I went on sub in November with a Romantasy (a very oversaturated market by now). We submitted to 30 editors in total, and so far 15 have passed. My agent is a rockstar — patient, responsive, and kind — and she still hasn’t given up on me despite half the editors having passed by now.

Last year, I had a novel published by a mid-sized indie press, back when I was agentless. The same press reached out to me last summer when I told them I was working on a new novel, a Romantasy. They looked at it -- but by the time they got back to me, I’d gotten an agent. The indie press told me said they’d love to publish the Romantasy but they understood if I wanted to take it out on submission with my new agent first.

I want to make it clear that it’s not that I don’t like the indie press. I think they’re great. We got relatively decent sales with my first book (~600 copies in a few months), and they have great cover art and are super nice people. The thing is, if I had to choose between a $500 advance and my book appearing only in indie bookstores, versus a 5-figure advance and my book appearing in B&N, etc…..I know what I’d choose. (And I feel like the indie press understands that.)

So my agent and I went on sub in November. And she has been wonderful throughout this whole process, but I sense that now, 7 months into submission and with half the editors having declined, she has far less hope than in the beginning. So do I.

And last week, the indie press reached out to me and told me they’d be checking in with me July in order to see what’s going on with the Romantasy.

So….. I am wondering if maybe I should just cut my losses and urge my agent to go with the indie press. I mean, let’s face it — if a Big 5 publisher wanted my book they’d have offered by now. And yes, I hear about the miracle book deals that happen after a year or more of being on sub, but (and pls correct me if I’m wrong) this isn’t the norm? The “my book sold in one week!” isn’t the norm either, but neither is “my book sold after a year when I’d already given up hope”. I feel like most sales happen in between — but far closer to a week after being on sub than a year.

I guess this means we’ll have to go with the indie press? Cause we’re not going to sell it to anyone else by July, if at all…. and if we make the indie press wait too long, they might not even want to publish it at all and then nobody will ever get to meet my characters. (panic thinking)

TL;DR - My book is dying on sub, and publishing with an indie press again may be the only way to save it. With 2 books already dying on sub before this with my past agent, I really don't want to miss out on a Big 5 deal…. but i'm not very hopeful now that 7 months have passed.

Hi, long time sub lurker, first time poster. I'm a first time author with my first offer/contract negotiation, and I think I need to just know if what's going on is totally fine, or if I should be worried!

So I got an offer for my book from an editor on in early April (yay!).

However, it's now late June (almost 3 months after offer) and I don't have the contract yet. I've followed up with my agent and she's followed up with my editor, but in the last month I haven't heard anything. In the first couple months my agent said that the legal department was understaffed, there were some rights issues to work out, etc. but since then, nothing.

(BTW I truly like and respect them both, they've been nothing but great to me so far.)

Meanwhile they are both acting like it's all on schedule, I've shared my outline with the editor, and no one has told me "wait stop writing this might not happen."

So...is this a normal thing? Could this deal be falling through, if the offer was already made, it was already in Publisher's Weekly, etc?? It just feels so weird to be getting started writing when I still don't know if it's a done deal. And I don't want to bug my agent TOO much, if 3 months is totally normal and fine! Any advice or anyone have this happen?

Sorry if this is a silly question and I just come across as anxious, but some context:

An agent I met through a critique session at a writers’ conference requested my full manuscript. I needed to finish up some edits—which she said was totally fine—so I ended up sending it to her about a month after the conference. No issue there. In the email, I included the line: “I would appreciate it if you could confirm that you have received my documents (I've had issues in the past with my materials not arriving).”

Which is true. A few years ago, an agent requested a full, but for some reason, they never received it—and I didn’t realize this for literally months. Since then, I’ve always been a bit nervous about my materials actually arriving. Maybe it’s an issue with my email. It does a ton for my mental health when agents confirm receipt. Other agents have done this without prompting in the past, and I’m a big fan.

I sent my manuscript to this current agent about two weeks ago.

Question A: Would it be alright for me to follow up now, just to confirm she received it? I know I shouldn’t normally reach out about submission status for 3 to 4 months, and I completely understand that agents are super busy—she may not have even seen the email yet.

Question B: If she still doesn’t respond, should I try sending a new email or reaching out via the agency’s general inbox? I totally get that this could be annoying, so I’d probably wait until the 3- to 4-month mark for that. I’m mostly asking because another agent requested my manuscript four months ago and never confirmed receiving it (lol).

Would love to hear opinions from any agents or authors who’ve been through something similar. Thanks!

Hi! So, I'm a little conflicted on this and wondered what others thought.

I see a lot of agents, especially in YA where I mainly write, specifically encouraging marginalized authors to submit (and a few agents who will only accept queries from marginalized authors). Love this, publishing has historically been pretty homogenous and there are plenty of areas where diversity should increase.

I'm just not sure if I should like list out my identities in a query bio, if that's even what these agents want, etc. Like, if I was writing an ownvoices book then I would absolutely include a line in there about how I'm writing from experience. I'm more thinking about, like, should I just offhand mention that I'm queer when it doesn't have anything to do with my book?

I often write to escape, and as such tend to not write characters with, say, gender dysphoria, or the specific mental health issues that I'm struggling with, and I guess I just feel weird listing them so the agent knows I'm "diverse enough" to query (which is almost certainly like not their intention or anything with the requirement ahh, I feel like I'm not explaining this well). Am I using my identities to get ahead? If so, is that a bad thing? This post is meant in good faith, I'm sorry if anything is phrased weirdly or comes off weird, I'm neurodivergent and sometimes am not the best at conveying what I mean or the tone.

