I read these posts religiously for the last eight months. Comparing my journey to everyone else's, and looking for clues that it would work out for me.

"Okay, I'm on month two and it took that person three months!"

"That person only had three manuscript requests and got an agent, I've had a lot more requests, so at least ONE of mine will turn into an offer."

It was a grueling process, so hopefully my stats can ease your minds, or add fuel for your overthinking. Either way!

It's Commercial Fiction with elements of Psychological Horror! Comps were Rouge by Mona Awad and Make Me Famous by Maud Ventura

Started writing novel: February 2025
Started querying: March 16, 2026
Offer of Rep: October 1, 2026 (She requested the full on April 20)

Full requests: 24 (23 before offer of rep, 1 after notification of offer)
Partial requests: 4 (1 turned into full)

Of those fulls I received:
1 r&r that I really disagreed with and did not pursue.
1 r&r that was more aligned but it came two days before my call with my now agent.
1 agent who told me she stopped reading after chapter 3 and that "no agent is going to sign this current draft of the book." (BOLD)

I received one offer, and I'm really happy with my agent! I know one of her existing clients who raves about her. That, along with her vision for my book and good rapport we have, makes me feel confident about working together!

A few agents said they were very sad about missing out on my book but couldn't finish in time for my agent deadline.

It really ONLY TAKES ONE. Good luck to you all, wishing you the best!!! <3

Tl;dr: editor who was very keen on my book has stopped responding to my agent after she asked for a formal offer

So this year I finally got an agent after many years (I’ve been writing for smaller publishers who don’t require agents). Book went on sub in about February, we waited and waited, only one editor was interested. I met with her, and told my agent to go ahead with the offer. This was in July. Editor contacted agent a few times to pass on information about the sort of contract offered and asked about sales information for my previous books, etc.

This all happened over the summer, which can be slow in publishing. My agent and the editor were both away at various times, as was I, but when September rolled around and I’d still heard nothing, I started to politely harass my agent.

And she cannot get the editor to reply.

Now, as I said I’ve been an author for a long time (since the days of printing out manuscripts and paying for postage) and I know how slow publishing can be. (I once wrote a whole book before my then-editor replied to say she didn’t like the outline I’d sent her.) But currently, my agent cannot get any response out of this editor. The last contact we had from her was at the beginning of August. Agent has emailed and phoned but it goes to voicemail. I’ve even asked a friend at the same publisher to check the editor is still working there (she is) and isn’t sick or off work for any reason (she isn’t).

My agent, who has been in the business even longer than me (between us we’ve racked up about 50 years) is baffled. She’s never been ghosted like this by an editor who was very keen to buy the book. We both know they can be so slow to reply, or even fail to reply at all, to a submission, but this is way beyond the submission stage.

Agent has now called editor and said if you don’t want the book, just tell us. (I’ll probably end up self publishing and I hate self publishing.) Still nothing.

Is this a new thing editors are doing now? Has anyone else experienced this?

Will try to make this brief. Have an agent, got 2-book deal with small independent press. Book 1 was published and did well (major awards, great reviews, decent sales.) Between books 1 and 2 I got a major deal with a big 5 for book 3. Editor at the independent press became very angry and stopped communicating with me.

Book 2 is supposed to be published in May and I have not seen edits. They were promised in April, June and August. My agent asked about it a few times and was treated rudely. Editor said I would probably have them in October. I don’t yet.

This leaves little time for the various stages of editing, getting blurbs, sending out ARCs etc.

Is it time to ask my agent to pull the book from the publisher?

I’m considering submitting my MS to Susanna Lea Associates (their London branch), but QT doesn’t seem to have much information about their agents’ response times or querying experiences, so I’m wondering whether it’s worth submitting or if I should expect an inevitable CNR.

Has anyone here queried Susanna Lea Associates or had any experience with them? And I’d be especially interested to hear from anyone who has worked with agent Thérèse Coen. Thanks a lot!

