u/Few-Turnip7264

Hello!

Kind of a unique situation here (or maybe not), and hoping to get this group's thoughts on how to navigate. I want to make sure I am staying compliant with industry standard and courtesy. I don't want to burn any bridges, and want to make sure I am acting ethically.

I've been querying novel 1 for a year or so. Lots of interest, and near misses, but nothing stuck in the end. I wrote novel 2 in the same genre and was preparing to query it when I received an offer of rep on novel 1.

I was initially excited about the offer. She seemed great on the call, and we shared editorial vision. Therefore, I did the two week window in which several agents stepped aside due to time constraints.

However, at the 11th hour of research and networking to make sure I was making the right decision, I learned some things about my agent, her boss, their sales record, and the firm overall that made me think this would not be the right fit for me. Therefore, I politely declined her offer and thanked her for her time and effort.

My issue: one of the agents who stepped aside due to my offer nudge would be perfect for novel 2, and I therefore want to include her on my query list. However, I do not want to appear as if I had used my previous nudge insincerely.

Any advice on how to navigate? Or am I just overthinking this.

Thanks in advance!

Hello all!

Always appreciate this sub's advice. Getting ready to query a new novel, and wanted to get thoughts on my query. Particularly interested in knowing if the "hook" of the novel (finger prints of a cold case missing person found on the phone of a recently murdered person) is centered enough, or if it's too buried in the second paragraph. Also debating moving housekeeping paragraph to the end. Also rethinking some of my comps. But any and all advice is appreciated. Thank you in advance!!

Dear Agent,

THE SIREN OF WITCHES COVE is an 85,000-word mystery thriller with a gothic New England atmosphere. It pairs the childhood-friendship reckoning of Kate Alice Marshall's WHAT LIES IN THE WOODS with the small-town-complicity engine of Ashley Flowers's ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE, set against the dual-timeline, missing-girl structure and history-laden setting of Liz Moore's GOD OF THE WOODS.

When nineteen-year-old Madison Avery is found dead on the beach at Witches Cove in the small tourist town of Marrow's End, Massachusetts, Detective Izzy Harper catches her first solo murder case under the worst possible circumstances: her partner has just resigned without explanation, reporters are circling, and the town's Halloween tourist season is in full swing. But when the medical examiner discovers the fingerprints of Lauren Turner — a girl who vanished from the same beach fourteen years ago — on Madison's phone, the case becomes deeply personal. Lauren was Izzy's best friend.

As Izzy and her reluctant, ailing former partner Baker reopen the cold case alongside the murder investigation, a second timeline reveals the truth Lauren never got to tell: the story of a young woman groomed and controlled by an older man whose identity, if exposed, would fracture the community. In the present, Izzy follows a trail of exotic poison, cryptic warnings, and old secrets that leads her to confront not only who killed Madison Avery, but what really happened to the friend she failed to save — and her own complicity in looking away.

(bio)

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

First 300:

News of the body found at Witches Cove traveled fast—as news tends to do in Marrow’s End. Used to be you’d have a few hours before the public got word of something, but not so much anymore with social media, and especially not during the tourist season. Starting in August and ending the day after Halloween, the entirety of the town seems to be awake and paying attention.

Good for tips. Not so much for discretion.

Before I was even at my desk, I had my mom sending me Facebook links from her community group about the death. Usually kept busy by the kind of white noise that permeates through any small town—the openings and closings of restaurants, the DUIs of civil servants, the books unfairly banned at the local middle school—they were newly invigorated by the news of a potential murder. It was all hands on deck for the town’s vigilant stay at home moms and eternally online teens, both excited by a break in the monotony of small town life. This was their Super Bowl.

Do they know anything?

Should I keep my girls home from school?

I heard it was one of the Wiccans that hang around down there.

Was it the Avery girl?

Miraculously for a Facebook comment, they were right. It actually was the Avery girl. Of course, I couldn’t tell my mom that before the department announced it. Her group’s thirst for news would have to remain unsatiated for the time being.

“Detective Harper. My office. Now.”

My chief caught me right as I stepped through the squad bay’s door. I was early for my shift by at least an hour, but his tone made me feel tardy. The room was mostly empty, being that it was the no man’s land between night and day shift.