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,
We know of five. You can count them on one hand – five people walking this planet harboring extra-terrestrial DNA.
Raymond Russ, a mild-mannered analyst for British Intelligence has a broken heart and a drinking problem, but when he discovers a gaping hole in the inventory of a secret lab he’s closing down, he quickly sounds an alarm heard from England to DC.
A young scientist at the lab has used alien tissue to treat infertility, thus producing five remarkable individuals over a 30-year period: a concert violinist, a Wal-Mart clerk, a brilliant mathematician, a professor of literature, and a world-famous rock star. They’re unaware that their lives could be shattered at any moment by a military assault team – or by discovering abilities they never dreamed possible. Determined to prevent them from being rounded up and dissected like lab rats, Russ is forced to work with Amanda Walker, the official tasked with threat assessment and a woman he considers the lesser of two evils.
My 90,000-word thriller, ON ONE HAND, follows a man in search of redemption as he tries to save the innocent while not dooming the world.
This is my first novel. The full manuscript is available upon request.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Author
STATS: 52% request rate
Anonymous says
Writer,
Your book sounds interesting, and I’d like to see the full manuscript.
-Suzuki Volkeswagon
Writer,
terri says
Dear Author:
I am intrigued and see this work as a possible good fit for a publisher like TOR. Please submit the first 30 pages pursuant to the instructions below.
[insert instructions]
Aside: [This is not a perfect query by any means, but something about the storyline brought me back to it. I read a huge amount of TOR books and this premise resonated with me.]
Anonymous says
Dear writer,
I enjoyed your query, but I’m afraid I’m not the right agent to represent this work. I’d love to see more of your writing.
Gloria Valentine
Anonymous says
Dear Author,
Not my cup of tea.
Agent Edgar Leroy 3rd
Katalina Marie says
Dear Author,
I’m sorry but I don’t think that this book is the one for me.
Regards,
Katalina Marie
Anonymous says
Dear Writer,
Thanks so much for the query, but this is just not right for us at this time. Feel free to send me any others you might come up with, and best of luck in other endeavors.
AM
Anonymous says
Dear Author,
I am not interested in your novel. Keep writing, your story had potential but was not for me. Feel free to Query me later with another piece of your work.
Arkham says
Dear Author,
Your story sounds rather intriguing. I would like to see a full manuscript.
Thanks,
Arkham
Anonymous says
Dear Author,
I appreciate your time and efforts, but I am sorry to say that I do not wish to represent your story. If you have another story idea, please send it to me in the future, and I would be happy to look at it.
Best Wishes,
Quintus Blackburn
Anonymous says
Dear Author,
Thank you for the submission, but I regret to inform you that I will not be picking up your story.
Keep Writing,
Agent Jackie Moon
Anonymous says
Dear author,
I found your story intriguing and I’d like to represent you. Please send me the first fifty pages and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible!
Thank you, Scarlett Cyrus
Anonymous says
Dear Author,
I have decided not to take up your offer on publishing this book. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to view your material.
Thank You,
Happy Gilmore
Anonymous says
Dear Author,
I’m sorry, but this story is not right for me. Thanks for sending me your request, I really appreciate it. Please continue writing.
Veronica Lovette
Mira says
Dear Author,
This is a great story, and your writing style is very good in the query.
I sat on this for a couple of days. At this point, it’s a guessing game, and I’m making a guess this isn’t one of the published three.
I could be wrong. And if I’m not, I may be wrong in the future.
This has strong marketability, I believe, and if done well could be picked up for film or television.
I can just see an actor in the lead. What’s his name? The one who- oh. Clive Owens. Wearing glasses.
If the writing is good, you could have a real winner here. Congrats!
Best wishes for the future –
Mira
Megan says
Dear Author,
Thank you for your time, but I will have to decline.
Best of luck,
Meg Spencer
LateInTheGame says
Dear Author,
Thank you for your query. Unfortunately, I am not the best representative for your work.
Good luck in your search for representation.
All the best,
Agent LateInTheGame
Reba says
Dear Author,
Please send me the first three chapters.
Best,
Reba
Kate H says
Dear Author,
Thank you for your query. Please send me the first 50 pages and a brief synopsis.
Sincerely,
Kate H
Anonymous says
Dear Author,
Sounds interesting. You made it into my top five. Please send my wonderful agency a full copy of your manuscript.
Agent C
s.koncilja says
Dear Author,
I received and read your query. Unfortunately it is not something that I’m looking for at the moment.
Keep me informed about your future work and good luck!
Agent S.K.
Shannon says
Dear Author,
Thank you for your query. Please send the first five chapters of ON ONE HAND including cover letter. I look forward to reading it and will contact you within four weeks upon receiving the material.
Sincerely,
Shannon
Smokingmonkee says
Dear Author,
Thank you for submitting your query, unfortunately it is not what I’m looking for at this time.
Best of Luck,
Michelle
superwench83 says
Dear Author,
Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, your manuscript isn’t right for me. Best wishes in your search for an agent.
Sincerely,
Agent for a Day
publishingcareer says
Dear Author
Thank you for your interest in our agency and submitting your query for your novel On One Hand.
I read it with interest but unfortunately it is not what I am looking for.
Best of luck and kind regards.
Yours faithfully
Robert Sullivan AFAD
Melissa says
Form rejection:
Dear Author,
Thank you for your query. Unfortunately it doesn’t meet my needs at this time.
Thank you and best of luck,
Melissa (Ximera)
Nikki Hensley says
Dear Author:
Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, I don’t think I am the right agent for this novel. Best of luck in your search!
Agent Nikki
Just_Me says
Dear Author,
I’ve spent a great deal of time debating whether I could take this project on and be the advocate that you need. At this time I feel I cannot.
I enjoy your voice and I think this work has a great deal of potential. I may regret passing on it in the years to come. But I think you will be better served by an agent who can be passionate about this project.
Thank you for your consideration,
agent
vicariousrising says
Thank you for your submission. I regret that I don’t feel this project isn’t right for me.
I wish you the best in your writing endeavors.
Kendra says
Dear Author,
Thank you for submitting your work. Unfortunately, this is not a project I feel I can sucessfully represent. Good luck in your writing.
Kendra
Eric M says
4/17/09
Dear Author,
I would be interested in reading your story ON ONE HAND.
Please send the complete manuscript to me at:
AGENT
ADDRESS
We will review your manuscript and let you know if it fits our needs.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Eric Maier
AGENT
COMPANY
PHONE
Hildegarde512 says
Dear Author,
I am very pleased you chose to submit to us and am interested in reading more of your work.
If I were a real agent, instructions for sending the requested material would live here.
Hallie says
Dear Author,
Thank you for submitting your query to My Imaginary Yet Successful Literary Agency. I receive many queries each day, and I request only a small percentage of manuscripts that I’m interested in representing. I have decided not to request one for your book because I don’t feel that I’m intrigued enough to be its best representative.
Should you need resources for querying, finding writing resources and groups, or if you’d like to know more about how I choose manuscripts, please visit (this section of my agency’s website) for more information. I wish you the best of luck in finding a home for your writing. Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to consider your work.
Warm regards,
Hallie
__________________________________
And if I were fortunate enough to be able to give some feedback to each and every author I declined, I’d note the following:
I hate this reason, but it felt a little too much like several other books/tv shows I’ve seen recently. I don’t think that’s a marker of whether or not this could be published, but it didn’t grab me as much as some of the other queries did, and I thought I might not be able to sell it. I think that, based on the feedback in the comments, that you’ll surely find many enthusiastic readers. Best of luck!
Jada says
Dear Author,
Thank you for considering me for your manuscript. Please send me the first three chapters of ON ONE HAND.
Regards,
Agent for a Day.
Vic K says
Dear Author,
Thank you for submitting On One Hand to my agency. I’m most interested in your manuscript and would like to see 50 sample pages.
Regards,
Vic K
Reason; I loved the originality of the concept.
Heather says
Dear Author,
Thank you for considering our agency for ON ONE HAND. Please send the first 100 pages of your manuscript to my attention as a PDF attachment via email.
Best Wishes,
Heather
genkischuldich says
Dear Author,
Thank you for submitting your query to us. Please send your manuscript to us as a reply to this e-mail.
Thank you very much,
“Genki”
Rik says
Thank you for submitting your book – On One Hand – for my consideration. May I say that I enjoyed reading your query. Regrettably, I do not feel that I am able to represent this particular book – a fact that has more to do with pressures on the time and resources at my disposal rather than on the book itself. Best wishes for your future endeavours, both with this book and with future projects. Agent Rik.
Martin Willoughby says
Dear Author
Please send a partial MS at your earliest convenience.
Regards,
LJ Silver
Kathy says
Dear Author.
I’m intrigued by your query. Please send me the first three chapters of On One Hand.
Sincerely,
Kathy
Anonymous says
Deat Author,
Please send me a copy of your completed manuscript.
Thank you, PLJ
Rachel says
Dear Author,
I’d be interested in reading the first three chapters.
Thank you.
Julie says
Dear Author,
I am very intrigued. Please send your full manuscript at your earliest convenience.
Best regards,
FakeAgent
abouttothunder says
Dear Author,
Thank you for the opportunity to represent your work. Unfortunately, it isn’t a good fit for me. Since you deserve an agent who will fully support you project, I will have to pass.
I wish you the best of luck in finding representation.
Sincerely,
Agent-for-a-day Sara
P.S. I really like this one and wish that I could request the ms. Unfortunately, I requested one that I probably shouldn’t have. Ulitmately it was a choice between this one and one other. Sample pages could have made a difference. The plot sounds fascinating. I hope to find this in a bookstore someday.
Meggrs says
Request for pages.
Tightly written, intriguing query.
SuzieQ Agent4U says
Dear Author,
Thank you for your query. Unfortunately, I do not feel your book is right for me. Good luck with your search.
Best,
S
Note: Sounds too much like HEROES.
AndrewDugas says
Please send pages etc.
=========================
Piggyback on the popularity of shows like Heroes?
KareFree Kennels says
On the One Hand
Sorry, not for me.
Best of luck,
Sheryl
L.C. Gant says
Dear Author,
Thank you for your submission. Your writing is solid and your story idea shows a great deal of promise. I’d love to see more. Please send me the first 50 pages of ON ONE HAND as a Word document attached to an e-mail.
Sincerely,
L.C. Gant (Agent for a Day)
PCB says
Dear Author,
Your query piqued my interest. Please send me the first fifty pages of your manuscript.
Many thanks,
PCB
Madhat says
Dear Author:
I’m interested. Please send the full as an attachment. Thank you.
-Agent
Why: It seems unique. I like the idea that the people became the way they are through infertility treatments. I also LOVE the fact that one of the five is a Wal-Mart clerk. That stood out, because it’s not what I’d expect. I’d cut the first sentence of the query, the one that starts with “we.”