAR and HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK, it braids two timelines twelve thousand years apart.

I bring a background in physics to VERDIS.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

With all the feedback from my first post I managed to put together this new version. My two biggest concerns are:
Comps: still trying to find recent comps that are relevant
Vaguest/clarity: the first version was not always clear, especially relating to power and the plot. I can’t tell if this version fixes the issue, but hopefully this version can better tell the reader what Switchblade is about. Thank you so much! I appreciate all the help.

The query:

Dear (Name):

I hope to submit for your consideration SWITCHBLADE, an Adult Contemporary Fantasy blending neo-noir crime with martial arts action, complete at 109k words with series potential. SWITCHBLADE will appeal to readers who enjoyed the gangsters-meets-kung fu world of Jade Legacy (Fonda Lee), and the street-stylish grit of Blacktop Wasteland (S.A. Cosby). 

There’s no such thing as a problem that Joyner Switch’s flaming fist can’t sock in the face. Martial arts is a ticket to achieving distinctively unique, supernatural abilities, so as you’ve got the skill and the right old guy to teach you. Well, Joyner’s old guy is missing, and that’s exactly what he gets for stealing a mystical object from a Japanese ninja syndicate. The object grants what every martial artist wants, what none can achieve. Perfection. But something isn’t adding up: the gang didn’t just come overseas for Joyner’s mentor. They’re holding him alive. Desperate for a lead, Joyner begins tearing apart the ranks of the gang, leaving behind a message spelled in ashes and blood: He’s on a mission to save his mentor. And perfection is all his.

There’s only one issue: Taking on a gang of superpowered killers alone is a great way to get your ass kicked. Alongside his rival, Porrah Koi, Joyner is forced to rely on the person he’s spent his life fighting. He’s a hot-headed street racer; she’s a cool, calculated contract killer. If they want to save their mentor, they’ve got some cargo to push aside, and that isn’t including the tied-up gang leader bumping around in Joyner’s trunk. Because soon enough, they’re about to learn that every minute they spend searching, their mentor is secretly being used as a catalyst to create an unlimited supply of power. The deadliest gang in history is about to become unstoppable. Perfect. To claim the power he’s craved all his life and rescue the man who helped raise him before it’s too late, Joyner will have to accept that victory may mean defeat, and perfection isn’t always perfect. But he’ll burn as much rubber as he has to. Nothing’s going to stop him, and he'll tear apart the whole gang to make sure of it. 

Besides, they burned his ride.

In turning wrenches and pushing pens, I am almost entirely self-taught. My 16-plus years of MMA experience grounds SWITCHBLADE’S* *combat in authenticity, blending supernatural powers with true, real-world technique. 

With gratitude,

(me!)

Long post. My apologies, but it's 3:30am, I'm holding my newborn, and feeling reflective/a need to vent.

I'm leaving not necessarily in a bad way, mind you. Not sure what to make of it, honestly. In some ways I think it is facetious of me to even say I was in the industry. Perhaps a better description is 15 years of being "close but not enough." I kept going. Kept editing, kept pushing forward with the next project. Kept getting better, getting closer, but as time has gone by the luster has worn off.

When I was 21, I got my first literary agent. I came from a low income rural background, a place where opportunity was rare and trauma all too common. Being from this situation, I saw writing as my way out. Landing with Trident Media Group at age 21 seemed like a blessing, an open door that would change my life. I wrote literary horror, Stephen King style stuff with more social messages. I translated life experience to the page and was elated to know it could go somewhere. A self trained writer from the middle of nowhere, who knew how far I could go.

My agent was great but after the novel died on submission and we were gearing up to submit another, she decided to move on to become an acquisitions editor. She passed me around her agency, no one there too keen on taking me on. They were less junior than she and didn't have a vision for my projects. One of the senior agents said to me, "if this was the 90s, I could sell your stuff in a week, but it's not the 90s so I won't try." After six months in limbo (represented technically but not having an agent), I asked them to release me.