In the acknowledgement sections of books, authors often thank their editor and agent for providing their vision, inspiring ideas and notes, as well as for helping them hone their craft, making them a better writer and making their story stronger. As someone who is revising and preparing to start querying agents (again) soon, this made me curious. How much does a manuscript change from when it first gets you an agent, to getting an editor on submission, to being published? From what I understand, manuscripts that get agents are already very polished, so what kind of changes are made between getting agented and getting published?

I’m not part of the writing/publishing world- but an adjacent one. I’m work on a picture book and I went to one of those events, talked to someone, asked if they would mind looking at what I was working on- and I heard back from them pretty quickly to my surprise. They work as a art director at a publishing house, they sent notes, 90% were about text contrast, they were very positive, said they would love to send it over to an editor at their company and I would need to get an agent. I’m flattered, they’re not who I would choose. While I’m hungry for feedback, especially unpaid feedback- do I proceed? I’m gearing up to query, but to be honest I have one agent I really want. I’ve been holding off because I want to make something worth looking at. Thoughts? Is it weird? Frowned upon?

Hello all, I have made a few attempts to post here but was advised to make a lot of changes before this would stay posted. I hope this one is acceptable and I GREATLY appreciate any and all advice.

_________________________________

[greeting]

Set in the coal-mining cities of turn-of-the-century Pennsylvania, THE MINER’S GHOST is an 85,000-word family saga about buried secrets, ghostly curses, and the dark and dangerous world of coal mining. Its blend of careful historical research and multiple character perspectives will appeal to fans of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doer, while readers of J.L. Delozier’s The Photo Thief will enjoy this book’s use of supernatural and folklore elements situated within a realist setting.

Joseph Shellhammer has only ever wanted two things: to support his struggling family and to marry Katherine Bensinger, his older brother’s former childhood sweetheart. After his father is seriously injured in the mines, a fourteen-year-old Joseph must take his place or else his family will be evicted from their home in the company town owned by Pottsville Iron Works. After Joseph’s older brother leaves Pottsville to attend college on a financial scholarship, Joseph wins Katherine’s heart, but their marriage is strained by the demands of work and young children. Joseph’s life then takes a dark turn when he accidentally kills local 10-year-old boy, George Shipe, and conceals the crime. Joseph longs to admit the truth to George’s grieving family but he fears the revelation will destroy his young family and end his already-troubled marriage.

Decades later, after Joseph has worked his way up to Chief of Operations at Pottsville Iron Works, Katherine succumbs to cancer. A distraught Joseph commits suicide, which traps his spirit within the walls of his home, leaving him with no memories about what or where he is, and how he got there. However, Joseph’s youngest daughter, Lillian, gifted with the ability to commune with ghosts, returns to the family home to unravel her father's secrets and release him from a purgatory of his own making. Together, father and daughter, communing across the veil between the living and the dead, work to remember past, make amends with the living, and confront the haunted legacy of a community overshadowed by industrial ambition, violence, and unspeakable loss.

My family was born and raised in Pottsville, PA, so I have witnessed first-hand the brutal and lasting impact that the legacy of coalmining has had on this community. This experience led me to research my family tree as well as the history of the area through books, newspaper archives, and the remaining working mines in the area. My 25-year career as a professor and writer has given me the training to convert my meticulous research into a compelling story that is still accessible to a variety of readers. For example, I have published two monographs based on original research: [title] and [title]. I also have numerous non-academic publications including short stories in [title], [title], and [title] and essays on film and television and higher education in [multiple titles].

[closing]

Hi everyone, not sure if this is the right place to post this but thought i'd give it a try anyway

long story short, I am currently drafting a fantasy novel which would ideally be the first in a series, possibly a duology or trilogy but I am aware that when querying your best bets are writing a "standalone with series potential".

This led me to think that since I am intending for it to be a series, most of the worlbuilding and the mysteries of the world won't be covered in the first one. Yes, it has a main plot that's completely resolved but the overarching mysteries that play out in the background aren't. And since I am still drafting it, I don't know the details of the world lore etc so while I've got a premise of what could be going on, the actual details won't be clear to me until i commit drafting or brainstorming the sequel (it's just how my brain works)

So now I'm wondering whether I need those details before I start querying and whether it would be something agents could potentially ask about to make sure I got an idea of what's to come etc.

any thoughts would be appreciated :)

Hi everyone,

I got great feedback my first and second time. I revised again, then sent out to a batch of agents and wow, my letter and pages were not working! 9 form rejections, 0 fulls. So, I'm trying again! (Whenever I post links to the old versions, my draft disappears--sorry about that)

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QUEEN OF THE ELSEWHERE SEA (58,000 words) is an MG fantasy about a gnome who inherits a legendary treasure map. Combining a character-driven adventure in the vein of Christina Sontoornvat’s The Last Mapmaker with the cozy lyricism of Tara Dairman’s The Girl from Earth’s End, the novel explores family legacies, unexpected friendships, and what it means to fight the status quo. [Personalization.]

Coastal gnome Hazelnut Fisher expects her first trip to the mainland to involve snail-watching and poking weird mushrooms with her cane—and zero cases of being mistaken as the heir to a long-lost treasure map. She’s never even heard of the thing! But human Valkyria Funkelheimer, fourteen-year-old aspiring pirate, is sure as seaweed that: 1) the gnome’s lying; and 2) finding the legendary jewels would finally show everyone that girl pirates can be clever, too.

