My Fake Agent Query

Or, why you should read my novella

Dear Agent-I-Have-Never-Met-And-Who-I-Hope-Likes-Me (in that way that Natalie Portman earnestly hoped her dead hamster [Jelly] liked her [in the movie Garden State]),

This is the part of the letter where — if we were meeting in person — I would suddenly morph into a cartoon 1940s news reporter and say, “Boy have I got a manuscript for you,” with a cigar hanging from my mouth (because it’s the 1940s and I’m a cartoon).

Of course, you would be more impressed by my ability to suddenly transform into a real-life cartoon (and might wonder if we had entered the alternate reality universe of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?).

After regaining your composure, I expect you would either politely decline me (and I’d turn human again) or turn into a cartoon yourself and say, “Okay, whadaya got.” At which point my eyes would go full Looney-Toons and pop out of my head at the prospect.

Let’s assume it went the latter way and you let me share my pitch (after my eyes returned to normal).

I’ve written an approximately 24k word novella about a Millennial Great Gatsby, of sorts, named Annaleigh. It’s told in a Rashomon/choose-your-own-adventure style with 3 main characters sharing their perspectives on life at age twenty in the fall of 2004. The primary narrator, Erin Brewster, is in her sophomore year of college, pining after her high school crush, when her roommate, Joan Hartley (a secondary narrator), invites her to the renowned party of the eponymous Annaleigh Roberts (the other secondary narrator). Each narrator shares a different perspective on the same period of time in their own particular voice. The story can be read linear (shuffling through characters) or, upon reaching the 3rd chapter, the reader can choose to continue with Erin or opt to switch to Annaleigh or Joan. I’ve chosen this particular format as it underpins the rise of social media that begins in the fall of 2004 when (then) TheFacebook.com enters the scene.

In 2004, these women are already shaping how their story will be perceived — resulting in a tapestry of unreliable narrators — thus the Rashomon quality. Annaleigh, in particular, has already taken grasp of how she wants the world to view her — much like the tragic Jay Gatsby. Livejournal is still king among college students (think back to Jessie Eisenberg portraying Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network) and this new website is about to revolutionize connections among people — and also open everyone to a whole new world of passive communication, digital ghosting, doxing, and all the other perils of the social media era.

The genre is “new adult” and will appeal to fans of Daisy Jones and the Six, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and The Duff. It aligns with these titles **based on its pop culture nods, non-traditional storytelling format, and sense of tongue-in-cheek humor. It’s also perfectly timed as a twenty-year lookback for the large reader-base of Millennials about to turn (or just turned) 40.

Having gone through my college sophomore year at the same time as these women, I’m uniquely poised to write about this particular time period and what it felt like.

My Bachelor’s Degree is in screenwriting — which you can quickly glean from my novella. It includes clever, fast-paced dialogue, and allows the reader to imagine much of the ambience and setting themselves (a nod to screenwriting, where the writer leaves most of the backdrop to the production team.) This style is unconventional but creates a quick read for our modern society of attention deficits and quick dopamine hits.

I’ve put 13 years into a systems/technology job, and achieved a Director title at a Fortune 500 company; I understand all the pieces and people necessary to deliver a successful product. You are one of the pieces I am lacking!

Hopefully, by now, you can see the value of this novella — especially at this particular moment in time; The Great Gatsby itself was published a full century ago, this year.

Alas, Agent-That-Never-Was, this is where I leave you. In fact, I decided against querying you. This may prove to be unfortunate for you, but it’s quite fortunate for my would-be-readers who may have missed this labor of love had you not chosen to greenlight my work. Instead, I’ll be sharing here — free of charge.

Keep your cartoon eyes peeled!

Best,

Rebecca