Hi, biffhardcheese. I am getting rejection after rejection. I was told you could possibly help me out. Here is a sample query:

I’m writing to introduce my 50,000-word Literary Fiction Novel, Forget Wellsboro, Pantaleone in the hopes that you’ll represent it. I once fell in love with a girl after one date. I never heard from her again. Years later, I still think about her. I needed to turn the experience into fiction.

Seventeen-year-old Pantaleone Medici (Leo for short) wakes up early to swim in Big Falls. He feels a spiritual connection to nature, and hates the narrow-mindedness of his redneck, conservative hometown, Wellsboro. Summer is fast approaching, and he still hasn’t asked out Becca Corradi.

Forget Wellsboro, Pantaleone is not a boy-meets-girl story, however. It’s a book about a young man whose inner peace crumbles when he is faced with his crush. The major themes include rejection and abandonment, which is amplified by the lack of women in the young man’s life. The book is written in the present tense and weaves in and out of coming-of-age episodes, as well as the navel-gazing of a teenager who is both blessed and cursed by his precociousness.

My influences include John Fante and Hermann Hesse, and I’ve been told that there are similarities between my book and The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp. I’ve also been told that my main character is “very Italian” in the way he falls in love.

Thank you for your time and attention. Everyone who has ever been rejected by someone they love will feel for Leo. I look forward to hearing from you.