Success Story Interview - Sandy Grossman

An Interview with Sandy Grossman (SandyGrossman on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Bailey Tamayo of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

04/30/2026

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

Sandy Grossman:
Death Trip is a psychological slasher set in 1999, at an isolated liberal arts college outside Portland. It follows a group of students investigating a mysterious disappearance on campus, which leads them to a strange cult growing an eldritch psychedelic in the woods. It was inspired by Scream and Disturbing Behavior, and all the time I spent in the woods.

QT: How long have you been writing?

Sandy Grossman:
When I was ten, I wrote a story called Attack of the Super Scientist, which I thought would win a Pulitzer. I’ve been writing ever since.

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

Sandy Grossman:
It took me a year of writing and another two years of off-and-on querying to get the book to where it is. Querying doubled as a second editing process, since I got a lot of important feedback from agents.

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

Sandy Grossman:
I told myself not to take any of the rejections personally. I took every single one of them personally. But each inspired me to go back to the book, and make it just a little bit better. It helped to realize that the book wasn’t done when I started querying.

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

Sandy Grossman:
While I never did a page one rewrite, the book expanded and contracted throughout the querying process. I made little changes every day, and major changes every time an agent was kind enough to give me feedback.

QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?

Sandy Grossman:
I have a writing group who read everything, even the stuff that definitely isn’t ready for human consumption. We meet every week, and I’m enormously grateful for them.

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

Sandy Grossman:
Since this project involved multiple POVs and interwoven storylines, I outlined pretty heavily. Right now, I’m trying to avoid outlining. There’s a specific joy in discovering the story as you go.

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

Sandy Grossman:
I took a pretty scattershot approach. This project was upmarket horror, so I queried a mix of experienced horror agents and more literary-leaning agents with an interest in horror. In all cases, I looked at their reply rates, to see if I actually had a chance, and their manuscript wishlist, to see if my work was a good tonal fit.

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

Sandy Grossman:
Keep your head down, keep going. The long way still gets you there.

Query Letter:

Dear Ms. Tamayo,

Part literary fiction and part 90s teen horror, Death Trip is an adult novel about the isolation of growing up queer and the monsters it breeds. Given your interest in character-driven horror and difficult coming-of-age stories, I think it would be a great fit for your list.

It's 1999 and the end of the world is on everyone’s mind. For the students of Tryon College, a rain-drenched liberal arts school outside Portland, this can only mean one thing: time to go out on a high.

Iman has never been the type to cut loose. It’s only her sophomore year and she already knows where she’s going to law school. But when she drunkenly agrees to try a new breed of magic mushroom, she wakes up to find her roommate missing and everything about her ordered universe thrown into chaos. To find her, Iman will have to descend into the unseen underbelly of her supposedly peaceful university.

The investigation will lead her to Hannah, the school’s favorite rich kid and her former best friend; David, the class loser trying to claw his way up the social ladder; and Aiden, Tryon’s most prolific drug dealer. As more students begin to disappear, this ensemble cast must uncover the eldritch truth behind the school’s new favorite psychedelic and the doomsday cult that grows it—before they succumb to the monster it’s planted inside them.

Best,
Sandy