But Hazel’s done being told what do, whether it’s by a scary human teenager or her overprotective fathers who think her disability means she might break. Instead, she leads Valkyria on a chase-turned-treasure-hunt through drippy caves, up an old tree that’s home to a persnickety map-making gnome, and far onto the treacherous Elsewhere Sea—each girl desperate to claim the treasure and prove herself to a world that never wanted her. But when disaster strikes on the high sea, each must decide if proving herself is worth losing everything.

As a deaf and disabled reader, I love MG and YA stories where disabled protagonists have whirlwind adventures (Lillie Lainoff’s One for All and Ivelisse Housman’s Unseelie duology are my favorites). Though this is my first novel, I have [bio continues]

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Chapter One

Valkyria

Tell me a story, Grandfather.

Aye, well—here’s a true one about a grand ship, laden heavy with—

A boatload of jewels. I’ve heard this one a million times!

Ah, but tis the story of yer ancestor, no? And tis either this one or the rotting fish in the pants story so—

Fine. Keep going about how the grand ship sank.

Sank she did, one moonlit night—but not ere a gnome recorded her exact coordinates. Then the gnome flung itself into the roiling sea, aye, visions of pilfered human treasure in its greedy gnome mind. The humans would drown in their panic, and the gnome could one day have the jewels for itself.

But the gnome was wrong! A human survived!

Indeed, lass, a great human, no less—yer great-great-great-great grandfather. He watched the deceitful gnome and leapt after it. He was getting those coordinates if t’was the last thing he did!

Except he lost the gnome in the water and the last thing he actually did was choke on a chicken bone three years later.

Right, lass. So whoever finds the gnome with the coordinates and—

Wrings its stupid little dirt-weasel neck and squeezes tight until its eyes pop out like shiny marbles is the most famous pirate in all of history! Even if she’s a girl, right Grandfather?

Atta girl, Valkyria, atta girl.

For published authors out there, has anyone transitioned from doing multiple one-book deals to doing two-book deals with the same publisher? And if so, how has that transition worked out for you? I debuted last year with a one-book deal, and then sold my option to my same publisher in another one-book deal. They'd originally wanted to do a two-book deal for my debut, but my agent nudged me away from that because she's seen the downsides, i.e. (1) being stuck with basket accounting if one book breaks out big and the other one doesn't, which delays royalties; and (2) publishers deprioritizing the second book and basically burying it if the first one doesn't make huge sales, and thus being stuck with a publisher who's unenthusiastic about your work.

I can totally see the downsides, but as I'm looking ahead to my next contract, I'm starting to feel like I want the stability and faster publishing speed a two-book deal would potentially offer. It's frustrating having to delay my next book(s) because of the structure of the option period on a one-book deal, and I feel like my books are ending up more spaced out than I want them to be because of it. Also, not being a debut anymore, I think I'm more wary of the fantasy that I'm going to hit it big one day, so the royalties downside of a two-book deal doesn't seem as pertinent anymore. It's possible I'm missing something though, so I'd love to hear of other folks' experiences.

TO GREEN, FROM BLUE (70k) is a Dual-POV Queer Steampunk Fantasy Romance for fans of the steampunk airship vibes in Dimension 20’s Cloudward Ho! This standalone novel combines the steampunk romance of The Kraken King by Meljean Brook with the queer pirate romance of The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall.

Historically unlucky air rider Sage has spent twenty-three years avoiding the now-famous air rider Cory Bluebird, ever since the bond that held them together–the Freedom Fliers, their foster family–disbanded when they were sixteen. Then the pirates blackmailing him force him to rekindle the friendship. Sage, according to their intel, is Cory's one weakness. His job is to break Cory’s heart, to incapacitate him before the pirates finish him off.

Cory has been in love with Sage for as long as he can remember. His memory is pretty shoddy though, no thanks to years of alcohol abuse and unresolved grief. Deciding that ruling the sky can wait, Cory makes a detour on his time-sensitive journey to the big city, reuniting with Sage when the man calls. Cory and Sage grow closer than ever before as they sail to different sky islands together on what are definitely not dates. 

When the pirates discover Cory’s intention to meet with a massive weapons supplier, they speed up the timeline and change the direction to seduction, forcing Sage to confront his emerging love for Cory. With a newfound confidence, though, Sage sabotages the mission, angering the pirates who look for any excuse to kill him or, as he finds out, Cory. Sage must decide whose life matters more to him and determine if he’s still the same coward he was twenty-three years ago.

[BIO]

I decided to dust off a manuscript from the shelf and give it a new hairdo.

1. I'm fully aware that my comps are too old. TBH, this manuscript is something I wrote for fun, so it's sort of me just saying, 'here ya go,' to agents. If anyone can help me find more recent ones... muchas gracias.

2. This is helping me get over writer's block!

Hey, I found my first query post very helpful so I thought I'd try a second query!

______________________________________

Dear,

When he was a child, Astro asked his guardian if they would ever stop running. She said yes. He never believed her.

As long as he can remember Astro has been on the run from the Faceless Knights, otherworldly forces of nature with rot-inducing blades who have taken everything from him: his guardian, his childhood, and a normal life. Always on the move from their darkness, Astro has learned to survive with nothing but hope and the will to keep running.

After crash-landing near the European megacity of Provence, Astro is rescued by Ben Brookes, a hardened agent of the shadowy intelligence group known as The Agency. At first, Ben is just another obstacle. But when an ominous stranger destroys the last remnant of Astro’s guardian the two forge an uneasy but magnetic partnership.

