Dashboard Literary Agents Success Story Interviews Victoria Wlosok

Success Story Interview - Victoria Wlosok

An Interview with Victoria Wlosok (xvictoriawrites on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Jessica Errera of Jane Rotrosen Agency.

07/13/2023

QT: Can you tell us a little bit about the book for which you've found representation? What inspired you to write it?: Victoria Wlosok:
My debut novel, How to Find a Missing Girl, is a sapphic YA thriller perfect for fans of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and Veronica Mars. It follows seventeen-year-old sleuth Iris Blackthorn and her amateur detective agency as they investigate the truth behind a growing trail of missing girls—which include Iris's older sister and her true-crime-podcaster ex-girlfriend—in small-town Louisiana.

Querying the book led me to receive five offers of representation in September 2021, and the novel sold to Alexandra Hightower at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in a two-book deal in February 2022, with publication in September 2023.

How to Find a Missing Girl was inspired by several things, including my own experience growing up in a small Southern town, the other YA thrillers I read (and loved) in high school, and my fear of becoming a fully-fledged legal adult.
QT: How long have you been writing?: Victoria Wlosok:
I’ve been writing for almost ten years, although I started to take it much more seriously once I started high school. I’ve always known I wanted to be an author, though, so I feel like I’ve been working toward that goal for a while!
QT: How long have you been working on this book?: Victoria Wlosok:
I wrote the first draft of How to Find a Missing Girl in a month during NaNoWriMo, and I spent six months editing it before I officially began querying literary agents. After I received and accepted an offer of representation, I then spent three months going back and forth to edit the manuscript with my agent before we went out on submission. Once the book sold, it spent almost a year total in edits—developmental, copy, and more. So overall, I worked on How to Find a Missing Girl for almost two years in total, but for only seven months before I became an agented author.
QT: Was there ever a time you felt like giving up, and what helped you to stay on course?: Victoria Wlosok:
The book I wrote before How to Find a Missing Girl was one I shouldn’t have written, but accepting that and moving on from it was a discouraging process. I think it's always difficult to officially shelve a project and work on something new, but I’m so glad I ended up pouring my heart into the manuscript that became HtFaMG because this book is much more authentic to who I am and what I want to bring to YA. If you have to shelve a book, or many books, remember that setbacks are only a small part of your larger story. After failing at something, the only important question is what you choose to do next: give up, or keep going?
QT: Is this your first book?: Victoria Wlosok:
I’ve written a few other books prior to HtFaMG, but I feel like HtFaMG best represents my current writing style.
QT: Do you have any formal writing training?: Victoria Wlosok:
No, and I don't believe you need any to write well or be successful, either. Just practice, be receptive to feedback, and commit yourself to becoming a better writer than you were the day before.
QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?: Victoria Wlosok:
I actually didn't have beta readers before I started querying How to Find a Missing Girl. I had been in the query trenches before, and I felt confident in my writing; so once I felt like the book was ready, I just started querying.
QT: Did you outline your book, or do you write from the hip?: Victoria Wlosok:
I’m more of a plantser—a mix of a plotter and a pantser. Pantsing is my base state, and I wrote the first draft of How to Find a Missing Girl completely from the hip. But once I started editing the draft, I threw some outlining into the mix so I could really pin down timelines and iron out plot details. (It is a thriller, after all!)
QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?: Victoria Wlosok:
I queried How to Find a Missing Girl for 35 days before receiving my first offer. That's not a typical timeline at all, though, especially in today’s querying climate—it was only so fast for me because I had some success during #pitmad on Twitter while I was in the middle of querying, and that expedited the process tremendously.
QT: About how many query letters did you send out for this book?: Victoria Wlosok:
For How to Find a Missing Girl, I sent out 47 queries; for the book I queried before HtFaMG, I sent out 6.
QT: On what criteria did you select the agents you queried?: Victoria Wlosok:
I largely built my query list based on the MSWLs of agents I found through QueryTracker; however, I was also influenced by statistics from Publisher’s Marketplace and the knowledge base of the writer whisper network. I knew I wanted an agent based in New York City who had the connections and the capacity to sell my book, so I was very selective in who I cold-emailed. I also did a few Twitter pitch contests while I was querying, which expedited my querying process and added new agents to my query list.
QT: Did you tailor each query to the specific agent, and if so, how?: Victoria Wlosok:
The consensus among writers I know seems to be that personalizing queries to each agent is usually a waste of time unless you have an actual connection worth mentioning, and I’m largely of the same opinion. That being said, I did tailor a few of my queries to agents I really liked or felt like I would be a good fit for based on their MSWL, and my query to my current agent was the most personalized out of all of them (but only because I found out through some good ol’ Internet sleuthing that she graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and I was a current student!)
QT: What advice would you give other writers seeking agents?: Victoria Wlosok:
Don’t give up. Don’t query every agent in existence—some agents are shmagents, or fake agents, and have the capacity to ruin your career. Try to join whisper networks. Keep your eyes and ears open. Get eyes—on your query, on your pages—and give them in return. Plug into a community. Find people who are going through the same thing as you and stick with them, but also try to find mentors who are ahead in their careers and willing to share things with you. Every aspect of this industry can be brutal, so try to learn everything you can as soon as you can.
QT: Would you be willing to share your query with us?: Victoria Wlosok:
Yes, absolutely!

Success Story Interview - Victoria Wlosok

Query Letter: