Happy last week of August! I promise I did not forget I had a Substack—there’s just been a lot going on and sometimes, with publishing (and with life), it’s hard to know what you can and should say about things.
One of the Big Things I was dealing with over the last month was re-entering the querying trenches to find a new agent. This time around was an absolute whirlwind, and not at all the norm, so first, I’d like to take you through my previous experience of querying, and hope that I can shed some light on the process.
I started querying the book that would become my debut, NOW THAT WE DON’T TALK, in September 2023. I’d been working on revising it and getting my query materials together during the WGA Strike, when I was out of work, in between picketing and feeling a lot of existential dread about the state of the television industry, where I’d spent my career. My manuscript had been through many rounds of revisions, with notes from trusted friends, and it felt like time. I was so grateful to the authors I followed on Instagram who posted AMAs and discussed their own querying journeys because I learned so much that way.
I still didn’t really know what I was doing, but at least I was trying.
I tried for a long time.
Over time, I made some adjustments to my query letter—swapping out a too-popular comp, and removing the mention of potential for an interconnected standalone series—and after that, I began getting more full requests. I ended up with something like a 24% request rate, which was decent! But a lot of nos still followed. I’ve worked in TV long enough that I have pretty thick skin, and nine months in, I decided to pivot to the second book I’d written, and work on getting that one query-ready. I stopped sending new queries out for NTWDT, and prepared myself emotionally to shelve it.
As one last-ditch effort, I decided to participate in a pitch event1 called JoyPit on not-Twitter. I’ve since left that hellscape, but unfortunately, I do have it to thank as part of my publishing journey. It was a serendipitous morning where I was up extremely early for Pacific time because my neighbor’s dog was barking incessantly, so I happened to be online when the event went live. I got traction there, and while I’d participated in other pitch events in the past with the same tweets and no agent likes, this time I got twelve. Some were agents who had already passed on my manuscript (awkward), and some were new people I hadn’t previously queried.
My first agent found me during that pitch competition, and less than three months later, my book was out on sub. I was in the query trenches for approximately ten months total, sent about 70 queries, and received one agent offer.
This time around, I hoped it would be different. Since I am mid-contract with Berkley, with the first book in my deal having been accepted and sent to the copyedits queue, and the second book’s outline approved, I hoped that would catch the eye of the agents I was querying and speed up my timeline.
I did not expect to receive my first offer of rep within twenty-four hours of starting to query.
When I queried in 2023, I received the advice to send them out in batches—so you knew if things were working or not—which is smart, but honestly doesn’t seem to apply anymore given the current querying landscape. Agents are receiving more queries than ever, and from what I’ve seen from friends, the turnaround time is much slower than it was even a year ago.
I was so grateful that a friend convinced me to send all of my queries out at once. About half of them were direct referrals from other author friends, which definitely helped my materials get seen, in addition to the very fast initial offer (which actually wasn’t from the referrals).
Again, this situation was very unusual. I wasn’t querying with a full completed manuscript—I had a synopsis and the first 50 pages of what I hope will be my option book, and then, with my editors’ permission, offered NTWDT upon request, to give a fuller sense of my writing.
This time, I sent 24 queries, got ten requests for additional materials, eight rejections, six no-replies, and five offers of representation. It was a wild couple of weeks navigating those agent calls (as well as reference calls with their clients), but I’m thrilled with the outcome. I’m now represented by Lauren Spieller at Folio, and I couldn’t be more excited!
If you’ve made it this far, thank you (and I’m sorry—because I can’t make it through an entire post without staying true to my name and apologizing for something). As a reward, here are some books I’ve read recently and highly recommend!
What I’m reading
I’ve recently finished RACING HEARTS by Ann Adams (out Feb 10, 2026) and LOVE AND OTHER BRAIN EXPERIMENTS by Hannah Brohm (out Feb 3, 2026). Both books feature strong female characters fighting to keep doing what they love, swoony love interests, and moments that truly did make me laugh and cry. You’ll hear me say this over and over again, but the 2026 debut romance list is STACKED, and I feel so lucky to be a part of it.
More soon!
xo R
Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like there’s a new place where people have congregated in a substantial way for these pitch events. Some people are still on not-Twitter, some are on Bluesky, but it doesn’t sound like these events are happening at the volume that they were when I was doing it.
This was super interesting to read as someone just entering the query trenches. I’m doing the small batch thing because I’m a total newbie and hoping for feedback. (Also love the TS lyric book title 🫶🏻)