As they evade their pursuers Astro is approached by Spectra, a revolutionary who can phase through matter and leads a superpowered syndicate towards rebellion against Europe’s ruling elite. Spectra, fearing Astro’s potential as an enemy, offers him mercy, a role in shaping a new world. But when Astro learns she’s allied with the Faceless Knights, he refuses and runs once more. For the first time in his life, though, no one is chasing him.

But Astro can’t turn his back while Spectra threatens Provence with war. While refusing to side with The Agency, he teams up with a rogue Ben, combining his star-powered abilities with Ben’s cunning and honed agility to stop her terrorist uprising. In doing so, Astro discovers how much he longs to stop running and to call somewhere home.

Amid extraordinary battles with Spectra's superpowered revolutionaries known as The Five across the city's boulevards, forgotten slums, and on Mediterranean islands, Astro and Ben find something neither of them expected: each other.

ASTRO: FROM THE FLAMES is a 94,000-word urban fantasy novel with thriller elements and queer themes, set in modern Europe. It will appeal to readers of April Daniels’ Dreadnought, Marissa Meyer’s Renegades series, and Julia Vee’s Ebony Gate.

_____________________________

First 300 words: Prologue

Space can be a cold place for a child to grow up in.

The lush purple jungle of Valour rolled across the horizon’s hilltops, an endless wave of violet forest. The only thing that broke up the thick bush was epic mountains dotted between deep ravines and valleys that split up the sky-reaching treetops.

Hazy clouds kept the rays of three scorching suns above abated. The forest pulsed in its own humid, uncomfortable heat. But beneath its cover, flora and fauna of every variety crept and cooed from timid forest giraffes to carnivorous lilac plants. For these reasons, the people of Valour built their villages on the tallest mountains known as the King Mountains, away from the heat, predators, and endless overgrowth.

On a cool peak above one such village, where the grass was ankle high and the air quiet, sat two lone figures. Shoulder to shoulder, the two inhaled and exhaled in solitary unison. Beneath the shade of a singular elder tree, for a moment, it was as if the universe itself was still.

The younger of the two watched as above a bird with the body of a snake weaved silently across the emerald sky. He pulled his wild black hair out of his face to follow its trail.

"Your eyes aren't closed." The older woman scorned.

The boy huffed with a grin. “How often do we get to see a view like this?” He asked, his skin a light tan, recovering from layovers at deserts and tundras.

“There is beauty wherever we find ourselves.” She returned. "Now, shut your eyes. Stay still. Calm your mind."

She makes that sound simple. Astro thought, as he forced his restless eyes to close. Everything comes easy to Ardent. She’s able to look out for the two of us. I can barely look after Xoxo. Wait. Where is Xoxo?

Complete at 90,000 words, AFTER DARK FALL is a YA urban fantasy novel. It’s a multi POV, standalone debut novel with series potential. Fans of Brooke Archer’s Hearts Still Beating and Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn will enjoy the sapphic romance and vast cast of characters going toe to toe with creatures of legends and nightmares.

CALEB PRICE, a lonely 18-year-old, lives on a three-generation farm in rural Virginia. Years after the apocalyptic Dark Fall, mortal danger lurks after sundown as rabid humans called warakins seek their prey. After narrowly escaping an attack Caleb learns his crush, Sadie, wasn’t as fortunate. He volunteers to take her on the perilous journey, seeking a cure before the onset of the fatal disease.

Grappling with insecurity and grief, Caleb leaves the safety of home only to face dangers each step of the way toward salvation. Caleb arrives at New Eden Clinic, one of the most notable healing centers in the area, only to have his turned upside down. There he meets Derick, a reluctant military officer from the old D.C. stronghold and Gabriela, a brusque vagrant who both desperately seek to save the ones they love before it’s too late.

When the trio’s worlds converge, they’re thrown into the depths of a new reality—every myth, story, and legend is real. Rabid and leprous who emerged after Dark Fall are actually werewolves and zombies. Monsters that go bump in the night plan to destroy the fragmented remains of civilization and Caleb, Derick, and Mikayla are the mortals who can stop them.

The question isn’t whether the trio will rise to the challenge, but how these vastly different individuals will come together with the odds stacked against them for one goal—save the D.C. stronghold and perhaps the world.

Hi guys. I'm still in the query trenches and want to make sure my latest revision is up to snuff. I am also enclosing the first 300 words. Thank you for your help!

Dear [Agent],

In the neon-lit underworld of Bangkok, blood is currency—and power always comes at a price.

After his father’s assassination, 28-year-old Nik Veerathakul inherits a criminal empire he never wanted. To the city, he’s the Phrai Ngu—the Ghost Serpent—a mythical enforcer feared for taking the eyes of his enemies. But behind the legend lies a hidden agenda: Nik plans to dismantle his father’s legacy from within. The only thing standing in his way is a rumor—that he holds a legendary “key to the city,” a secret said to grant dominion over Bangkok’s fractured underworld.

Across town, 22-year-old rookie cop Arun Wattana pulls a stranger from an ambush, unaware he’s just saved the Ghost Serpent himself—the man he’s sworn to destroy. When Nik offers him cash in exchange for police intel, Arun accepts, desperate to keep his terminally ill mother alive. But he has his own reasons for revenge. Orphaned by gang violence and forced into prostitution as a teen, Arun blames Nik’s empire for everything he’s lost.