Has anyone ever applied for one of these please? Is it very hard to get in? I would love to do this but unsure of my chances. I applied and was selected for Penguin's WriteNow previously and got some mentoring through that, but that was for an earlier novel which I have now sadly accepted is my apprentice piece. This one is for a much more developed piece but I still need to develop further.

I have a call booked with an agent from here and was just wondering if anyone had worked with them/had any thoughts about ANA as an agency?

Hello everyone,

The last time I posted my query letter here, it got destroyed, so I changed a lot of things (everything), and I'd like to try one last time before I shelve it and move on. My query letter, the word count, book title, and my first 300 words are completely different as well. Thank you for your time and feedback!

Dear Agent,

I am seeking representation for FLORALORE, a contemporary fantasy complete at 99,000 words. It will appeal to fans of the nature lore in Rebecca Ross’s A River Enchanted, the magical contemporary mystery of Meg Shaffer’s The Lost Story, and the magic consequences and dark secrets of Emma Törzs’s Ink Blood Sister Scribe.

Evera Presmond likes people deep down, she swears. But social interactions make her neurodivergent brain feel like the city crosswalks where she grew up: stressed and overstimulated. Hiking alone in the mountains and tending to her father keep her heart tucked away, safer than risking the connection she’s always craved.

When her father dies from the mysterious autoimmune disease dominating the news, Evera dives into a reckless grief spiral, landing in a bar brawl that nearly claims her life. A blinding light saves her and awakens a magic she can’t stealth-mode her way out of: her touch can heal others, but only by absorbing their physical pain into her own body.

Seeking answers, Evera joins a support group for Rangers, people with newfound, costly elemental abilities whose elders are suffering from the same deadly autoimmune reaction. There, she reconnects with a childhood friend who welcomes her into an eclectic social circle, including Damek, an outdoor adventure guide with dark powers whose growing connection with Evera makes avoiding attachment increasingly difficult.

When Evera discovers that her employer, energy company EASEC, is funding research for “potential antidotes for Rangers,” she and her newfound allies launch an amateur spy mission to find out why. In an underground lab, they uncover an otherworldly mineral matching the Rangers’ mysterious sixth white blood cell. As the mineral decays, it awakens powers in the younger generation while triggering a deadly reaction in their elders. Evera and her found family must find a way to protect the Rangers before the company rounds them up for experimentation in a desperate attempt to save the mineral. It cannot survive without them, and they cannot survive without it.

If Evera fails, she’ll lose the people she has finally let herself love to the same disease that took her father. To save them, she must confront the truth she has spent her life avoiding: the more you choose to love, the more loss you must absorb.

(bio)

First 300:

Evera fought a losing battle against her gag reflex. Shuffling through the grocery store’s automatic doors, she swept her hair into a quick, messy bun. The movement sent another queasy wave rolling through her stomach.

She swallowed hard, grabbed a plastic shopping basket, and began sorting through her mental catalog of scripted breakups. It’s not you, it’s me? No, she’d used that one last time. 

The pregnancy test she took that morning flashed across her mind. Honestly, Kiran would be a great dad. But five months of dating? Not enough. Even if he was her longest relationship to date. And this morning, he definitely said she looked “a bit pale like a little vampire” and definitely overstayed his welcome last night after their dinner date.

She’d hoped to be blissfully alone with her persistent nausea, but no. Never been more thankful that he goes into our work building and I work from home. The scent of the floral department made her gag, but she picked up a small bouquet anyway as the disquieting truth slithered up from her heart.  Doesn’t matter. The moment the white stick scrawled “Not Pregnant” across it, she knew what she had to do. We’re already past our expiration date. 

Floating between the produce bins, she gathered all the ingredients for a homemade batch of chicken noodle soup, one of the only meals her father could still keep down since his illness began.

Turning left into the pantry aisle, she fought the thudding in her temples. It pulsed in time with the flickering fluorescent lights overhead. How about “we’re just at different points in our lives?” 