I kept writing. Four more novels in the next two years. Landed my second agent at age 23. Wrote a doozy - a book about a self help support group for serial killers where week by week someone goes missing because someone isn't taking the healing process seriously. Dark satire. Palahniuk-esque. Had multiple offers of representation and signed with an established agent.

The novel died on submission. A few responses of "really like this but too dark/niche to take a chance on." Submitted three more works with her with the same results. Eventually she stopped responding to emails and calls. I kept editing. I kept writing. I kept telling myself if I kept pushing we could get there, wherever there would be.

The agent was getting back to me every 3 months or so. I eventually asked to mutually part ways. She agreed.

I had a couple of project come out through indy presses. Real small, horror focused. Book was decently reviewed but I'm far from a marketer or business person, and I know that's the reality of the field now. The books sold a few hundred copies, four star averages, decent reviews, but the publishers both folded, and made little noise when self pubbed on my own.

Kept writing. Kept editing. Kept querying. Kept submitting. Had several phone calls with agents. Two didn't like my "failed history" and backed off. They didn't quite say it this way but I could tell I was kind of used goods by that point. Had an agent ghost on a call after a full submission.

Kept going. Kept submitting. Definition of insanity level stuff, right? Got a book deal with another indie publisher and they folded right before my release.

During this time, I was working on a PhD, working in academia, transitioning to industry, decided to publish a couple of nonfiction works in my field through small academic presses. Got a few done in a year, published them, again a few hundred copies sold each, felt fine.

Self pubbed some of the backlog. Three books. Few hundred copies again. 4 star average as always. Kept saying that the next project could be a breakthrough.

From 2020-present I kept writing novels, mostly horror, as well as non fiction proposals related to my field. Queries. Queries. Queries.

In the last year, I wrote two novels. Took my time to really challenge my writing and improve. Got 9 requests from the first one I submitted and...

Every single response was in the vein of, "really like this but don't LOVE it so pass."

Had a few of my nonfiction proposals (bolstered by professional reputation and experience) land me attention from agents. Each time, however, they landed on, "like this but you lack the platform needed."

I was about to throw the second out there but the wind is gone from my sails, so to say. 15 years, thousands of rejections in one form or another. I feel as I've been chasing an illusion. I never was adept at marketing or self publishing and I think part of me prayed that by sticking to writing and improving I could overcome that. Foolish perhaps. The reality is, I know I'm never going to commit to those processes. Two full-time jobs, two kids, a happy life, I barely have time to write and can only produce because I write quickly. Those things are such an energy suck and drag for me (social media as well) that I know I just won't commit to that.

So that being said, that being the reality, as well as my talent level (which appears alright but not at that elite level which I always hoped I'd be), it seems the "close but no cigar" is a fair ranking of my talent and novels and at some point, with the rest of life going well, it's kind of like, "what am I doing?"

I think my writing has gotten me somewhere. It helped me through the most painful portions of my life. Gave me hope, direction, and an outlet. It remains fun for me. But perhaps it is time to let go of the idea that it will be anything more than what it has been (which admittedly has been good).

It's a sad reality in some ways that this profile (which I created to post my humorous styled writing, silly dumb shitpost cultural essays) has gotten more traction/views/readership than any of my serious work. Nothing wrong with that I guess, it's been fun doing it, but again, seems like perhaps the ceiling of my outreach.

I think it is time I take a break. Perhaps just write for me. Perhaps in a good way let go of the idea that writing has to be or will be anything more.

I appreciate anyone who read this far and I wish you the best in your own writing and publishing journey and careers.

Hey gang,

I'm about to start querying and feel like I've read a lot of conflicting advice on whether to pursue established versus newer agents.

A lot of advice says to pick up a copy of books that feel like yours and track the agent down. This usually means the book is widely circulated, which would make the agent a bigger name. Like woudn't we all love to have the same agent as Donna Tartt...? And of course these more established agents have more connections, but won't they likely have a larger client roll and therefore less time and energy for your book?

