12 Agents Looking for Book Club Fiction
Where to Query This Week (4.2.25) | Plus a breakdown of an author's five-year journey to a book deal
Welcome to Sub Club’s Where to Query This Week!
joins us today with a candid, behind-the-scenes look at what it really took to sell her debut novel, Good People. While many debut authors seem to have quick, flashy success stories, Kat shares a much slower, more complicated path: five years of revising, submitting, facing rejection, and starting new projects before finally landing a book deal with Simon & Schuster.I love how generous Kat is in this in-depth look. It’s a great reminder of the persistence required to break into traditional publishing. But I also admire Kat’s willingness to trust herself. Sometimes, we can get caught up in thinking so much about the market that we forget that we write for ourselves. The publication game might be long, but as Kat shows us here, it can be very rewarding, too.
What Happens After You Get an Agent (and Before You Sell the Book)
I signed with my agent in 2019, but we didn’t sell my first book until 2024. When I signed, I was twenty-five and delusional. Whether you’re a writer or a reader, it’s difficult to move through the world without hearing about the unicorns—debut writers who sell their first books within 48 hours of submission, receive six-figure advances, and seem to be set on the bestseller track from the moment they accept an offer. As a young writer, I thought that could be me, too. Because why not? I had the craft knowledge and self-discipline to solve writing-related problems. Surely, that was the hardest part—the writing and revising of the book.
Oh, how wrong I was.
It took five years for my agent and me to sell my first book. Here’s what those five years looked like on a writing and business level.
December 2019
Good People is a literary novel about Jo—a white girl raised by a Black family—who must come to terms with her identity as she pursues a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford.
After twelve weeks of querying, I signed with my agent right before the holidays.
January 2020
My agent’s first round of feedback consisted of a single-spaced, five-page letter that revolved around two core issues in the novel: (1) the story’s episodic plot and (2) the book’s age category. The plot issues stemmed from the fact that the novel originally began as a series of short stories, but this issue could be resolved with a story structure revision. The age category, on the other hand, was a whole different problem. Jo—the protagonist—is twenty years old, the no man’s land between YA and adult fiction. I had written the novel as an adult book, but it explored coming-of-age themes commonly associated with YA.
My agent was concerned that adult editors would reject the book for being “too YA” and YA editors would reject the book for being “too adult.” She suggested aging Jo down and doing a YA revision, but there were two problems: (1) I was not well-read in the YA genre, and (2) I needed to have an adult book under contract to apply for university teaching jobs.
In the end, we decided to narrow the scope of the plot by cutting a 70-page storyline. As for the YA/Adult issue, we decided to test the waters with adult editors and planned to regroup later if necessary. In terms of what I did on the page for revision, I revised the ending first since removing that storyline caused the book to end much earlier.
February 2020
I sent the new thirty-three-page ending to my agent, and she gave me the thumbs up to move forward with the full revision. But I was in the second year of my MFA program. Given my teaching load, I wasn’t sure when I could feasibly finish the next draft, so I promised to touch base again after spring break.
March 2020
The world as we knew it ended. My agent and I set a deadline for July 1st, and I planned to work on the revision during my summer break.
June 2020
I finished the revision in mid-June and received line notes and an eight-page letter. My agent and I discussed structure issues, and I got to work on the next revision.
July 2020
I turned in the revision, and we worked through two more passes, one to address thematic issues and another to address final line edits. Looking back now with a book deal and five years of hindsight, I wish I had listened to my agent more. This past year, I revised Good People twice to prepare it for publication, and I often found myself returning to her suggestions in these early feedback letters.
Once we deemed the novel ready for submission, we collaborated on the submission letter, which ended up being my query letter with minor changes.
August 2020
My agent sent the book on submission to eleven adult editors. This list would grow to twenty editors over the next eight months.
April 2021
So many rejections. Like, SO many rejections. Most editors cited pacing issues and the YA/Adult conundrum as their reasons for passing. Some expressed interest in reading a revision, but none of them offered concrete feedback or a call to discuss potential edits. I didn’t want to revise a manuscript I was already burning out on unless the editor spoke with me directly.
My agent and I regrouped and discussed revising for the YA market again. I still had my reservations because I needed an adult book to qualify for teaching jobs. We ultimately decided to change gears. I would work on my second book, a book I’d started two years earlier during my Fulbright in South Korea.
