Successful query letters: an ever-growing list

Jan 29, 2024

When my debut came out in 2019, I wrote a little guide to finding an agent and included my exact query letter — before and after, in fact, showing its too-long first draft and then the edited version I sent out. Years later, querying authors still reach out to thank me for it. Which got me thinking…why not create a whole compendium of successful book pitches? Elevator pitches are hard, whether you’re crystallizing a new book idea, pitching your manuscript, or trying to convince readers to buy your book. These diamonds in the slush pile show you what works.

Here, I’m sharing the winning queries that helped published authors get their agents. (More are coming in every month!) I’ve shared their titles in my Bookshop storefront and linked further resources at the end. Enjoy, and subscribe to my newsletter for tons of writing and publishing tips!

Jump to an author’s query:

Chandler Baker
Kathleen Barber
Andrea Bartz
Julia Bartz
Laurie Batzel
Lindsay Cameron
Mike Chen
Christina Clancy
May Cobb
Julia Dahl
Saumya Dave
Layne Fargo
Nan Fischer
Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Kellye Garrett
Katie Gutierrez
Zakiya Dalila Harris
Jennifer Hillier
Cate Holahan
Jenny Hollander
Natalie Jenner
Lindsey Kelk
AH Kim
Angie Kim
Tawny Lara
Leah Konen
Linden A. Lewis
Vanessa Lillie
Sheila Yasmin Marikar
Kimberly McCreight
Christina McDonald
Danica Nava
Hannah Orenstein
Lindsey J. Palmer
Kira Peikoff
Julia Phillips
Kirthana Ramisetti
Cara Reinard
Susie Orman Schnall
Gretchen Schreiber
Halley Sutton
Virginia Trench
Diana Urban
Stephanie Wrobel
Further resources

Chandler Baker

New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Network, The Husbands, Cutting Teeth, and others

(Note from Chandler: REMEMBER, THE YEAR IS 2008!!!)

Dear Mr. Lazar,
Ingrid Law has said wonderful things about her experience with you over at the Verla Kay Blue Boards. I see you're interested in graphic novels and hope you'll consider representing SCOUT, my urban fantasy graphic novel aimed at young adults.
Fifteen-year-old Scout knows change better than most. Not every girl morphs into a cat. Too bad the kind of change she needs is an attitude adjustment.
Life in The Hole under Kim's Korean Takeout would be thrilling if razor claws and an impeccable sense of balance excused her from folding underwear for the resident gang of shapeshifting bounty hunters. Hardly her job of choice, however, her reckless attitude and unwillingness to learn keep her from moving up the ranks
But Scout's got nine lives and, according to her, that leaves a few to spare. So full-fledged hunter or not, chasing bad guys solo equals her brand of teenage rebellion.
During an illicit excursion, she jeopardizes the underground headquarters and everyone in it when she leads a stranger back. Worse, she keeps the incident quiet. When this leads to her father's kidnapping, guilt consumes Scout. It'd be one thing if the kidnapper wanted money. She could claw her way out of that. Instead, he demands information the other hunters refuse to surrender—even if that means losing her dad.
Now Scout is paw-deep in conspiracy and sinking fast. She discovers that pack leader, Baron, is helping prisoners escape only to make a buck upon their re-capture. Good for business; bad for Scout's father, whose kidnapper's sister was murdered by an escapee. Scout finds herself sympathizing more with the kidnapper and less with her leader, but without proof of Baron's scheme, garnering support from the hunters is hopeless. To stage a rescue, she'll need to work to master her shapeshifting powers before running out of lives.
As for following the rules? She'd rather be declawed.

Kathleen Barber

Author of Truth Be Told (formerly titled Are You Sleeping) and Follow Me

(Note from Kathleen: This query got me a full request and subsequent R&R with an agent, who ultimately couldn't offer representation for unrelated reasons—so she asked my permission to share my manuscript with her agent friend, and that agent [Lisa Grubka at UTA] signed me and represents me to this day.)

Dear Ms. Glick,
I am seeking representation for Reconsidered, an upmarket novel that is complete at 80,100 words. I think that you might be interested in this project based on your representation of plot-driven literary/commercial novels like Jonathan Evison's The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, Carol Rifka Brunt's Tell the Wolves I'm Home, and Ellen Bryson's The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno.
Josie has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family’s reputation, and with good reason: her father was murdered, her mother ran away to join a cult, and her twin sister stole away her high school sweetheart. Josie has finally put down some roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb. The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past. When a podcast begins reinvestigating the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie worries that her world will unravel. After the death of Josie’s mother forces Josie to return to her Midwestern hometown, she must confront the unresolved relationships of her past and the lies on which she has built her future. The journalist producing the podcast becomes more dogged (as shown through excerpts from the podcast and tweets), and Josie’s sister reaches an emotional breaking point. Josie overcomes her long-simmering resentment toward her sister to help her in her time of need, and the truth about their father’s murder is finally revealed.
I hold a JD from Northwestern University School of Law, and, in a previous life, I practiced bankruptcy law at large firms in Chicago and New York. I am now a location-independent writer and blogger who recently returned from a 7+ month-long backpacking adventure across Africa and the Middle East. My short fiction has been published in Luna Luna Magazine and is forthcoming in August in WhiskeyPaper. I blog about wellness for Wanderlust and Lipstick, a women’s travel website, and about my travels on a personal travel blog called Nonbillable Hours.
The first three chapters of Reconsidered are attached. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Kathleen Barber

Andrea Bartz

New York Times bestselling author of The Spare Room, We Were Never Here, The Herd, and The Lost Night

Final query:

Dear X,
Based on your interest in XXX, I’m excited to share with you my character-driven psychological thriller, THE LOST NIGHT.
Lindsay is content with her life: She has a solid magazine job, a devoted best friend, and her own Brooklyn apartment, complete with a fully stocked (and frequently used) liquor cabinet. She’s certainly moved on from the bizarre night ten years earlier when she got blackout drunk and her frenemy, Edie, committed suicide. Until Lindsay discovers an unsettling video that forces her to ask if Edie was actually murdered—and if Lindsay herself was involved. As she races to untangle what really happened, Lindsay must face the demons of her own violent history—and bring the truth to light before she, too, suffers Edie’s fate.
THE LOST NIGHT is THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN meets HBO’s GIRLS, a 95,000-word literary mystery that explores friendship, identity, and obsession against the backdrop of Brooklyn’s raw and ever-changing Bushwick neighborhood.
I’m a Brooklyn-based journalist and co-author of the blog-turned-book STUFF HIPSTERS HATE (Ulysses Press, 2010), which The New Yorker called “depressingly astute.” My work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, Martha Stewart Living, Redbook, Elle, and many other outlets, and I’ve held editorial positions at Glamour, Psychology Today, and Self, among other titles.
I’ve pasted the first 10 pages below. Thanks so much for your time and consideration.
Best,
Andi

Earlier draft of query:

Dear [AGENT],
THE LOST NIGHT, a character-driven psychological thriller, follows a Brooklyn woman whose world comes crashing apart when long-buried secrets force her to question whether her best friend’s decade-old suicide was actually a murder—and if she herself was involved. Based on your interest in X and X, I’d love to share it with you.
Back in 2009, then-23-year-old Lindsay Bach was having the time of her life. She and her gang of merry pranksters were partying and loving and hating their way around north Brooklyn—especially Calhoun Lofts, the labyrinthine refurbished factory they called home. Until things fell apart at the seams: Lindsay began to have bickering fights with Edie, the group’s ringleader, who tried to edge her out of the group. Then one sweltering Friday night, Lindsay took a few too many shots of whiskey at a Calhoun pregame and blacked out before she’d even made it to the concert a few floors up. A few hours later, Edie was found in her apartment with a suicide note on her laptop and a bullet in her head.
Ten years later, Lindsay’s a research chief at a men’s magazine, bright and bored and lonely but getting on just fine. Then one otherwise ordinary day, an unsettling exchange with someone from her former Calhoun life pushes her to reexamine Edie’s mysterious suicide. Armed with her new fact-finding skills, Lindsay dips into her past, unearthing hidden alliances, affairs, and memories from that odd, deep-recession era. Before long, she turns up evidence that not only was the death not a suicide; she herself may have been involved. As she races to untangle the knot of what really happened during those blackout hours back in 2009, Lindsay must face down the demons of her own violent history—and bring the truth to light before she, too, suffers Edie’s fate. This 95,000-word novel is GIRL ON THE TRAIN meets HBO’s GIRLS, exploring friendship, identity, and obsession against the backdrop of Brooklyn’s raw and ever-changing Bushwick neighborhood.
I’m a freelance writer whose work has appeared in many outlets, including (deep breath) the Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, Vogue, Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, USA Today, Shape, Women’s Health, Dr. Oz The Good Life, Redbook, Details, Refinery29, Elle, Martha Stewart Living, Fitness, Health, Harper’s Bazaar, Money, USA Weekend, and Seventeen. I’m also a former magazine editor who’s held positions at Glamour, Psychology Today, Self, Natural Health, Fit Pregnancy, Martha Stewart’s Whole Living, and other titles. My nonfiction book, STUFF HIPSTERS HATE (Ulysses Press, 2010), is a humor/culture book based on a Tumblr of the same name. The blog and book, coauthored with Brenna Ehrlich, gained hundreds of thousands of followers and garnered praise from The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and the Sacramento Book Review, among others.
Per your submission guidelines, I’m attaching XYZ. Thanks so much for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Best,
Andi

Julia Bartz

New York Times bestselling author of The Writing Retreat

Dear XXX,

I'm reaching out to share some information about my character-driven psychological thriller, THE AUTHORESS. Because of your interest in suspense and "anything and everything that keeps me up all night reading," I thought it might be a good fit for your list.

Alex, a talented but hapless 30-year-old publishing associate, has given up on her writing when she receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: Roza Vallo, the controversial high priestess of feminist horror (and Alex’s favorite author), has selected her as one of five attendees for an exclusive month-long writing retreat at her remote estate. Alex is thrilled, even when she learns that her former best friend, Wren—the woman who ruined her life—will also be in attendance. But Roza drops a bombshell on day one, informing her guests they’re in a race against the clock to write an entire novel in one month…and the winning manuscript will receive a seven-figure publishing deal. Hungry for money and that elusive authorial fame, Alex tries to buckle down, but she can’t ignore the warning signs telling her to get out: mind games and power plays from Wren, increasingly erratic behavior from Roza, maybe even a dark energy coming from the historic mansion itself. When one of the writers disappears during a snowstorm, Alex realizes Roza’s contest might very well be a fight to the death. Rocked by her discoveries and running out of time, she must confront her own demons—and finish her novel—before she goes missing, too.

THE AUTHORESS is Stephen King’s MISERY meets Marisha Pessl’s NIGHT FILM, a 95,000-word novel of psychological suspense that explores the dark side of female friendships and the obsessive allure of a famous artist against the high-stakes, claustrophobic backdrop of a closed-door retreat.

I’m a Brooklyn-based writer and have been freelancing and writing fiction for fifteen years. I’m also a working therapist and author of the popular Psychology Today blog: My Pleasure: The New Science of Sex, Dating, and Self-Care. Previously, I ran the Brooklyn literary blog BookStalker in which I interviewed authors like Cheryl Strayed, Alexander Chee, and Roxane Gay. My fiction has been published in The South Dakota Review, FictionDaily, and InDigest Magazine and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

I’m pasting the first ten pages of my manuscript below. Thanks so much for your time and consideration!

My best,
Julia

Laurie Batzel

Author of The Dairy Queen's Second Chance

Dear Stacey,
My name is Laurie Batzel. In these stressful times, we need laughter, and escapist fun now more than ever. I hope JUST SMILE, an adult romantic comedy that flips the most popular romance tropes upside down with the humor of The Bromance Book Club, and a heroine-centered POV similar to Well Met, will match your current needs. The novel is complete at 80,000 words.
Josie Singer is used to people telling her to "smile more."
That doesn't mean she likes it...or that she can. The congenitally dead nerves on one side of her lip give Josie a crooked smile she hides from the world. Fortunately, romance cover models do more lustful gazing than smiling--and gazing lustfully at her new shoot partner, Chris O’Reilly, isn't hard to do.
At least until he stumbles his way through their first shoot, every bit as thoughtless, and goofy as the sidekick character he played on an early '00's teen sitcom. When she and Chris are chosen to model for a famous romance author’s cover contest, Josie is determined to win—the prize is big enough to pay for the treatment to correct her asymmetrical smile.
All Josie has to do is tolerate uncoordinated-labradoodle-in-human-clothing Chris through the month of October as they travel to scenic destinations for the fall-themed shoots. But when they get entangled in every romance novel trope gone horribly, hilariously wrong, Josie catches glimpses of a vulnerable side Chris masks with his caricaturistic antics. Just when it seems like he is the one person who can understand why she needs this win, secrets from both their pasts come to light, forcing Josie to decide whether her happily ever after will require a change of smile…or a change of heart.
I am an author of historical and contemporary women’s fiction/romance (With My Soul, Anaiah Press 2019). My essays have been featured on PopSugar.com, FilterFreeParents.com, Longreads.com, and the print edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Angels All Around. I live in Northeastern Pennsylvania with my family including a corgi named Stuart who listens as I read my drafts out loud, and relentlessly advocates for more “boning” in my stories (semantical arguments inevitably ensue).
Thanks for your time and consideration.
Best,
Laurie Batzel

Lindsay Cameron

Author of No One Needs to Know, Look Closer, and Biglaw

Dear Ms. Stark,

I read in your bio that you’re drawn to character-driven suspense and I think my psychological suspense novel DISCOVERY might be a good fit for your list.

Forest and Annabelle Watts have the ideal life. Cassie is certain this is true because she spends her days studying Forest’s emails from her minuscule workstation twenty floors below his corner office. A few clicks of the mouse, and she can see every loving word they write to each other. There are no secrets from her. At least, none that she knows of. But when Cassie sees something that throws the Watts’ perfect relationship into question, her focus shifts. Now, she doesn’t want to simply admire Annabelle. She wants to take her place. Armed with the inside information she’s gathered from Forest’s inbox, she has the tools to make that happen. What lengths will Cassie go in order to replace Annabelle and position herself in the life that she deserves? And will her rapidly multiplying lies catch up with her first?

In an era where email hacking scandals are top news stories, this novel asks the question – How much can you learn about a person from reading his email?

DISCOVERY, complete at 90,000 words, is YOU meets YOU'VE GOT MAIL and would appeal to readers of Mary Kubica, Liv Constantine, or anyone who enjoys a good twist.

My first novel BIGLAW was published by Ankerwycke, the now-defunct trade imprint of the American Bar Association. BIGLAW was optioned to Paramount Television in a deal brokered by Shari Smiley, named as one of the best books of 2015 by Good Housekeeping and Redbook, and translated and printed in China.

Thank you for taking the time to consider representing my work. I can be reached by email or phone at xxx-xxxx.
Best,
Lindsay Cameron

Mike Chen

New York Times bestselling author of A Quantum Love Story, Here and Now and Then, A Beginning at the End, We Could Be Heroes, Light Years from Home, and Star Wars: Brotherhood

(Head here for Mike’s awesome breakdown of why the query works!)

Kin Stewart thought parenting a teen couldn’t get any harder, but then he got separated from his daughter -- by a century.
Before that, he was a normal family man, working and parenting teenage Miranda -- a far cry from his old job as a time-traveling secret agent from 2142. Stranded in suburbia since the 1990s because of a botched mission, he’d spent the last 17 years thinking about soccer practices and family vacations instead of temporal fugitives.
But when his rescue team suddenly arrives, Kin is forced to abandon his family and return to 2142, where everyone -- including his fiancee, who’s unaware of time travel -- thinks he’s only been gone weeks, not years. Ordered to cut all contact with the past, Kin defies his superiors and attempts to raise his daughter from the future. Until one day he discovers that Miranda’s being erased from history...and it might be his fault.
With time running out, Miranda’s very existence depends upon Kin taking a final trip across time, no matter the cost. Break time-travel rules, tell his fiancee about Miranda and his secret family, even put his own life on the line; those are risks Kin will take because there’s only one thing more important than the past and the future: doing right by his daughter.

Christina Clancy

Author of Shoulder Season and The Second Home

Dear Ms. Posner,
My friend Christine Sneed very kindly offered to reach out to you on my behalf, and I'm thrilled that you are open to considering a query for my recently completed novel, NO PLACE BETTER THAN THIS. As someone with connections to the Midwest and the East Coast, you might relate to my characters, who also have deep roots in both locations.
The summer house on Cape Cod has been in the Gordon family for generations, but what are sisters Ann and Poppy supposed to do with it after their parents die? Poppy loves the old saltbox on Drummer Cove, but she's a footloose surfer. According to Ann, she travels the world "chasing waves and STDs." Poppy can't afford to buy out Ann. Even if she could, owning a house means settling, and Poppy isn't sure she'll ever want to stay in one place for long. Ann loves the house, too, but it reminds her of the summer she’d spent there when she was seventeen, when Michael, the troubled teenage boy her family had recently adopted, joined them in Wellfleet. Michael was lovesick for Ann, but she was caught up in a secret flirtation with the wealthy father of the kids she babysat for. That's when her relationship with both men ended explosively, and changed her life -- and her family -- forever.
Years later, just when Ann and Poppy put the house on the market, Michael re-enters their lives as a grown man with a legitimate claim to the property he's loved since his first summer with the family in Wellfleet. Now the estranged siblings are forced to confront each other over their conflicting memories of that fateful summer, and their competing claims on the home.

NO PLACE BETTER THAN THIS is a story told through two different times, and from the shifting perspectives of the siblings. Ultimately, it is about the places we go back to again and again, and how they shape our memories of the family we once were, and our ideas about the family we ought to be.
My writing has appeared in The New York Times "Modern Love" column (and was read by Kristin Chenoweth for the WBUR podcast), The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, on The Toast and in Brain, Child. I review books for The Milwaukee Journal, and I'm a frequent essayist on Wisconsin Public Radio. My short stories have appeared in Glimmer Train Stories, Hobart, Pleiades, Midwestern Gothic, The Cream City Review, The Minnesota Review and elsewhere. My short story collection, The Comfort of Foam, was the finalist for the Prairie Schooner 2017 book prize. I teach English at Beloit College.
Please let me know if you'd like to read more. I can be reached at 414-534-5712.
Thank you again for your willingness to consider my query.
Sincerely,
Christi Clancy

May Cobb

Author of The Hunting Wives, My Summer Darlings, A Likeable Woman, and The Hollywood Assistant

Dear Victoria,
I'm currently seeking representation for my novel, THE HUNTING WIVES, which I'm pitching as BIG LITTLE LIES meets DALLAS meets THE STEPFORD WIVES.
Because you represent so many stellar crime fiction authors, including some of my personal favorites like Karen Slaughter, I'm hoping you might be interested in considering me.
Per your instructions, I'm attaching a sample which includes the full pitch as well as the first three chapters.
A little about me: My debut thriller, BIG WOODS, was released this summer by Midnight Ink Books. It received a starred review from Library Journal as well as some glowing praise from A.J. Finn: "Stephen King's STAND BY ME collides with Gillian Flynn's SHARP OBJECTS in this exceptional thriller. Gutsy, gripping, and pitch-perfect in its resurrection of an era long gone."
BIG WOODS hit Amazon's Top 100 Bestseller List this weekend for e-books and is currently in the Top 100 e-book list for Amazon's Mystery/Thriller genre.
I'm happy to send along the full press kit for BIG WOODS if you'd be at all interested in seeing the full list of blurbs and reviews.
Thanks so very much for your time and consideration.
Warmest wishes,
May
THE HUNTING WIVES
A Novel by May Cobb
When Sophie O’Neill moves from a posh Chicago suburb with her husband and young son to a rural town in Texas, she hopes she’s about to settle into the slow-paced, idyllic life she’s been yearning for. But instead, the days drag on and the too-quiet town presses down on her: she finds herself bored, restless.
So when she crosses paths with Margot Banks, an alluring socialite who is part of an elite clique secretly known as The Hunting Wives, Sophie finds herself inexplicably drawn to Margot and swept into their mysterious world of late-night target shooting and over-the-edge partying. As Sophie’s curiosity gives way to a full-blown obsession, she finds herself slipping further away from herself and her family. And when the body of a teenage girl is discovered in the woods where The Hunting Wives meet, she soon finds herself in the crosshairs of the investigation and swept up into the clique’s dark secrets.
Inspired by the fiction of Tana French and Ruth Ware and set against the backdrop of the atmospheric, yet ominous woods of deep East Texas, THE HUNTING WIVES is a thriller about a descent into obsession, the irrevocable choices we make, and the dark undercurrents of friendship.

Julia Dahl

Author of I Dreamed of Falling, Conviction, The Missing Hours, Run You Down, and Invisible City

Stephanie,

My former colleague Gillian Flynn suggested I email you with a pitch for my novel, “The Stringer,” a mystery about a New York City tabloid reporter who gets tangled in the murder of a Hasidic woman.

“The Stringer” is the story of Rebekah Roberts, a recent college graduate who has moved from Missouri to New York partly to become a reporter, and partly to be closer to her mother, who abandoned her as an infant and may be living in Brooklyn. Rebekah’s mother was a Hasidic Jew from Williamsburg who became pregnant and married her Christian father during a period of rebellion. She fled the family just weeks after Rebekah was born and neither Rebekah nor her father has heard from her since.

The novel begins when Rebekah is called to cover a dead body, found dumped and naked in a scrap pile along the Gowanus canal. The dead woman is Hasidic, and Rebekah is shocked to learn that not only will she be buried without an autopsy – but that because of the NYPD’s habit of kowtowing to the powerful ultra-orthodox community, her killer may get away with murder.

Rebekah finds herself drawn into the mystery of how this woman died, and teams with Saul Katz, an NYPD captain and orthodox Jew. Through Saul, she learns about the cloistered, cryptic world her mother grew up in – but Saul has secrets of his own, secrets that put Rebekah directly in the path of the killer.

I see “The Stringer” on the shelves alongside Gillian’s novels, as well as works like “The Serialist” by David Gordon, “So Much Pretty” by Cara Hoffman, “Lush Life” by Richard Price, “Black and White and Dead All Over” by John Darton, and the novels of Tana French. At just under 70,000 words, the book is a tight tale, unfolding over one week in the winter of 2010. I see it as the first in a series of three books featuring Rebekah Roberts, Saul Katz, and Rebekah’s mother.

In terms of platform, mine is straightforward: I am a journalist specializing in crime and criminal justice. I spent three years as a stringer on the city desk at the New York Post, and now work as an associate producer for CBS’s 48 Hours Mystery, where I also write about crime for CBS News.com. I have written about everything from teenage girls who kill their parents to police suicide to underage prostitution for publications like the Boston Globe Magazine, Salon, The Daily Beast, Seventeen and Miller-McCune, among many others. (You can see my work and resume at www.juliadahl.com)

As you may have noticed, the world of Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jews has lately become part of the zeitgeist. Deborah Feldman’s memoir “Unorthodox” made the New York Times best seller list in February, and the recent series of articles in the Times accusing Brooklyn’s District Attorney Charles Hynes of giving the ultra-orthodox special treatment when it comes to sexual abuse in the community dovetails exactly with the themes of “The Stringer.”

I have attached the first 50 pages of “The Stringer” for your perusal. I look forward to hearing from you. And a huge congratulations on the review of "Gone Girl" in today's Times - I can't wait to read it!

Best,
Julia

Saumya Dave

Author of Well-Behaved Indian Women and What a Happy Family

Final query:

I’m reaching out because I saw your interest on your Twitter MSWL for upmarket fiction and stories with a genre twist. I recently parted ways with my agent and am seeking new representation for my upmarket novel with a speculative twist.
First, a bit about me: I’m the author of two novels, WELL-BEHAVED INDIAN WOMEN and WHAT A HAPPY FAMILY, a psychiatrist, and frequent mental health commentator on NBC News.
My debut, WELL-BEHAVED INDIAN WOMEN, was called "this summer's fix" in The New York Times Book Review, featured on The Today Show, a Lilly Singh book club pick, and recently optioned for a television series by CBS Studios. My second novel, WHAT A HAPPY FAMILY, was a book club pick for Good Housekeeping Magazine, Emily Giffin, Spines and Vines, and Brown Girl Therapy. It was called a “full, big hearted novel” by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
I’m also a practicing psychiatrist and mental health expert who’s well-connected in the media industry. I frequently discuss mental health on NBC News and have also been featured in Oprah Daily, Good Morning America, SELF, and other publications.
I’m seeking representation for my third novel, THE GUILT PILL.
What if women could get rid of their guilt?
Maya Patel has it all—a new baby, her own company, a sexy, successful husband, and a booming Instagram—or does she? Behind the veil of her viral Instagram posts, her company is hanging on by a thread, her newborn is taking a toll on her marriage, she’s mediating arguments between her parents, and drifting apart from her best friend. She’s on a paralyzing downward spiral she thinks is all her fault. Final destination: Guilt City. So when the hot, new, well-intentioned girlboss of the moment tells her about a hush-hush pill that gets rid of guilt, Maya jumps at the chance. Once the pill kicks in, she’s the woman she always wanted to be: able to delegate, say no when necessary, and demand the help she needs. Her new superpower has her career thriving. There’s only one little problem. The more she takes, the less she feels for others. Her family and friends hardly recognize her and eventually, she barely recognizes herself. Is there any happy medium for Maya? Or will she have to give up her humanity to fully realize her dreams?
THE GUILT PILL is a feminist exploration of motherhood, privilege, ambition, race, and how the world treats the women who dare to go after everything they want.
It combines speculative elements as found in THE OTHER BLACK GIRL with the complicated relationship dynamics and challenge of model minority myth of COUNTERFEIT, all from the perspective of a successful woman-of-color who will do anything to “have it all”. The full 94K manuscript is available upon request.
Per your website's submission guidelines, I’ve pasted my first two chapters below.
Thank you so much for your consideration.

Earlier draft of query:

Maya Patel seems to have it all: a new baby, her own company, a successful husband, and hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers.
But things are more complicated than what they seem. Maya’s company is hanging on by a thread, the shock of parenthood is taking a toll on her marriage, her parents are struggling to support themselves, and she’s drifting apart from her closest friend. As Maya grapples with the demands of being a new mother and founder, she finds herself spiraling downwards.
So when a prominent female founder reaches out about a pill that gets rid of guilt, Maya gives it a chance. After all, in a world where founders are glorified for their non-stop hustle and hyper optimization, she deserves to give herself, her family, and her company the best chance to succeed. But Maya soon learns that the pill may be far more than what she bargained for. And despite all of her attempts to regain control, she soon realizes her life has become unrecognizable.
THE MOTHER WHO SWALLOWED HER GUILT is a speculative, upmarket manuscript complete at 94K words. It examines modern motherhood, ambition, and how the world treats the women who dare to go after everything they want.
Your Publisher's Marketplace page indicated you enjoy book club and diverse voices fiction, so I hope this is a good match.
I am the author of two novels, a psychiatrist, and frequent mental health contributor to NBC News. My debut novel, WELL-BEHAVED INDIAN WOMEN, was called "this summer's fix" in The New York Times Book Review, featured on The Today Show, and recently optioned for a television series by CBS Studios. My second novel, WHAT A HAPPY FAMILY, was a book club pick for Good Housekeeping Magazine, Emily Giffin, Spines and Vines, and Brown Girl Therapy.

Layne Fargo

Author of Temper, They Never Learn, and The Favorites

Dear Sharon,
Given your #MSWL request for suspense with underrepresented protagonists and settings, I'm hoping my novel TEMPER, which is female-driven adult psychological suspense set in the world of Chicago storefront theater, might be a good fit for your list.
Like every other actress in Chicago, Kira Rascher is well aware of the rumors about Malcolm Mercer. But for the career-making chance to be the leading lady in his theater company’s next world premiere, she’s willing to put up with pretty much anything, including Mal’s Machiavellian bullshit.
Once rehearsals get underway, though, she realizes nothing could have prepared her for working with Mal. There’s no mind game he won’t play to provoke the performance he wants, and whenever Kira thinks she’s winning, he changes the rules. He’s manipulative, mercurial, infuriating—and also the most thrilling scene partner she’s ever shared a stage with.
Soon Kira’s caught up in Mal’s offstage drama, too, including his twisted relationship with the theater’s co-founder, Joanna, who sees Kira as a threat to everything she and Mal have built. The closer they get to opening night, the further Kira sinks into character, and the more out of control she feels around Mal. When their staged violence begins to draw real blood, Kira starts to wonder if the thing she should fear most isn’t what Mal might do to her, but what she’s capable of doing to him.
TEMPER will appeal to fans of M.L. Rio’s IF WE WERE VILLAINS and Jessica Knoll’s LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE. The manuscript, which alternates between Kira and Joanna’s points of view, is complete at 95,000 words, and it was recently showcased in the Pitch Wars competition. TEMPER also has #ownvoices representation of bisexuality.
I've included the first 25 pages below. Thank you for considering my work.

Nan Fischer

Author of The Book of Silver Linings, Some of It Was Real, The Speed of Falling Objects, When Elephants Fly, and others

Dear (name of agent),
I am a traditionally published author with six co-authored sport autobiographies and a middle grade trilogy for LucasFilm, now seeking representation for my 93,000 word young adult novel, WHEN ELEPHANTS FLY. Your representation of XXX and your love of YYY leads me to believe we might be a great fit!
When she was seven, Lily Decker’s mother tried to kill her. Lily’s mom had a diagnosed mental health condition and went off her meds. Lily was a kid willing to leap off a rooftop for her mother’s love.
Now Lily is a high school senior with a Plan: No drugs or alcohol, no boyfriends or stress and plenty of sleep and exercise. She’s determined to avoid anything that could flip the switch in her brain from normal to what she sees as nuts. But Lily already hears voices—an old therapist, Peter Pan, a famous pop singer. Lily’s best friend says she has a kick-ass imagination. Her father watches her like a hawk, concerned that any false step could send Lily sliding toward a mental health crisis, and a hidden letter proves her dad might be right.

But a guidance counselor recommends a different tack. She urges Lily to pursue a career—a reason to fight her way back should she struggle as her mother once did. Lily chooses journalism because it’s impartial, balanced. An internship at the local newspaper leads to a story about the birth of Oregon Zoo’s baby elephant, Swift Jones (Swifty). When Lily later witnesses Swifty’s mother trying to trample her and writes an article about the attack, she’s drawn into taking care of the calf, who is literally at risk of dying from a broken heart.

Lily’s article triggers Wild Walker’s Circus, part owners of Swifty, to claim her. Lily defies her father for the first time in her life and accompanies Swifty to Florida to follow the story, determined to remain detached. But when she uncovers the sinister side of the Circus, it’s clear the calf will never survive there. Lily is forced to choose between fighting for her own goals, or trusting a guy she barely knows, breaking the law, embarking on a dangerous road trip, plunging into first love, and risking her mental health to save the calf she has come to love. But is the calf worth the sacrifice? And will that sacrifice even save Swifty or just doom Lily to follow in her mother’s footsteps?
Thank you so much for your time and consideration. I am querying multiple agents and hope to hear back from you.
Sincerely,
Nancy Richardson Fischer

Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Author of The Girls Are All so Nice Here and Till Death Do Us Part

(Note: Laurie got 10 offers of representation with this letter!)

Hello Hillary,
I recently parted ways with my agent so that I could seek a partner for my career who is comfortable handling both adult and YA manuscripts. I saw on your MSWL that you’re looking for truly shocking psychological suspense, and I’m very excited to share with you my debut adult novel, The Girls Are All So Nice Here, a psychological thriller complete at 104,000 words.
She wanted more than the world would give her. Someone never forgot what she did to take it anyway.
Ambrosia Wellington was supposed to graduate from Wesleyan and become an actress, and she is, but not in the way she expected. Her lead role is pretending to be happy with her life—the mundane job, the tiny apartment, the husband who thinks every day is a frat party. The same way she pretends what happened to her roommate during freshman year wasn’t actually her fault.
When an anonymous threat arrives on the heels of her ten-year college reunion invitation, Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did—and who she did it with. Larger-than-life Sloane Sullivan, who could make anyone do anything. The game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else, and the girl who paid the ultimate price.
Amb doesn’t bank on someone else knowing what she and Sully did the night of Dorm Doom—someone who wants more than just the truth. But as the reunion turns menacing, Amb discovers that her own memories don’t tell the whole story. That her actions—and her friendship with Sully—did even more damage than she ever thought possible.
Told in timelines weaving the reunion and Ambrosia’s turbulent first months of college, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is Luckiest Girl Alive meets The Secret History. It frays apart the expectations on girls to not want more than the world is willing to give them—and the sometimes brutal lengths they’ll go to when that isn’t enough.
My debut YA novel, Firsts, was released from St. Martin’s Press in 2016 and was named a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults pick. My next book, Last Girl Lied To, a YA psychological thriller, will be released on April 16 from Imprint, with another thriller to follow in 2020.
I have included the first ten pages of my book below. I’m happy to share more if you think The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a good fit for your list.
Thank you for your time and attention!
Best regards,
Laurie

Kellye Garrett

Award-winning author of Missing White Woman, Like a Sister, Hollywood Homicide, and others

Dear XXXX:
Dayna Anderson, a semi-famous, mega-broke black Hollywood actress, doesn’t set out to solve a murder. But when she drives past the hit-and-run of aspiring actress Haley Joseph and the LAPD offers a $15,000 reward, she figures she has two choices: get the reward or become a stripper. And she doesn’t possess the inner thigh strength needed to properly work a pole.
Dayna’s pretty sure she saw the vehicle. The problem is she can’t remember what the dang car looks like…not that she’s willing to let a little thing like that stand between her and fifteen grand. What starts as simply trying to remember a speeding car soon blossoms into a full-out investigation. Dayna even recruits her friends – including her long-time crush-turned-Hollywood-It-Boy. They haven’t spoken since a slight misunderstanding involving his hand and her non-stripper-worthy thigh. Her friends aren’t even allowed to mutter his name. He’s like Voldemort, except with a nose.
When Dayna uncovers a link between the accident and an even bigger Hollywood crime spree, she enacts her own version of Law & Order: Hollywood at paparazzi hotspots, celeb homes and movie premieres. She loves every second of her growing investigation – until someone tries to kill her. And there are no second takes in real life. Dayna may be dead broke but it sure beats being just plain dead.
Intended to be the first in a series, IOU is an 85,000 word mystery with the same broad appeal of Lisa Lutz's Spellman books and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. Because of XXXX, I thought you would be the ideal person to represent me.
The story draws on my experiences working in Hollywood, including a stint as a staff writer on the CBS procedural Cold Case and developing projects for Idris Elba and Lionsgate Television. I often encountered the various people chasing fame, be it a sprint, marathon or journey that never reaches the finish line. These are the people who populate IOU. If you'd like to meet them, I would be happy to send XXXX.
Thank you for your time.

Katie Gutierrez

Bestselling author of More Than You’ll Ever Know

(Note from Katie: The query landed five offers of rep within three weeks, but the novel didn't ultimately sell on submission. My agent and I stuck together, though, and sold More Than You'll Ever Know three years later.)

Dear Hillary,
I just spent some time on your Manuscript Wishlist page and think my literary debut, THE BLUE HOUR, might be a great fit for your list.
After a boating accident in idyllic Canyon Lake, Texas, Celia Garcia wakes up believing she's dead—in purgatory, atoning for the one sin she's never told anyone: her role in the death of her beloved grandmother, Lita. As Celia begins a quest for redemption that could cost her the life she no longer recognizes as real, her husband, Rafa, turns to the medical community for help. But help doesn't come free, and as the bills mount, he is forced to face the consequences of the gambling addiction he's been hiding from everyone—including himself.

Celia and Rafa's daughters have secrets, too: thirteen-year-old Cat is developing romantic feelings for her best friend, Megan, and seven-year-old Margaret claims to be seeing her dead great-grandmother, Lita. Meanwhile, Celia's mother—flighty, selfish Zara—finally reveals a long-buried truth: Celia was the product of a yearlong affair with a man who threw himself into the Rio Grande to die. Zara is convinced that Celia has inherited her father's mental illness, while Rafa clings to the belief that Celia has a traumatic brain injury that the right doctor can fix. As the family hovers on the brink of catastrophe, Lita could be the crucial connection that helps them see one another-and the past-clearly . . . if they let themselves listen to her ghost.

THE BLUE HOUR plays out on the blurred line between mind and spirit, asking questions about guilt, memory, and the nature—and danger—of belief. The novel is complete at 100,000 words.
Hillary, I hope that with its #ownvoices, family saga/secrets, psychological suspense, and a tinge of magical realism, THE BLUE HOUR will resonate with you. I'm inspired by the rich place, culture, and magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the multi-generational storytelling of Louise Erdrich, and the fast-paced drama of Tana French and Gillian Flynn novels. I hope THE BLUE HOUR reflects some of this inspiration, and I'm including the first 10 pages at the bottom of this email for your review.

I have an MFA from Texas State University, and my writing has appeared in Catapult, Narrative magazine, and Asterix journal, among other outlets. Three of my short stories have been Glimmer Train contest finalists. I also served as executive editor for Round Table Companies, Inc., co-writing eight books and editing upwards of seventy in my nine-year tenure. You can see some of my work at [expired website].

Thank you so much for your time and consideration! I hope to hear from you soon.

Zakiya Dalila Harris

New York Times bestselling author of The Other Black Girl

Dear Stephanie Delman,
I hope this note finds you well! I’m writing to seek representation for THE OTHER BLACK GIRL (112,000 words), a literary sci-fi and satirical suspense novel that explores the chaos that unfurls when two young black women meet against the starkly white backdrop that is NYC book publishing.
Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers has grown really, really tired of being the only black person in all of her work meetings—so of course, she's excited when Hazel, another natural-haired black girl, starts working in the cubicle beside hers. But they've only just started comparing hair care regimens when a series of awkward workplace encounters cause Nella to become Public Enemy Number One, and Hazel, the Office Darling. Soon, what Nella thought would be a sista-to-sista situation quickly morphs into a sinister one, and as she uncovers what's really going on beneath Hazel's crude code-switching and her Harlem-cool dreadlocks, Nella must decide what's more important: her dignity, or her dream of becoming an acclaimed black editor.
The premise of my novel was inspired by my two-plus years working in editorial at Penguin Random House as one of very few black employees at my imprint. But I will say that this is not a commentary on my personal time there—rather, it is a darkly funny look at “diversity,” “blackness,” and what it means to be a cog in the wheel (and a crab in the barrel, too). Prior to working in publishing, I received my MFA in creative writing from The New School, and I currently teach creative writing to children at Writopia Lab in Brooklyn and in Manhattan. My work has appeared in Guernica, and I review fiction and nonfiction books for The Rumpus.
Given your interest in genre-bending, suspenseful fiction, I thought you’d be a wonderful fit for THE OTHER BLACK GIRL. I’ve included the prologue and first two chapters below, should you be interested in taking a peek.
Thanks so much for your time!
All best,
Zakiya

Jennifer Hillier

USA Today bestselling author of Things We Do in the Dark, Creep, Little Secrets (a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Anthony Award), Jar of Hearts (which won the ITW Thriller Award and was shortlisted for the Anthony and Macavity Awards), and others

Dear :
I am seeking representation for CREEP, a psychological thriller, complete at 106,000 words.
Dr. Sheila Tao is one of Seattle's most popular psychology professors.  She's also a closet sex addict.  And when she wakes up chained in the basement of a killer's house, she knows she's hit rock bottom.
When her three-month affair with her teaching assistant ends, Sheila vows to get her life back on track.  She recommits to her twelve-step Sex Addicts Anonymous program.  She says yes when her investment banker boyfriend proposes.  She makes wedding plans.
But Ethan Wolfe can't move forward so easily.  He didn't pursue his professor for as long as he did to get dumped for some balding, middle-aged suit.  That's not according to plan, and Ethan doesn't take rejection well.
Most serial killers don't.
Kidnapped by Ethan a week before her wedding, Sheila reels from the revelation that her former lover is actually the monster responsible for the murders of several women in the Seattle area.  And now Sheila's own days are numbered, if Ethan's state-of-the-art kill room is any indication.
With her arms and legs bound, Sheila fights back with the only weapon she has: her mind.  Using everything she's learned as a psychologist, she must peel back the layers of Ethan's façade to find out who he really is—and what drives him—if she hopes to survive long enough for someone to find her.
There's just one glitch:  nobody's looking.  Because nobody thinks she's missing.
CREEP is my first novel.  I published a short story in the Foundling Review (January 2010) and am a member of International Thriller Writers, Inc.  I had the pleasure of attending ThrillerFest in NYC last summer where I participated in nine different workshops.  I'm looking forward to this year's conference and am currently writing my second novel.
As per your submission guidelines, I've attached/enclosed ___.  I appreciate your consideration and hope to hear from you soon.
Best regards,
Jennifer Hillier

Cate Holahan

USA Today bestselling author of Her Three Lives, The Widower's Wife, Lies She Told, and others

Hi Paula,
Great meeting you at the Algonkian Writer’s Conference earlier this month. Thank you for your help with the pitch and suggestions for tightening the novel. I have edited up a storm. You said the story “should sell” and I hope my writing convinces you of that. I would love if you would represent me. So without further ado:
THE GIFTED ONE is a new adult, suspense novel best described as THE BAD SEED meets THE NANNY DIARIES. The novel is complete at 90,000 words.
To support her family in Brazil, twenty-two year-old Carolina dos Santos comes illegally to a new townhome on the wrong bank of the Hudson River. The owners offer a generous salary to care for Aubrey, a beautiful seven-year-old prodigy, and her toddler brother Mason. But the nanny discovers the pay comes with a price: keeping the family’s terrifying secrets at all costs.
Aubrey’s brilliance has a dark side. The parents blame her actions on others' failure to understand her genius. But when Aubrey is expelled from school, Carolina learns the girl isn’t misunderstood—she’s dangerous. Now home all day, Aubrey locks her brother in a toy chest, breaks a playmate’s arm and “accidentally” kills Carolina’s dog. When Carolina tells the father, he subtly threatens deportation.
Fearing for Mason, Carolina digs into the family’s past. She uncovers a child’s unexplained drowning and questions about the former nanny’s departure, or is it disappearance? Just how far would Aubrey’s parents go to protect their daughter? As Carolina nears the answer, Aubrey calls immigration. Carolina’s fight to stay in the country sparks a violent confrontation certain to land Aubrey in an institution—if anyone finds out. Before she can reveal the truth, Carolina must battle to save the little boy and keep Aubrey’s parents from silencing her permanently.
The story will appeal to readers who couldn’t put down William Landay’s DEFENDING JACOB. My heroine is sure to endear anyone who sympathized with Sara J. Henry’s protagonist in LEARNING TO SWIM.
A little bit about me: I am an award-winning journalist and former television producer. Before moving to fiction, I was a staff writer at BusinessWeek and producer on CNBC’s Fast Money. I turned a journalist’s eye to this subject, extensively researching "callous, unemotional" children, the term for budding psychopaths, and illegal immigration. I interviewed several child care-givers.
My short fiction won first place in the 19th annual Calliope competition, a magazine published by the writer’s group of American Mensa.
I appreciate your willingness to read the first ten pages. I have included them in the body of this email. I also sent a proper note along with the first ten pages via snail mail.
Hope to hear from you soon.

Jenny Hollander

USA Today bestselling author of Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead

Dear Claire,

Thank you for being so amenable to my reaching out on Twitter! I’m seeking representation for my first novel, The Seventh Floor. It’s a coming-of age thriller with a British main character, a New York setting, and a mysterious tragedy—think the tone of Liane Moriarty, the plot of Jessica Knoll. Knowing your interest in voice-first fiction with an edge, I’m hoping The Seventh Floor could be a good fit for your list.

When we meet London-born Charlotte, known as Charlie, she’s just touched down in New York. She’s lost, jet lagged, and kind of weepy. She applied to graduate school in America when she was wine drunk after a bad date; she never expected to get in. But in spite of herself, she loves it — until something happens that changes Charlie to her core. A massacre at the school, dubbed “Scarlet Christmas” by the tabloids, leaves her boyfriend and her closest friends grievously injured. Shattered and filled with guilt over her role, Charlie flees.

Eight years later, Charlotte believes she’s put the past behind her. She’s the editor-in-chief of a major magazine, fiancée to the heir to a publishing dynasty, respected and put-together in a way that would terrify her younger self. When Charlotte learns that “Scarlet Christmas” is being adapted for film, the past that haunts her will collide with her shiny present.

I believe The Seventh Floor will attract readers of Knoll and Moriarty. The manuscript is 100,000 words.

As for me, I’m the director of content strategy at Marie Claire. I’m also extremely British — I moved to New York “for a bit” a decade ago and never left — so I have to tell you: Pitching this to you is hard. Talking myself up, it’s a weird feeling! Still, I would love to discuss The Seventh Floor with you. The first ten pages are below.

Natalie Jenner

Internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society, Bloomsbury Girls, and the forthcoming Every Time We Say Goodbye

Dear ******,
I am a former lawyer and independent bookshop owner (you can read about that particular adventure by googling "globe and mail archetype books"). I am writing to you because of your past representation of Austen-related works such as "******" and "*******."
My completed 70,000-word MS is a fictional telling of the start of the Jane Austen Society in the 1940s in the village of Chawton where she lived. There are eight main characters, all of whom are obsessed with Austen and conspire to create the society and turn the Austen cottage into a museum in her honour: a WWII war widow, a farmer, a village doctor, a local solicitor, a house-girl on the Knight estate, the anticipated heiress of that estate, an employee of Sotheby's and a Hollywood actress. Multiple social, romantic and cultural collisions ensue.
I spent a week residing in the village of Chawton last Fall and that bucket-list experience informs much of this MS. As my husband deals with a recent terminal illness diagnosis and we shepherd our one child off to university this Fall, I have been coping with my grief by re-emerging myself in the works of Jane Austen, and the themes of grief, trauma and healing are subtly but seriously dealt with in my book. This MS is one of the few beneficial results of the journey I have been on.
I attach the first fifty pages of the MS, as per the submission guidelines on your website.
Thank you in advance for your time and attention, and kindest regards always,
Natalie

Lindsey Kelk

Internationally bestselling author of books including I Heart New York, On A Night Like This, The Christmas Wish, One in a Million, and others

Dear XXX,
Please find enclosed the first three chapters and a synopsis of I Heart New York.
The story focuses on a 27-year-old English girl, Angela Clark, who discovers her fiancé cheating on her at her best friend’s wedding. This creates a chain of events that leads her to New York City, a new career, new friends and new men but does any of this newness resolve her old issues?
As well as the central story of a girl trying to work out her place in the world, geographically and metaphorically, the book includes a lot of vivid detail about New York, particularly Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Hopefully I’ve done justice to my love for the city.
The story is aimed at the commercial women’s fiction market and the people I’ve asked to read the book so far have come back with comparisons like Louise Bagshawe, Sophie Kinsella and Chris Manby. There is a lot of potential to spin the book out into a series, focusing on the different places Angela finds herself – the second book will be based predominantly in London and the working title is ‘I Heart London’.
I’m 26, living in London and work as an editor in the children’s department of a major publisher. Currently, I am working on licensed properties which means I spend a great deal of each day ghost writing for Spider-Man, Shrek and Mary-Kate and Ashley. Prior to this, I spent a year working PR and studied creative writing at university under acclaimed Fantasy author, Graham Joyce.
In the interest of not chopping down too many more trees, I haven’t included an SAE and am more than happy for any unused material to be recycled. My contact details are below and I hope very much to hear from you.

