Greetings from Seattle, Washington in the United States! In 2022, I was honored to be longlisted for the First 5 Pages Prize. I submitted the opening of my manuscript of The Butcher’s Apprentice, and was thrilled to be a finalist. This recognition from the Stockholm Writers Festival motivated me to keep revising my manuscript and improving my craft skills. I’m happy to report that, earlier this year, I signed with agent Cora Markowitz at the Georges Borchardt Literary Agency in New York. We hope to go on submission with The Butcher’s Apprentice in late 2025. Thank you, SWF, for the terrific confidence boost that helped me get to this point!

You can read more about the path my manuscript has taken since making the longlist in 2022, and how I successfully signed with a literary agent, in my 3-part blog series, consolidated below. To find all my blog posts, and the original series, click here.

Wishing you happy writing,

-Wendy A. Warren

Feb 1, 2025 - Part 1

I said “No” to many things and kept writing.

There are plenty of how-to articles and classes out there to guide writers on preparing a query package or navigating the query process; this isn’t one of those. Instead, in this blog series, I’ll examine the big-picture strategies that have—wonderfully—resulted in my getting two offers of literary agent representation in the past month. In part three, I’ll reveal the agent I’ve selected.

It’s been just over two years since I made a blog post. After finishing my manuscript forThe Butcher’s Apprentice in late 2022, I intentionally set the story aside and evaluated whether or not it—and I—were ready for querying. The process of querying literary agents can take up a lot of time; each query should be customized to individual agents, and submission guidelines vary between agencies. It takes sustained focus to research the best potential author-agent fit, so it was important for me to guard my personal time to devote the necessary energy to the task. One of the most powerful actions I took in the past two years as I prepared myself and my manuscript to query literary agents, was to say “NO” to a lot of things. I said no to:

-watching (most) TV and movies

-taking more writing classes and workshops (by late 2022 I had already taken over 100)

-reading books I didn’t love (I read a lot, but allowed myself to not finish books that didn’t feel worth my time)

-blogging

-interacting on social media in ways that could rob me of my peace of mind and sleep

At the end of 2022, I knew the word count of my manuscript was above the genre standard, and that could mean an automatic pass for many agents. So, I took a deep breath, and instead of forging ahead with queries as I initially wanted to, I took a year (late 2022-late 2023) and revised the manuscript, removing over 20K words from the story. It was a deep and painful cut! In doing so, I eliminated several characters and plot lines that simply wouldn’t fit.

Here’s what I did with the extra time that saying “No” gave to me:

-revised my story, wrote new material and researched potential agents 2-8 hours a day, 5 days a week; I treated it like a job

-read a minimum of two hours, daily

-submitted the manuscript for unpublished writing awards

-exercised my neck, shoulders and back 2-3 days a week, because sitting for long periods of time requires extra strength and muscle in these areas

-honored my need for sleep to sustain creativity

The result of saying “No” to many things, while continuing to write, was a greatly improved manuscript that I began querying in late 2023. I immediately received requests from agents for the full- and partial-manuscript, which buoyed me through the loooong query-and-wait, query-and-wait process that was 2024.

Stay tuned for my next blog post in this series where you’ll learn about my query stats (# submitted, rejected, etc.), and—in addition to saying “no” and continuing to write—the other major contributing factors in my landing a literary agent.

How I Found My Literary Agent

A 3-part blog series by Wendy A. Warren

Feb 4, 2025 - Part 2

I asked for help and kept on writing.

Once I began querying my manuscript in late 2023, I immediately received full- and partial-requests from literary agents. It was so encouraging and validating! But, by spring of 2024, I had pitched enough agents and received just enough insight from the rejections to understand that my manuscript would benefit from a faster, more propulsive beginning and still fewer words. My query package also needed adjustments. So, I did something risky: I pulled the full manuscript from three agents who had it at that time. And, I hired a developmental editor to review the manuscript. I knew the story could be better, but I was at the end of my ability to get it there. This is where I’m going to point out another big factor in my getting an agent, which was to ask for help. If you don’t have the funds to pay for help, there are many ways to accomplish this that are free or low-cost:

-seek feedback within a writing group

-find beta readers offering to swap reading or do so for free

-trade or barter developmental editing services

-write with a buddy as an accountability partner

At some time or another, I have done all of the above, which, when negotiated, does not have to cost any money. The important thing is that you keep the advice that feels right, leave the parts that don’t, ask for help when needed, and continue with your writing.

The developmental editor I hired in May of 2024 returned her editorial letter and comments to me in mid-June, and by the end of that month I was back in full-on revision mode, having put querying on hold. I worked steadily all of summer 2024, and completed yet another draft of the manuscript by mid-August. I paid a small fee to a working literary agent who suggested some improvements to the query package. After that, I returned the fresh manuscript and query letter to the three waiting agents in early September, and began submitting to other agents, with immediate positive response. In mid-December, 2024, I received my first offer of representation, followed by another in early-January, 2025. It was a confirmation that my request for help had paid off.

I primarily used QueryTracker as a mode of agent submissions, but I also submitted by email to many agents who didn’t use QueryManager (QT’s agent-interface), so that my total queries-sent number is closer to 135, but the response and reply rates shown above, taken from my QueryTracker account, are still pretty accurate. Note that my number of queries sent is well above the 44 number submitted by the “average” member, according to QueryTracker. In total, I received 15 full- and partial-manuscript requests (10 full, 5 partial) between late 2023 and late 2024. Many agents now-a-days don’t bother responding if they are rejecting an author, but I received over 80 rejections/pass responses from agents (plus many not tracked in QueryTracker). The big picture lesson is this: I submitted A LOT of queries to find, not only agents who would make an offer, but the one who would be the right agent.

In my final post in this series, coming soon, I’ll announce the agent I’ve selected.

Feb 6, 2025 - Part 3

I found my pep squad and kept writing!

I began writing The Butcher’s Apprentice in early 2019 for a short story seminar taught by the Flannery O’Connor Award-winning author, Becky Mandelbaum. Becky’s class took place in-person, and was one of the last multi-day, live classes I attended before tucking in for some social distancing and a global pandemic the following year. But before that, in the second half of 2019, I also took a fantastic online story structure course with award-winning author and screenwriter, Jeff Bender, who illuminated the Hero’s Journey for me. A big thank you to Jeff and Becky for teaching the classes and inspiring the learning that stirred this manuscript into being. Both of them have been unfailingly kind and encouraging through all the tiny steps and successes my fledgling-novel has accrued. Take classes with Becky and Jeff, and read their writing!

If you peruse my past blog posts, you’ll see there were many people and organizations who supported me along the way: instructors and literary centers that sponsored awards. There were also people outside the literary scene who offered friendship and personal interviews that gave me insights into the characters I created. I’m deeply grateful to them all. The generous community I’ve built around writing has been my cheering section, and I, in turn, love cheering on other writers. I couldn’t have reached this point without having found my own pep squad; if you’re a writer, it’s important for you find one, too.

Announcement Time

I’m thrilled to announce that the newest addition to my cheering section is my literary agent, Cora Markowitz of Georges Borchardt Literary Agency. I had a good feeling about Cora when I pitched her, on a lark, at a WritingDayWorkshops conference this past December. Now, I’m looking forward to working with Cora to bring The Butcher’s Apprentice, and other upmarket fiction, into the world.

Thank you for celebrating this phase of my writing journey with me! There are many more to go if The Butcher’s Apprentice is to get published, as getting an agent does not guarantee publication. But it’s a happy step in that direction.

Don’t forget to sign up for my occasional author newsletter to receive my latest writing news as my novel progresses. Thanks for reading!