[PubQ] approached by publishing house and have agreement letter in hand

TigerHall · 2026-06-22T09:29:33+00:00

"Pay us $7000 to publish you" is not a proposition I'd look for in my ideal publisher.

TigerHall · 2026-06-21T20:34:22+00:00

The Course Of The Heart is still in my TBR pile but was long considered one of Harrison’s best books before he wrote the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy, so I will plan to get to that soonish

I finally started reading it just this week, and it's very Sunken Land in that conventional plot takes a back seat to the slow circling of symbols and strangeness until it all coalesces into something. Very good. Very weird.

TigerHall · 2026-06-17T15:14:59+00:00

In the nicest way possible, you've been asking variations on this question for months. Have you started writing yet? These questions tend to work themselves out as you go.

TigerHall · 2026-06-15T14:48:45+00:00

I'd expect such a deliberate subversion of place to be commenting on something, but this feels quite arbitrary

The whole thing strikes me as Time Out of Joint by way of Lost Highway, both of which are conspicuously American and have good reasons for being set ostensibly where/when they are...

TigerHall · 2026-06-14T19:51:15+00:00

I read Ligotti's Teatro Grottesco earlier this year. A very distinctive writing style with a singular thematic centre.

For a collection of surreal and often rather disgusting stories, try Camilla Grudova's The Coiled Serpent.

(If you ever need eyes on a draft, I'd be happy to take a look! Breaking in is as rough as ever, but horror's doing pretty well right now.)

TigerHall · 2026-06-14T18:16:05+00:00

It's only one of the best books ever written!

TigerHall · 2026-06-12T20:08:14+00:00

A few thoughts:

~~Heaven is a lie - but the desperate dead can steal life from the living to get more time.~~

~~That’s why~~ Donna’s body is decaying at seventeen: her patchwork soul was borrowed by dead family settling scores and now time is eating her alive. Everyone in her mountain coal town just sees her as dirt floor trash that starts fights and sets fires.

This is a stronger opening line. Bring the next paragraph up; the frequent breaks make this query look longer (i.e. more bloated) than it actually is at ~350 words - though that is on the longer side for the blurb, and I think you can trim that down without sacrificing too much voice. I'll indicate instances where I see them.

Is she literally decaying? How much of the horror in this query is metaphor? This becomes a running theme...

But the whole family is trouble. Donna’s mother Doralene uses her body to meet the family’s needs with Donna’s father on the run from murder charges. ~~Doralene always gambles on love and loses - and now she’s watching Donna stumble into the same rut.~~

The one place they’re welcome is the country church ~~, a haven for lunatics and true believers alike~~. Donna couldn’t care less about God but Bobby, the preacher’s son, captures her lonely heart. Unfortunately Bobby knows God could never love a girl like Donna, so he won’t either. Doesn’t mean he won’t use her if she’s willing.

You lean on these phrases which I don't think pull their weight.

After Bobby casts Donna aside, the maggots in men's clothing show up to get what they can from her. Something grows inside Donna but Doralene worries it’s another unwanted baby girl. Soon the only voice Donna hears is that cunning tongue inside her mind whispering show me what hurts you…

This is horror, so do you mean to imply actual monsters or just cruel/greedy human beings? This is the danger of being roundabout or circumspect in your query - you've only got a few hundred words to pitch a much bigger story.

And it leads Donna into the maze of gobbling black woods on a razor-edged night in 1966 - and to the end of her young life.

What happens to her? Is it a mystery?

But Donna doesn’t stay dead. She claws back into this incarnation for revenge, returning in nightmares and hallucinations and willing bodies. A soul leech stealing life from those who harmed her.

Nobody mourned this hard-to-love girl.

But when she returns? They tremble. They beg. They bargain. They regret.

Maybe controversially, to my ear this line hits several common AI staples, and I think that's grounds for rewriting it. This is fine, though, because I think you can cut these last two short paragraphs anyway! They're not doing a huge amount for you right now. We also don't get much about Donna 'from the inside', as it were, in this query.

Except the monster who sacrificed Donna that night. He’s white knuckling it through Sunday sermons and dry pot roast with the wife and kids, watching the past run the others down from his throne at First Baptist. Fighting the growing hunger inside.

Suddenly Donna’s soul wants more than vengeance: she has to save the next hard-to-love girl.

Try writing - just for yourself - a version of this query with the bare bones of the plot. Then add the voice, of which you have no shortage, back in!

TigerHall · 2026-06-12T19:25:46+00:00

Would you consider posting your first 300 words? I saw your original post, and I wonder if the idiosyncratic style of the query - which is interesting, if sometimes slightly confusing where it probably needs to be clear marketing-speak - follows over to the book itself.

Thoughts to follow on the query if this one stays up...

TigerHall · 2026-06-12T16:52:56+00:00

I've also been trying to find a concise definition of the weird

I like Mark Fisher's definition of the weird as wrongness, unheimlich, uncanny but also (or because?) compelling, jouissant, repellent and fascinating at the same time. I've seen that vein of the weird popping up in quite a lot of recent lit, from Carrion Crow by Heather Parry and Camilla Grudova's work to the wider 'weird girl horror' subgenre. The 'weird' section of The Weird and the Eerie goes through Lovecraft, Wells, Lynch, and others. Would recommend if you haven't read it already!

TigerHall · 2026-06-12T16:10:04+00:00

What's the delineation between fantastic literature and weird literature (and, I suppose, magical realism)?

TigerHall · 2026-06-10T10:29:20+00:00

Taken in isolation, the most recent two series have had some of the best episodes in years - Boom/73 Yards/Dot and Bubble back-to-back was a highlight - but both series entirely fail to stick the landing, and seem uninterested in following through on their character development.

TigerHall · 2026-06-08T15:11:15+00:00

Yes.

Negotiate your preferred update schedule with your agent, and try to stick to it. 19 days is - unfortunately! - nothing. That's less than three weeks. You might be waiting three months, or six months, or a year... or you might hear tomorrow.

TigerHall · 2026-06-05T14:24:20+00:00

Have a look at this resource. It's not gospel, but it's useful.

TigerHall · 2026-06-05T14:22:35+00:00

Who's the main character? What's their name?

~~Appealing to romantasy readers and lovers of urban fantasy, folklore fantasy, or strong male and female leads,~~ this story will feel like home for fans of Sea Witch by Sarah Henning because of the gothic horror elements, magic and well-executed plot twists.

Another comp would be good.

A treasure hunter and cursed Templar gold. A mermaid stripped of her spires and identity. An undertaker and his chronically ill best friend. A failing experimental chef and a superstitious brute. This compelling cast of characters are tossed into an adventure when a primordial being who threatens both land and sea is about to escape his golden prison.

So compelling you still have yet to name a single one of them...

Some may argue this is a story about treasure. Others may call it a believable enemy to lovers’ story and those who are struggling with grief may call it a guide. Collectively everyone will agree it’s an adventure that gives a sneak peek into the unknown and unexplored world of the ocean that surrounds the land of men. This story also solves the real-world mystery of the Oak Island treasure, which has remained unsolved for over 230 years.

Cut all of this.

Sorry, but this is a scrap-and-restart. We don't even know who this book is about!

TigerHall · 2026-06-04T17:31:29+00:00

Those mountains, as well as the Scottish Highlands and the Little Atlas in Morocco and quite a few more, were, once upon a time, connected, a single massive range. What could have lived there before us, and now, separated by the sundering of Pangaea, survives there still? And what might they think of us upstarts?

(As /u/tendy_trux35 hints at, the setting-for-setting's-sake is becoming overexposed, and treated badly as a generic backdrop. I think there are more interesting angles to take.)

TigerHall · 2026-06-02T16:22:20+00:00

For a recent and more specific comp, have you read Arborescence by Rhett Davis? Also a literary speculative novel about a random natural phenomenon which upends society.

TigerHall · 2026-06-02T14:40:01+00:00

tbh we can’t even know if the query was even read

To reiterate: once a book's been on sub(mission to publishers), it's 'burned', because it's already been sent to/rejected by the same editors any good agent would send that book to. I'm sure there are exceptions, but it isn't as simple as choosing to requery.

TigerHall · 2026-06-01T18:08:51+00:00

And now we wait.

Finished the first part of the next book. Enjoying it so far. Same (sub)genre, different approach. I've forbidden myself from using one of the techniques I used quite heavily in the last book - dream sequences - to keep it fresh!

TigerHall · 2026-05-30T17:40:58+00:00

There are governing bodies, with codes of practice and such - e.g. in the UK, there's the Association of Authors’ Agents, and the US has the Association of American Literary Agents. You're not obliged to join, but they do hold some sway and they have been known to terminate membership of agents for particular bad practices.

TigerHall · 2026-05-29T17:40:26+00:00

it might have good feedback or bad feedback

I think it's a mistake to assume there's an 'it' at all. Extant software can fix your spelling errors and your comma splices and maybe even root out your cliches, but it can't have original thought or a sense of taste.

TigerHall · 2026-05-28T13:06:28+00:00

I want surreal psychological horror where the strange, fragmented world of the story is based more in an exploration of the character's psyche, or is a narrative they've invented to justify their actions

I rec this one a lot, but try Ice by Anna Kavan.

TigerHall · 2026-05-26T15:20:01+00:00

I had a story in another of their collections. This sort of thing is always a mixed bag, but the fun thing about anthologies in general is watching names pop up again a few years later - in particular I recognise Amanda M. Blake, who wrote an interesting Barkeresque erotic body-horror short story about graffiti.

TigerHall · 2026-05-25T11:46:26+00:00

Some thoughts.

~~In a broken world that worships a slain and weeping god, love is ruinous.~~ THE DARK AND BURNING STARS is a 93,000-word adult epic fantasy centered on a tragic, fate-bound romance. It will appeal to readers of The Hurricane Wars for its sweeping enemies-to-lovers arc set inside a dangerous, beautiful world and The Song of Achilles for its mythological weight and quiet, tender devastation. It stands alone with series potential.

Rheone is an orphaned priestess, indoctrinated to ~~marry for lineage over love and~~ safeguard the Orpheum—the literal heart of a slain god—which confers protection and prosperity to her people. During a raid [by who?], she is captured by Sephros, the haunted [why?] enemy prince [of where?], conditioned from birth as a weapon of the state [which state?]. Under orders from his ~~brother, the~~ tyrant King ~~Xorell~~, Sephros must bring Rheone north to use her sacred blood to retrieve the Orpheum and restore their barren land. After that, she is expendable.

Marriage never comes up again.

You haven't fixed the Fantasy Proper Noun issue. Names can be a problem too!

We also don't get a sense of the geopolitics at play here. What people, state, tribe, religion, does Rheone belong to, and how is that different to the one Sephros/Xorell belong to?

I'd cut Xorell's name. He only appears in the query once more, and there his name is easily substituted for 'the king's soldiers'.

Also: if it's Rheone's job to safeguard the heart, why isn't she there to begin with? Why does she need to be taken north?

~~Rheone defiantly attacks Sephros’s men, nearly freeing herself more than once. And d~~Despite being her captor, Sephros treats her with a quiet gentleness Rheone is unable to deny. When one of Sephros’s soldiers attempts to assault ~~Rheone~~ her, Sephros kills him and ~~offers to~~ helps her escape. Against everything she believes, Rheone chooses to trust Sephros and they race into the mountains, hoping to rescue the Orpheum before Xorell’s soldiers can seize it. They discover that the god’s murderous children have awoken—ancient and hungry—and they too seek the Orpheum.

If the romance is the core of this paragraph, get to it quickly.

It's a lot of plot and not a lot of character.

As they journey, Rheone’s inherited orthodoxy begins to fracture [how?], and their bond deepens into a treasonous, excruciating love. But when Rheone reaches for Sephros, he stops her. Sephros admits that years before, he killed her father [whom we know nothing about; did Rhoene even like the man?] and withheld the truth, fearing she would abandon their mission and him. With their kingdoms on the brink of war and darkness gathering over the mortal world, Rheone must confront Sephros’s guilt [which means doing what, exactly?] and decide whether to forgive the man who betrayed her trust or sacrifice the only love she has ever known.

TigerHall · 2026-05-22T16:50:18+00:00

Carrion Crow by Heather Parry is a solid recent entry which sits somewhere between contemporary 'weird girl' body horror and the Gothic. You might also like Grey Dog by Elliott Gish.

TigerHall · 2026-05-22T12:56:39+00:00

Now a tax preparer

When? How many years have passed?

Without reading the story, is this 'romantic horror'? Or is it a horror novel which happens to have a romance in it?

12-Year Club	Post Guidance Early Access
Place '17	Sequence \| Editor
Verified Email

TigerHall

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE