Success Story Interview - Emily Smiley

An Interview with Emily Smiley (EmilyWyattSmiley on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent A.J. Van Belle of The Booker Albert Literary Agency.

04/30/2025

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

Emily Smiley:
Treading Water is a thriller/dark fantasy genre-blend about Dallas London—a woman whose brother is presumed dead after going missing off the coast of Maui. Now back home in San Francisco, Dallas does denial in style: no sleep and a steady diet of stale pizza, cigarettes, and intrusive thoughts about her brother’s decaying body. But when a philanthropist’s son disappears under eerily similar circumstances and Dallas starts seeing demons lurking in the shadows of her apartment, even she can’t pretend she’s fine.

Enter: Death. In the form of a snarky, sexy young woman, Death is drawn to Dallas’s issues just as much as Dallas is drawn to Death’s mysterious magnetism. Desperate, Dallas makes a deal with Death: Dallas will find out who is stealing the souls of the drowned, in exchange for protection from the demon hunting her. The cost? Dallas must come to terms with her incredible loss, even though it makes her wish she’d be the one to sink in the Pacific abyss.

Treading Water is a dark fantasy representation of my own experience with grief after the loss of my brother.

QT: How long have you been writing?

Emily Smiley:
Honestly? My whole life. Creatively? About 10 years.

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

Emily Smiley:
While there were other iterations of Treading Water before this one, I worked on this version for roughly a year before I started querying it.

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

Emily Smiley:
Ha! Are you really a writer if you don't feel like giving up at least once a month? In all seriousness, I can't imagine doing anything else. I love telling stories and the writing community too much.

QT: Is this your first book?

Emily Smiley:
Yes, this is my debut novel.

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

Emily Smiley:
I have a BA in Journalism and an MA in Victorian History. So yes, but no formal creative writing training.

QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?

Emily Smiley:
I try to write a few hours every day, but, you know, life happens.

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

Emily Smiley:
Thanks in large part to feedback from my critique group, Content Hospital, I was able to re-write and edit as I wrote. My completed first draft was my final draft, but every chapter had been edited probably four-six times. It's a system that works for me, but it definitely isn't for everyone.

QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?

Emily Smiley:
My critique group read the whole thing "cover to cover" once my draft was complete. I also hired five beta readers on Fiverr. I know Fiverr can be hit or miss sometimes, but the people I hired had been used by a friend; I trusted them. The feedback was incredibly helpful.

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

Emily Smiley:
A bit of both. I typically pants the first 50 pages of the book to get a sense of my MC's voice and the overall "vibe" of the novel. Then, I'll write an outline and synopsis to help me stay on a more specific course.

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

Emily Smiley:
I lightly queried Treading Water starting in November of 2024. In January of 2025, I queried more consistently. That was when my editor, Kaitlin Schmidt, got my edits back to me and I knew the book was good to go. The whole querying journey was about six months. I attempted to query an epic fantasy two years ago, but didn't really give it a solid effort. It wasn't (and still isn't) ready.

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

Emily Smiley:
I pitched and queried roughly 70 agents.

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

Emily Smiley:
Initially, I had a whole process and a far-too-involved spreadsheet. In the end, I followed a lot of agents' social media accounts and queried off of similar interests and literary tastes.

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

Emily Smiley:
Yes, I included at least one personalized sentence in every query letter. Typically, I would mention something I noticed on their social media account or MSWL that really stood out to me.

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

Emily Smiley:
The query trenches are a lot like screaming into a void and hoping it screams back. It will. Keep screaming.