Success Story Interview - Marissa Burt

An Interview with Marissa Burt (MarissaBurt on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Keely Boeving of WordServe Literary Agency.

03/04/2024

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

Marissa Burt:
This book is my first non-fiction project, tentatively titled In the Way They Should Go: How the Christian Parenting Empire Shaped a Generation of Evangelicals—and Where We Go from Here

My co-author Kelsey Kramer McGinnis and I are tracing the historical and cultural development of Christian parenting practices—focusing on popular literature for the US market from 1970 to the present—by exploring the ideological, political, and social forces as well as underlying theological assumptions.

QT: How long have you been writing?

Marissa Burt:
15 years

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

Marissa Burt:
I started working on this book in earnest in May 2023, but the idea has been floating around in my mind for several years.

QT: Is this your first book?

Marissa Burt:
No. I have published five middle-grade novels and have a sixth novel ready to go out on submission hopefully soon. This is my first non-fiction book.

QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?

Marissa Burt:
My writing routine has varied so much over the years, much of it dependent on my other responsibilities. Sometimes I've had small chunks of daily writing time; other times I have a whole day to focus. For this project, I knew I would have writing time three days a week for a four hour block so was able to plan accordingly. But doing the other non-related things like social media or networking happens in the margin time.

QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?

Marissa Burt:
We queried this book for less than a week and had several offers of representation. I think the timing was right and our project meets a felt need. My first time querying my first novel many years ago, I had an offer of representation within the first few months, but I was on submission for another six months, then had an offer to revise and resubmit. After several rounds of that and over a year later, I ended up with a book deal. I had another project I queried that I had to shelve. So it really can vary widely.

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

Marissa Burt:
I think we ended up with about two dozen and then had to withdraw many of them because we heard from several dream agents so quickly. I do think it was an unusual situation. My first time querying, I probably sent out to something closer to 75 agents. This was before the days of querytracker, so I remember it was odd to receive query rejections months after I had accepted an offer of representation.

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

Marissa Burt:
We purchased a Publisher's Marketplace subscription to research agent sales history. We looked at agent sales in both the category of our book and categories for future book projects. It was important to me that an agent be able to sell this current non-fiction book and have experience in middle-grade fiction. We also researched acquiring editors on PM and looked at the agents they frequently worked with. We also thought of comp titles and found out which agents had sold those books. Once we had our initial list, we visited the agent websites to learn more about them and make sure our book matched their list as well as to see their submission requirements.

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

Marissa Burt:
Only when relevant. For instance, if we thought that one of their clients had written a comp book, we mentioned that or if we noticed that they had put something about our book on their wishlist. But beyond that, I just went with their submission requirements or the querytracker form.

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

Marissa Burt:
Oh, wow. There is so much good advice out there already that I'm not sure I have anything in particular to add. I suppose it would be what you already know: querying is hard and sometimes discouraging work. Best thing for it is to do what you can to make your work and query as polished as possible and then funnel that energy toward your next writing project. Good luck!