Success Story Interview - Holly Baldwin

An Interview with Holly Baldwin (h_baldwin on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Ciara Smith of Spencerhill Associates.

03/19/2026

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

Holly Baldwin:
There's lots of little moments that led to all the individual characters, the setting, the story, all that jazz. The big moment when it all came together was when I was waiting in the drive-thru at Dunkin and I opened a new tab. Clickbait articles popped up; normal stuff, end is nye here's why, whatever. I won't say I didn't click and read one, cuz I did. I love me a dystopia. So I was thinking about floods and I looked up and saw two Urban Cowboys riding in a gallop down Baltimore Ave. Then it was like the whole thing smacked me upside the head and shouted "SEE, THIS IS THE SHAPE OF IT." The whole thing came together right then.

That was the easy part. Then I had to write it.

QT: How long have you been writing?

Holly Baldwin:
I've been making up stories my whole life. Realized when I was around eight if I wrote them down they counted as fiction rather than lies. That got me in trouble less often so I was like ok, I guess I'll do that.

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

Holly Baldwin:
On April 5th of 2025 I wrote the first 95 words. It's March 18th of 2026 now.

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

Holly Baldwin:
I felt like giving up at the beginning of writing out these responses. I feel like giving up daily. No concrete advice beyond this: look yourself in the mirror. Pinch your cheek, then pat it gently. Let out a big sigh and say, "Calm down you silly goose," and then kiss both your arms.

My inner child's kind of a tool, but I try to be kind to them. They're just a kid.

QT: Is this your first book?

Holly Baldwin:
Oh god no haha

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

Holly Baldwin:
Definitely not, but I do have plenty of informal writing training. Thanks ao3!

QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?

Holly Baldwin:
I make one? But then I don't do any writing anyway until I suddenly do just a little writing one day, before transitioning into doing nothing but write every second of every day once the book catches. This tends to last until far after the book is finished, when it's just this frustrated re-arranging of the book and an omnipresent discomfort that I've missed something. Eventually I go back to doing no writing again, but that never really lasts cuz it feels gross.

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

Holly Baldwin:
This question is INFURIATING.

QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?

Holly Baldwin:
Oh god yes.

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

Holly Baldwin:
If I could marry outlines I would. We'd fight constantly, always be crying or laughing, always be loving, and it'd be toxic and beautiful and I'd never, ever leave them. I love outlines.

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

Holly Baldwin:
This book I started querying in November of last year. There were a few other books I queried before then that didn't go anywhere official, but I'm glad I wrote them.

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

Holly Baldwin:
My dude I will not lie -- 205, including pre-big-revision. I sent two hundred and five queries. The most I've ever sent for any project, but I knew in my gut this one was right. So! I kept trying.

Ended up signing with one of the first agents I queried (and my first choice, WOO).

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

Holly Baldwin:
At first I queried science fiction agents, but when I did get personalized feedback it tended to include the notion that this wasn't really scifi; it was more like speculative. So I started querying speculative agents and quickly got a slew of rejections noting that they didn't rep HARD science fiction, and it must be HARD, because there's aliens.

Eventually I just went off the vibe. If the word "weird" was in their MSWL it was an automatic plus.

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

Holly Baldwin:
If I had something personal to say I absolutely did. Reaching for stuff or just slapping down quotes from their MSWL felt icky though, so if I had nothing personal to say I just wouldn't do that bit.

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

Holly Baldwin:
If you are querying your first-ever book, stop. Not cuz it's bad, though it very well might be. More cuz you're trying to race in hiking or something. Something folks shouldn't really race at.

At the end of the day, we're here because we love writing. I love writing. It's how I know the world. It's how the world knows me. And if I don't love the actual work the best out of all of it, why would I ever go through all this? It ain't exactly an easy get rich quick scheme I'm running.

Learning to write better and better is the best part. Why not play around for a bit? Stop racing for the finish line. It doesn't get you there any faster; not by a longshot. Tortoise, hare, all that.

Query Letter:

WE EXPECTED MORE is an 83,000-word speculative novel, vibing kind of like if Becky Chambers wrote crossover fanfiction for Beautyland (Marie-Helene Bertino) and Sisters of the Vast Black (Lina Rather). That means everything you think it means: queer characters, snappy voices, surrealist alien stuff, and a hearty vein of spec supplying all that juicy setting weirdness to a story that's ultimately about the context of our connections.

Ever since her husband calmly walked off a bridge with their daughter strapped to his chest, Esther has wanted nothing more than to follow them. Forty years post-collapse, the survivors of the Great Death are barely hanging on as it is. The choice to die is looking saner every day. Then, Esther's contacted by the mysterious "Hannah" — human liaison to an alien species seeking to gauge the potential worth of humanity.

Esther's eager to involve herself in something bigger than her own grief and Hannah seems to provide it. But what Hannah's made to look like opportunity has long since been her own personal cage. Gaining Esther's compliance gives Hannah a chance at all she's ever wanted: something almost like autonomy, as well as a life with her devoted lover/handler, 46.

Esther and Hannah's first meeting quickly goes south when Hannah accidentally reactivates the virus that nearly ended humanity forty years ago. Yet rather than punishing her, the alien leader offers Hannah a secret amendment to the mission: destroy the "core" that contains all memory before the fall of Earthly civilization. Only then, with their history a blank slate, can humanity be trusted with a future.

I've been published in Muleskinner Literary Journal and I'm an active student in Blue Stoop's writing classes. Less professional to mention (but deeply pivotal to me): I was the star storyteller in the bando I squatted at for a necessary, tragic period of my early twenties.

Like all my characters, I've been through some interesting times. Unlike my favorite, I'm unfortunately still not the princess of a renegade kingdom of anti-military sex workers.