Dashboard Literary Agents Success Story Interviews Ashley N. Y. Sheesley

Success Story Interview - Ashley N. Y. Sheesley

An Interview with Ashley N. Y. Sheesley (Love_books_123 on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Kaitlyn Katsoupis of Belcastro Agency.

03/28/2025

QT: Can you tell us a little bit about the book for which you've found representation? What inspired you to write it?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
I've been pitching my book, SOPHIE'S GUIDE TO WEREWOLVES AND PANCAKES as a cozy-spooky middle grade fantasy with friendship, humor, disability rep, and a whole lot of pancakes! A 12 y/o mythology nerd is convinced mythological creatures are real, and when she finds what she believes are werewolf tracks on the way to school, all she has to do is grab her best friend Lizzie, follow the tracks, and BOOM! Werewolf proof! The only problem? Lizzie’s the werewolf.
I actually was in a spot where I was querying what would become my debut at the time, but I was pretty sure I needed to be done querying it sometime soon because I was getting pretty discouraged. But I also wasn't sure what else to write, and I was genuinely scared I'd never come up with a new idea ever again. I actually spent a long time stressed about this. I cried a lot! But at one point, I was driving along and had this idea that was essentially just "what if paranormal investigators...but one of them IS the paranormal they're investigating??" I brainstormed with some friends to try to figure out what kind of story I wanted this to be, and it was clear that this idea wanted to be a little bit spooky, a little bit cozy, a little bit sweet, and I wanted to explore a world where disabled and chronically ill people were believed no questions asked. I wanted to lean into the humor and the hijinks! And I decided that middle grade would give me the best place for this story. I had to do a lot of reading because it had been a while since I'd read a lot of middle grade, but, luckily for me, middle grade is incredible! And there are so many cute and spooky middle grade books out there! And I LOVE middle grade! I hope I get to write a lot more middle grade from here
QT: How long have you been writing?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
Since I was a kid! I remember when I was maybe 7 or 8 telling people I was going to be the world's youngest author. Unfortunately, I believe someone younger than me already had that title at that point, so it was a lost cause from the start. But I kept writing!
QT: How long have you been working on this book?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
I started this book April 2023, finished right after the new year in 2024, started querying March 2024, and signed March 2025!
QT: Was there ever a time you felt like giving up, and what helped you to stay on course?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
Yes. Many, many times. Community really kept me going at every point. My writing groups are SO supportive, and we've been there for the highs and the lows for each other. And then pitch parties like #unhingedpit would always get me so excited to keep going, even without industry interactions, the writing community is the biggest hype squad! And though pitch parties like that, I somehow became known as the werewolves and pancakes person, so I kept going. For the pancakes, of course.
I actually started the new year with only a handful of agents left on my list, most of which had been closed for a while. I was getting ready to put it on a shelf and give it a break for a year or so when I got an invitation to revise and resubmit in the middle of January. I worked on that over the next little bit, and sent out one final round of queries with the new version, and decided one way or another, this would be the end of querying for this book. Luckily it ended with an agent!
QT: Is this your first book?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
No! It's my second! I sold my first book to an indie press, Inked in Gray! It's a YA contemporary fantasy that's kind of like if ERAGON took place in the modern day, but instead of a boy discovering a dragon egg, a girl discovers she IS a dragon. It's got dragons, magic, swords, fighting in formal wear, and (maybe the hardest challenge of all) high school. There's a lot of queer and disability rep in there too! It's called Child of the Dragon and it comes out early next year!
QT: Do you have any formal writing training?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
Nope!
QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
In an ideal universe, I write every evening after work, and spend all of Friday and Saturday writing away with Sundays off! In the real world...well...that has literally never happened! But I'm a FIRM believer in the power of taking a break. Books take as long as they take to write, and sometimes that requires days, weeks, months, or even years off. The book will still be waiting for you for when you're ready to come back to it! I had to take years off during my undergrad, or I was going to drown. But as soon as I could, I picked it back up again. Taking time off DOES, unfortunately mean you get a little rusty. That's normal! It takes time to get back into the swing of things again and to find your voice again. But that's what editing is for!
QT: How many times did you re-write/edit your book?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
I sort of edited as I drafted, so the first final draft was more like a second draft. Then I did a complete overhaul of the entire second half of the book, edited that a couple times, then queried it. I ended up doing one more small revision on my own to clean up some spots (and add more pancakes!), but then I got two R&R invitations along the way. So it's probably seen 7 or so revisions now!
QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
Yes! I had two people reading behind me as I wrote--one to tell me how great it is, one to point out all the flaws 😂 Then I had a handful of readers go through after I'd cleaned it up from suggestions from the Alpha readers, then I had a couple friends read through it again. Did a big revision from that, and then had another round of beta readers before querying. And then I've had a few other people read along the way including some family members and non-writer friends.
QT: Did you outline your book, or do you write from the hip?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
Try as I might to be a plotter, I'm a panster. I actually tried SO hard to have an outline this time, and I was pretty sure how I wanted the first half and the ending to go, so I did okay starting at point A and ending at point B, but the inbetween parts shifted a LOT from my original plan--and then have been rewritten entirely two or three times now!
QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
I queried this book for almost a year exactly! I queried in batches of 10-20 agents at a time and queried a total of ~75 agents along the way for this one.
For my debut, I queried really sporadically as I was in grad school at the time. So I started with just 2 queries in Feb or March of 2020. I got a full request on one of them that was rejected with some really useful feedback. I had an editor read through it (they are a friend and were trying to build their portfolio, no one needs to hire an editor to query!) and gave me some incredible advice, so I kind of rewrote the entire thing during a break between semesters that year, then sent out a few queries until I learned I was about 8k over the recommended word count. So I stopped and did a couple big revisions to try to bring it down, while sending out the occasional query, mostly during school breaks. So it took about 3.5 years to send out 100 queries, one of which was to my press!
QT: About how many query letters did you send out for this book?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
Just about 75 queries!
QT: On what criteria did you select the agents you queried?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
I was mostly looking for agents who wanted goofy middle grade and didn't exclude werewolves entirely. But I'd try to make sure they were from a legitimate agency and weren't on agents-to-avoid lists. I also love looking for "10 ten agent" lists that have the top 10 agents per genre and age group by sales, and checking out those agents along the way. I also did a lot of checking the agents of my favorite Middle Grade books!
QT: Did you tailor each query to the specific agent, and if so, how?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
not always! If there was something specific in their manuscript wishlist or we'd interacted on social media somehow, I'd bring that up, but for the most part, I didn't worry about it too much. However, I did personalize it for my agent! She actually says on her MSWL that she's not a fit for most werewolves, but since there were a lot of other things on her list that fit and I based my werewolves off of actual wolf dynamics and made them super wholesome, I felt like it was worth a shot! For the original query, this was my personalization: " I did see that werewolves are a hard sell for you, but I was hoping you'd enjoy enjoy actual wolf-based and wholesome werewolves, including a supportive family of werewolves with interactions based on actual wolf pack dynamics (big families, everyone takes care of everyone, etc.)." When I requeried after the revision, I thanked her for the invitation to resubmit and gave a brief explanation of the changes!
QT: What advice would you give other writers seeking agents?: Ashley N. Y. Sheesley:
Find your community! It's harder now that social media's all over the place, but find pitch parties, check your library for local writing groups, follow search writing hashtags on instagram or wherever and start interacting with people! Find writing conferences near you and talk to the people around you at the panels and in the hallways. The writing community is full of the coolest people! They can be your beta readers, your hype squad, your shoulder to cry on, your whisper network for what agents to avoid, and so much more!
Also! Know your worth and your book's worth! Be prepared to walk away from an offer if it doesn't feel right. It's a very scary position to be in, but you do not want your book to end up with someone who will mishandle it! You deserve to have the best agent for you and your book!

Success Story Interview - Ashley N. Y. Sheesley

Query Letter: