Success Story Interview - Benjamin C. Kinney

An Interview with Benjamin C. Kinney (bckinney on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Marisa Cleveland of The Seymour Agency.

05/11/2023

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

Benjamin C. Kinney:
It’s a science fiction epic - space opera, probably? - about the tempestuous, complicated, but deep-rooted relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence. Why might AIs choose to be comprehensible to humankind, let alone interested in human affairs? I’m a neuroscientist in my day job, so I’ve always wanted to apply that expertise to the big questions of current and future minds, human and otherwise.

QT: How long have you been writing?

Benjamin C. Kinney:
I’ve been writing since about 2011, which means this is year twelve. I spent most of that time working on short fiction, and built up my skills and success in that realm before I turned my attention to short fiction.

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

Benjamin C. Kinney:
I’m a slow writer, and this is a complicated book, so it took me a whole lot of time: about one year to draft it, and two more to revise it. Persistence wins out!

QT: Is this your first book?

Benjamin C. Kinney:
This was the second novel I wrote, but that undercounts my writing experience: by the time I got my agent I’d sold 20-ish short stories to professional science fiction & fantasy markets.

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

Benjamin C. Kinney:
Nothing formal! I went to a 1-week workshop for science fiction writing (Viable Paradise), but that was back when I was struggling toward the transition to making professional sales for short fiction. Otherwise, my writing education all comes from critique groups, books, and friends.

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

Benjamin C. Kinney:
I queried this one for about a year and a half, and I queried my previous book for about the same amount of time.

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

Benjamin C. Kinney:
Exactly 99 queries! I should’ve sent one more just to get the milestone, I know.

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

Benjamin C. Kinney:
I looked at who was representing other authors with similar work, and I read industry magazines (for science fiction and fantasy, Locus) to see who was selling books. More importantly, after I got offers, I made my selection based on communication styles. Everyone who’s sent a query knows that sometimes agents respond slowly, or not at all. When I met an agent who set clear expectations and timelines, and reached out to me when the timelines slipped, I knew I had someone I could count on.

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

Benjamin C. Kinney:
Nowadays, I would tell you to ignore any pre-COVID advice you read about success rates. There are more manuscripts and fewer agents, and as a result agent response rates are lower than before. You could have an excellent, representation-worthy query, but get no bites for 10 queries in a row. My positive reply rate was 11%, and I ended up with a wonderful agent.

Query Letter:

Guilt-ridden AI Lattice is the progenitor of the free robot civilization, mother of a dazzling variety of artificial minds. When a cryptic alien probe approaches the solar system, she mobilizes her descendants to unlock its secrets first. But when her travels take her through Neptune's borderlands, she's ambushed by a faction of her own descendants.

Damaged and desperate, Lattice flees to the only place her assassins can't follow: a space station run by her people's enemies, the androids who emulate and fanboy over the last few thousand humans. If she wants to make the androids trust her, she'll need to rely on the little part of her mind that meets the human definition of consciousness.

In Lattice's absence, the alien probe's possibilities goad her descendants toward civil war. To keep them from slaughtering each other, Lattice will need two unlikely allies: the android leader Interleave, melodramatic and sensual; and the once-influential human Ranel, hiding his personality changes after a brain rejuvenation treatment.

If the three of them can understand each other, they might be able to maintain the solar system's tenuous peace. If not, the coming war could burn the life -- biological and artificial -- from every planet in the outer solar system.