Never thought I’d be writing a second one of these, but here we are! One year ago, I found myself in the dreaded querying trenches again (this is a happy story though, promise). For those who are interested, here’s what my querying journey looked like this time.
When I made the decision to query again, I was pretty terrified of what the process would look like. I was leaving an agent I enjoyed working with, a book I truly believed in, and a rewrite I had just completed. I queried my first novel for over a year before I signed with that agent. I was nervous and scared at the prospect of backtracking and being without representation for so long.
But I also knew this was the right choice for me at that moment. So even though it wasn’t part of the original plan, I left my first agent and began working on a new book to query.
I had a half-edited draft of a horror novel. No one had read it yet besides me. It was a little out there, a little weird, and I wasn’t sure if anyone would enjoy it. But as worried as I was about it finding the right audience, I really loved this book. I’d held onto it, editing over and over until it was perfect enough to let someone read it.
But as any author knows, there’s no such thing as perfect. If you’re waiting for perfection to write, you’re never going to finish a book. I got to work and with the suggestions of my awesome beta reader (hey, Crystal!), I finished edits in a month.
I talked to some writer friends who had left their first agents and signed with new ones. I made an extensive spreadsheet to keep track of agents I wanted to query and in the meantime, I also tweeted that I was looking for new representation alongside a snippet of my book.
This ended up being a very wise decision.
Several agents and a couple editors liked those tweets. It was nice to have a list of interested agents to start with. I mentally put them at the top of my “to query” list and kept on with the edits until I felt that my book was as ready as it could be.
I sent my first queries May 1st and had an offer by June 13th from one of the agents who found my pitch on Twitter.
The rest was a blur. The call went AMAZING. She was already an incredible agent at a dream agency for me, but to chat about the book really solidified that. Her past clients raved about how amazing she was. I was stoked.
I took two weeks to alert other agents since everything happened so fast. It also didn’t help that it was summer and lots of people were out of town. (I’ll add that many agents contacted me after the deadline to congratulate me and apologize for missing the deadline. Publishing is very busy right now. Be patient with those agents, y’all.) In the end, I was in the very fortunate position of having multiple offers, and while every agent I spoke to was lovely, I ended up choosing the first agent who offered, which was Kira Watson at Janklow & Nesbit Associates.
Here’s the query that got me 15 full requests and multiple offers for those of you interested. I add all the backstory as a caveat that this felt like a unicorn experience, but it was proceeded by years of querying and a book pulled from sub. If there’s nothing else you take away from this post, I hope that it’s to never give up on your writing. Your stories are needed. The right champion is out there and, despite whatever setbacks you may have, you have to trust your own personal timing.
Dear [AGENT],
After I amicably parted ways with my agent, I am seeking new representation.
THE RED PIT is a 95,000 word adult horror novel combining a sinister rural cult like in “Black Sheep” by Rachel Harrison with the ghostly family saga of “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson and the feminine rage of “The Eyes are The Best Part” by Monika Kim.
Dark things are drawn to Winnepa, Tennessee. It’s no surprise, then, when Sloane Cooper moves to the mysterious Appalachian hometown her mother refused to talk about. With an unidentified fossil given to her the day her mother disappeared, Sloane joins a local paleontology internship in search of answers regarding her mother’s demise. But a budding romance with the cute college boy home for the summer proves a distraction—even more distracting when, unbeknownst to Sloane, the cute college boy belongs to a purity-obsessed cult with a penchant for murder.
Told in multi-POV, Sloane and several townspeople crack open the dark underbelly of Winnepa: its ghostly hauntings, its vanishing residents, its sacrificial pit. When the cult’s bloodlust fixes on Sloane as their next victim, she must make a choice: face the creature responsible for her mother’s disappearance or become a monster herself.
Thanks for reading! I’m wishing you all the best of luck on your publishing journeys.
Writers, you’ve got this! Trust in your stories.
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