AH Kim

Author of A Good Family and Relative Strangers

(Head here for an excellent breakdown of why this query worked, and see below for a second query for a newer project.)

Dear Mr. Kim:
I previously queried you about a YA novel, which you declined in such a kind way that I have been a fan ever since. Given your legal background, I'm hopeful you may have greater interest in my latest work, an adult novel titled False Claims.
Beth Lindstrom is a beautiful pharmaceutical exec who has it all: a handsome husband, two adorable daughters, a designer wardrobe to kill for, an English Tudor mansion in Princeton and a custom-built NYT Sunday Styles-featured weekend home on the Chesapeake. But after Beth enters Alderson Federal Prison Camp, sister-in-law Hannah Min slowly discovers that the seemingly perfect Beth also has a closetful of secrets that could choke a clotheshorse, including the mystery of who might have conspired to file the whistleblower lawsuit that tore Beth’s world apart.
False Claims combines equal parts dysfunctional family satire (The Nest) and alternating POV domestic noir (Gone Girl, Girl on the Train), observed with a gimlet eye and garnished with the zest of Orange is the New Black. Be careful because this fizzy cocktail goes down so smooth that you won’t realize what a wallop it packs until the end. You’ll have to read it twice for maximum effect.
They say you should write what you know. The premise for False Claims came to me as I was writing my 100th letter to my sister-in-law, who is serving time at Alderson. We weren’t close before she went to prison, but over the past four years, we’ve come to appreciate our shared experience: hard-working immigrant daughters turned high-flying lawyers, doing our best to balance career, marriage, and motherhood.
False Claims is complete at 87,000 words. Per your submission guidelines, I have included a synopsis and the first ten pages directly below. I appreciate your consideration.

Dear Ms. XX,
My debut novel, A Good Family (Graydon House/HarperCollins), just launched on July 14 to favorable reviews in the Washington Post (by Maureen Corrigan), San Francisco Chronicle, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist (starred review). I am now seeking representation for my sophomore novel, Finding Amelia, a modern re-telling of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.
“They’re throwing Mom out of the house,” Eleanor Bae-Wood writes to her younger sister, Amelia. Eleanor is the older, sensible sister who has to support her newly widowed mother through a contentious estate battle with a hitherto-unknown half-brother, the product of her deceased father’s first love back in South Korea. Meanwhile, Amelia – a former Food Network-style celebrity who’s fallen from fame and spent several months hiding in a Buddhist monastery – needs time and space to figure out her future. Told from Amelia’s first-person perspective, Finding Amelia is the story of the three Bae-Wood women, along with Eleanor’s teenage daughter Maggie, as they find respite (and romance) at Arcadia, an idyllic cancer retreat center in Northern California.
While A Good Family drew upon my experience supporting my brother and his children as his wife was serving time in Alderson Women’s Prison, Finding Amelia is inspired by my years as a long-time cancer survivor and head of a support group for young women with breast cancer. With a diverse cast of characters, Finding Amelia explores timeless themes of love and loss, sensuality and sacrifice, and will appeal to fans of Cathleen Schine’s The Three Weissmanns of Westport, Curtis Sittenfeld’s Eligible, and Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.
I adore my current agent, Kirby Kim at Janklow & Nesbit, but he has humbly acknowledged that he may not be the right agent to represent Finding Amelia, which deviates from A Good Family’s domestic thriller genre and falls more comfortably in the commercial women’s fiction category. Finding Amelia is complete at 88,000 words. Per your submission guidelines, excerpted below are the first ten pages.
Thank you for your attention, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Angie Kim

New York Times bestselling author of Miracle Creek and Happiness Falls

Dear Ms. Golomb:
I am writing to you as I am a fan of Jonathan Franzen, Rachel Kushner, and many of your other clients, and I’ve read in interviews that you enjoy novels that bring together unlikely people or pairings. I am seeking representation for MIRACLE SUBMARINE, a literary courtroom thriller about a mother accused of murdering her eight-year-old autistic son.
Miracle Submarine is not a submarine. It’s a pressurized oxygen chamber marketed by its Korean owners as an experimental autism treatment. When it explodes, killing the boy inside, his mother is accused of sabotage and prosecuted for murder. But did she really kill her own child? Or was it, as mounting evidence suggests, an insurance scheme by the chamber’s owners, who are struggling financially? As they battle at trial, uncovering secrets about that night—mysterious notes, trysts in the woods, and child-abuse charges—we delve into the seldom-seen subcultures of special-needs parenting and immigrant life in rural America, into the extraordinary degrees of desperation and sacrifice both entail. Like David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars and Chris Bohjalian’s Midwives, MIRACLE SUBMARINE blends a suspenseful whodunit with an exploration of what it means to be outside the mainstream, culturally or medically.
MIRACLE SUBMARINE is a fusion of my experiences as a Korean immigrant, former trial lawyer, and mother of a real-life “submarine” patient. My stories have won the Glamour Essay Contest (judged by Jane Smiley, Jesmyn Ward, Erin Morgenstern, and Ann Brashares) and the Wabash Prize for Fiction (judged by Charles Baxter), been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and twice been featured in Ploughshares’ “Best Story I Read This Week” series. My writing has also appeared in Salon, Slate, The Southern Review, New Letters, Sycamore Review, Asian American Literary Review, PANK, and others. I was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and writer for the Stanford Daily.
Per your agency guidelines, I’ve pasted the first chapter of my 115,000-word manuscript below. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
All best,
Angie Kim

Tawny Lara

Author of Dry Humping

Hi Eric,
I'm currently seeking representation for my book, Dry Humping: How to Get Laid Without Getting Wasted. It's a feminist guidebook to sober dating, sex, and relationships. Below is a brief query. My full proposal is available upon request. P.S. I also have a rock n roll heart! Dad's a metal musician and I co-host a podcast about sobriety and rock n roll.
Have you ever taken a shot of whiskey or had a glass of wine to curb those first date jitters, desperately waiting for the liquid courage to kick in? I have. It wasn't until my 30th birthday that I decided to take a step back, stop binge drinking, and figure out what I actually wanted from a date or a romantic relationship. But then all of a sudden I had a problem: How do I date, let alone have sex, now that I’m sober? Dry Humping: How to Get Laid Without Getting Wasted is the how-to guide I wish I had. Now that millions participate in Dry January and “sober curiosity” is a household term, we all need a lesson in the art of sober dating in a world consumed by hookup culture. Dry Humping is about the liberation one experiences once they ditch alcohol in an increasingly sex-positive society.
Combining pop culture criticism, interviews with sex therapists and dating coaches, sober sexual assault survivors, sober LGBQIA+ folks, sober BIPOC folks, and my own experience navigating sex, dating, and relationships as a sober millennial. I take readers through the modern sober dating scene. Then we go deeper into the sober sex conversation: learning about sober sex workers, the link between sexual assault and alcohol, and what sober sex-positivity looks like. The book ends with the reader learning how to navigate the stresses of later-in-life events like weddings, estate planning, home buying, divorce, family planning, and more—while also keeping sobriety as priority number one.
I'm an NYC-based Bisexual millennial who writes about the intersection of relationships, sex, and sobriety. My work is featured in Men’s Health, Playboy, Huffington Post, Writer’s Digest, The Temper, Audiofemme, a sex column for SheSaid, and two essay collections: The Addiction Diaries (LaunchPad 2020) and the forthcoming reimagining of Sex and the Single Girl (Harper Perennial 2022). The latter has been optioned by MGM for a potential Amazon series similar to Modern Love. I am also the co-host of Recovery Rocks podcast and story developer for Webby-Award winning F*cking Sober podcast. I’ve been profiled in Men’s Health, WebMD, Refinery 29, Parents, and more. Additional bylines and press features available at tawnylara.com.
I’d love to see Dry Humping on your list, especially as the conversation about sobriety and sex-positivity continues to become more mainstream. Below are 10 pages of the marketing section for said proposal.
Thanks again! -Tawny

Leah Konen

Author of The Perfect Escape, All the Broken People, You Should Have Told Me, Keep Your Friends Close, and others

Hi AGENT,
I’m querying you based on your interest in character-driven suspense along the lines of CLIENT BOOK. I recently parted ways with AGENT and am currently seeking new representation.
First, a little background on my publishing history. I’m the author of four YA novels, including THE ROMANTICS (Abrams, Nov 2016), developed in conjunction with Alloy Entertainment and published in several countries worldwide, and my forthcoming original novel, LOVE AND OTHER TRAIN WRECKS (Harper Collins, Jan 2018), which has received starred reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal, as well as praise from Publisher’s Weekly.
I’m currently shopping a partial of my debut adult psychological thriller, BROKEN PEOPLE. Escaping an abusive boyfriend, 28-year-old Lucy King trades Brooklyn for nearby Woodstock, NY, but her upstate dream becomes a nightmare when, lonely and desperate for support, she develops a twisted, codependent relationship with her new neighbors, John and Vera. The enigmatic couple soon lure her into an intricate plot to fake John’s disappearance and escape their own small-town secrets, but all goes south when John turns up actually dead just a few weeks later, forcing Lucy to find the killer before she goes down for his murder. It’s BIG LITTLE LIES meets Hitchcock’s DIAL M FOR MURDER, only the women are in charge this time.
Per your guidelines, I’m pasting the first ten pages of BROKEN PEOPLE below. I have an 80-page partial and synopsis available upon request.
Thanks so much!
Leah

Linden A. Lewis

Author of The First Sister, The Second Rebel, and The Last Hero (The First Sister trilogy)

Dear Alexandra,
Curiosity. Yearning. Enthusiasm. Love. Can those trapped in an endless war choose between the needs of their people over their emotions?
First Sister is a nameless, voiceless courtesan and priestess of the Sisterhood, traveling the stars alongside the soldiers who own the rights to her body and soul. But when the Mother, the leader of the Sisterhood, assigns First Sister to go against everything she has been taught and spy on her new captain, the beautiful Saito Ren, First Sister discovers that sacrificing for the war is so much harder when in love.
Lito val Lucius, an elite soldier of the Mercury and Venus alliance, is haunted by his part in losing Ceres to Earth and Mars. But when he is assigned to hunt down his former partner, Hiro val Akira, he must decide what he is actually fighting for--the sibling he loves, the society that raised him, or himself.
As each draws closer to completing their mission, their paths converge on a single point where their decisions will change the tide of the war--if they can put aside their own desires first.
THE FIRST SISTER, complete at 78,800 words, is Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale meets Pierce Brown’s Red Rising. This #ownvoices story is a standalone novel with series potential. I am querying you because of your work with diverse authors and passion for YA. I attended the Odyssey Writing Workshop in 2016 and was published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #215. I hope you enjoy.
Sincerely,
Linden A. Lewis

Vanessa Lillie

USA Today bestselling author of Blood Sisters, Little Voices, and For the Best

Dear Agent,
The night Devon Burges almost died in childbirth, her friend Belina was murdered. Back home from the hospital, Devon struggles with postpartum psychosis, manifesting as a vicious, godlike voice preying on her new-mom insecurities. When another friend, Alec, is accused of the murder, Devon must return to her skills as an attorney to investigate Belina's life and uncover those who benefitted from her death.
Nothing will stop Devon from finding Belina’s killer, not the baby in her arms or the cruel voice in her head. But staying on the right side of the law proves difficult as she digs deeper into the crime. While Devon believes Alec is innocent, she uncovers his involvement in a money-laundering scheme, ties to a corrupt government official, and a botched FBI investigation. Finding justice becomes an obsession, one that leads Devon, baby in-hand, down Belina’s dangerous path directly to the killer.
LITTLE VOICES is an 80,000 word upmarket suspense, in the vein of THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR, but with a (somewhat) unreliable, first-person narrator who drives the action.
In addition to my own experiences as a new parent, I consulted with a postpartum psychologist about how psychosis can manifest and be treated. I’m originally from a small town in Oklahoma, but now live in Providence, Rhode Island where much of the story is set. I edited erotic romance for an e-publisher for two years, have attended several writing conferences (RWA, Backspace, Grubstreet), and have an online writing course addiction.