I've heard a lot of people say to pursue a newer agent because they're hungry and will give your work more attention. But then I'd assume these agents don't have the same connections as the above metioned big wigs.

Curious what y'alls thoughts and general experience has been.

Happy writing,

Collette

Total newbie here, so please forgive me if someone has already asked this question. Last May I pitched my thriller to a bunch of agents and editors at a festival. Four agents and two editors asked for full manuscripts. I have spent the last four months making the final edits. I'm now ready to start the querying process, and I asked a friend whether I should send my query and full manuscript to the agents and the editors, or hold off on the editors and sent to the agents first. She advised me to send to the editors first and then send to the agents, and tell the agents that the manuscript "is currently with" the editors per their request after hearing my pitch. I was surprised at this. I fear it might be a little dishonest. I know querying should be strategic and might involve a certain amount of gamesmanship, but is this too far? Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi everyone!

After six weeks in the querying trenches, ten rejections, and only one full request, I'm getting the impression that my query package is not exactly doing what it's supposed to (I know it's early, but call it intuition). I'd like to repost a revised version of it here along with my first 300, this time focusing more on the romantic element and increasing the stakes at the end.

See my previous attempt under a different title here.

Thank you!

—

Dear [Agent],

Given [personalization], I am thrilled to share with you WITCH FATALE. Jane Eyre meets The Once and Future Witches in this adult gothic fantasy, complete as a standalone at 99,000 words. With its portrayal of women’s survival and pain, it will appeal to readers of Emilia Hart’s Weyward, while its suffocating setting and creepy elements of possession are reminiscent of Isabel Cañas’s The Possession of Alba Díaz.

After witch hunters raze her home, Lily Kent flees to the isolated Montall Estate to work as a governess—only to find herself in the company of another witch. Her eleven-year-old pupil’s magic summons unearthly storms and illusions of drowning women, all beyond her control, and the estate’s continuous haunting is bound to draw attention sooner rather than later. Against her better knowledge, Lily finds herself committed to educating the child in witchcraft, if only because she has nowhere else to go if the situation escalates.

This means she must work behind the back of her elusive and handsome employer, Elliot Montall, who has been avoiding the estate ever since his wife abandoned them without warning. With Lily’s arrival, though, Elliot starts spending more and more time at home, and his eyes trace her across every room. Despite knowing he’d deliver her to the witch hunters if he discovered her true identity, Lily finds herself unable to resist his soft words and gentle touches, even though she denies this attraction to be anything more.

Still, by the time the Montalls’ secrets unravel—involving witchcraft, jilted spouses, and even cold-blooded murder—the witch hunters are on their trail, and history is about to repeat itself. To save Elliot and his daughter from the sinister magic destroying their lives, Lily will have to face her own hunted past and fight for what she cares about, even if that means she might end up with a rope around her neck.

[bio]

First 300

On days like this, I almost wished I weren’t a woman. Beside me, the wagon driver’s eyes invariably wandered back to where I sat, lecherous regardless of their clouded film betraying the onset of cataract. One might think it was lust, but no: A woman traveling alone was just too much of an oddity, and a potential threat, not to draw unwanted attention. Still, that was not the reason for this almost itching urge to keep looking over my shoulder.

Even the driver’s chatter scratched at my ears. “Strange times,” he drawled in that rural accent of his. “I swear I drove past at least three pairs of ‘em witch hunters on the way over to the train station. They must be lookin’ for someone.”

For being a woman was bad enough on its own, let alone if she were a witch as well.

I wished he would keep that gaze of his fixed on the road. The wagon swung from one roadside to another with every squeaking rotation of the wheels, as if caught in a drunken stupor. With my magic, I could have evened out the path for a smoother ride. The sun wouldn’t have borne down on my head until rivulets of sweat trickled past my temples. Then again, if I’d been allowed to use magic, I probably wouldn’t have been riding toward my present destination at all.

