How I Got My Literary Agent [CC]

The journey to getting a literary agent wasn’t an easy one. I finished my first novel in 2009 and wrote on and off in between, culminating in getting my literary agent almost ten years later in 2019. Today, I’m sharing the story of that journey.

In case you didn't know, literary agents are your representatives in the traditional publishing world. Most publishers will not accept unsolicited manuscripts, and so you must submit through a literary agent. You do this by sending out query letters (aka pitch letters) to multiple agents with the hope of eventually getting an offer and signing with one.

I hope that watching this video will help give a bit of insight into the process as well as sharing my journey to getting a literary agent. When I was querying, watching videos like this gave me a lot of hope and made the arduous journey of querying a little bit easier, which is what I hope to do with this.

This story has another happy ending, as the next year, I went on submission to publishers with my book and got a book deal. You can learn more about that story here: https://youtu.be/oJfzelF9dow

If you have any questions about the process, feel free to comment on them!

Kristy Hunter at The Knight Agency: https://knightagency.net/about-us/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KristySHunter
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristyshunter/

Query Tracker: https://querytracker.net/

Sione Aeschliman Editing Services: https://www.writelearndream.com/

#RevPit Details: https://www.reviseresub.com/

Query Letter:
*note, my title is changing/in flux, so I've removed the old title from the letter

Dear Ms. Hunter,

I read on your Twitter #MSWL that you’re interested in seeing more #ownvoices YA fantasy and think that my novel would be a good fit. Best described as Labyrinth Lost with This Mortal Coil’s genetic hacking, [TITLE NAME REDACTED]* is a 98,000-word young adult #ownvoices urban fantasy that follows a family of black witches living in Toronto, 2099.

Surviving suffocation on her family’s dining room table is not what sixteen-year-old Voya Thomas expected her Calling—a trial each witch must pass to come into her powers—to be like. And no one in her family lineage has ever failed...until her. When she gets a second chance to avoid ending magic for every Thomas born after her, she agrees to complete the new task the spirit of her ancestor gives—kill her first love before the eve of the Caribana festival.

For Voya to succeed, she’ll first have to find the perfect guy. She catches a break when the NuGene company, famed for their advances in genetic therapy, offers a beta matchmaking program. The plan is to become a participant, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she didn’t count on was the NuGene CEO’s obsession with her family’s genome or being paired with Luc—a trans boy who is both adorable and infuriating.

Magic is not a party trick—it’s a culture that’s shaped and protected her family for generations. And this time around, failure means every living Thomas witch, not just future ones, will be stripped of their magic. With mounting pressure from her family, Voya’s caught between her morality and her duty to her bloodline. If she wants to save their heritage and Luc, she’ll have to find something her ancestor wants more than blood. And in witchcraft, blood and intention are everything.

I was raised in Toronto, Ontario in a blended family and all eight of us lived together under one roof. This is what inspired me to create a story about Voya's huge family, and the mix of Trinidadian and Canadian culture she grows up with mirrors my own experience. I was previously published in a short story and poetry anthology titled Lake Effect 6. I was also a #RevPit 2018 winner and received a full developmental edit including line edits from Sione Aeschliman who I worked with over a five-week period.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Liselle Sambury

#Authortube #LiteraryAgent #HowIGotMyLiteraryAgent

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Music: Rock Angel by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported— CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/K8eRXvLL7Wo

Writer Website: https://lisellesambury.ca

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Видео How I Got My Literary Agent [CC] канала Liselle Sambury