She reached for her dad’s favorite brand of spicy pickles when a sudden, strong wave of nausea crashed into her. The jar slipped through her fingers and smashed onto the floor with a high-pitched, glass-crunching crash. Shit. 

Dear [Agent], I am seeking representation for EVERGREEN, a gothic adult fantasy novel in the vein of a Shakespearean tragedy. The novel tells the story of a girl from the slums who enters a marriage of convenience with an older lord from another country, and the trickster god who falls hopelessly in love with her. EVERGREEN encompasses the rich gothic fantasy and romance between a mortal and a god similar to the Belladonna by Adalyn Grace and combines it with a twist on the story of King Midas similar to The Plated Prisoner series by Raven Kennedy. 

Dorothea Midas must make a difficult choice to save her family from the mafia who threatens it over her drunken father’s gambling debt. She enters a virginity auction, but a wealthy lord from her mother’s home country takes a liking to her and asks her to be his wife. She agrees and goes with him to Evergreen Manor. 

Locke is the trickster god. Unlucky in love for centuries, he, too, spots Dorothea at the auction and falls wildly in love with her. He will not, however, be deterred by her new husband and infiltrates Evergreen pretending to be a nobleman to get close to Dorothea. 

At the ivy-covered, dreary and foreign Evergreen, Dorothea struggles to find her way as a lady of noble standing when she still feels like a girl from the slums and her new husband reveals a dark side. In an attempt to help her, Locke begs for help and the goddess of abundance bestows Dorothea with the magical power of creating gold. Dorothea must hide her powers while trying to appease her husband, but she is consumed by Locke whose real identity she is unaware of, threatening a ruinous love.

\**One thing I'm struggling to seamlessly add in, is that I try to quite consciously invert certain romantasy tropes in the novel. As much as I love reading these books, the semi-evil ancient shadow daddy trope is quite problematic at times, and in EVERGREEN I show how involving oneself with one of them can go horribly wrong. I feel like it is important to make it clear that it's not your typical romantasy, without seeming like I'm slagging off the genre. Any advice on how to work this in would be much appreciated!****

First attempt

Dear [Agent],

I am seeking representation for OUTRUN THE SCRIPT, an approximately 80,000-word adult contemporary romance about an actor who discovers her boyfriend was paid to date her, then enters a filmed race with him to beat the producer who hired them both. It combines the romantic complications of paid impersonation in Carlie Walker’s CODE WORD ROMANCE with the comic schemes of Sara Desai’s TO HAVE AND TO HEIST.

Rory Keene takes a ninety-second acting job for producer Sloane Vale: dump a stranger on camera and collect the eight hundred dollars still owed for her performance. But the stranger is her boyfriend Adam, and Sloane has been paying him to date her for the breakup that launches her reality competition. Rory ends the relationship, then signs up with her very recent ex for thirty-six hours of challenges across New York, determined to take the million-dollar prize Sloane wants another couple to win.

When spectators block their route, Rory turns her humiliation into a vicious abandoned-bride routine, clearing a path and making Adam the joke. The clip reaches eighty thousand views and his mother, who believes he left Rory at the altar. Rory corrects the lie on camera, even though she still wants to hurt him: getting even has made her the one lying about what happened between them.

As they race across New York, Rory finds herself falling back into step with a man whose qualifications include professional boyfriend fraud. Adam gives her his shoelace for her broken boot and sacrifices their time to expose a false route marker before other pairs follow it. His messages show he stopped reporting on her six weeks ago, but not whether he stopped taking Sloane’s money. Rory wants the prize and, increasingly, Adam back, but taking him back requires more than useful teamwork: he must tell her a truth that makes him harder to love.

[Author Bio]

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Hello all! After receiving some feedback on my first attempt, I have tweaked my query and hopefully made it stronger! Of course, I appreciate any and all suggestions and critique to make my letter as strong as possible.