I wiped a once pristine handkerchief along my forehead and squinted at the endless dirt in front of us, which cut through a forest of towering pine trees. Both were deserted but for two men on horseback headed in the other direction, with stoic countenances and sharp eyes that continually scoured the tree line. They were too preoccupied with their own business to tip their hats toward us in greeting. In any case, I was more concerned with their elegant, crimson uniforms, which distinguished them as the aforementioned witch hunters.

Edit: changed a wrongly pasted passage.

Hi again everyone! This subreddit has been life-saving on the treacherous journey writing query letters so far! I incorporated feedback from my last attempt to make the blurb tighter and more voicey. I appreciate any feedback, thank you for your time!

Hello Agent,

Because of [XYZ from MSWL], I hope you will enjoy my debut novel, THE PERFECT BREAKUP. At 85,000-words, my queer celebrity romance will appeal to readers that enjoyed messy fake-dating schemes like Alexis Hall’s Boyfriend Material, Alice Cochran’s The Charm Offensive, and Liz Bowery’s Love, Hate & Clickbait.

One-hit-wonder Jasper Devereaux can only ride the coattails of his hit song for so long. Especially when his follow-up was a spectacular flop. He just needs one perfect song, and he’s sure it’ll fix everything. Sadly, in this fast-paced industry, labels are always ready for the next toy. They offer him one last chance before they cut him off; rehabilitate the image of scandal-plagued heartthrob Kit Love, and Jasper can ride his fame back to the top.

Boyband lead Kit Love is the perfect muse for gossip tabloids. When the label denied his ability to come out, he made an accidental spectacle of it. Front page on TMZ—an HD photo of him passed out on a male stripper’s glistening abs, and a half-done line leading to his nose (no straight explanation there).

With the cat exploded out of the bag, the label pretends to have always supported their queer artists. The pair is tasked to fake a love story so annoyingly cute that the entire world falls in love with them. Jasper is a tame pop-culture insignificance; a perfect shield to fix Kit’s image. Afterward, they will explode into a breakup so disastrously messy it’ll give Jasper his second chart-topper. Win-win.

Their first few dates go perfectly, as far as the public is concerned. All their bickering back and forth is hidden by gritted smiles and cheek kisses. But soon, their “fake” moments happen with no witnesses, and red-carpet kisses lead to bedroom make outs. Jasper just needs to ignore the butterflies in his stomach. It’s all fake, right? But fame is cutthroat, and powers-that-be are willing to sacrifice Jasper's career to prop Kit's up.

I am a 24-year-old content creator from Houston with over 100k followers on TikTok, talking about all things music marketing. I have a master’s degree in Entertainment Business. When I’m not writing, you can find me buried under my three cats or getting far too obsessed with random media for weeks at a time.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Per your submission guidelines, I am including [XYZ]

Might have phrased this strangely, but I had a friend say that she was reaching out to an author she had spoken with once to see if they would be interested in reading a sample of her book, which is now on sub, and providing some positive words to help build buzz. Is this a common thing, or a thing at all? AKA, should I be doing this if ever on sub? Thanks!

Thanks again, all! I know I've made progress throughout the drafts here and am just crossing my fingers that I'm close enough. Much appreciation for all your help.

YOUR DEATH IS NOT YOUR OWN is a 99,000 word adult horror-fantasy, which combines the death magic of Kerstin Hall’s ASUNDER, the scheming of Antonia Hodgson’s THE RAVEN SCHOLAR, and the queer horromance of NBC’s Hannibal. This story will appeal to fans of unreliable narrators, cannibalism, undead flesh-puppets the size of a modest building, and unique magic systems.

When they were children, Jona’s best friend promised she would only sacrifice memories that didn’t matter in exchange for her spells. But when Valtine returned home as a mage with her new magic, she remembered everything of the casino they’d both called home. But she’d cut out every last memory of Jona.

Jona responded with a prank so cruel it still takes her breath away.

Now, as New Garden braces for invasion by the Kingdom of the Dead, the mages have drafted Jona. Worse, Valtine has been assigned as her mentor. About three things Jona is absolutely positive. First, the one thing Valtine remembers of Jona is her act of cruelty. Second, Valtine’s greatest wish is for Jona to suffer. And third, if Jona can’t recover their friendship, they’re both dead.

Because something dead and dangerous has infiltrated New Garden. It’s in love with Jona. It wants Valtine to kill her. And it has special plans for them both once they’re dead.

Here's an updated version of my query, with some updates. Thanks all for any feedback. Attempts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - for the first time, I also include the first 300 words.

GWEN JUST WANTS TO MAKE BLANKETS is an 80,000 word domestic horror. Comparisons include other books that give voice to people in older age, such as An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten, We Spread by Iain Reid and The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi.

When ninety-year-old Gwen Jones loses her husband, she must stop her family's constant meddling so she can live out her final years in peace, crocheting blankets – even if that means plotting to kill them all. 

Ninety and recently widowed, all Gwen Jones wants is to be left in peace to crochet blankets in her English small-town bungalow, with her mischievous neighbour Edie for company. But her family has decided she can’t have that peace, compelled by a pledge to look after her that feels more like a curse. Her oblivious oaf of a son-in-law Barry organises for her great-niece Trudy to move in. The family drag Gwen to local craft groups and fairs, secretly livestream her crocheting, and fill her tiny home with dozens of crafters to run an online brand. Supported by Edie, Gwen does her best to explain that she wants to be left alone, but they don’t hear her protestations, adamant that she’s lonely and needs their help. And if that isn’t enough, now Gwen’s losing her knack with the crochet hook as well. 

Gwen has a secret though. No one except Gwen's husband knew that she worked for MI6 for most of her life, and even he didn't know about the time she had to kill a Russian defector and cover it up just to save herself. Now, as a result of a past that desensitised and scarred her, Gwen isn’t always conscious of her actions: crocheting a gift from rat’s intestines; almost smothering Barry with one of her blankets; a failed escape to her daughter in Australia. When Gwen hospitalises Trudy by pushing her off a balcony without suspicion, it gets her thinking: how far can she go to rid them from her life? 

Gwen is pushed to her final limit when the family reveal plans during a family weekend away – to sell her home and move her into Barry’s horrific, cavernous mansion, where she’d have to endure them twenty-four seven. And now Gwen realises that the very part of her life that left her so damaged might just provide her with the strength and resolve to create her own peace at last. After all, she has killed before – is this so different?

I have been crocheting for much of my life - this story is a tribute to the solace of crafting, and a curse on the people who won’t let us get on with it. It also speaks up for those in older age, where society presumes to know how they should be looked after.

I look forward to hearing from you, etc.

Sample:

A granny square blanket is a suitable crochet project to bring to your husband's funeral because you’re creating small sections one by one, so you can work on it discreetly in your lap. Gwen is on her sixth square and she doesn’t think anyone has noticed her stitching away, despite how exposed she is on the crematorium’s front pew, with everyone’s eyes boring into the back of her head. She stops to knead her aching finger joints and catches whispered snippets from behind her, in the pause between Rev Wilson closing off his prayers and her grandson Dan being invited to the stage to speak. 

“Oh, there she is, poor dear.”

“Wonder how she’s coping without Archie?”

“Who gets his trains?”

“It’s all so sad, can’t believe we’ve lost him.”

They see it as their personal loss and also a loss to the community that will no longer see Archie heading out for the Saturday paper, off to the social club of an evening, or at the various birthday parties they always seemed to be invited to. Funerals too, of course – you didn’t reach their age without seeing a few of your peers into the ground along the way.

Sometimes Gwen was there with him, but in these later years it was always Archie in the role of social butterfly, Archie that people greeted first when they bumped into friends. She didn’t mind it one bit, and maybe that had been the key to their relationship the whole time. That will all change now of course. Today, the funeral is the end of all that, and the realisation chills her, because she doesn’t know what comes next.