December 2021
I moved back to Seoul to conduct research for my second book. At this point, I had sent a rough draft to my agent and was waiting for feedback. This book was speculative fiction and different from the book she’d signed me for, so I wanted to bring her into the process early to make sure this new book was something she wanted to represent.
One day in December, I woke up to an email from her saying that she’d had a meeting with Simon & Schuster and submitted Good People to a new editor. We’d already decided that the book was dead in the water and had a meeting on the calendar to discuss my Korea book. So, I scoffed at the email and literally said out loud to myself, “Ain’t nothing gonna come of that.”
Not even twenty-four hours later, the editor emailed my agent: “I began reading last night . . . Kat is a writer I already know I want to work with.” A few days later, in the dead of night in Seoul, I hopped on a Zoom call with the editor and discovered we were totally aligned in our visions for the book. The main edits for the book involved two changes: (1) removing a character and their storyline, and (2) resolving the YA issue by increasing the point of telling. The book came across as YA because the narrator told the story without any retrospection. My main goal was to revise so that the narrator recounted the story with years of hindsight instead of immature immediacy.
January 2022
The editor took my book to acquisitions, but the acquisitions team had reservations due to the YA/adult issue. The editor asked me to (1) revise the first fifty pages focusing on the point of telling edit, and (2) provide a detailed outline for the rest of the book’s revision. My agent and I revised the fifty-page excerpt twice together.
February 2022
We submitted the partial revision and a detailed, seventeen-page outline.
March 2022
The acquisitions team decided that they needed the full revised manuscript before they could make a final decision about acquiring the book. At this point, I had been working on this novel for seven years. I was burnt out. My agent and I decided to move forward with my book about Korea instead. I spent the next ten months on a page-one rewrite of this book. About five months into this rewrite, I threw out my third draft because I’d taken a day job as a game writer in Korea, and writing for video games taught me how to write plot more effectively. Starting over from scratch was the only way I could strengthen the plot for my second book.
January–February 2023
I finished my rewrite. My agent and I worked on three revisions before submitting to publishers. We included the same editor from Simon & Schuster on our submission list.
September 2023
No bites for Book 2. But we heard back from the Simon & Schuster editor. He liked both books, but thought Good People would be a stronger choice for launching the career of a debut writer. The editor worked with me in an unofficial capacity, and we revised the book to prepare it for his acquisitions team.
February 2024
I finished the revision, and we resubmitted to Simon & Schuster in an exclusive submission.
March 2024
A week later, Simon & Schuster offered on the book.
April 2024
I signed the publishing contract. Good People is tentatively slated for Summer 2026.
August 2024
The publisher paid the first portion of my advance to my agency. My agency removed their fee and deposited the remainder into my account.
February 2025
I turned in what might be the final revision of the book.
Key Takeaways
Now that I’m on the other side of the book deal, here’s the advice I’d give my younger writer self:
Delusion is good for motivation, but girl, be so serious.
Listen to the editorial feedback and try out ideas in good faith.
Revise and resubmit requests are most productive if the editor speaks with you directly.
Write the book for the sake of writing the book and nothing else because there are no guarantees.
Kat Lewis is a fiction writer and video game narrative designer based in Tampa. She is the founder of Craft with Kat, a bestselling Substack newsletter with practical craft lessons for writers. Her debut novel, Good People, is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster.
THIS WEEKEND! Let your characters take the wheel and drive your narrative! In this workshop held by Write or Die, Emily Jon Tobias will deep dive into narrative structure by way of the character. You will learn how creating characters with the capacity to change determines plot. YES, LET’S TALK ABOUT PLOT! Don’t miss this two-session class. Crafting Characters That Drive the Narrative, starts on Sunday, April 6th.
»» Register here ««
12 Agents Looking for Book Club Fiction
So what the heck is book club fiction anyway?! "Book club fiction" is a term often used to describe novels that are especially suited for group discussion—stories that spark conversation, explore meaningful themes, and often live in the sweet spot between literary and commercial fiction. Examples might include Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Malibu Rising, or Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge.
If this sounds vague, it’s because it kind of is. There are many instances where women’s fiction, upmarket, or commercial fiction could be pitched as a book club, as well as those other genres. And yes, you can change the genre in your query letter from agent to agent. I talked about switching between upmarket and literary in a previous Sub Club piece. But regardless, book club is a popular genre right now!
If you’re currently querying and want a curated list specially made for your manuscript, be sure to check out my Personal Agent List service. I have a few spots left for April!
»» Get your own agent list here ««
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