Dashboard Literary Agents Success Story Interviews Melanie Deziel

Success Story Interview - Melanie Deziel

An Interview with Melanie Deziel (Mdeziel on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Gail Fortune of Talbot Fortune Agency, LLC.

11/26/2025

QT: Can you tell us a little bit about the book for which you've found representation? What inspired you to write it?: Melanie Deziel:
My book is called "This Is Not A Bookmark," and it's a nonfiction book at the intersection of visual art, found-object anthropology, and literary culture, exploring the stories and mysteries behind the paper scraps left behind in secondhand books: grocery lists, love notes, receipts, postcards, photographs, and even fake leaves.

I was inspired to write this book after years of collecting thousands of found treasures when sorting donated books at my local thrift store, and starting to share them on Instagram, @ThisIsNotABookmark. The title was inspired by Magritte’s The Treachery of Images (“This is not a pipe”), since this collection plays with the tension between what something is and what it becomes.
QT: How long have you been writing?: Melanie Deziel:
I've been a writer my entire life, starting with stories written in crayon and illustrated with stickers. In grade school, I held leadership positions for the yearbook, the school newspaper, and the school literary journal, and I studied journalism in college, too.
QT: How long have you been working on this book?: Melanie Deziel:
The idea for this book has been in development in my head for over a year, and I spent a solid two weeks refining the proposal and query letter before I began querying. The query process moved very quickly for me, and I'm excited to keep developing the idea in collaboration with my agent and a well-matched publisher.
QT: Is this your first book?: Melanie Deziel:
I've written two marketing/business books through a hybrid publisher: "The Content Fuel Framework: How To Generate Unlimited Story Ideas" and "Prove It: Exactly How Modern Marketers Earn Trust." I also have several other book projects in progress, including a non-fiction book focused on late-diagnosed Autistic women, a children's book about the sensory experience of eating, and two contemporary women's fiction books, each with a journalist as the main character.
QT: Do you have any formal writing training?: Melanie Deziel:
I studied Journalism as an undergraduate at UConn and have my Master's Degree in Arts Editing from Syracuse University's Newhouse School, but I have also participated in countless masterminds, workshops, conference sessions, and other less formal events that provided writing feedback and practice.
QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?: Melanie Deziel:
My day-to-day schedule varies so greatly due to the nature of my work as a keynote speaker and corporate trainer in the marketing space, so rather than a set time, my writing takes place in set contexts and mindsets. I tend to write well in airports, on planes, and in cafes I find along my travels. With good coffee, noise-cancelling headphones, and the gentle hustle and bustle of others moving around nearby, I get great work done!
QT: Did you outline your book, or do you write from the hip?: Melanie Deziel:
Because I'm autistic, I tend to have a very visual and organized thought process, so typically by the time I'm actually sitting down to write, I have an outline already formed and detailed out. For non-fiction projects, where I'm querying before the book is complete, I have a robust proposal with a detailed outline to guide me when I start writing. For fiction, I also do some world-building first, with written character profiles, Pinterest boards for visual inspiration on characters and settings, and other supporting materials to help paint the complete picture before I get into writing.

But I do usually write out of order, for both fiction and non-fiction. That's why the outline is so important for me, because it allows me to keep things cohesive and keep myself on track, while still allowing me to write whichever section or chapter feels most exciting at any given point.
QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?: Melanie Deziel:
While I sent out an initial round of queries in July, and then set the project aside for a few months, I started querying in earnest on a Friday in Late October, and had two offers for representation the following week. The last book I queried was similar: I had 2 offers within 2 weeks of the start of the query process.
QT: About how many query letters did you send out for this book?: Melanie Deziel:
I sent a first round of 5 queries back in July or so, and then prioritized some other projects while I waited on responses. Once my other commitments wrapped, I then returned to the query process in late October to send a batch of around 10 queries, totalling around 15 queries for this book.
QT: On what criteria did you select the agents you queried?: Melanie Deziel:
When I was evaluating agents to query, I focused on a few things:
Experience with art, illustrated non-fiction, gift, and/or coffee-table books
Affinity for abstract projects with hints of sociology, curation, memory, ephemera, human connection, and similar themes
Background as a librarian or used bookseller, or mention of a love of thrifting, meaning the agent had likely had a "found treasure" moment of their own
I also kept an eye on the diversity of my query list; as an Autistic Muslim woman, I prioritized querying agents who also had one or more marginalized identities
An agent didn't need to have ALL of these things to make the query list, but agents with multiple of these traits felt like they'd be the best fit, so I ranked them in QueryTracker accordingly, based on how likely I thought they'd be to be interested.
QT: Did you tailor each query to the specific agent, and if so, how?: Melanie Deziel:
ABSOLUTELY! Agents get so many generic queries blasted out to them that personalizing the query—at the start, especially—is key to standing out. I opened each query letter by personally addressing the agent by their preferred name and explaining why I thought they might be interested in hearing more about the project and potentially representing it.
QT: What advice would you give other writers seeking agents?: Melanie Deziel:
Do your research on Manuscript Wish List to ensure that your project is a good fit for each agent you want to query, and then address the reason you believe it's a good fit in your query letter, right up front.
QT: Would you be willing to share your query with us?: Melanie Deziel:
Sure! Here's a generalized version of the query letter I used and adapted for each agent.

Success Story Interview - Melanie Deziel

Query Letter: