This query is part of the Be an Agent for a Day contest. Rules and Regulations here
Please post your rejection or manuscript request in the comment section!
Dear Agent for a Day,
I’m writing today to introduce my literary novel, BENEATH THE HEART OF BEAUTY, the story of a man who is emotionally lost and finds that he must understand his forgotten past to forge a meaningful path to his future. It has 70,000 words.
Charlie Waters is just staggering through life when he begins to have recurring erotic dreams about a beautiful woman he doesn’t recognize. His best guess is that she might be from his mysterious past. Two years earlier, while reeling from the discovery of his wife’s affair, Charlie went to Los Angeles on business and disappeared. Six weeks later, he emerged from a coma in a Miami hospital with a gunshot wound to the head and no memory of the previous several months.
Besides the dreams of the woman, Charlie begins to experience flashbacks and bits of memory from the time he disappeared. These clues of sex, passion, greed, suicide, and murder come unbidden and out of chronological order, often jarring him both mentally and physically, and they threaten to drive him mad. His wife, a psychiatrist, tries to reach out to him and help, but Charlie can’t figure out which is worse–knowing or not knowing. As Charlie struggles to reconnect with his wife and form some sense of a life again, he knows he can’t move forward until he comes to grips with his past.
I’ve had several short stories published in the past, and I have written book reviews for [redacted] for the last seven years.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Author
STATS: 10% request rate
ludwig snarf says
i regret that we cannot help you
MonkBoy says
Thank you for your query submission, but I’m afraid we’re not interested in your material at this time.
Best of luck,
Placebo Publications
Jenn S. says
Dear Author,
Thank you for your query. It’s not right for me, but please keep me in mind for future submissions.
Regards,
Jenn S.
(Reason: Hard to articulate, but this just didn’t interest me. It’s possible this is marketable, but I wouldn’t be the right agent for it. Plus, isn’t 70k a little short for a literary novel?
Laura Martone says
Dear Author:
Thank you for submitting your query for consideration. I appreciate the time, energy, and passion that it required to complete “Beneath the Heart of Beauty”.
Unfortunately, given the thousands of queries that I receive annually, I can only request a small percentage of manuscripts for possible representation. While I find the subject matter of your novel intriguing, it does not meet my editorial needs at this time.
I am grateful for the opportunity to consider your work and wish you much luck in your future endeavors.
Sincerely,
Laura Martone
Linta says
Dear Author
Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately I’m not the right agent for you. Best of luck in finding your novel a home.
Regards
Agent for a day
[reasoning: a man with amensia. Yawn. Also, the query is badly structured. I can’t tell where the story starts and what the arc is.]
Livia says
Thank you for your query, but it is not a good fit for me. Best wishes.
Livia
chris says
Thank you for your query, but your project isn’t right for us at this time. Best of luck in your endeavors.