Success Story Interview - Matt Ginsberg

An Interview with Matt Ginsberg (mattginsberg on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Alexandra Machinist of Creative Artists Agency.

05/26/2026

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

Matt Ginsberg:
Time of Reckoning is sort of The Martian meets Firefly in Colorado in 1881. I wrote it because the world is a little depressing, and I thought, "What if I could go back to 1881?" Then I thought, "Flush toilets." And *then* I thought, "What if I could bring flush toilets back to 1881 with me?"

QT: How long have you been writing?

Matt Ginsberg:
My first published technical paper was in 1980. So a long time!

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

Matt Ginsberg:
About a year.

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

Matt Ginsberg:
Yes, of course. The hardest part was finding an agent. Things that kept me going were supportive friends and writers' conferences.

QT: Is this your first book?

Matt Ginsberg:
No. I've written two technical books.

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

Matt Ginsberg:
No.

QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?

Matt Ginsberg:
No.

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

Matt Ginsberg:
It's sort of an ongoing process. I write from start to finish, and then edit. I don't I'd call any of the edits a "rewrite" because I had a pretty good idea where I was going from the get go. But I edited it over, and over, and over, and over ...

QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?

Matt Ginsberg:
Yes. critiquecircle.com was super helpful.

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

Matt Ginsberg:
I outlined it pretty carefully, although the outline was in my head.

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

Matt Ginsberg:
Around six months.

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

Matt Ginsberg:
A lot. I think around 100.

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

Matt Ginsberg:
It was (sadly) pretty random among agents who were interested in my genre. I didn't know which were the big agencies and which were the small ones. Then I started asking Gemini (!?) who would be good agents for me and got focused.

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

Matt Ginsberg:
I did. I would try to put in something that made it clear that I had looked at their web page and wasn't just querying thoughtlessly.

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

Matt Ginsberg:
Don't give up! It's hard and it takes a long time. Get a decent amount of confidence in your manuscript before you start querying. I don't know how many times I would feed the whole manuscript into Gemini and ask it, "Is this any good?" Gemini is pretty supportive.