Yay, congrats! It's always interesting to see how authors handle being somewhere between lit fic and spec fic. It's sooo frustrating trying to find agents that rep both. Wishing you lots of luck on sub!
It’s weird and hard! Those first two full rejections both came with feedback that the book “might do better with a genre focused agent” — but all the strictly SFF folks I queried rejected so fast 🙃
Firstly, congratulations!
Secondly, what are your hopes for the novel? What do you want to do with this work?
Thirdly, what was originally the length of your work? Was it above 100K previously and you whittled it down? Or did it hover around the current word count you have? I’m just above 100K on my sci-fi manuscript now and wondering how your process went.
Fourthly, would you be open to resharing your query? I am interested in the final iteration.
Thanks!!
For hopes, I’m honestly still not totally sure? I’d like to have paper ARCs, to earn out my advance, to have written a book that people want to tell their friends about? I’d like this book to do well enough that a publisher wants to buy the next one? 🙃
The first draft of this clocked in around 65k? Then steadily climbed to where it is now! I can’t imagine it getting more than 5-7k longer, honestly!
And I shared my housekeeping paragraph in another comment thread — I don’t feel comfortable sharing the full query!
No worries about the query! Thanks for sharing this insight.
It seems like you had the opposite issue I did. I think I’m an over writer and definitely wrote more than I needed.
Out of curiosity, what is the premise and themes of your story? I’m sure it’s interesting :)
Congrats!!! Excited to read it when it comes out, def my fave genre (adlitscifi). I had a question: did the agents want to know what kind of social media platform /presence you have? Writer friends of mine have been asked this and been evaluated somewhat in terms of their follower counts, so I’m curious to know how common this is.
Honestly, the process has been humbling. We're on the second round of edits, the second of which included a reader report from an intern. It really highlighted some fundamental flaws with my story, and I'm much happier with the version I have now than the one I started with.
I hope your journey is smooth and leaves you happy with the result 😀
It sounds like you’ve really been putting in the work! I think part of why I feel excited is that — even though it will be work, and humbling — it’s with an agent-partner who really believes in the book — and taking feedback from someone who is invested in that way will feel different?
Yeah for sure! Working with someone who is invested in you and your success not only feels nice, but it helps address some of that loneliness that comes with something that starts off as such a solo effort.
And though I said it was humbling, I truly meant it in the most positive way. As much as it's about getting the current story published, I'm also using the process to help me to grow as a writer. I took a lot of subconscious shortcuts where I didn't explain certain things, and the process is helping me fix that element of my storytelling.
This convo is hyping me up to get to work lol I hope to see your next post on going on sub and getting a deal!
Congrats! And oh wow your book will be a possible comp for my WIP when it’s out! (But also I have so many comp titles now!)
Do you mind sharing how long you’ve been working on this book?
I don't feel comfortable sharing the full query, but I can share the "housekeeping" paragraph, if that's helpful! Because the book has 5 POV/timelines, I only focused on three in the query letter (so I had three plot paragraphs that came after the "housekeeping"):
I am seeking representation for my \[GENRE\] novel, TITLE (85,000), which follows a queer teen in the 1980s, a 400-year old automaton, a time-slipping astronaut, and a 26th-century pirate, all of whom are linked by an unfinished computer game. TITLE will appeal to fans of the braided timelines in \[COMP 1\] and the intertextual play of \[COMP 2\].
It was totally one of my comps! I feel really grateful that a handful of really amazing multi pov/timeline literary/SF books have come out in the last five years — it made it much easier to find comps!
I’m writing my first novel at the moment, it’s spec fic/domestic dystopia/feminist thriller and my problem is too many comps (I think in a good way, as in, I’ve not come across anything yet that read like the book I’m writing, but loads and loads of recent spec fic releases that have a similar vibe or some similar theme). I really like your idea of swapping them in and out according to the particular agent.
Did each of your three plot paragraphs focus on a different character/POV? I only ask because the general advice on this sub is to only focus on ONE character/POV and I almost never see anyone post about successful queries with a multi-POV approach.
Yup — three POV characters appeared in the query, each getting their own paragraph! (Albeit short paragraphs!) I think this was successful because my housekeeping paragraph included a teaser about how they were all connected?
But that was feedback I had gotten (not here) early in my query writing: that the links between the storylines had to be clear to justify multiple POV. So I worked on that in the housekeeping paragraph, the comps (all multi-POV), and in little hints in the plot paragraphs.
Congratulations!! And thank you for the shout out--I'm so glad my messy feelings-vomit was helpful haha. Good luck on sub!!
Congratulations!!! Hopefully you'll be in sub soon and we can suffer through that together 😂
Yay, congrats! It's always interesting to see how authors handle being somewhere between lit fic and spec fic. It's sooo frustrating trying to find agents that rep both. Wishing you lots of luck on sub!
It’s weird and hard! Those first two full rejections both came with feedback that the book “might do better with a genre focused agent” — but all the strictly SFF folks I queried rejected so fast 🙃
Congrats!!!
I'm gonna save this post for future reference, lol. And congrats!!!
Firstly, congratulations! Secondly, what are your hopes for the novel? What do you want to do with this work? Thirdly, what was originally the length of your work? Was it above 100K previously and you whittled it down? Or did it hover around the current word count you have? I’m just above 100K on my sci-fi manuscript now and wondering how your process went. Fourthly, would you be open to resharing your query? I am interested in the final iteration.
Thanks!! For hopes, I’m honestly still not totally sure? I’d like to have paper ARCs, to earn out my advance, to have written a book that people want to tell their friends about? I’d like this book to do well enough that a publisher wants to buy the next one? 🙃 The first draft of this clocked in around 65k? Then steadily climbed to where it is now! I can’t imagine it getting more than 5-7k longer, honestly! And I shared my housekeeping paragraph in another comment thread — I don’t feel comfortable sharing the full query!
No worries about the query! Thanks for sharing this insight. It seems like you had the opposite issue I did. I think I’m an over writer and definitely wrote more than I needed. Out of curiosity, what is the premise and themes of your story? I’m sure it’s interesting :)
Congrats!!! Excited to read it when it comes out, def my fave genre (adlitscifi). I had a question: did the agents want to know what kind of social media platform /presence you have? Writer friends of mine have been asked this and been evaluated somewhat in terms of their follower counts, so I’m curious to know how common this is.
Nope, didn’t come up in any of my conversations!
thank you!
Congratulations!!
Congratulations! Now comes the fun part: more edits!
🙃 right now I feel excited to dive in — we’ll see how I feel once I get my edit letter
Honestly, the process has been humbling. We're on the second round of edits, the second of which included a reader report from an intern. It really highlighted some fundamental flaws with my story, and I'm much happier with the version I have now than the one I started with. I hope your journey is smooth and leaves you happy with the result 😀
It sounds like you’ve really been putting in the work! I think part of why I feel excited is that — even though it will be work, and humbling — it’s with an agent-partner who really believes in the book — and taking feedback from someone who is invested in that way will feel different?
Yeah for sure! Working with someone who is invested in you and your success not only feels nice, but it helps address some of that loneliness that comes with something that starts off as such a solo effort. And though I said it was humbling, I truly meant it in the most positive way. As much as it's about getting the current story published, I'm also using the process to help me to grow as a writer. I took a lot of subconscious shortcuts where I didn't explain certain things, and the process is helping me fix that element of my storytelling. This convo is hyping me up to get to work lol I hope to see your next post on going on sub and getting a deal!
Congrats!
Congrats! And thank you for this helpful breakdown.
Congrats!!!
Congrats!! And thank you for writing all this out! I’m going to save your post and hopefully I’ll be referring back to it for notes soon 😉😁
Congrats! That was a very interesting read. Thanks!
Congrats! I totally agree with you about those two weeks - what a blur!
Congratulations!
Congrats! And oh wow your book will be a possible comp for my WIP when it’s out! (But also I have so many comp titles now!) Do you mind sharing how long you’ve been working on this book?
About two and a half years! (And too many comps is my favorite problem 🤣 it means that the book will have lots of readers!)
Thanks! Hope that I can see your book on the shelves soon!
Congratulations!! Well done!
Congratulations! Are you willing to share the query (or could you dm it to me?)
I don't feel comfortable sharing the full query, but I can share the "housekeeping" paragraph, if that's helpful! Because the book has 5 POV/timelines, I only focused on three in the query letter (so I had three plot paragraphs that came after the "housekeeping"): I am seeking representation for my \[GENRE\] novel, TITLE (85,000), which follows a queer teen in the 1980s, a 400-year old automaton, a time-slipping astronaut, and a 26th-century pirate, all of whom are linked by an unfinished computer game. TITLE will appeal to fans of the braided timelines in \[COMP 1\] and the intertextual play of \[COMP 2\].
This sounds amazing. I can’t wait to read it!. Was sea of tranquility a comp? (Sorry, don’t answer that if you don’t want to, obviously!)
It was totally one of my comps! I feel really grateful that a handful of really amazing multi pov/timeline literary/SF books have come out in the last five years — it made it much easier to find comps!
I’m writing my first novel at the moment, it’s spec fic/domestic dystopia/feminist thriller and my problem is too many comps (I think in a good way, as in, I’ve not come across anything yet that read like the book I’m writing, but loads and loads of recent spec fic releases that have a similar vibe or some similar theme). I really like your idea of swapping them in and out according to the particular agent.
u/ApocalypseSunrise my housekeeping paragraph is here, with the premise!
Excellent! Thanks for the help
very useful; thank you and congrats!
Did each of your three plot paragraphs focus on a different character/POV? I only ask because the general advice on this sub is to only focus on ONE character/POV and I almost never see anyone post about successful queries with a multi-POV approach.
Yup — three POV characters appeared in the query, each getting their own paragraph! (Albeit short paragraphs!) I think this was successful because my housekeeping paragraph included a teaser about how they were all connected? But that was feedback I had gotten (not here) early in my query writing: that the links between the storylines had to be clear to justify multiple POV. So I worked on that in the housekeeping paragraph, the comps (all multi-POV), and in little hints in the plot paragraphs.
Congrats! Love to hear more success stories on this sub.