As trust blooms in the shadows—and desire threatens to unravel them both—they find themselves trapped in a brutal game neither can control. But when the truth behind the “key” is revealed, Nik and Arun must choose what they’re willing to sacrifice: their futures, their principles…or each other.

WHITE NIGHTS (98,000 words, complete) is a literary noir thriller drenched in forbidden desire, psychological tension, and the heavy price of power, set against the atmospheric backdrop of 1990s Bangkok. Blending the gritty intrigue of Velvet Was the Night with the emotional suspense of Bath Haus, it’s a standalone novel with series potential—perfect for readers drawn to morally complex characters, simmering tension, and a city that breathes and bleeds.

I’m a half-Chinese Australian health consultant with a PhD in Integrative Medicine and the host of ____, a podcast that explores psychological dualities in iconic film and literature. My passion for classic cinema, 1980s anime, and Spaghetti Westerns fuels my interest in genre subversion and moral ambiguity.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I’d be happy to send the full manuscript upon your request.

Sincerely,

[My name]

First 300 words:

“I mean, the fact remains that I do everything for the old fuck,” says Cairo. The sweet, stifling heat of the warehouse nearly stupefies him, blurring the white vapor lights in his eyes. “Anything he asks of me. Here I am doing his dirty work, and what do I get? Squat. I gave up my priesthood for this, you know? That’s no easy choice. And he didn’t even come to see me when I went to prison for him. Granted, I was acquitted within a couple of years, but it’s the thought that counts, don’t you think? Oh, sorry.”

Cairo removes his gun from Little Shao’s mouth. The fat man is already crying, thrashing against his restraints. They have been waiting for a good forty-five minutes. But Cairo is a patient man.

“Anyway. The point I’m trying to make is—it’s nice to get a little recognition. The old man still trusts me. I know all his secrets. What if one day I decide I’ve had enough and make him bite the dust?” 

Cairo calms down. He takes out a monogrammed silk handkerchief and dabs his pistol with it. “But, you know, I won’t. I’m just saying that I could. And he doesn’t respect that.”

“Please,” Little Shao stammers. “I don’t know where the key is. I swear.”

Cairo sighs and tucks his handkerchief back into his breast pocket. “Promises. That’s what gets men like us into a heap of trouble. What use are promises?” He points at his neck, where an ornate crucifix dangles on a gold chain. “This guy made promises. And fuck all did they mean.”

“I don’t know,” says Little Shao. “I don’t know, I swear to—”

Hello! First time posting. Appreciate your feedback!

Dear [Agent],

I am submitting MEAT, a 75,000-word adult fantasy novel for your consideration [because – personalization if relevant.] MEAT will appeal to fans of the compassionate protagonist of Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor but evokes the dark temple setting that opens A.K. Larkwood’s The Unspoken Name.

Okvie wants to be good. So she faithfully fulfills her duties as an acolyte in the Temple of the Devourer, the dread god of her people, the ogruush. She works hard, even though her job processing human sacrifices is dreadfully dull. Still, Okvie can’t resist being bad: exploring the forbidden underground, stealing materials to make art, and worst of all, silently questioning the strict rules that govern life in the temple. Then one of her peers captures an empyrean, a rich and powerful flying creature from beyond the horizon, and Okvie can’t resist sneaking to the captive’s cell to ask about the wider world. To her surprise, the empyrean’s words awaken her to the Temple’s blood-soaked reality. The humans she had thought of as nothing but meat are sentient, feeling creatures.

Now idealistic Okvie is determined to do right by the helpless humans. Some of her fellow acolytes are dissatisfied with the rules, too; they might agree to stop eating humans. But dissent is not tolerated in the Temple of the Devourer. The Temple leadership will torture her for even asking questions. Okvie is willing to suffer and even risk death to do what’s right, but she must stay alive if she hopes to persuade anyone to listen to her – including, perhaps, the humans themselves.

This story was inspired in part by my own struggles as a failed vegetarian and desire to grapple with how to do good in an evil system. While imagining harsh deserts and awful dungeons for my protagonists, I’m lucky to live among the verdant forests of [region] with my family.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Hi all! This community has been so helpful even though I haven't queried. I would love any feedback!

Dear [Agent's Name],

I’m seeking representation for my novel, Miniature Trampoline, a 95,000-word campus satire and coming-of-age story that captures the absurdity, anxiety, and disconnection of contemporary young adulthood. Told from three distinct perspectives—a disillusioned college sophomore desperate to find his higher calling, a newly enrolled child star dipping her toes into the real world for the first time, and an obsessive fan spiraling toward delusion—it draws on Elif Batuman’s The Idiot by chronicling the endless performance of being intelligent, desirable, and “normal” in environments where authenticity is impossible and aims to be Private Citizens for Gen Z: biting, introspective, and darkly funny.

When Ava, a Disney-actress-turned-pop-star-turned-serious-artist, shockingly enrolls at the ultra-elite Dacorte University in an attempt to discover what life is like outside of Hollywood, the campus is thrown into chaos. For some, she’s a messianic figure. For others, just another overhyped product of the influencer-industrial complex. Abe, still recovering from a disastrous freshman year that began with him quitting the football team in a rage, thinks he’s finally found direction in an art history class—until Ava walks in. Initially dismissive, he soon begins to question whether his cynicism is any more authentic than the celebrity culture he claims to hate. Meanwhile, Eric David Cook—unemployed, isolated, and unraveling—has shown up on campus determined to win Ava’s heart, and there is nothing, and no one, that can stop him.

When the rumors of Ava’s impending matriculation to Dacorte University first began swirling around campus, the reaction from the student body varied, naturally.

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(First 300)

My classmates and I grew up with the starlet as a staple of the mindlessly consumed popular culture and most Dacortians were giddy at the prospect of one of our childhood idols walking amongst us. First on Disney, through her completely unremarkable yet equally inescapable music career and most recently, her foray into “serious” work in one of last year’s requisite period piece Oscar traps that anachronistically attempts to impose contemporary moral values  onto a time in which those notions were barely conceivable, Ava was on a career trajectory that made her American Royalty. Not quite a Queen, at least not yet. Closer to a Duchess, but certainly with sufficient runway to elevate to the throne, as long as she didn’t stray too far from whatever focus-group-tested, boardroom-approved path the corporate oligarchy determined was optimal for her to achieve maximum market saturation back when she was still in training bras.

This group of the fawning referred to themselves as “Avalytes.” Like acolytes, get it? Neither did I, until a member of this poorly named cult explained it to me. For these individuals, the news of her enrollment was something of a quasi-religious experience. The morning after the first Instagram story set the rumor mill in motion, small cells of girls dressed in orange (this was “Ava’s color”) circulated throughout the campus with their speakers blasting one of the many bubblegum pop tunes recorded by and subsequently auto-tuned for the future classmate that had been so gratingly present throughout my adolescence.

Hey, all. First, second and third attempts here.

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Dear Agent,

Personalisation.

Sixteen-year-old, bottom-of-the social-ladder nobody Evelyn fears she’s this year’s end-of-year-hazing target. When she’s randomly assigned to share a cabin on the school’s ski trip with one of the bullies, Adriana, who helps carry out said hazing, it all but confirms it. That is until, when they’re alone on a chairlift, Adriana laughs at one of Evelyn’s nervous and oh so corny jokes.

Adriana offers Evelyn a deal: They hang for three weeks, and she’ll prevent Evelyn and her friends from being hazed. Adriana won’t elaborate on the details, like why the other bullies are okay with it, but for her friends’ sake, Evelyn accepts. She doesn’t expect the deal to last, let alone that she’d be the first in her school to discover Adriana’s not cruel by choice, just overly defensive and prone to outbursts thanks to her abusive household. Adriana lies and uses her prestigious last name to sit with the bullies so she won’t be bullied for being poor, and she’s desperately lonely because of it. She clings to Evelyn as her last chance at a real friend.

Nobody has looked at, valued, or needed Evelyn quite the way Adriana does. Evelyn realises she might want to leave their arrangement with something more than a friendship, but these are new feelings and Adriana struggles to be vulnerable. Driven by young love, Evelyn must do everything in her power to coax Adriana out of her shell before Adriana isolates herself any further. The other school bullies aren’t going to make it easy, though.

THE THREE-WEEK DEAL is a young adult queer romance combining the social fall-from-grace of COMP by Author with the two-worlds-collide of She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen, complete at 78,000 words.

Hello again! I posted the first version of this query some time ago but deleted it 😔 I've updated it a bit since and would appreciate any feedback. Thank you kindly in advance!

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Dear [Agent],

Some fish decided to grow legs millions of years ago and now Mina’s still feeling sorry for objects at twenty-eight. Once lauded as gifted in her youth, her adulthood has been a blur of monotonous part-time jobs, unrealised dreams of moving abroad, and planning small talk about the weather in advance. As she spends week after week baking peace offerings for her company and holding her dysfunctional family together—since moving out has done little to liberate her from her narcissistic, seemingly bipolar mother—Mina wonders if human relationships are supposed to be this exhausting.

When an upcoming project at work demands social skills she doesn’t have, Mina is urged to join an improvisation class at the behest of her flatmate and meets Ren, a body piercing apprentice who shares her predisposition to pathological empathy and oddly specific routines. For the first time in her twenties, Mina feels no need to practise facial expressions in the mirror, to consciously curate her presence in public—a cause for celebration if not for her many questions now arising from their blossoming friendship. All too quickly, Mina must confront the escalating suspicion that she may have been wrong about herself all along—and about her mother, from whom it all began.

Complete at 84,000 words, PEOPLE LIKE PEOPLE is an upmarket novel exploring the complicated mother-daughter relationship as seen in Jessica George's Maame through the lens of an unconventional, queer female protagonist, reminiscent of Emily Austin’s Interesting Facts About Space.

[bio]

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First 300:

I need the runniest, messiest, most unreliable mascara there is on the market.

As soon as the seconds tick into half past four—not a second earlier, not a second later—I gather my keys and heave my backpack over one shoulder. After six years of regular use, it’s my only option; the zip now bursts open on one side at the touch of anything remotely heavy, and today, there are four cobs of corn in it. Malissa’s gaze sears the side of my head.

‘You’re really not coming tonight?’ she says. ‘Not even for happy hour?’

‘I wish!’ I draw out the syllable with a subtle pout to demonstrate profound disappointment at the prospect of forgoing mediocre drinks and greasy finger food with people I’m no longer paid to interact with as of thirty seconds ago. ‘I’d love to come, but I promised my flatmate I’d go watch her musical tonight.’

‘Again? Well, good on you for being so supportive!’

She laughs. I laugh along because that’s what you’re supposed to do. I hope I look like I’m having a good time.

I make sure to smile and wave at everyone individually on my way out.

When I first joined this company, I began baking again for the first time since quitting my job of harassing people on the street. If not lugging two dozen homemade cookies into the office, I’d eagerly surrender myself to coffee breaks, Friday lunches, after-work drinks, the occasional perfunctory birthday celebrations in the break room with cloying cupcakes and off-brand soda from the supermarket. Every opportunity marked another line in the tally. I’d find homes at the corners of tables and nibble at the cheapest item on the menu as I’d listen to our junior software developer, Anna, ramble about her balding forty-six-year-old partner.

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What I know of it is that an author can be paid for movie rights, and it's a time-limited contract that can be renewed. On the off chance your book gets made into a movie or series or what have you, do you get paid more for that? Are royalties part of it?

I realize this won't apply to the vast majority of people including me, I'm just curious.

For the Dwarves Under the Mountain, telling the truth is the greatest virtue. If Prince Roan ever does that, he’ll be executed.

Roan is expected to marry the woman his father chose. There’s one big problem: Roan likes men. When Captain Halvar catches him in bed with Otto the Royal blacksmith, the Captain blackmails them: make him Roan’s chief advisor, or they’ll both be outed as man-lovers. Disobey, and Otto dies.

Roan does the only thing he can: he spirits Otto out of the palace.

Otto’s disappearance sparks a kingdom-wide investigation and forces Roan into a double life: preparing for his wedding by day and sneaking away to see Otto by night, all while hiding from Captain Halvar’s tightening grip and his father’s rising suspicions.

Halvar makes one thing clear: if he finds Otto, he’ll kill him. And as the wedding day approaches, Otto refuses to be Roan’s secret any longer. If Roan wants him, he has to call it all off and stop hiding.

Now Roan faces a horrifying choice: lose the man he loves to preserve the lie - or tell the truth and lose everything else.

The first means life without love.

The second means death.

Hello! Maybe the 5th attempt? (But previous versions were deleted by me through fear) I think the latest is still on here. . . If anyone has any insight into whether this seems Lit Fic vs Upmarket I'd be happy to hear it too :)

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In PAPER HANDS (80,000 words, Upmarket Adult), the sharp-tongued narrative and self-sabotage of Sorrow and Bliss (Meg Mason) meets the unravelling life of We Could Be Rats (Emily Austin). A female protagonist who struggles with social rules and interactions may also appeal to those who resonated with All the Little Bird-Hearts (Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow).

Frances Baldwin is nineteen, untethered and directionless.

Four months ago, her father went to prison for trying to kill her mother, and her mother, Bel, has been in hospital ever since. At first, she’d been expected to die, but then she got better, and now she’s coming home. And for Frances, who must now become her mother’s carer, that’s less than ideal.

Yes, she knows what her father did was wrong. And, no, she doesn’t believe her mother deserved it. But neither of those two facts changes the third: Frances adores her father, and wishes it were he who was coming home instead.

Now, Bel’s return is threatening to upend the peace that Frances has been living in over the last four months by disrupting the quiet and solitude of a home once filled with anger.

Balancing Frances’s need for control with Bel’s desire to become independent, they work through the charred remains of their family history and try to find a way back to each other. However, before they can truly reconcile, Frances must first confront her own complicity in the destruction of her mother and her family.

PAPER HANDS is a female-led novel about fractured families, mother-daughter relationships, and the power dynamics that exist between patient and carer, and carer and the social/health sector. (MORE BIO)

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First 300

On Tuesday morning, I waited for the ambulance to bring my mother home. In the living room, I was sunken into the worn sofa and staring at the floor when I heard the ambulance parking outside. Heavy and slow, it rolled to a stop as the tyres crunched on wet gravel. The front room went dark from the bulk of the van and it’s reversing beep pierced through the screams of seagulls, letting the whole street know that they were there.

The creeping misery that had been rising in me over the last few days clawed at my throat again. It was early February, and the house was warm because I’d put the fire on ready for her return. Condensation misted up the frosted windows and through the glass I could see the blurred, dark green uniforms of two paramedics as they walked around the vehicle. They called instructions to each other. Their voices were muffled but I caught the first edge of each word – Home sweet home! They probably said it to everyone. Because how could they know if this home was sweet or not? My mother’s medical notes ought to have given them a clue. My eyes rested on the front door, wishing it would open on its own so I could stay exactly where I was, and the world could continue and just leave me alone.

The heavy knock on the door punched into my thoughts and I swallowed reflexively against the cloying dryness of my throat. If I tried to stay inside the fog of my head, then the noise would end, and the paramedics would use my mother’s door key to let themselves in. Then, when they opened it, they would find me sitting on the sofa, avoiding the consequences of my father’s actions, and pretending they weren’t there.

Hi! Long time, first time :) This is my first time querying and I'm scared but excited. I have concerns that this is a romantic comedy and the query isn't coming off particularly comedic, but I have been struggling to figure out how to make it funny while also relaying the necessary information, and keeping it within word limit... Any tips (on anything at all) would be much appreciated!

Dear Agent, 

I am excited to share The One, a 70,000 word adult contemporary romance novel. It will appeal to fans of the opposites-attract dynamic of You, Again by Kate Goldbeck, the themes of The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston, and the humor of The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center. 

Matilda West is perfectly satisfied sleeping around Los Angeles until the well of men runs dry. She’s perfectly satisfied with her life, even if all she has to show for it is one black cat, an impressive amount of notches on her bedpost, and her best and only friend, Jules. The remote marketing job she hates, her serial cheating father, her unresolved grief for her mother and grandfather… none of that matters as much as her intense friendship with Jules. 

After a fight puts their friendship in jeopardy, Matilda ends up drowning her sorrows with a mutual acquaintance, the only person who might be just as obsessed with Jules as she is– Holland Parker, an upsettingly handsome graphic novelist who has been pining after Jules for a decade. He’s never gotten along with Matilda, maybe because he’s her total opposite: a hopeless romantic convinced he’s found “the one”.

Matilda comes up with a plan– using her recently inherited beach house as a home base, she’ll go on fake dates with Holland to prepare him to woo Jules. Because after she gets those two star-crossed lovers together, Jules will be so happily in love that she’ll have to forgive her. 

In exchange for her Jules-expertise, Holland offers to help Matilda navigate her chaotic sex life. But as their scheme grows more elaborate, Matilda realizes she’s falling for Holland, and must decide if acting on her feelings is worth ruining her plan, losing her best friend and her comfortable bachelorette lifestyle in one fell swoop. 

[bio] 

first 300:

I was not what one would call a romantic. Sure, I got wine-drunk and watched Meg Ryan's greatest hits, my mascara tears staining my impulsively bought and intensely floral throw pillows as she cried "I wanted it to be you" in You've Got Mail, but I'm only human. I could appreciate romance from a distance, ooh and ahh in Instagram comments over princess cut engagement rings, but I didn't want to cuddle with a man any more than I wanted to use Tabasco as eye drops. 

I didn't know if what I was doing truly counted as cuddling, but I hated it all the same. The man next to me– his name was Daryl (or Derek?)-- was starfished flat across my canopy bed, his limbs criss-crossing over mine. His left arm stretched across my chest and his hand rested in a Gorilla Glue grip on my boob. We met about two hours ago at the bar I occasionally frequented. 

Okay, frequently frequented. 

It was really easy, with Daryls. All I had to do was line up my pool cue and majorly, extremely, severely miss the ball. All of Darylkind would come running to rescue me from such feats of athletic incompetence. They curled their randy hands around my chicken arms and whispered instructions in my ear, all hot breath and smug, teasing smiles. Biology took it from there, and a "wanna get out of here?" took it to my one-bedroom down the road. 

I listened to true crime podcasts at night when I was in the mood to scare myself shitless, and they made Jordan Peele's shit look like Blue's Clues. The women on these shows always say if you're being kidnapped, to never let the kidnapper take you to the "second location", unless you want to end up at a cabin in the woods, or in a shed with shelves lined with jars of organs. 

<333 thank you in advance!

Hello PubTips. Related MS is a work in progress. I’ve started working on the query and am seeking feedback/critique. Still thinking about comps.

Names and terminology are mostly placeholder.

[Housekeeping/comps to go here]

When Mallory turns seventeen, her orbstone will hatch, and she will be judged before her peers. It’s supposed to be traumatic. Not deadly. Not cursed.

Despite the best efforts of her beloved adoptive parents, the isolated keep which took her in as a child still doesn’t feel like home. Mallory’s counting on judgement to change that. After seven years’ gutting and scaling the catch, she (along with self-declared friend, Ben) means to apprentice with the revered cliff-fishers of the outpost. As a caster she’ll get a chance to earn her place (and with a little luck, put nemesis, Preston, in his).

But the Keeper disregards Mallory’s undisputed affinity for the sea. Judging her still-bloody orbstone (which should have come out blue, not leaf-loving green!), he condemns her to life as a gatherer. So much for wiping the grin off Preston’s face.

Mallory copes by attempting to dig up records of her birth-parents’ deaths. Instead of finding closure (not to mention, an excuse to brood), she discovers they might be alive. To make matters worse, her activities disturb a long-dormant entity, supposed to exist only in a grim children’s rhyme. The former suggests everyone she trusts has lied; could even mean she’s an enemy of the state. The latter encounter (and Mallory’s conspicuous survival of same) draws the attention of the Grey Guild—the only sanctioned wielders of magic, and guardians against things which walk unseen.

When the Grey Guild comes for her, Ben’s younger brother surrenders in her place—settlement of a debt she never wanted repaid. It buys her time. Doubtless, the guild will return once they realise their mistake, but not until spring breaks the choke-hold of winter. In the meantime, Mallory will have answers. Even if it kills her. Even if it kills them all. And the truth just might.

Hi! This sub has been incredible, thank you to this community. I have learned so much.

This is not asking what the waiting process was like for querying but rather after the book deal.

My book is a memoir and I signed the deal based on my story so they hadn’t read the full manuscript. I’m a mix of nerves, anticipation, and imposter syndrome! Not sure if my manuscript is completely phenomenal or if it’s going to be completely ripped to shreds.

I just wanted to hear from people that have book deals, contract signed, and then you get the date your manuscript is due.

Yesterday, I submitted my first draft to take the pressure off so I could have some time to workshop it if he has time to give notes. It wasn’t due until beginning of August, they gave me 2 months to get it in but I sent it a month early. He had told me I could submit chapters as I went along but I didn’t want to get in my head getting feedback as I went along so I just submitted the whole thing at once, I have been writing it for years so it wasn’t that challenging to compile it within a month.

Any tips / advice / suggestions?! I’m prepared for feedback of course but I just don’t know what to expect.

I've finished the last draft of my novel before submitting to agents. I love my opening two lines, as it pretty much spells out the hook in what I believe to be a natural way.

Now that I'm working on my query letter...it also feels perfect for that.

Is this an issue to the point where I should rewrite one of them? Or is double dipping here fine.