Success Story Interview - Richard Banville

An Interview with Richard Banville (r_banville on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Charlie Serabian of Martin Literary Management.

03/20/2026

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

Richard Banville:
My book is an alternate history horror novel, set mostly in early 19th century Europe. The serious reason I wrote it was to explore competing concepts of immortality, literal and othewise. I think that for a lot of authors, myself included, the virtual immortality of having a book published is part of what attracts us to the art. The less-serious reason I wrote it was to take a time period I love thinking about and have meticulously researched, and see what happens when I mess everything up by throwing in hordes of screaming undead.

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

Richard Banville:
I first drafted this book more than 10 years ago, had some beta reads, but never queried it. I picked it up again about 18 months ago for a thorough re-write, more betas, and several rounds of revision.

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

Richard Banville:
I did give up, at least for a while! And this was a good thing, because ten years ago I wasn't ready to be a professional novelist. I worked on other kinds of stories for a while, including getting into webcomics. Finally I came to a point where I could come at the project again with the right mindset.

QT: Is this your first book?

Richard Banville:
It's the first one that's ready to be published. Now that I know a bit more about what I'm doing, I'll re-visit other projects.

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

Richard Banville:
No, other than a few creative writing electives on my way to a technical degree. But I would choose "self-directed" rather than "informal" to characterize my training as a writer. Learning writing or any other art requires structure and diligent practice, whether or not that structure comes from a defined curriculum.

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

Richard Banville:
Countless. I think I went through at least twelve fourteen edits on these interview questions.

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

Richard Banville:
Thirteen total, a few of which I withdrew after accepting the offer of representation.

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

Richard Banville:
I studied everything I could find about each agent in QT, in Publisher's Marketplace, and of course on the agents' own websites and blogs. I looked at their clients, publishers they've worked with, and the types of books they had success representing. I really tried to put myself in their place as well as I could, and imagine why they, personally, would have success championing my book. I also looked at the response rate and time metrics in QT for each agent. This helps to select for agents who are actively building their client lists, and it puts form rejections and non-responses from extremely selective agents in the proper context.

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

Richard Banville:
Certainly. If I didn't have a specific reason to send it that I could express in the query letter, I didn't waste the agent's time or mine with something generic.

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

Richard Banville:
Something I have learned as a good, general business practice: Test, Measure, Adjust. If you send a batch of what you think are good, targeted queries and get only form rejections, then something is wrong. You might be sending to agents who aren't interested in the type of book you've written, or to agents who are just not accepting new clients right now. (QT metrics reports are valuable for figuring this out!) Or maybe you are just not grabbing them with the right hooks in your query, or you're turning them off with word count or a confusing synopsis or something else. Whatever the reason, figure it out. Ask others for feedback. Then adjust, revise, and try again. When you're starting to get personal responses and some requests for more pages, then you know your query letter is effective. Now it's simply a case of finding the right fit between agent and book.

It's sort of like fishing—if you're not getting at least a nibble, you need to either move your boat or use a different lure.

The Test, Measure, Adjust approach worked out particularly well for me when the first agent who requested my full ms passed on it but gave very thoughtful feedback. I was able to implement that feedback in a new edit prior to sending the manuscript to Charlie. We'll never know if it was that edit that made the difference, but it did make what I sent him a stronger book.