Dear [Agent],

My name is [name] and I am seeking representation for Winner Takes All, written as [pen name], a 78,000 word dark, enemies to lovers, M/M, open door romance with plenty of spice.

Winner Takes All follows Kai Archer and Jeremy Holloway, sworn enemies with opposite goals, who are irreconcilably different from one another, until they come to a “may the best man win” type understanding that spirals into more than a simple agreement, and they realize that they are not so different after all… and unable to keep their agreement from turning into passion.

Kai and Jeremy keep running into each other until they discover Kai, a disillusioned hit man, has a contract for socialite Maggie, and Jeremy is her hired security. They are instantly at odds, coming to blows, and figuring out ways to get under each other’s skin: Kai poking at Jeremy’s “cowboy” aesthetic, while Jeremy jabs at Kai’s eye he nearly lost. What begins as ammunition turns to sympathy when deeper truths are revealed. They both understand the pain they feel from their respective pasts that still haunt them: the friend Jeremy watched die in his arms, and the day Kai’s mother slashed his face and abandoned him. They realize they have more in common than they thought: each has a set of rules they abide by, both dove quickly into relationships, and both live on the brink of chaos with their personal demons. Against all odds, they come to an agreement, and may the best man win. Feeling like a prisoner in her own home after not understanding the gravity of her situation, Maggie flees. Her father, the mafia Don who put out the hit for her after she refused her place in the family business, threatens to finish the job himself. Thrust together when Kai has a means to track Maggie, and Jeremy has a way to get to her, Kai convinces Jeremy the arrangement works better in his favor: Jeremy is able to track the girl and keep tabs on him. When Kai reveals the Don is hot on their trail, Jeremy agrees, and together, they chase after Maggie. They realize there is so much more between them, especially after spending a night at the last motel room left. Their bond deepens when Jeremy saves Kai, working through his past trauma, and Kai realizes Jeremy won’t abandon him. They race to track down Maggie while the Don breathes down Kai’s neck and Jeremy must decide how to handle the eventuality that they will face off with one another. Together, they must work out who will ultimately win, when it seems they both lose.

Readers who enjoy dark romances such as Lights Out and the high stakes of Vicious Secret with a M/M romance like The Entanglement of Rival Wizards and Game Changer will enjoy the rival dynamic between Kai and Jeremy as they navigate between their differences.

I am an avid fan of dark romances with high stakes, and true enemies. I would love to add more representation of M/M romances in dark romance settings and believe Winner Takes All would be an excellent addition to the current market with a call for the enemies to truly be enemies, and for more M/M stories.

Sincerely,

[name]

DAYCREST is an adult romantic fantasy inspired by a Jewish folktale about the Sun and Moon, complete at 81,000 words. Blending Jewish mythology, sacred femininity, romance, and epic adventure, it is a standalone novel with series potential that will appeal to readers of  Penn Cole’s Spark of the Everflame, Callie Hart’s Quicksilver, and Devney Perry’s Shield of Sparrows.

Cora Day is the princess of Ori, the Sun Kingdom, where its women are losing their sacred cycles that allow them to bear children. Her whole life, she’s been tasked with strengthening her powers and eventually birthing an heir to help secure the nation’s future, but her focus changes when her best friend, Raina, goes mysteriously missing.

When Kian Crest, a handsome stranger from the enemy Moon Kingdom of Lyell, offers her father a key to Ori's survival in exchange for Cora herself, the king accepts. Cora is sent across the planet on a treacherous mission with a man she has every reason to fear–and far away from discovering what happened to Raina.

Cora intends to escape, until she discovers Kian’s aim–finding a cure to his own kingdom’s suffering, a growing blight targeting infants, and in time for his beloved sister to give birth. He’s convinced he needs Sun power to fulfill a tenuous legend to save his people.

Far from her precious Sun, Cora struggles to control her magic, emotions, and growing attraction to her captor, until they discover an ancient nation connected to both kingdoms' suffering, with a possible link to Raina's disappearance. She’s forced to decide whether to return to the kingdom counting on her or follow the connection to Raina into unfamiliar territory. 

Going home means securing Ori's future. Continuing means abandoning her people without the power they need to to survive.

By day, I manage social media for Hasbro, creating content for Play-Doh, My Little Pony, and Peppa Pig. By night, I write the kinds of fantasy novels I love to read. As an Orthodox Jewish mother, I drew on Jewish folklore and tradition to shape DAYCREST's mythology.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Andi Gladstone

My first attempt at this! I’ve been lurking in the shadows of this subreddit for so long, feels surreal to be the one sharing!

Dear Agent,

I am seeking representation for STUDY IN EMOTIONS, an adult romantasy complete at 90,000 words. It combines the political intrigue and elite academic competition of Olivie Blake’s THE ATLAS SIX with the enemies-to-lovers romance of Rebecca Yarros’s FOURTH WING.

Ivy has spent her life paying for her father’s crime. Twelve years ago, he was accused of illegally wielding magic for a Null and causing the Bleed, a catastrophe that killed ninety-five people, including himself. The ruling Concord responded by banishing every Null, people believed to be incapable of magic, to the North. So when Ivy is summoned for a compulsory magical screening, she expects another investigation into her father’s bloodline. Instead, she’s admitted to the Academy, where students learn to weave emotion into magical Threads. Only five of 125 first-years will advance to the prestigious second year of education, and Ivy is determined to prove that she is as strong as those who hate her, even if she’s never produced a single strand.

Her greatest obstacle is Vincent Faelorn, the nation’s golden boy and political royalty. His grandfather was the revolutionary behind the implantation of the Concord, his mother is the Main Minister, and Vincent was raised to inherit a powerful legacy after his older sister was killed in the Bleed. He despises Ivy for being the daughter of her murderer, while she despises everything his family represents. And Ivy has little patience for the privileged heir to the government that condemned her people. But when Ivy finally manages to summon Thread, she discovers something neither of them can explain: her magic only seems to work when Vincent is near. To have any chance of surviving the Academy’s brutal competition, she must depend on the one person who wants nothing to do with her.

As their reluctant proximity turns into something neither anticipated, Ivy struggles with her growing feelings for Vincent and her determination to prove herself without him. Meanwhile, the Concord tightens its grip on the Academy through constant screenings, professors exchange suspicious whispers, and Ivy begins having visions of events she has never lived. With the trials for second year approach, she suspects the Academy is hiding something, and that her connection to Vincent may be part of it.

Thanks!

The feedback I've received was definitely needed on my first attempt. Hoping that I'm getting closer to a query that flows while keeping the necessary parts. My fear is that it may still be a little long. Any further comments on what can be improved would be greatly appreciated.

--

Dear [Agent],

I’d love to share with you THE WAR BETWEEN OUR SHADOWS (100,000 words). To save his older brother suffering from schizophrenia, a high school dropout gains the ability to see a world of deities living in our shadows. It’s a dual-POV adult contemporary fantasy combining the dark fairytale atmosphere and complicated family ties of Alix E. Harrow’s Starling House with the urban setting and supernatural personification of identity in N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became.

Anu is haunted by the guilt of letting RJ, the one person who can make him cry from laughter, run away from home following a major psychotic episode. Watching his mom’s resulting depression steal her light, Anu vows to track down his brother even if it means forfeiting his future. After all, he’s stubborn enough to think he can visit hell and outsmart the Devil if it came down to it. 

However, by the time Anu finds RJ, he’s sickly, claiming to be tormented by ombras, beings in our shadows that embody our mental struggles. Anu practically forces him to return despite RJ’s fear that it’ll lead to his family’s destruction. At home, Anu’s own psyche proves no match against the visions, delusions, and symptoms that keep RJ double-checking the locks and lying in bed all day. 

Reality begins to crack when Anu’s outreach to others like his brother provokes Kazra, a merciless Guardian embedded in the government who seeks to manipulate humanity by controlling these supposed ombra. The first casualty in Kazra’s assault is their mom. Cornered, Anu makes a last wish: let him fight against these unseen forces. A mysterious mentor grants him that wish when she helps the brothers elude capture and promises them mastery over their ombra. 

As RJ slips under the spell of his conniving ombra, and danger arises within the secluded community they’re brought to, Anu questions whether he can command his ombra in time to fight off Guardians, protect RJ, and restore his family. Or maybe some are destined to be in darkness forever.

[bio]

Thank you for your consideration.

Hello all, looking for another set of eyes on this query. I posted my first attempt a few weeks ago, and got one comment which I implemented. I've since queried several agents and just gotten form rejections so far - still in the single digits but at least one or two should have been a perfect fit so I've returned to the drawing board with this one.

Happy to share my previous query with anyone interested. Really value your feedback!

___________________

[Dear agent/personalisation],

Fifteen years of travel have given Leannán everything but a home; perhaps she can find one by returning to Ireland to help her sister’s struggling family. But her wandering heart soon lands her in Ildathach, the mythical Otherworld. Armed only with the warnings of old tales, she knows it might cost her life, family or sanity if she stays too long. 

But Ildathach is a dark mirror to her own world and in the grip of eternal winter as the Cailleach, a legendary hag, reigns supreme. Forced to take shelter in the Stag King’s fort, all eyes are on Leannán as the first mortal to appear since winter began. Some hope she can break the Cailleach’s spell, others fear she is the hag’s accomplice. Only the Stag King seems to know the truth; that she is inconsequential.

But his trust is not enough and, betrayed by his advisors, Leannán is buried alive. Unable to die or return home, she claws her way out with only one other destination in mind; the Cailleach’s mountain. Crossing a land of marauding giants and mysteries hidden by the magical landscape - including its unbreakable connection to our world - Leannán begins to nurture a secret hope that she could crown herself and restore balance to both Ildathach and Ireland. But first she must look into her future and decide whether the power is worth the cost of everything she knew in her old world and everything she has come to love in the new.

WITHER & BLOOM is a standalone fantasy, complete at 90,000 words. It combines Irish myth and folklore with a ‘coming-of-middle-age’ arc for a practical, worldly heroine, exploring aging and agency with a twist of elemental magic. [COMPS]

[BIO]

Any feedback appreciated.

ON A BED OF RAINBOW STONECROP is a contemporary M/M romance combining the place-centered emotional stakes of Susie Dumond's BED AND BREAKUP with the contrasting character backgrounds of Steven Salvatore's THE BOYFRIEND SUBSCRIPTION, set against a historical family mystery in the Norwegian mountains.

Twenty-five-year-old Bror has spent a decade working at Fjellstua, a struggling mountain hotel he considers his second home. Convinced that the elusive rainbow stonecrop exists, he even devoted his master's thesis in biology to a flower never scientifically documented. The decision has left him with few prospects in his chosen field, though he's hardly unhappy guiding hikers, repairing whatever breaks, and living among the mountains he grew up in.

Massimiliano "Massi," the son of the hotel's wealthy owners, arrives with two ambitions: secure Fjellstua's future and reconnect with his half-Norwegian heritage. His plans for the hotel threaten Bror's familiar world, and the two men clash almost immediately. But Massi's connection to the region runs deeper than Bror realizes. Twenty-eight years earlier, his uncle disappeared in the surrounding mountains, leaving behind questions his family has never been able to answer.

When an old photograph reveals Massi's missing uncle with a rainbow stonecrop tucked behind his ear, Bror and Massi find themselves pursuing a mystery neither expected to uncover. Their search draws them closer, revealing traces of a hidden love story from the hotel's past while giving rise to one of their own. But as they piece together what happened twenty-eight years ago, they begin to question what they want from their own futures.

Kindest of regards etc etc etc

Hey everyone! I'm hoping to get some feedback after polishing a query for a minute now, and hoping y'all can give me insight. Thanks in advance!

On Halloween in 1953, Jordan wants one uncomplicated night of parties and romance in New Orleans. Instead, an invitation leads him to a house where inside lies a realm far exceeding the living world.

Beyond the door is a school outside the boundaries of time and death; its students are Jordan’s age, but their pasts are steeped in brutality: among them, enslavers, murderous rebels, and even torturers of Unit 731, while the teachers are former Schutzstaffel officers. Being a history major, Jordan condemns their past crimes, yet the school teaches them to take pride in and celebrate them, a baffling concept in his mind. So what’s his purpose in being brought there?

Learning of their life stories and arrival gives Jordan little doubt that he’s been transported to hell. And a peek outside the school reveals an entity that has imprisoned them, feasting on their dread. So escape becomes the only clear goal, despite everyone’s refusal to help him return home. However, the longer Jordan remains, the clearer it becomes that his presence was chosen by the teachers for a reason. To escape, he must confront his own sins born from an adherence to the racial supremacy that fuels the evils around him.

Complete at 62,000 words, BLOOD IN THE HALLOWED RIFT is a standalone adult cosmic horror novel combining the historical and institutional horror of Tananarive Due's THE REFORMATORY with the visceral, reality-bending horror of Jenny Kiefer's THIS WRETCHED VALLEY in a story exploring how racial supremacy corrupts people and perpetuates a cycle of violence and insanity.

I know we're supposed to nudge all active queries with offer of rep, but do you need to email agents that are past their CNR date as well? Or is their CNR a blanket pass and is there no need to let them know about any developments?

Dear [Agent]
I am seeking representation for my women’s fiction debut novel, ROAD TO RUDIA, 95,708 words, which follows a Christian woman who escapes a toxic marriage in Kenya and becomes a popstar in America.

Rudia believes staying in a tumultuous marriage for the sake of having a child is what makes her a Godly wife. But when she encounters self-proclaimed feminist popstar, Logan “L.C.” Chase, they begin a taboo affair that challenges her faith, awakens her long neglected needs and also uncovers her hidden singing talent. L.C. convinces her to record a song and when it goes viral, she finds the courage to escape her husband’s terror and run off to America. 

Overnight, Rudia becomes the music industries’ hottest new artist and her high profile romance with L.C. nubs them #CoupleGoals. But her new life is shattered when L.C.’s mother reveals a shocking web of lies that puts Rudia’s career and relationship in jeopardy, leading them to a fight where only one person can survive.

[BIO]
-The story has a lot of abuse, religious abuse but I’m unsure how much of it I should mention.

Similar books: Safe Haven (Nicholas Sparks) It Ends With Us (Colleen Hoover) Purple Hibiscus (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) and The Housemaid (Freida McFadden.)

I welcome any feedback, recommendations, and questions. Thank you so much for taking the time to critique this. Have a wonderful day.

Didn’t get much traction on my second attempt so trying again with a few tweaks and a comp change.

THERE IS NO THERE THERE is a 77k-word dual POV upmarket novel that combines the themes of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors with the complex love of Claire Daverley’s Talking at Night against the backdrop of the opioid epidemic in the American South. 

When her estranged dad dies suddenly, Chloe leaves the Peace Corps and returns home to a college town in North Carolina—a place she has long avoided. Driven by guilt that she didn’t repair the relationship with her father, she decides to move in with her sister and handle his estate, swapping rural vaccine clinics for familial duty and too many cereal options. One summer night, Chloe is fighting boredom in a bar when she meets Forrest.

A corporate dropout, Forrest is working as a bartender and trying to kick an inconvenient, hidden painkiller addiction. Forrest’s humor and charm provide an antidote to complicated grief, while Chloe’s drive and empathy offer him the hope of change. They start dating. A change of scenery could fix Forrest, and he decides he’ll move to New York City with Chloe if she gets into her dream grad school. The night he meets her family, Forrest overdoses, bringing all his skeletons to the surface and turning their relationship on its head. 

While Forrest undergoes the hellish effort of getting clean, Chloe is confident she can support him. A relapse finds Forrest living in an abandoned church, a pipe organ his only friend. Chloe attempts to house him and find an outpatient program, but those efforts cause her to miss application deadlines. The coup de grâce to their relationship occurs when Forrest goes on a bender and disappears during her brother’s wedding. Chloe realizes helping him means remaining stuck in North Carolina, and Forrest realizes how close to death he might be. To get out, to get anywhere other than there, they must let each other go. But relinquishing control is rarely so easy.

[bio]

Third time's a charm. Thank you to all who provided feedback on my first and attempts. Once again, took some time to think it through and revise. I also updated the genre based on feedback from critique partners.

***

Dear [Agent],

I’m excited to share REMNANT–an upmarket speculative fiction novel with romance elements. Complete at 100,000 words, it will appeal to fans of the queer emotional core and mind-bending thrills of Welcome to Forever by Nathan Tavares and the exploration of identity, love, and connection in In Universes by Emet North.

Sarah Elian is a reckless idealist consumed by one dangerous belief: she can fix anything if she tries hard enough. She clings to the quiet life she’s built in the boroughs with her wife, Emily, but when a powerful organization offers her the chance to travel through time and prevent disasters before they happen, she seizes the opportunity to finally give herself and Emily the future they deserve. 

On her first mission into the past, she collides with a younger Emily, and the timeline fractures. Ripped back to the present, Sarah’s world is not the one she left, and she begins to question the organization’s true intentions. Worse, she unearths a dark familial secret that forces her to face why she was even chosen in the first place. Instead of walking away, she becomes obsessed with repairing what she’s broken and throws herself deeper into the organization’s twisted world, relentlessly chasing different versions of Em–some who love her, fear her, or wish they’d never met at all... And it’s all her fault. 

Sarah should stop. She fucking knows this. But as her carefully constructed life begins to unravel, the weight of her grief and guilt outweigh all else; she can’t help but hope she can maybe–finally–set things right. To secure their future, she must confront her family’s legacy and destroy the system she helped build, even if the price of saving Emily is losing herself.

Bio 

Thank you for your generous consideration.

please help. I'm really struggling with describing the story - how many space should I take up? how much to give away? - and I have nothing to say about myself. :(

Dear [agent],

I am seeking representation for SPARE PRESUMPTIVE, a character-driven sci-fi romcom aimed at adults, complete at 87,000 words. It combines science-fiction worldbuilding, royal politics, a central romance, humour and heightened emotional stakes, and will appeal to readers of Winter's Orbit and The Psychology of Time Travel.

Prince Elavnik is charming, handsome, and incredibly bored by politics, economics, and all the other things princes are apparently supposed to care about. He didn’t realise this was something worth murdering him over. When Elavnik accidentally overhears an assassination order by his own brother, he ends up crash-landing on an isolationist human colony that believes aliens do not exist. He hides in the struggling diner inherited by overworked neuroscience student Katy Ann Watts, where their wary alliance becomes a romance. Meanwhile, Elavnik’s fiercely loyal assistant Lev defies the royal court to find him, uncovering evidence that the apparent assassination order from Elavnik’s brother was fabricated as part of a conspiracy rooted in the kingdom’s unresolved class divisions and post-war settlement.

Elavnik’s return exposes the conspirators but also threatens to force him into a political marriage, while Katy Ann confronts the danger of allowing love to replace her own ambitions and Lev discovers that Ilya, the woman he loves, was part of the conspiracy. Both men ultimately learn that care is not the same as control: Elavnik gives Katy Ann the freedom and resources to build a scientific future independent of him, and Lev leaves the hierarchy that has defined his life, allowing the central romance to reunite only after Katy Ann has established a life she actively chooses.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

[Name]