Romance Writing Workshop and What I've Learned as an Agent (so far...)
First, friends, what an incredible two months this has been. I thought I’d hit a lot of my career milestones before, but becoming an agent has been the highlight I hardly let myself dream about.
While the process has been exceptional, the learning curve has been a true joy. You can’t say that about every new job, but in my case, I’ve never been more excited to discover what I don’t know.
That being said, I want to share a few insider tips from the agent’s side of the desk after a whopping two months in this role! (Will this change in the future? Maybe! And if so, I’ll update you!)
From the Agent’s Side of the Slush Pile
Have you ever queried and wondered what the heck takes so long? Why do agents take for-freaking-ever to do anything and everything? I’ll tell you why. The volume of incoming work is staggering. Staggering. Yes, the volume of submissions that come in is incredibly high, but the job is about so much more than reading and evaluating submissions. Let’s look at the numbers:
This is a labor-intensive process
In December 2025, I received 1,262 queries in QueryTracker. Let’s say I took no time off in December and worked 40 hours per week and prorated the last week of that month to about 180 working hours for the month of December.
If I spent only five minutes per query, that would mean I spent 105 working hours only on submissions in that same month. No income generation. No editing. No progress. Just reading and responding to queries.
Many queries exceed 500 words (which is non-standard but very common) so reading the 500+ word query, checking the author’s socials, website, or other links to their work, and reading five sample pages can take far longer than five minutes. There will also be submissions I reject simply because the query letter revealed something significant about the work and I know I would not be a good fit for that book. Even if I can save SOME time off the 5 minutes per submissions, it’s not likely I can read faster than 1-2 minutes.
Many submissions require thought and analysis, and that in many cases will mean far more than 5 minutes of time.
I’m not a math major, but reading submissions is a labor-intensive process. The longer I am open to submissions, the more regular communications I receive from authors. Authors will receive offers of representation from other agents or offers of publication from small presses and that may change the timeline I have to do review the work. I also have to spend time reading and responding to those emails.
No wonder it takes many agents months to keep up/catch up on their queries. This doesn’t even factor in full manuscript requests or meetings! I would never use any kind of AI to make this process faster, so when authors are waiting in my queue, they really are waiting for me!
If you add full manuscript requests to the pile, just managing incoming submissions is a more than full-time job.
Pitching a book is an art unto itself
Now I understand why authors have to put so much work into the query letter and pitch to even get noticed by agents. Agents MUST be able to do that exact work to pitch a book to a publisher, but with a depth and complexity that is very, very different.
If you as the author can’t “sell” me on your book in the query letter, it’s likely there are pieces missing, the premise is overly complex, or there isn’t a highly commercial pitch in the novel.
But isn’t pitching the agent’s job and not the author’s? Not exactly. The pitch that I have to create to make you, your book, and your career look like a worthwhile investment to a publisher is a long more complex (and longer!) than the query letter and one-sentence pitch you provide. If you don’t have a compelling pitch, it’s just too easy to pass on the book—even if it’s really good!
Many novels are not commercially viable
This last one is tough, and it’s why comp titles are such a critical part of the query letter. Long before I self-published my massive zombie serial on the Kindle Vella platform, I queried a much shorter novel version of the book. I got lots of rejections (mostly because zombies), but I also had some serious interest from my dream agent. She kept the full manuscript a year and then passed, ultimately telling me that she knew the book wasn’t quite there yet and that the voice was great and the horror haunting!
She was kind enough to explain that she didn’t know exactly how to guide me to fix the novel, and so she decided to pass on it. Knowing what I know now, I realize what a huge gift her feedback and even the time she spent on a full MS was.
The reality is that part of what will make an agent effective at their job is matchmaking acquiring editors to projects and then pitching successfully to those markets. If no one is buying zombie novels, then I might have written the most brilliant zombie novel in the world, but an agent can’t take on work they do not believe sincerely (and I’d argue passionately) believe they can sell!
That’s why it’s so important to be clear about your genre, your sub-genre, and your niche, and why every author needs to read deeply within their genre. Write to the reader’s expectations—not only to what your imagination can dream of. I’ve seen so many thoughtful and complex submissions—many of which I did not think I could matchmake and pitch to a publisher successfully.
CRAFT, CRAFT, and MORE CRAFT
The basics are never more critical than when you’re querying. An indie author’s readers might be more forgiving, but the trad-published author needs to understand stakes, point of view, external conflict, and story beats and make those aspects of the novel sing from the pages. Great premise but slow start? It’s far too easy to pass. Interesting universe, but stakes too low? I’m already onto the next.
Rejections feel personal, I know! But I promise they are not!
Workshop Schedule
If you’re writing a romance novel and don’t plan to query me, you may be interested in taking a private romance writing workshop with me! I run these about once per year and I’m accepting applications now for a group that will start on Tuesday, March 3. Here are a few details that you’ll want to know:
The course runs 10 weeks, but it’s all self-directed/asynchronous, except for Zooms every other week which are optional (but encouraged!) The Zooms are recorded so you can watch the replay.
You will receive weekly accountability support and every other week deadlines (5 submissions total) over the ten weeks. You can expect to write or submit up to 25,000 words over the ten weeks and you will receive substantial feedback/editing from me on each submission.
I use a private platform for workshopping, Zooms, learning materials, and discussions with your peers, which you will have access to for the duration of the course.
The class size is limited to six students and the curriculum is tailored to the students who enroll. If you want to cover querying or self-publishing or marketing, we’ll include that content along with what’s already planned.
The cost for ten weeks is $960, and you can break that up over payments.
If you’re writing a romance novel or a romantasy and think a workshop could kick-start your draft or help you finish your book, email us at [email protected] and we’ll send you a schedule and chat through your book, your goals, and any questions you have.
Have a question about querying, craft, or anything publishing related? Ask me anything! I’d love to hear from you! Happy writing!