u/mcnuggets97

I submitted to a publisher who offers both traditional and hybrid publishing. They got back to me requesting the full manuscript and then responded saying they'd want to work with me but on a hybrid basis. I do not want to work with them on this basis but can I use this to nudge agents who have not yet responded?

I have had rejections from agents so far but have roughly 20 outstanding queries.

(Please do not scare me with the dangers of hybrid publishing, I'm well aware, I simply want to know if I have any leverage with this or if it essentially means nothing)

Sheriff Jack Bennett has spent months falling for his neighbor, Grace. Held up at work by the latest overdose, Jack made it home with enough time to settle in for the evening, but when he arrives, she isn’t there. 

While Jack launches a desperate search, the rest of his department is focused elsewhere. An opioid epidemic is tearing through their Appalachian town, and one woman away from her home for a few hours doesn’t register as an emergency. But Jack can't let Grace go. The more he investigates, the more he realises his love for the town has given him rose-tinted glasses, and crimes have been slipping through the cracks.

Two months earlier, Grace arrived in town determined to start over. Leaving her controlling ex-husband behind, she hoped the quiet community would offer the fresh start she desperately needed. Instead, she witnesses a drug deal involving one of Jack's fellow officers and finds herself pulled into the town's darkest secrets. As threatening messages begin to appear and the danger closes in, Grace has to fight not to fall back into the timid housewife she once was. 

As Jack follows the trail, he uncovers a shocking truth: Grace has been living under a false identity. To find her, he'll have to untangle the mystery of who she really is, confront his own misplaced trust, and expose corruption that reaches far closer to home than he ever imagined. If he fails, he may never find the woman he was planning on spending every day with. 

THE PORCH is an adult dual-POV domestic suspense novel complete at 72,000 words. It combines the small-town atmosphere and layered mystery of Lisa Jewell's The Night She Disappeared with the themes of isolation, survival, and hidden danger found in Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone.

First attempt at a query, would like some feedback please 😄

Hello [name], 

Considering he’d been held up at work by the latest overdose, Jack thought he’d made it home in pretty good time, enough time to settle in for the evening with Grace. He’d picked up the hot cocoa and could practically taste the apple pie she promised to make. Maybe tonight they wouldn’t just sit on her porch, maybe this was the day their relationship shifted. He’d never know, because she wasn’t there. 

When Sheriff Jack Bennett comes home to discover his neighbor, Grace, is missing, he undertakes a frantic search that isn’t shared by the rest of his team. With an ongoing opioid epidemic, they have bigger cases on their hands. Ever sleep-deprived and driven by his feelings, Jack discovers Grace may not be who she says she is. As Jack begins to question his ability as Sheriff, he’s constantly proven to be oblivious of what his feelings won’t let him see. 

Set across two interlinking timelines, The Porch follows Jack on his search for Grace while two months prior, she’s made the thousand mile trip to her new West Virginia home. Grace may have left her ex-husband, Caleb, behind, but he’s with her every step of the way, plaguing her thoughts. Grace would love to live a normal, self-sufficient life, but her need to prove that Jack doesn’t share the same traits as her ex, has her discovering the town isn’t as far away from the place she’d left behind as she’d like. While attempting to savor her time with Jack, the sleepy town is being shadowed by a growing drug problem that Grace has ended up in the middle of. After receiving an ominous letter, Grace is taken from her home, away from Jack and everything she’s built. Jack needs to confront his naivety and hope it hasn’t cost Grace her life. 

The Porch is a dual-POV domestic suspense completed at 75,000 words. It shares the Appalachian atmosphere of Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone and the intrigue of Lisa Jewell’s The Night She Disappeared. 

The Porch was written from my home in Lincolnshire, and is my first novel. 

Thank you for your consideration. 

Hello! I’m looking for 2-3 beta readers for a complete 66K domestic suspense - like a thriller but with a romantic storyline. I'm willing to swap for other novels around a similar word count and genre (open to thriller, horror, crime etc)
DM if interested in a swap and/or Google Doc link.

Title: The Porch

About:

• Genre: Domestic suspense. Missing woman in small town Appalachia. Not as fast paced as a traditional thriller
• Comps: The Lake by Natasha Preston. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
• Setting: Small town West Virginia
• POV: Third-person, dual POVs across two timelines.
• Triggers: Mentions of domestic abuse, guns, death.

What I'm looking for (next 2–3 weeks): this will be my second round of betas so I've already made adjustments from initial feedback. looking for big-picture feedback and that the story works as a whole - character dynamics, pacing, setting, engagement.

Blurb:

When Sheriff Jack Bennett arrives home to find his neighbor Grace missing - an unfinished apple pie on the counter, the oven still on, her car in the driveway, he knows something is wrong. What he doesn't know is that Grace has been hiding more than her whereabouts.

Told across two timelines, The Porch moves between Jack's desperate search and Grace's arrival two months earlier. A woman who is slowly and carefully learning what it means to feel safe, Grace discovers how her new neighbor might be what she was looking for all along. As Jack tries to piece together who Grace really is, he uncovers what else the town has been hiding from him.