Dashboard Literary Agents Success Story Interviews Brittany Bowen

Success Story Interview - Brittany Bowen

An Interview with Brittany Bowen (bb_books on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Sandy Lu of Book Wyrm Literary Agency.

09/10/2024

QT: Can you tell us a little bit about the book for which you've found representation? What inspired you to write it?: Brittany Bowen:
GHOST LIGHT is about a pop star who gets a leading role on Broadway, but on opening night a stunt goes wrong and she hangs herself on stage in front of a full audience. Then, her diary gets published as a memoir and reveals that for months prior, she was trying to figure out the identity of a hooded stalker. This begs the question–was her death an accident?

I was inspired to write GHOST LIGHT by my love of Broadway theater in NYC. The world of theater is so exciting and romantic and so I thought it would be unique to balance that with a dark, suspenseful murder mystery. I was also intrigued by the theater tradition of leaving an antique lamp on stage every night to keep ghosts away, called a “ghost light”. It's such an antiquated superstition so it's fascinating to me that modern theaters still practice this tradition.
QT: How long have you been writing?: Brittany Bowen:
I've wanted to be an author my whole life. As a child I wrote a lot of stories and as an adult I've written D&D campaigns. At some point in high school I realized that writing was not a realistic career and so I went to college and became a mental health counselor to take a more “stable” path instead. I love my career but recently I realized that some people do become professional writers so why couldn't I try too? So I started seriously writing with the goal of traditional publishing about two years ago.
QT: How long have you been working on this book?: Brittany Bowen:
I started writing GHOST LIGHT in November of last year. It took about five months to write, one month to edit, then I started querying in June.
QT: Was there ever a time you felt like giving up, and what helped you to stay on course?: Brittany Bowen:
I've never thought about giving up even for a second. I wrote a book last year and I was unsuccessful querying it, but I never thought about “giving up” on my goal of traditional publishing. I knew I just needed to try again with a different book and do better. I don't consider failing to query a book as “giving up”. It’s only giving up when you stop believing in yourself and stop trying.

With GHOST LIGHT, I was able to get several requests and then an agent after about two months, so querying felt smooth with this project. That's not to say I didn't have a lot of anxiety while querying–I certainly did–but I had a handful of full requests in the first week so I could tell right away that it was going better than my last querying attempt.
QT: Is this your first book?: Brittany Bowen:
No, I wrote a grounded sci-fi thriller last year that I tried to query. I didn't query widely but after a first round with no requests, I was able to recognize the mistakes with the manuscript and at that point I decided to shift and focus all my energy on GHOST LIGHT.
QT: Do you have any formal writing training?: Brittany Bowen:
I didn't go to school for writing, but I have a master's in counseling, so I learned how to write well in that program. I took creative writing and english classes in undergrad. I have also read a ton of books on craft as well as watched a lot of teaching videos online. I'm still trying to learn more and I will certainly be learning my whole life!
QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?: Brittany Bowen:
Like most other debut writers, I have a full time job, so I can only write on the weekends. On the days that I write, I try to set a goal for myself of at least one to two chapters in a day. My writing routine consists of playing some good ambient music and having my favorite beverages like hot tea on my desk. I try to create cozy vibes for myself so I can relax and focus.
QT: How many times did you re-write/edit your book?: Brittany Bowen:
I queried with draft #4 of my novel.
QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?: Brittany Bowen:
Yes I had 6 beta readers, a mix of family members, paid readers, and writing community critique partners.
QT: Did you outline your book, or do you write from the hip?: Brittany Bowen:
I had a chapter-by-chapter outline ready to go from the start. I think it's really difficult to write psychological thrillers or murder mysteries without an outline because often you are setting up for a complex twist. However, I like to only outline the broad strokes of a scene beforehand so that when I get to the actual writing part, it's still fun and fresh. I also added plot points along the way that I needed to go back and set up foreshadowing for upon revising, so I felt like I did a solid mix of plotting and pantsing for different reasons.
QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?: Brittany Bowen:
I queried my last project for about four months before deciding I needed to shift my focus. Then for GHOST LIGHT, I sent my first query on June 8 and got my offer of representation on August 13.
QT: About how many query letters did you send out for this book?: Brittany Bowen:
I sent exactly 50.
QT: On what criteria did you select the agents you queried?: Brittany Bowen:
I had my “A” list of agents who I queried first. The agent I signed with, Sandy Lu, was at the very top of my “A” list for a number of reasons. Firstly, she repped an author that I used as a comp and whose career I admire. Secondly, she specializes in my genre of thrillers. And thirdly, I saw on her website that she loves musicals and used to work in the theater industry, so I knew she would have unique expertise in the topic of my book that would help strengthen it during revisions. As far as my other “A” list agents, I chose agents that either repped other thriller writers I admire, or had good/recent sales in my genre on Publishers Marketplace. I also paid attention to response rate, request rate, response time, and most recent responses through QueryTracker Pro which helped me pick agents to query.
QT: Did you tailor each query to the specific agent, and if so, how?: Brittany Bowen:
I sometimes did and sometimes didn't. I meticulously researched the MSWL for each agent I queried and if they had something specific on their list that matched my book, then I mentioned it in the query letter. If their MSWL was fairly generic, then I just sent a standard query without personalization.
QT: What advice would you give other writers seeking agents?: Brittany Bowen:
Agents are reading hundreds of queries per month, so you need to make sure you stand out from the slush. Find what makes your book unique and highlight that in your query. Research other strong query packages and try to emulate them. Read as many queries & critiques as you possibly can to learn what works and what doesn't work, and seek knowledgeable people to give you feedback on your own package. Query Shark and Reddit’s PubTips are great resources to read through. If one person suggests something, consider their advice. If multiple people give you the same suggestion, then you should probably make that change. Read widely in your genre! You need to know the market and where your book fits within it. And of course, don't give up!

Success Story Interview - Brittany Bowen

Query Letter: