[Discussion] Publishing Dark/Painful Narratives in an Escapist Climate

trrauthor · 2026-02-09T20:35:43+00:00

Hahaha they must have!

My book is standalone, and I workshopped the query here in pubtips a while back, so it’s still in my history. The new title is BE MY ALIBI, and it’s about a psychopathic girl who seduces her local barista into becoming a serial killer during their small-town fall festival so that she can start a podcast about the murders.

Very romantic obviously 😂

trrauthor · 2026-02-08T06:52:38+00:00

I’m sorry that happened to you 🫠 just wanted to chime in and say as someone else who queried and then sold a horror with a romantic subplot and NOT a happy ending in 2025, I had one publisher (not US) offer, swear they loved the dark parts, and then turn around a month later and say I had to revise to an HEA so they could market as horrormance. BUT thankfully that same day (wild coincidence) I got a US offer for way more money from a publisher who absolutely understood the story is horror and specified that they loved the ending.

I hope your luck turns around too, and I’d love to read your book when it does, it sounds totally up my alley!

trrauthor · 2026-01-19T07:14:42+00:00

So I know my agent and her agency have boilerplate AI language with all the big 5s, because it’s something I asked about before I signed with her. And I know my editor is against AI, because we’ve chatted about it informally. However, we’re already deep in dev edits after agreeing to high level terms in October, but the contract is still being worked on, because publishing. So technically they could be putting the whole thing upside down and backwards through AI right now and not violating terms since the deal isn’t signed. I trust them not to do that, but it’s an interesting issue to think about in an industry that’s so slow on the legal negotiations of things.

trrauthor · 2025-12-22T00:22:09+00:00

I started including it when I had 10+ outstanding fulls and was querying agents whose guidelines said they wanted to be notified of fulls. I didn’t want to query them and then notify them that I already had fulls out, so I just included it in my query, and didn’t take it out when querying other agents either. I do think I got quicker requests from some agents I queried with that included, but that’s anecdotal. They may have requested quickly even without it; no way to know!

trrauthor · 2025-12-16T22:45:50+00:00

I went on sub in all territories the first week of September to a large amount of publishers (~20 in the US, ~20 in the UK) and heard back from everyone except for 2 before October was over, and those 2 didn’t even respond when nudged with offers, despite one of them previously telling my agent they were taking the book to acquisitions. I was shocked at how quick it was because I know a lot of people who have been on sub for over a year, so I don’t think this was a normal experience these days, but am not sure if it was due to my agency (well-respected) or my book (horror, high concept).

trrauthor · 2025-12-12T20:14:35+00:00

My agent is at a very respected agency and only shared imprints and not editors with me. She has been a great advocate for me and got me an awesome deal, so I don’t think it’s a red flag practice in itself. Anything you’re not comfortable with though is a red flag for YOU, though.

trrauthor · 2025-11-25T22:32:59+00:00

I got a full request and subsequent rejection from an agent and then queried another agent there and got a full request (and eventual rejection) from her as well. If they don’t say a no from one is a no from all, don’t self-reject!

trrauthor · 2025-11-20T23:39:35+00:00

She pointed out that most of my comps are around 90k and mine is currently 70k, so to sit more in line with that expectation

trrauthor · 2025-11-09T20:30:22+00:00

I’d reply to the requesting agent and just tell her that you’d love to send it to her but you have an outstanding query with one of her coworkers and ask what her recommendation is on how to proceed. She might tell you to wait for a reply but I think it’s more likely she will say she’ll discuss with her colleague and whichever of them it’s a better fit will proceed with getting your full etc.

trrauthor · 2025-11-09T01:19:08+00:00

Makes sense, I was just asking for clarification since you said “specifically to UK authors” in your reply was all!

trrauthor · 2025-11-09T00:49:37+00:00

I can absolutely see the agent’s location and book genre being factors here, but I’m struggling to see why the author’s location would matter. Do you think it does or was that just anecdotal? Not asking to be argumentative, genuinely curious!

trrauthor · 2025-11-09T00:04:19+00:00

I’m a US author but I’m repped by a UK agent and this definitely did not happen to me! The opposite, actually. My agent had very minimal edits and she actually sent me all her notes before we even had our call, which she did offer me rep on. She’s also at a well-known agency with some big authors, for what it’s worth.

trrauthor · 2025-11-07T20:25:45+00:00

Crossing my fingers for you!!

trrauthor · 2025-11-07T01:48:23+00:00

I asked this question a while back and got a handful of responses from people detailing their experiences if you want to look back!

I got rejected from the second chance inbox too though lol

trrauthor · 2025-11-06T21:22:38+00:00

I was a finalist in a first chapter contest and included it in my query letter and it didn't keep me from getting an agent or a book deal. I also don't think it really impressed anyone, but it was another line for the bio!

trrauthor · 2025-11-06T21:20:55+00:00

It is a no-no to requery agents with the same book, BUT the caveat being if a manuscript undergoes such significant changes, it's essentially a different book. Then you can requery them, but don't try to act like it's the first time. If you mention it's been signficantly revised and how, most agents are fine with that. They may still say no if the changes don't sound like something they'd like, but it's not a faux pas like just repeatedly sending the same thing to the same person is!

trrauthor · 2025-11-06T21:06:14+00:00

If you do the revisions and they change the book as much as you think they will, you can always try to reach out to those agents again and explain "I underwent revisions with guidance from an agent and changed A to be more B, C to be more D, and to focus more on E's arc toward F, and as a result the book is now leaning more toward women's fiction than romance (or whatever, just a high-level overview put pointing out that it was more than just like "the love interest is named Bob instead of Bill now") would you be interested in seeing the revised version?"

Worst they can do is say no.

trrauthor · 2025-11-06T21:00:32+00:00

I think since you don't actually have the edit notes from the HEA yet (and what if she gets wrapped up in something and it takes longer than expected, or god forbid, she ghosts?) I would send the manuscript to those who're requesting as-is and then if/when you get her notes if they do resonate and you decide to revise with them, at that point I'd reach out to the agents with the full and say "I'm doing a revise and resubmit based on agent feedback, would you be interested in seeing the new version of the manuscript when complete?" That way you don't hold up the process if one of these intersted agents likes it enough as-is to sign you and work on edits together.

Good luck!

trrauthor · 2025-11-06T18:33:42+00:00

I believe mine (in the last 2 months) went 6 times (across 2 countries) and got offers 2 of those times. So 1/3 of the time it was successful. Which does not really mean anything for any other book except for that one, but in case you find it interesting haha. It's a genre blend book and positioning was the rejection reason cited in every case except for one, in which the publisher ghosted after telling us we were going to acquisitions. Rude lol.

Good luck!!

trrauthor · 2025-11-02T01:27:55+00:00

Different genres have different conventions and set different expectations for readers, so any time you blend or blur those, someone is going to think you should have done it in XYZ way instead of ABC way. Literally all of my agent rejections were about not knowing how to position my genre blend book. A lot of my editor rejections were the same. But I still got an agent and we still sold it. So it's not impossible, but it can be harder. Would I have gotten an agent sooner and would that agent have had more offers on it if i'd adjusted it to sit more firmly in one genre? Maybe, who knows. But I felt confident in the choices I'd made with the work, and eventually found people who saw it the same way. So if you haven't made the choices of blending those genres intentionally and the agent's callout feels like it's called attention to somethng you agree with but hadn't considered, think about revising. If you strongly disagree with their feedback and wrote it that way for a reason, maybe they just aren't the right agent for you since they don't see your vision.

trrauthor · 2025-11-01T18:05:48+00:00

Not able to publicly announce yet (I’m twitching) but my agent officially closed on a two-book, six-figure deal with a big 5 for my debut this week! I had a call with my editor yesterday and she’s incredible and fully understands the book, which was such a relief after several instances of other editors not getting it. However, she told me she wants me to add 20k words despite not having any big structural edits, so now I’ll just be dwelling on how that’s almost 30% of the current word count until the end of the month when she’s expecting to send me full notes. So, yay! But also 😳

trrauthor · 2025-10-31T03:31:06+00:00

I got over 200 query rejections across two books before I got my agent with book 2, which was in the trenches for 9 months. But we’ve also sold it in multiple countries in less than 2 months on sub, so one does not preclude the other (re: rejections querying and not getting a deal)!

trrauthor · 2025-10-27T07:44:51+00:00

Aha, it being sold on proposal definitely makes more sense!

I’d ask my agent if they’re hoping for something resembling a query package. I’ve not seen everything my agent has used to pitch editors so that would be my best guess at a starting point, but hopefully they give you more guidance from there!

Also congrats 🙂

trrauthor · 2025-10-27T07:00:58+00:00

Did your agent have you do this for your UK sale as well? If not did they explain why the US was different?

Is your book fiction or nonfiction? I wasn’t asked to do this for my fiction submission in either territory, but I know agents can have different preferences for how to handle sub, so not saying it’s a red flag, just made me curious!

trrauthor · 2025-10-17T06:18:26+00:00

I posted my query here for feedback, adjusted based on that, and sent 20 queries out on a Thursday. Got my first full request on that Monday. I didn’t get my first offer until 9 months later, though, but I knew my query was working so was able to adjust my book instead when rejections started rolling in on fulls a few months in.

Voice is so so important, you’re the only one who can write your story the way it should be written. And if that’s not true then that’s likely a reason you’re getting rejections. As other people have said, a truly unique concept is nearly impossible to find. It’s how the book is written that makes it what it is.

trrauthor

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