Success Story Interview - Angela C.

An Interview with Angela C. (Eyerischild on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Naomi Eisenbeiss of InkWell Management.

06/22/2025

QT: Can you tell us a little bit about the book for which you've found representation? What inspired you to write it?

Angela C.:
TRASH PANDA LOVE is a contemporary romance about a freelance journalist and an environmental tech entrepreneur who are forced to work together for a high-profile magazine article. The story embraces some classic romance tropes but is also about self-love, acceptance, and family. The journalist has a complicated relationship with her Taiwanese mother and that was heavily inspired by (surprise, surprise) me and my mother.

QT: How long have you been writing?

Angela C.:
I've been writing since I was a kid. I've been fortunate enough to make a career out of writing, albeit in the nonfiction realms of journalism and corporate communications, not creative writing.

QT: How long have you been working on this book?

Angela C.:
About a year and a half. I wrote the first (terrible) draft in November 2023 for NaNoWriMo. I did a major edit in early 2024 and then rewrote half the book from late 2024 into early 2025.

QT: Was there ever a time you felt like giving up, and what helped you to stay on course?

Angela C.:
So. Many. Times. It's incredibly tough to stay motivated and not get discouraged throughout this process. Having fun and holding onto the joy of writing really helped me power through a lot of the tougher moments of self-doubt. My take is that I'll never know if I don't try, so why not just try?

QT: Is this your first book?

Angela C.:
Yes.

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

Angela C.:
I have a journalism degree but no formal training in fiction or creative writing.

QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?

Angela C.:
Sort of. I have a 9-5 job and two young kids, so my routine was basically to commit my evening time after my kids went to bed to working on this manuscript. Some nights that meant I got to write for a couple of hours, and some nights that meant I got to write for 10 minutes. I also found it helpful to "prime" my brain before writing or editing by spending a few minutes reading a favorite book to get in the right headspace.

QT: How many times did you re-write/edit your book?

Angela C.:
Four: My first major edit helped fix some plot holes and get me to the proper word count, then I did a clean-up edit before my first round of beta readers. After that feedback, I did a major rewrite of half the book and wrapped it all up with another final clean-up edit.

QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?

Angela C.:
Yes, I had three in total: Two in the fall of 2024 and one in spring of 2025. I'm not gutsy enough to join an IRL writing group or even tell people in my life that I've written a novel, so I found comfort in the anonymity of Fiverr beta readers. To this day, only my husband and like four other people know that I've written a novel.

QT: Did you outline your book, or do you write from the hip?

Angela C.:
I wrote my first draft during NaNoWriMo, and the whole idea of that event is to brute force it, so I completely pantsed it. I later had to reverse outline my book to fix some major plot holes and ended up rewriting over half of that original draft. That experience has made me realize that I need to outline in the future...

QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?

Angela C.:
This is my first novel and my first time querying. I sent my first queries in mid-April and got my offer in early June, so around two months. I queried three batches of around 8-10 agents each time, spaced about two weeks apart.

QT: About how many query letters did you send out for this book?

Angela C.:
I sent 27 queries and received 15 rejections, 6 no responses, 5 full requests, and 1 partial request. I'll note that at the time of the offer, I had two fulls and one partial. The other three full requests came in after I notified agents of my offer.

QT: On what criteria did you select the agents you queried?

Angela C.:
I searched Manuscript Wishlist and QueryTracker to make a list of agents who 1) represented my genre and 2) requested specific contemporary romance elements either in MSWL or on their agency websites that matched my manuscript. I also looked at Publishers Marketplace to research top agents in the genre and agents who frequently sold to editors at publishing houses I really admire.

My querying strategy was to focus on agents who were a strong match for my manuscript (either based on their current clients or their MSWL), who had fast response rates (so I was more likely to hear back sooner), and who had higher request rates (so I knew they were more likely looking for new clients). A little plug here for QueryTracker Premium: The Data Explorer view you get in the Premium account is amazing and really helped me figure out how to prioritize queries.

QT: Did you tailor each query to the specific agent, and if so, how?

Angela C.:
I left room in my query letter for one short phrase of personalization along the lines of, "I saw you're looking for XYZ..." I didn't try to overthink it because I knew personalization wasn't going to be the reason why an agent requested my manuscript or not.

QT: What advice would you give other writers seeking agents?

Angela C.:
On the querying front, take the extra time to research agents and to get your manuscript, query letter, and synopsis tight before you start this process. I found free resources like The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing podcast (especially the Books with Hooks segment) and Gina Denny's account on TikTok to be invaluable.

On a self-care note, do what you can to preserve your peace. The querying trenches can be brutal, just due to the nature of rejection and waiting. I saw another author mention that they had set up a separate querying email address and only gave themselves access to it on their home laptop/computer, not on their phone. I wish I had done the same so I wasn't constantly refreshing my inbox at work trying to see if I had any responses on QueryTracker. At the end of the day, this is supposed to be something that brings us joy, so don't lose sight of that.

QT: Would you be willing to share your query with us?

Angela C.:
Certainly!

Query Letter:

Dear [Agent],

I saw your request for [XYZ elements personalization] and am excited to share TRASH PANDA LOVE my dual-POV adult contemporary romance, complete at 82,000 words. TRASH PANDA LOVE is set in the Pacific Northwest and features the playful vibe of Lauren Kung Jessen’s Red String Theory as well as the complex family dynamics and simmering slow burn of Lily Chu’s The Stand-In.

Tabitha Lee’s life has officially entered dumpster fire territory. The 27-year-old journalist just blew the biggest assignment of her struggling career, and her hyper-critical Taiwanese mother is brewing yet another serving of inadequate-daughter guilt tea. Add in a drunken email pitch likely to get her blacklisted by the most renowned magazine editor in Seattle, and Tabitha’s ready to hide out in a landfill for the next century. To save herself from professional doom—and her fate as Lee family failure—she must convince the offensively attractive entrepreneur at her coworking space to give her an exclusive scoop about his company. And that’s the easy part.

Kell Anderson dumped his life savings into his fledgling environmental tech start-up Trash2Trees and got dumped by his fiancée as a result. Now cash strapped and love averse, the 33-year-old MBA-toting chemistry nerd has just three months to convince investors that his plastic-eating enzyme is worth their dollars before his company winds up in the junk pile. So when the captivating writer who works in his office building asks to feature him in one of the nation’s most well-known magazines, Kell’s not about to let this opportunity go to waste.

As Tabitha and Kell race to salvage their careers, attraction blooms, threatening to trash their carefully laid plans. Vowing to keep their professional distance is one thing, willing their hearts to cooperate is another. With their deadline looming, parental pressure rising, and old insecurities resurfacing, Tabitha and Kell must decide if love is worth the risk or if some feelings are better off discarded.

[Bio paragraph]

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Angela C.