Dashboard Literary Agents Success Story Interviews Michaela Conley

Success Story Interview - Michaela Conley

An Interview with Michaela Conley (MJAyres on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Gabriella Melendez of Great Dog Literary.

08/10/2026

QT: Can you tell us a little bit about the book for which you've found representation? What inspired you to write it?: Michaela Conley:
DATE KNIGHT is an Irish romantic comedy set in Dublin, and inspired by real disastrous dating stories from myself and others.

Asexual and disillusioned by romance, theatre costume designer Erin Langley has sworn off dating for the past five years. Now in her mid-thirties, she’s willing to admit (under duress) she’s starting to feel a bit lonely, and her software engineer flatmate offers her a deal: Erin will go on one new date a week for the next three months as a test subject for the new dating rescue app “Date Knight”. Erin has little hope of finding love, but agrees in order to help her friend’s project succeed in its Dublin testing phase. As the bad dates keep coming, the last thing she expects is to find herself falling for the assigned “knight” who keeps coming up with hilariously creative ways to rescue her.

Reclusive novelist Bradley Monroe claims to be participating in the trial for the app as an opportunity to re-discover his creativity for storytelling and to find new inspiration. Really, he’s drawn to the no-strings-attached chance to rescue people, in an effort to write over memories of the person he couldn’t save. But, as the woman who keeps ordering date-rescues becomes someone he can’t afford to lose, his painful past begins to catch up to him, and it becomes clear the person who’s really in need of rescuing is Bradley himself.

Now, Erin must find the courage to ditch the dating app suitors and take a shot at finding love the old-fashioned way… or with a different sort of app. In a whirlwind of thrilling swordfights, daring rescues, and unlikely heroes, both Erin and her knight, Sir Bradley, will have their metals truly tested on their quest to overcome past hurts to take a chance with honesty, escape the endless cycle of dating horrors and find a love worthy of fantasy.
QT: How long have you been writing?: Michaela Conley:
I started writing around the age of ten, writing plays for the neighborhood kids to perform in the summers. I now work in the international theatre industry, and I’ve worked as a resident playwright and am a published poet. I started writing novels three years ago, and have since written four – two for practice, one which I queried unsuccessfully, and then this one.
QT: How long have you been working on this book?: Michaela Conley:
From concept to the finished draft for beta readers, it took me 2.5 months. I finished further edits based on the beta readers’ notes and began querying a month later.
QT: Was there ever a time you felt like giving up, and what helped you to stay on course?: Michaela Conley:
The biggest thing for me was finding something that I loved and enjoyed reading about. Once I was writing the sort of story I knew I’d love to read, it got easier to push through, because I wanted the satisfaction of reading the story from beginning to end. Then, as editing began, it was a lot easier, because the story was something I genuinely enjoyed reading and fiddling with to make it better.
QT: Is this your first book?: Michaela Conley:
This is the fourth novel that I’ve written, but it is the first to gain representation and will hopefully become my debut!
QT: Do you have any formal writing training?: Michaela Conley:
Aside from a few classes during my undergrad, I don’t have formal training specifically in writing. However, the entirety of my training and background is in storytelling, and I have an MFA in Theatre Performance, am an agent-represented performer, musician, playwright and technical theatre artist, and am a published poet. I am also a voracious reader and researcher, and I dedicated a considerable amount of time reading articles and watching tutorials both on the craft of writing and on the literary industry.
QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?: Michaela Conley:
When I am in the middle of an international theatre tour, I do have to be much stricter about my schedule and writing routine in order to remain consistent. But when I am between theatre projects, I haven’t needed to be as intentional about it. I genuinely enjoy writing and storymaking, so I can easily become hyperfocused and find myself suddenly ten hours into an impromptu writing session with several chapters completed, a very empty stomach and an unfortunate case of dehydration! I try to write with my dog as much as possible, so she can help me to remember to take breaks. In exchange, I actually based the little dog in DATE KNIGHT off of her!
QT: How many times did you re-write/edit your book?: Michaela Conley:
The current manuscript is the sixth draft, but I do imagine that there will be another few rounds of editing with my new agent before it goes on submission.
QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?: Michaela Conley:
I did! For my last book, I sourced my beta readers from the writing group Happily Ever Authors. But for DATE KNIGHT, I wanted some really specialised feedback about certain topics in the book, so I approached friends and colleagues who were knowledgeable about those fields (D&D, the theatre industry, living in Dublin, etc.). They read the book really quickly and gave a lot of extremely helpful feedback.
QT: Did you outline your book, or do you write from the hip?: Michaela Conley:
I am a die-hard outliner. I like having that initial framework in place so that I can feel free and comfortable to “write from the hip” within each chapter. Of course, the outline does shift as the writing progresses. Especially when the characters start developing minds of their own. But I always pause at that point to update and rework the outline so that the framework remains strong enough for me to lean on.
QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?: Michaela Conley:
I started querying on 26th of June and got my first manuscript request on the 13th of July (2 weeks, 3 days). I received the first offer of representation on the 21st of July (8 days later) and officially signed with my agent on the 5th of August (2 weeks, 1 day later).
QT: About how many query letters did you send out for this book?: Michaela Conley:
I sent out a total of 35 queries (34 through QueryTracker and 1 separately) and had a list of 73 more agents left to query. I finished with a 19% full manuscript response rate, and all agents but four responded to my query before I signed.
QT: On what criteria did you select the agents you queried?: Michaela Conley:
I started by looking at agents who represented my genre, then organised them into groups according to their average response times, the country they were located in, and whether their website info listed a specific interest in elements in my story.
QT: Did you tailor each query to the specific agent, and if so, how?: Michaela Conley:
For the most part, I had a specific space in my query letter where I could insert specific reasons for why I thought DATE KNIGHT would appeal to that particular agent, according to my research on them. For a few, if they mentioned a specific interest in an element that was in my story, I adjusted the wording of pieces of my query letter to highlight that.
QT: What advice would you give other writers seeking agents?: Michaela Conley:
It was really helpful to me to begin by querying in a couple of waves of agents who respond quickly, so I could have the chance to see if my package was working. Once I was able to determine that the agents were reading my query letter, then the synopsis, and actually getting into the pages, I was confident enough to start querying in earnest.
I had expected this to take a lot longer and that I would begin querying in earnest in the fall after the “summer slowdown.” But from what I experienced, the “summer slowdown” isn’t nearly as much of a thing as perhaps it once was. Agents actually responded a lot quicker and more consistently this time around than when I sent out test queries for my previous book in January/February.

Success Story Interview - Michaela Conley

Query Letter: