Success Story Interview - Anna Hirsch

An Interview with Anna Hirsch (annahirsch on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Lane Heymont of The Tobias Literary Agency.

03/09/2026

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

Anna Hirsch:
THE BANSHEE OF CLAN MURTAGH is a gothic romantic horror novel about the black sheep of a powerful 14th-century Irish family and his forbidden love story with the banshee who’s haunted his household for generations. I was inspired by the real history behind the banshee legend—funeral keeners, or women who were hired to mourn the dead—and wanted to tell the story of one of these women.

QT: How long have you been writing?

Anna Hirsch:
I’ve been writing in various forms for my entire life, but have been seriously writing novels since 2023.

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

Anna Hirsch:
I got the initial idea in February 2024 and began drafting in April 2025.

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

Anna Hirsch:
Giving up never felt like an option. If this book didn’t get me an agent, I’d write as many as it took. It was soul-crushingly difficult at points (I literally got 12 query rejections while on my honeymoon), but what helped me keep going was having a circle of writing friends who were also querying. Seeing my friends get offers showed me it was possible for me, too.

QT: Is this your first book?

Anna Hirsch:
This is my second completed book

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

Anna Hirsch:
I have a degree in Advertising Copywriting and spent 5+ years working as a copywriter at large ad agencies. I’ve also taken a handful of fiction writing classes, both in school and as an adult.

QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?

Anna Hirsch:
It depends on the stage of the project I’m at. While drafting, I like to get my words in before work, and aim for 1000+ words a day, 5-6 days a week. Most of the first draft of BANSHEE was written between 5-7am. When I’m editing, I tend to work later in the day and focus on hours of “butt in chair” time rather than a specific word or page count.

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

Anna Hirsch:
I did one developmental edit on my own, and two rounds of edits through the SmoochPit mentorship program.

QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?

Anna Hirsch:
I had eight beta readers who read the entire book at various stages, and countless others who read my opening chapters.

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

Anna Hirsch:
I’m very much a pantser, but I have character arcs and themes in mind as I’m drafting.

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

Anna Hirsch:
I queried two projects for the better part of a year. I queried my first book from May 2025 - August 2025, but quickly realized it wasn’t going to go anywhere and decided to focus my efforts on BANSHEE. I queried BANSHEE from September - October 2025, then found out I got into the SmoochPit mentorship program and pressed pause from querying to revise. I sent my first query for the revised version (coincidentally, to the agent I ended up signing with!) on January 29th and received my first offer of representation on February 13th.

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

Anna Hirsch:
I queried 88 agents. About half of those were sent prior to getting into the mentorship program.

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

Anna Hirsch:
I relied on Publisher’s Marketplace, both to make my initial list of agents, and to help prioritize which agents I wanted to query first. I looked for agents that had a history of horror sales, or ones whose agencies had sold horror books, and also queried a few agents who had sold thrillers or literary-leaning speculative fiction. Because horror is having a moment, a lot of agents put it on their MSWL but had no sales history in the genre, so this data helped me remain objective with my agent search.

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

Anna Hirsch:
I mainly personalized queries if I had a specific querying situation I needed to call out. For example, if I’d queried this agent prior to the mentorship program and was now re-sending my revised materials. For a few agents, I tweaked my comps if I saw something on their wishlist that was a good fit.

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

Anna Hirsch:
Resist the urge to rush into querying ASAP. Publishing moves slowly, so taking an extra few months to get more eyes on your manuscript and revise accordingly is well worth it. I was anxious to get this book into the trenches because the horror-romance blend is super hot and I’d gotten some good feedback on the pitch and full manuscript, but ultimately, pausing querying to do more revisions was the best thing that could have happened to this book.

Also, start working on the next thing! I drafted most of this book while my first book was floundering in the trenches. It helped keep my mind off the rejections, and ended up being a much stronger manuscript.

Query Letter:

Dear Lane,

I'm seeking representation for my 82,000-word gothic romantic horror, THE BANSHEE OF CLAN MURTAGH. Told in dual-POV and set against the backdrop of the 1348 bubonic plague, it follows the black sheep of a powerful Irish family and his forbidden love story with the banshee who's haunted his estate for generations. This novel would appeal to fans of the plague setting and bittersweet romance of Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, Catholicism vs the supernatural in The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas, and the medieval horror of Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman.

When Ciarán Murtagh hears the cry of his family's banshee for the first time in a decade, he knows one of his own is fated to die. Yet, his family doesn't believe his warnings, and why would they? The last time Ciarán heard the banshee, he didn't tell a soul until after his younger cousin tragically died under his watch. He's been the family pariah ever since.

Desperate for redemption, Ciarán hunts down the banshee in search of answers. She's equal parts frightening and alluring, and in his struggle to confront her, he inadvertently triggers the banshee's memories. Memories of when she was a servant of his household, decades ago—a woman named Deirdre.

In hopes of learning whose death she foretold, Ciarán tenuously agrees to help Deirdre remember who she was. They begin meeting by moonlight, and with every clandestine encounter, his macabre desire for Deirdre grows. When the devastating bubonic plague befalls the Murtagh household, and Deirdre's memories reveal a dark scandal in the family's history, Ciarán must decide whether to stay by his family's side in their final hours or embrace the seduction of the death-bringer. But fate demands more than death, and Deirdre is no longer the only ghost cursed to haunt Clan Murtagh forever.

THE BANSHEE OF CLAN MURTAGH was selected for the 2025 SmoochPit mentorship program.

[Bio]

Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Anna Hirsch