I am seeking representation for my 81,000-word novel, [redacted], a work of historical fiction with supernatural elements. It blends the eerie suspense of [redacted] with the atmospheric storytelling of [redacted], offering a tale of deception, buried secrets, and the thin veil between the living and the dead.

 

Winslow Wellstone has spent years perfecting the art of the con. His spirit photography business — a carefully staged illusion of capturing the dead alongside the living — has finally begun to thrive, his clients eager to glimpse lost loved ones. But when he overreaches with the wrong mark, his success turns to desperation, and he needs a way out.

 

Salvation arrives in the form of a letter from a mysterious woman who claims to know him from years past — though he has no memory of her. With no other options, he accepts her invitation and retreats to an isolated farm in upstate New York, where winter presses in and the house brims with ghostly whispers, hidden tragedies, and a host whose motives grow more enigmatic by the day. As the season deepens, Winslow's carefully crafted certainty begins to fracture — his dreams are haunted, the spirits in his photographs seem more real than illusion, and an unsettling truth begins to take shape: he and his host may not make it to spring.

 

[bio paragraph redacted]

 

I would love the opportunity to share more. Thank you for your time and consideration.

The Contenders

And now, excerpts from the four runners-up.

First up is Nicole Nixon, whose historical novel, A Woman Noble and Notorious, sounds straight up our alley. Below is Nicole's so-called housekeeping paragraph, in which you identify your title, word count, genre, and anything else that can help the agent categorize the book:

Complete at 112,000 words and titled after a quote from famous orator Cicero, A Woman Noble and Notorious is a historical fiction novel that blends the tone and authenticity of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo with the ancient setting and plotting style of The Song of Achilles. In 56 BCE, Cicero publicly denounced Clodia Metelli as a villainess and temptress. She was not allowed to respond. It was an era when women had no name of their own, but now A Woman Noble and Notorious gives one woman a name, a story, and a voice.

Congrats, Nicole! Keep us updated on your progress with this.

Next up, Megan Altekruse and her novel The Path of Joy. For this one, we're also running the housekeeping graf:

A modern-day Chronicles of Narnia with a healthy dose of Holly Black’s Tithe, The Path of Joy (YA fantasy, ~xx,xxx words) explores a land where rival royal siblings fight for control of the heart and soul of elven society, ego and fear turn loyal friends into fierce enemies, and the only one who can bring order to chaos is an unwitting human girl with magical abilities.

I enjoy Megan's pairing of a well-loved classic with a more recent book, but what I really appreciate here is how artfully she lays out the wide view of the plot.

Now we move to Ryan Bridges, whose urban fantasy The Eclipse Syndicate is the first in a planned trilogy. I'm including Ryan's first paragraph here, the so-called hook. If this doesn't grab an agent's attention, what will?!

After a sinister ritual shatters their memory and curses them with empathic powers, Nova, a non-binary amnesiac, is left with only two things: their name and a debt they don't remember asking for. In the ritual’s aftermath, Silas and Seraphina, members of an occult organization called the Black Circle Syndicate, explain that Nova is now a Debtor, an individual cursed by an otherworldly entity in exchange for supernatural abilities.

If I were an agent, I'd ask to see more pages after that intro.

And finally, we have Lacey Zawadzki, who sent us a query for a book of poetry. What I'm including here is a graf where Lacey writes earnestly about her approach to poetry:

I write from the heart and that depth is endless. It’s made of a boundless pool of experiences, lost promises, dreams, and pain. Of hope, beauty, despair, and joy. It’s a combination of light and darkness, sin and purity. I am a novice writer with a background in no formal writing or training, but that should be the most exciting to mold. A mind that is uninhibited by specific restraints or guidelines. One free and completely malleable. 

When you reach out to agents and editors, never shy away from sincerity.

A hearty thank you to all of you who took (and take!) the time to share your work with us. We'll do more contests in the future.

In the coming weeks, we have soooooo much news to share with y'all: New books from your WriteByNighter peers; WBN staff updates; a poll on what should be the next step for me and my Yak Babies pals. So stay stuned.

And until then, as always... happy writing!!