Sheila Yasmin Marikar

Author of The Goddess Effect and Friends in Napa (who also runs the Substack Your Friend on the Ground)

Hi Claire, I hope this finds you well. I’m currently looking for an agent to represent my debut novel, THE GODDESS EFFECT. About me: I’m a Los Angeles-based contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times, and many other publications. Prior to going freelance in 2013, I spent eight years as a reporter and producer at the New York headquarters of ABC News. Given your representation of Ava Wilder and Lacie Waldon, whose debut novels seem in the same vein as mine, I hope my novel will be a good fit for your list. One publisher has already expressed interest in the manuscript.
THE GODDESS EFFECT follows Anita Raman, a broadcast news producer who kicks off 2020 by ditching her life in New York -- overbearing mom, engaged ex-boyfriend, dead end job -- and moving to Los Angeles. At the Gig, a trendy commune in Venice funded by a supposedly benevolent startup investor, she has three months to get her act together and get a job before she has to start paying rent. One morning, instead of job searching, she goes to a workout called the Goddess Effect and quickly gets sucked into the orbit of its guru founder, Venus Von Turnen.
When a Goddess Effect regular takes Anita under her wing, this floundering 30-something realizes her dream of becoming a Christiane Amanpour for wellness centers instead of warzones -- but not before her worlds collide and many heads roll.
A riotous, thoroughly modern coming of age story, THE GODDESS EFFECT sends up social media as well as the world of high-end wellness and explores how we find our purpose. It is Kevin Kwan's CRAZY RICH ASIANS meets Jordan Peele's GET OUT. Written in a way meant to grab consumers who'd rather tap through Instagram Stories than open (or download) a book, it will resonate with readers between the ages of 18 and 40 who are fans of contemporary comedic dramas with juicy twists, in the vein of Kiley Reid's SUCH A FUN AGE and Leigh Stein's SELF CARE.
Below are the first 10 pages of THE GODDESS EFFECT. Please let me know if I can send you the rest of the manuscript. Thank you for your time, I look forward to your feedback.

Kimberly McCreight

New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, Friends Like These, A Good Marriage, and others

Dear Ms. ____
I am contacting you regarding representation for my novel _______.
By the time the long winter finally breaks in Ridgedale, New Jersey, Cedar Creek is running high and the woods are thick with dead leaves mulching their way back to earth.  And that's where they find him.  Out there in the rotting leaves, between all those naked trees.  His tiny body is battered and lifeless and poorly hidden and he wasn't much more than a few hours old when he died.  Yet no one in town has the faintest clue who this baby is or, more importantly, who he belonged to.  And in Ridgedale, New Jersey—the sophisticated, yet bucolic University town that's become the bedroom community of choice for the suburba-phobic—everyone knows everyone.  At least all the parents do.  Perhaps they know each other too well, thanks to Ridgefield Parents.  The "RP" is a list serv through which the parents of Ridgedale exchange advice on everything from sleep-training to summer camps and make recommendations on things like babysitters and landscape designers.  People love the RP, but these days it has become more about lording judgment over one's neighbors than lending them a hand.  And, of course, that was before a dead baby turned up in Ridgedale's collective backyard.
The novel utilizes the narrative perspectives of four mothers, Molly, Kate, Mary and Lexi—whose lives are sharply divided by career choices and parenting styles, but united by the same tony preschool—as well as the collective voice of the RP to unwind the tangled truth about what happened to the dead baby, revealing, in the end, that these four mothers have far more in common than they realized.  And that their lives are more intertwined with what happened to the baby in the woods than they ever could have imagined.
Following my graduation cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, I worked for several years as a lawyer at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.  My stories have appeared in the Antietam Review, Oxford Magazine and Reflections Literary Journal and my restaurant reviews have appeared in the online edition of New York Magazine.  My last novel was represented by The Paula Balzer Agency and received a number of very positive responses from publishers.  I live with my two young daughters, Emerson and Harper, in Park Slope, Brooklyn where I have, on rare occasion, been known to get a tad outraged by some of the opinions and advice bandied about on the infamous Park Slope Parents list serv.  But that's only when I'm right and all those other mothers are, well, so terribly wrong.
Thank you for your time.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Christina McDonald

USA Today bestselling author of The Night Olivia Fell, These Still Black Waters, Behind Every Lie, and Do No Harm

Dear XXXXX:
Sometimes even the truth is a lie.
PIECES OF YOU (102,000 words) is women’s fiction about a mother piecing together the shocking truth of how her teenage daughter ended up brain dead. Like Reconstructing Amelia and Daughter, it asks how well you ever really know your children, weaving together a story of secrets and lies.
Single mother Abi Knight’s world is shattered when she receives the call in the inky darkness of night: her sensible teenage daughter Olivia has fallen from a bridge and is brain dead. Equally shocking, Olivia is pregnant, the baby kept alive while she’s on life support. Despite the angry bruises circling Olivia’s wrists, the police abruptly rule Olivia’s fall an accident and close the case.
Certain the fall was no accident and determined to find the truth before the baby is born, Abi investigates what happened that night. As she pieces together Olivia’s last months, she learns that despite her own hidden truths and her careful control of Olivia, Olivia had a life Abi knew nothing about. And as she delves deeper into her daughter’s world, uncovering why she was on the bridge and who she was with, another question weighs on her mind: what will happen to Olivia’s baby?
I am from Seattle and am a copywriter in London for brands such as Travelex, TUI Travel and Expedia. I've published a nonfiction travel book (Moon Living Abroad in Ireland) and edited an academic book (The Challenge of eCompetence in Academic Staff Development). I received a Master’s in Journalism in Ireland, which propelled me to publish articles nationally and internationally, including in The Sunday Times, Dublin, the Connacht Tribune, the Seattle Post Intelligencer and USAToday.com.
I hope you will agree to read my manuscript. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Danica Nava

Author of The Truth According to Ember

Dear *Agent*,
I am pleased to send you my Indigenous adult romantic comedy complete at 85,000 words, LITTLE WHITE LIES, that will appeal to fans of the Native humor in Hulu’s RESERVATION DOGS with the humor and romance in Tessa Bailey's IT HAPPENED ONE SUMMER and Rachel Lynn Solomon’s WEATHER GIRL.
Ember Lee Cardinal has not always been a liar, not for anything that counted. But when her resume is rejected thirty-seven times, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets creative listing her work experience and answers the ethnicity question on all job applications with a lie. No one wanted Native American Ember, but Caucasian Ember landed her dream accounting job on Park Avenue—Oklahoma City.
Accountant Ember thrives in corporate life, and she begins a forbidden romance with the IT guy and fellow Native, Danuwoa. When they are caught in a compromising position on a work trip, a scheming mid-level executive threatens to expose them unless she fraudulently manipulates the company’s accounting books. Unwilling to allow Danuwoa to get fired and lose the financial support he needs for his sister, she agrees. The blackmail continues to grow, as do Ember’s lies. She must make the hard decision to either stay silent for her own personal gain or finally tell the truth, which could cost Ember everything.
I am an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and work as an Executive Assistant in the corporate jungle. I am also currently getting my MBA from USC Marshall School of Business. When I’m not chasing my ten-month-old baby girl around the house, I am doing math homework that I hate and dreaming up more silly, sexy stories. My complete manuscript is available upon request.
Chokma’shki’! Thank you for your consideration!
Danica

Hannah Orenstein

Authors of Meant to Be Mine, Head Over Heels, Love at First Like, and Playing with Matches

Hi Allison,

I just devoured Katie Heaney's Dear Emma and had to send you an email. My obsession with advice columns stretches back to high school, when I treated E. Jean Carroll's advice column in ELLE like a religion. It wasn't until I moved to New York that I learned about E. Jean's side business running a matchmaking service. I didn't think she'd hire me, since I was still just a college kid, but I was bowled over when she decided to bring me on board. I wasn't confident in my matchmaking skills, but I figured at least I'd get some writing material out of the job. And oh, boy, did I ever.

I have a completed 84,000-word commercial women's fiction manuscript titled Swipe Right for Bliss. It's inspired by my real-life experiences working as a matchmaker for the dating service Tawkify in 2014 (you can read more about my matchmaking adventures at Refinery29). The first 10 pages of my manuscript are below my signature.

Sasha Goldberg, the 22-year-old daughter of a Russian mail-order bride, embarks on a career as a matchmaker for New York City's elite at the dating service Bliss. She trolls for pedigreed catches on Tinder, coaches her clients through rejection and heartbreak, and dishes out dating advice to people twice her age. She hopes her clients find The One — like she did in college with her finance bro boyfriend Jonathan Colton — or else her dwindling income will force her back to her mom's place in New Jersey. But when Sasha discovers that Jonathan is cheating on her, she spirals out of control... and right into the arms of Adam Rubin, the writer with the sexy Southern drawl she had set up with a Bliss client. He's strictly off-limits, but she can't help but fall for him. How will she pursue what's in her heart without jeopardizing her job?

I have more than five years of professional writing experience, including my current position as a features and news writer at Seventeen.com. My work also frequently appears on Cosmopolitan.com, ELLE.com, MarieClaire.com, Refinery29, Bustle, and more. I speak about writing at annual conferences including the Her Campus Conference, the Lady Project Summit, and the Smart Girls Conference. My platform includes 3,000 followers on my personal Twitter (@hannahorens) and 15,000 on my Gossip Girl-inspired parody Twitter (@modern_gg). I studied journalism and history at NYU.

The first 10 pages of my manuscript and a synopsis are below my signature. I can be reached at [redacted] or by phone at [redacted]. Thank you so much for your time!

Lindsey J. Palmer

Author of Pretty in Ink, If We Lived Here, Otherwise Engaged, and Reservations for Six

Dear Ms. Lyons,

PINK COLLARS, PINK SLIPS is a sharp satire of the cutthroat, high-profile world of women’s magazines set in the era of its decline, as the recession rages on, the Internet continues to cannibalize business, and even the biggest titles are at risk of folding.
The staff of Hers magazine is in for a shock: After months of flagging sales at the newsstand and the increasing ire of the VIPs in the corporate suite, the magazine’s beloved Editor in Chief Louisa Harding gets the pink slip, and notoriously tough Mimi Rollins swoops in to fill the publication’s top spot… and then the massacre begins. Mimi has big plans to overhaul the magazine—to infuse its pages with more celebs, scandal, and smut in order to lure in more 30-something women readers—and it’s no secret that she plans to overhaul Hers’ staff, too.
The drama unfolds over the course of one very heated summer, in chapters narrated by a range of distinct voices from the office—a photo editor secretly dating her boss, a backstabbing features editor gunning for a promotion, a beauty editor gaming the system for her own private ends, a new assistant beloved by the boss and envied by everyone else, among others. As the Hers staffers battle it out to hang onto their jobs (as well as some semblance of dignity), all their fears and anxieties, their hopes and vulnerabilities play out on the stage of the Hers workplace. They gossip and betray, and then occasionally surprise themselves and each other with an act of tender grace. By Labor Day, not only has the masthead of Hers changed dramatically, so have the staffers whose names appear there.
PINK COLLARS, PINK SLIPS is complete at 75,000 words, and I have submitted queries to multiple agents. I’ve pasted the first 10 pages below, and I’d be happy to send you the rest of the manuscript via email or snail mail.
I have been working as a professional writer and editor in the magazine industry for seven years, currently as the Features Editor at Self magazine, and previously as an editor at Redbook magazine and as a freelance writer at Glamour magazine. I have also held editorial internships at Atria, a division of Simon & Schuster, and at Publishers Weekly. I have taught fiction writing at a summer arts program for high school students in Putney, Vermont. As a student at the University of Pennsylvania, I was awarded first place in the English Department’s annual fiction prize, and I am a two-time winner of the 34th Street’s annual creative writing contest.
Because you are a well-respected agent and because you also have extensive experience as a magazine writer and editor (including at Self!), I would be honored for you to take on my novel for representation. Thanks again, Ms. Lyons, for your time and consideration.
Best,
Lindsey

Kira Peikoff

Author of Baby X, Mother Knows Best, Living Proof, and others

Dear….
Two truths haunt Dr. Arianna Drake: that the numbness in her legs is worsening, and that there's only one thing she can do to stop it—smuggle embryos out of her own fertility clinic.
Meet the future: maybe 20 years from now, maybe sooner, when the brilliant young doctor Arianna is rapidly deteriorating from multiple sclerosis, but her only hope for survival—scientific research on embryos—is punishable by life in prison. Armed with an ingenious scheme to evade government watchdogs, she knows it's a risk she can't live without taking. What she doesn't know is what will happen when the man who might save her watches her fall in love with the man who's out to stop her.
In 2006, I was a journalist at the White House who covered President Bush's historic first veto rejecting Congress's bid to lift federal restrictions on stem cell research. My outrage at the veto and my fascination with biotechnology led me to write THE UNHOLY GRAIL, a mystery and suspense novel that captures the high stakes and human emotions on both sides of this charged conflict.
Arianna’s nemesis is lukewarm conservative Trent Rowe, an undercover operative for the Department of Embryo Preservation who is on a mission to investigate her for suspected illegal activity. As Trent gleans clues from her enigmatic world, which centers around a church basement in New York's East Village, his own faith in the mission unravels. Split between what he has always known and what he has privately feared, Trent struggles alone to untangle his clash between loyalty and logic. Then he must fight for something in a way he never has—without losing the trust of either side—before it's too late.
Pitched at the level of a general reader, the science in the novel is based on cutting-edge research being conducted in the neurobiology labs at the University of California-Irvine. Never has this crucial debate over embryonic stem cells been explored and humanized in fiction—until now.
As a journalist, I’ve written for The Daily News, The Orange County Register, Newsday, and New York magazine, and I now work on the editorial side of book publishing, in adult trade non-fiction.
I would be happy to send you the complete manuscript or detailed synopsis and chapters. Thank you for your consideration.

Julia Phillips

National Book Award finalist and bestselling author of Disappearing Earth and Bear

Dear Suzanne,

Jean Kwok let me know that you're willing to take a look at my novel DISAPPEARING EARTH for a week's exclusive. Thank you so much for your consideration! I've attached the manuscript to this email and included more information about it below.

On a beautiful August day, on a remote volcanic peninsula, two young girls go missing. Their abduction begins the 80,000-word novel DISAPPEARING EARTH.

Clues to the crime lie in the lives of twelve women in the girls' rural Russian community. Over the year that follows, we meet Lerusya, who witnessed the girls' disappearance; Natasha, who lost her sister similarly years before; Lada, who unknowingly crosses paths with their kidnapper; and Marina, their grieving mother. The women's separate stories of violence and loss come together in Kamchatka, one of the most isolated, secretive, and naturally magnificent places in the world. As DISAPPEARING EARTH moves month by month through the peninsula, we search for, and finally [SPOILER], the lost girls.

This manuscript has been supported by a Yaddo residency and a Fulbright grant, which supported a year of on-the-ground research while I lived in Kamchatka. Excerpts from the book have been published or are forthcoming in literary journals including Glimmer Train and The Antioch Review. I've also written nonfiction about Russia for such publications as BuzzFeed News, Jezebel, and Slate.

I hope you'll find this project fits with your list alongside literary novelists like Jean and Min Jin Lee, as well as Russia-focused authors like Angela Stent. Thank you again for your time.

Best,
Julia Phillips

Kirthana Ramisetti

Author of Dava Shastri's Last Day and Advika and the Hollywood Wives (who also runs the Substack Free Happiness!)

Dava Shastri, one of the world’s wealthiest women, always lives her life with her legacy in mind. What will the world say about her when she’s gone? After she’s diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at age seventy, she takes drastic measures to find out.
Dava summons her four adult children and their families to her private island compound to disclose shocking news. Not just that she has a terminal illness and will end her life very soon. But she admits she let news of her death break early so she can read her obituaries.
As a billionaire who dedicated her global foundation to women’s empowerment, Dava expects to read articles lauding her philanthropic work. Instead, her “death” inadvertently exposes the two secrets she has spent a lifetime guarding from everyone, even her beloved late husband.
And now the whole world knows, including her children. They aren’t completely shocked by the news of her affair with a singer-songwriter. After all, he had titled his Oscar-winning song after her. But the other secret—a child Dava gave up for adoption and befriended thirty years later without revealing that she’s her mother—upends everything they thought they knew about their ambitious, slightly remote mother, changing their relationship with her and each other.
In THE MATRIARCH, Dava must come to terms with the decisions that irrevocably altered her life and make peace with her family in the limited time she has left.
The novel blends Succession's uber-wealthy dysfunctional dynamics with The Farewell's bittersweet examination of mortality and familial grief. Complete at 107,000 words, this multi-generational family saga will appeal to fans of Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had and Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s The Nest.
As a former entertainment reporter for Newsday and the New York Daily News, I have written my fair share of stories about the lives (and deaths) of the rich and famous. I have a master’s degree in creative writing from Emerson College, and have been published in high-profile publications including The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly and The Atlantic.
I read an interview in which you stated you were seeking novels that explore the complexities of families, so I hope my book will be of interest to you. Per your submission guidelines, I am enclosing the first five pages in this email. Thanks for your time and consideration.

Cara Reinard

Author of Into the Sound, Sweet Water, and The Den

Dear Agent,
Holly Boswell has always admired her sister’s well-to-do, unattached life. Married to a prominent Long Island defense attorney, Vivian resides in the home of her dreams on Handsome Avenue, named rightly so for its sophisticated homes and walking distance to the beach. When a superstorm tears up the east coast, Vivian calls Holly for help, but when Holly rushes out to find her, she’s greeted with an empty car. Vivian’s missing and Holly doesn’t think the storm is to blame.
Thirty-six-year-old Holly Boswell liked to play Hide-and-Seek with her older sister, Vivian, when they were younger, but the last time they played they were punished by their parents, psychology professors who used them as their favorite subjects. Vivian isn’t playing games this time and suicide was the ultimate rule-breaker in their home, so Holly doesn’t buy it when the police suggest Vivian took her own life. Her body hasn’t been recovered and the location of Vivian’s disappearance is a marker from their childhood, a clue Vivian left behind for her sister—the only one who can answer the riddle to this puzzle.
When Holly finds suspicious chat sessions on Vivian’s computer, she’s convinced she was lured by an online predator. Until a client in her brother-in-law’s highly publicized trial is murdered, a tragedy that favors his case. Add a discovered mistress to the mix and a suspicious life insurance policy and Holly is ready to tear down Clayton’s walls for answers, but she’s shocked to learn the mystery to Vivian’s disappearance may lie in walls much closer to her own.
INTO THE SOUND (92k) is a story of two sisters conflicted and bonded by the trials of their twisted childhood. Comps include GONE GIRL, told from the sister’s perspective, and WHEN WE WERE SISTERS by Emilie Richards.

Susie Orman Schnall

Author of Anna Bright Is Hiding Something, We Came Here to Shine, The Balance Project, On Grace, and The Subway Girls

Dear Carly,
I’ve learned so much from your How to Get an Agent webinar, GETTING PUBLISHED IN THE 21^ST CENTURY ebook, and blog, and I’ve also heard wonderful things about you from Kristin Contino and Crystal Patriarche. I’m excited to submit MISS SUBWAYS—89,000 words, dual timeline historical/contemporary women’s fiction—for your consideration.
In 1949, dutiful and ambitious Charlotte is forced to take over her father’s store which shatters her dreams of gaining independence from her suffocating parents and starting her career in advertising. Meanwhile, Charlotte is swept into the glamorous world of Miss Subways, which promises irresistible opportunities with its Park Avenue luster and confidence-boosting appeal. But when her new friend—the intriguing and gorgeous fellow-participant Rose—does something unforgivable, Charlotte must make a difficult decision that will affect the rest of her life.
Almost 70 years later, outspoken advertising executive Olivia is pitching the NYC subways account to save her job and avoid financial despair. When the charismatic boss she’s secretly in love with pits her against her misogynistic nemesis, Olivia’s urgent search for the winning strategy leads her to the historic Miss Subways campaign. As the pitch date nears, Olivia deals with a broken heart, an unlikely new love interest, resolutions of past secrets, a whirlwind trip out west, and an unexpected personal connection to Miss Subways that could save her job—and her future.
MISS SUBWAYS introduces readers of fiction to the fascinating Miss Subways advertising campaign that ran in the NYC subways from 1941 to 1976. It captured the public’s imagination with its star-making impact and girl-next-door quality. Miss Subways is the subject of a nonfiction book and the premise of Broadway and Hollywood’s On The Town. I’ve been captivated by Miss Subways ever since I heard about it in on NPR several years ago, and I can’t wait to share its rich history and abiding themes with readers.
MISS SUBWAYS is similar in structure to ORPHAN TRAIN and WHEN WE MEET AGAIN, with the setting and tone of MODERN GIRLS, and the themes of Mad Men.
I am the author of two award-winning novels: ON GRACE (SparkPress: 2014) and THE BALANCE PROJECT (SparkPress: 2015). I am also the founder of The Balance Project, a media-recognized interview series that explores the tragically glorified having-it-all craze, and I have interviewed over 150 women including Reese Witherspoon, Spanx’s Sara Blakely, and the founders of theSkimm. My writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Working Mother, Writer’s Digest, POPSUGAR, Glamour, and more. In addition, I’ve spoken about my novels and work-life balance to a variety of audiences and have been interviewed on television and radio.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Gretchen Schreiber

Author of Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal (and professional bookworm for Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon's media company)

(Note: Below, Gretchen shares the evolution of her query letter, from first draft to final pitch.)

First draft:

Ellie has one rule: don’t read her mother's blog. It's the only way to ensure her life-life and her hospital-life remain separate. As a disabled teenager with ten doctors on speed-dial and 40+ surgeries under her belt she can feel like more like an exhibit when everything’s chronicled in her mother's blog.
When she gets a cold that won’t go away she maintains control of her life by telling neither her boyfriend nor her friends what is going on, even when she’s forced back to the hospital. Trapped with her mother looking for her next blog post, and doctors who think surgery might help, Ellie finds refuge in a group of fellow teen patients. Except for Ryan Kim, an athlete who never met a doctor's rule he didn't love.
But then her boyfriend, desperate for news, reads her mom's blog and angry with Ellie’s secrets breaks up with her. In a last ditch effort to get back home, Ellie must trust Ryan’s way of dealing with the hospital—including agreeing to surgery with a scalpel-happy doctor. When it fails to cure her, confirming all her worst fears about the hospital, she has to decide: divide up her life again, or risk it all and combine her two worlds?
THE CURE FOR THE COMMON LIFE is a YA contemporary novel complete at 79,000 words. Essentially it is Breakfast Club in a hospital and inspired by my life growing up in and out of Ronald McDonald Houses and major medical facilities. Dana Leydig, Senior Editor at Viking Teen has expressed interest in the project and has requested to see it as soon as I have an agent
I have ghostwritten a series of romance novels for an independent press. By day, I work for Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s company, where I cultivate all selections for Reese’s Book Club, as well as develop original projects with Audible, such as Baddest Bitch in the Room and Find Another Dream. I publish a monthly newsletter discussing problematic tropes around disability in YA.

Second version:

Ellie has one rule: don’t read her mother's blog. This way her life-life and hospital life remain separate. As a disabled teenager with ten doctors on speed-dial and 40+ surgeries under to her belt all chronicled in her mother's blog.
But when a cold refuses to go away and becomes the centerpiece of her mother's life again. Ellie must return to the hospital and place her trust in new specialists. Trapped with her mother looking for her next blog post, Ellie finds refuge in a group of fellow teen patients. Except for Ryan Kim, who is Ellie’s antithesis, an athlete who never met a doctor's rule he didn't love. She tries to teach him how to get through the hospital while ignoring his advice.
Until her doctors suggest a hail-mary surgery to cure her. Ellie refuses. But then her boyfriend, desperate for news, reads her mom's blog and in a fit of anger breaks up with her. Desperate to get back and fix things, Ellie must trust Ryan’s way of dealing with the hospital—including agreeing to surgery with a scalpel-happy doctor. When it fails, confirming all her worst fears about the hospital, she has to decide: divide up her life again, or risk it all and combine her two worlds?
THE CURE FOR THE COMMON LIFE is a YA contemporary novel complete at 79,000 words. Essentially it is Breakfast Club in a hospital and inspired by my life growing up in and out of Ronald McDonald Houses and major medical facilities. Dana Leydig, Senior Editor at Viking Teen has expressed interest in the project and has requested to see it as soon as I have an agent.

Third draft:

Ellie has one rule: don’t read her mother's blog. This way her life-life and hospital life remain separate. As a disabled teenager with ten doctors on speed-dial and 40+ surgeries under to her belt all chronicled in her mother's blog.
When she gets a cold that won’t go away she maintains control of her life by telling neither her boyfriend nor her friends what is going on, even when she’s forced back to the hospital. Trapped with her mother looking for her next blog post, and doctors who think surgery might help, Ellie finds refuge in a group of fellow teen patients. Except for Ryan Kim, an athlete who never met a doctor's rule he didn't love and doesn’t understand Ellie’s reluctance to open up.
But then her boyfriend, desperate for news, reads her mom's blog and in a fit of anger breaks up with her. Desperate to get back and fix things, Ellie must trust Ryan’s way of dealing with the hospital—including agreeing to surgery with a scalpel-happy doctor. When it fails to cure her, confirming all her worst fears about the hospital, she has to decide: divide up her life again, or risk it all and combine her two worlds?
THE CURE FOR THE COMMON LIFE is a YA contemporary novel complete at 79,000 words. Essentially it is Breakfast Club in a hospital and inspired by my life growing up in and out of Ronald McDonald Houses and major medical facilities. Dana Leydig, Senior Editor at Viking Teen has expressed interest in the project and has requested to see it as soon as I have an agent.

Final version:

Ellie has one rule: her life-life and her hospital-life do not mix. As a disabled teenager with ten doctors on speed-dial, 40+ surgeries under her belt, and a yearly trip to the hospital, she knows how to run any medical institution she walks into.
Then a cold refuses to go away and she’s stuck on her couch growing further and further from her friends. Trapped with her mother, who records every step of Ellie’s illness on the popular blog she started when Ellie was born, Ellie seeks even more ways to escape her mother. A new group of teens at the Ronald McDonald House she’s staying at become her haven.
Except for Ryan Kim, who is the antithesis of Ellie. An athlete who loves a regimen, Ryan never met a doctor’s rule he didn’t follow. She tries to teach him how to get through the hospital while ignoring his advice.
And then her boyfriend breaks up with her and all her ways of handling doctors fail, Ellie decides to trust Ryan’s way of dealing with the hospital—including agreeing to surgery with a scalpel-happy doctor. When it fails, confirming all her worst fears about the hospital—she has to decide: does she close off again or risk it all and combine her two worlds?
THE CURE FOR THE COMMON LIFE is a YA contemporary novel complete at 75,000 words. Essentially it is: Breakfast Club in a hospital and entirely inspired by my life growing up in and out of Ronald McDonald Houses and major medical facilities. Dana Leydig, Senior Editor at Viking Teen has expressed interest in the project and has requested to see it as soon as I have an agent.

Halley Sutton

USA Today bestselling author of The Lady Upstairs and The Hurricane Blonde

Dear XXXX,
Jo’s made a career out of ruining terrible men. She works for a woman known only as the Lady Upstairs, recruiting girls to seduce and blackmail the richest sexist pigs in Los Angeles. But if Jo doesn’t ace her next case—using the charms of a naïve blonde named Ellen to take down a notorious casting-couch king—the Lady’s threatening to replace her.
Jo thinks she has it handled. Sure, Ellen’s getting squirrelly, but it’s nothing that can’t be solved by stealing a little extra bribe money from the Lady’s stash. Jo’s sure as hell not going back to her old life—or leaving the woman she can’t quite admit she loves, her coworker Lou.
Before long, though, Jo’s bad decisions have a body count, and the cops are closing in on the Lady’s whole operation. Jo hatches one more scheme: swindling a powerful local politician, then using his cash to skip town with Lou. But Lou’s been keeping secrets of her own, and not just about the identity of their mysterious employer.
THE LADY UPSTAIRS is a modern-day feminist noir novel with a femme fatale heroine, perfect for fans of SUNBURN by Laura Lippman and Megan Abbott’s QUEENPIN. The manuscript is complete at 85,000 words, and it’s a standalone with series potential.
I wrote THE LADY UPSTAIRS while completing my MFA at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. I currently work in academic publishing, and I’m also a fiction editor for the Monday Night Lit literary magazine and a 2018 Pitch Wars mentee.
Please find the manuscript attached. Thank you for requesting to read more, and thank you for your time!

Virginia Trench

Author of Our Secrets Were Safe

Hi, Tess!
I noticed you're looking for psychological suspense with smart female protagonists; as a reader, I live for novels like these, so much so that I decided to write one myself.
Someone knows what really happened the night Sofia Eliades died. Ten years later, threatening messages find Caroline Archer and Brooke Winters, survivors of Sofia’s tragic accident, and it soon becomes clear that the terrible truth will not stay buried.
Caroline, founder of a feminist startup and Sofia’s ex, has the opportunity to score badly needed funding for her tech company. Brooke, Sofia’s college roommate, is newly engaged and starting a prestigious teaching job. They almost have what they’ve always wanted. But someone is determined to avenge Sofia’s death and destroy their lives in the process.
And when the only other witness of Sofia’s fate is murdered, they each must decide how far they’ll go to outrun their past. Sofia’s death was just the beginning: both women have more to hide. As Brooke and Caroline search for the source of increasingly sinister messages, a tangled web of lies and ugly truths begins to unravel.
Someone is playing a dangerous game in which revenge justifies the means. The question is: can they survive it?
Our Secrets Were Safe is a 96,000-word psychological thriller that explores class, toxic relationships, feminism, and the blurred lines between perception and reality. Jessica Knoll fans just found the next The Luckiest Girl Alive in this mystery about the long shadows cast by dark secrets. Readers who enjoyed the compelling characters of Janelle Brown’s Pretty Things and the suspense of Lisa Jewell’s The Night She Disappeared will love following this story’s twists and turns to the final page.
My best,
Virginia

Diana Urban

Author of All Your Twisted Secrets, These Deadly Games, Lying in the Deep, and Under the Surface

(Note: Diana shared more intel on her successful query letter on her blog.)

Hi Jim,
I understand you’re looking for a super fun mystery, and you once indicated via #MSWL that you were seeking a book comparable to Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, which is one of my comp titles. You also read my last manuscript two years ago, and my friend Lauren Spieller loves working with you, so I’m excited to reach out again!
ALL YOUR TWISTED SECRETS is a 84,000-word YA psychological thriller. It’s a dual-timeline deconstructed murder mystery with [SPOILER], and alternating flashback chapters drop clues about whodunit and who the victim will be. It’s perfect for fans of Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE and Abigail Haas’s DANGEROUS GIRLS.
Seventeen-year-old aspiring film score producer Amber is convinced she’s going to die tonight—from nerves, that is. She’ll be trapped at a scholarship dinner with the boyfriend she plans to dump and the nerd crush who’d take the blame—and a blow from her boyfriend’s fist. But the scholarship is a ruse, and when an unseen captor locks her and five other students in the deserted restaurant, they find a note, a syringe filled with poison, and a bomb. The note reads: “Within the hour, you must choose someone in this room to die. If you don’t, everyone dies.”
Determined to get everyone out of the room alive, Amber orchestrates friends and foes alike to work together to find a way out—and keep the tension with her selfish boyfriend from imploding. But as she grapples with the clashing personalities of her almost-ex, her former best friend, the queen bee, the stoner, and the nerd, the bomb’s timer ticks down. Confusion turns into fear, and fear morphs into panic as they race to uncover who locked them in… and who’s going to die.
By night I torture fictional characters, and by day I’m a marketing manager at BookBub, a leading book discovery platform. I regularly publish book marketing content on insights.bookbub.com. Outside the bookish world, I live with my husband and cat in Boston, and enjoy reading, yoga, and looking at the beach from a safe distance.

Stephanie Wrobel

USA Today bestselling author of Darling Rose Gold (pitched as Mother May I), This Might Hurt, and The Hitchcock Hotel

Dear [Agent’s First Name, Last Name],

Rose Gold Watts believed she was sick for eighteen years. She thought she needed the feeding tube, the surgeries, the wheelchair.

Turns out her mom, Patty, is a really good liar.

After five years in prison, Patty gets out. Mother and daughter agree to move in together and let go of old grievances. Patty says all she wants is to reconcile with Rose Gold and care for her infant grandson.

But Rose Gold knows her mother. She won’t rest until she has Rose Gold back under her thumb. Which is a smidge inconvenient, because Rose Gold wants to be free of Patty forever.

Only one Watts can get her way.

MOTHER MAY I (87,000 words) is a suspense novel told from both Patty’s and Rose Gold’s points of view, in two timelines. My book would appeal to readers of Ali Land’s GOOD ME, BAD ME and Gillian Flynn’s SHARP OBJECTS, if the story were told from Amma’s and Adora’s points of view.

My short fiction has been published in Bellevue Literary Review and was nominated for the 2018 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. I’m an MFA Candidate at Emerson College.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Further resources

The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, a podcast for emerging writers
QueryTracker, to find agents and track queries
Publishers Marketplace, to explore agents’ publishing deals
Manuscript Wish List, to see what agents are seeking
The Equity Directory, a database of BIPOC literary agents created by Literary Agents of Change
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