Publishing Team 2025: Find Your Dream Agent and Other Allies

Find Your Dream Agent and Other Allies!

Through a combination of coaching, strategizing, editing, and sustaining support from my own wonderful agent and me, plus hands-on insights from other agents and professionals active in the industry today, as well as butt-in-chair actions we will take together every month, you will develop a dynamite query letter, a tailored agent list, a submission plan, a must-read-on opening to your manuscript, and the persistent practice of networking and submitting until you get to yes! Find the agent who loves and believes in your work! Build a team who will support you from agent search through publication and beyond!

From a 2023-24 Participant:

“You know, I thought I knew all I needed about querying agents. Boy, was I wrong! And this class opened my eyes and seized my brain and my hubris and set me straight. Of particular benefit to me were the visits from agents and the invitation to pitch to them; Elizabeth’s edits on my first ten pages, which helped me layer in more character development; Maddie’s individualized agent referrals and recommendations; Elizabeth’s advice and support on the revise & resubmit process; and Maddie’s perspective on when and how to poke agents who’ve had pages for a while. Plus, of course, my cohort members—brilliant, motivated, accountable, and generous to a one.”

• • Find Your Agent/ Publisher: resources and strategies for researching and networking to find agents or small press editors who are a strong fit for your work

    • • Comps: Understand and create a list of comps that will sell your work!
      • Rounds: Find and submit to 25 ideal agents and presses (and repeat 2 – 6 times as necessary until you succeed!)
      • Networking: how to get agents’ and editors’ direct attention.
      • Deep Platform: Submitting excerpts as stand-alone short pieces to build your publishing portfolio and get in front of agents reading lit mags. 

• • Ace Your Submission Package

    • • Fine-tuned  and Targeted: Understand how to shape your query letter for each agent or editor. Benefit from Madeline’s deep experience of the agent’s perspective on the query letter, as a gatekeeper for power-house agents’ in-boxes and through her own rising career as an agent! 
      • Unforgettable: With Elizabeth’s hands-on, in-demand edit, submit ten outstanding opening pages–unputdownable, unrefusable, stand out opening.
      • Succinct: Shape a fabulous 1 – 3 page synopsis (optional but a good idea for focus and if needed)* based on a strong understanding of your book’s structure.

• • Get to Your Goal 

    • • Process: Develop a streamlined process for ongoing research for ideal agents, regular submissions, planned follow up–keep that manuscript circulating.
      • Support: Check-in with me (as well as Madeline and the group) about any editorial notes you are getting and when to consider doing a revision–of your query letter, your opening, or your manuscript–before continuing.
      • Success: Work with a small success team of similar classmates for additional deadlines, information sharing, and support.

• Build Your Professional Publishing Platform

  • • • 3-Hour Essay Workshop: Generate a ton of ideas and write a draft of a complete essay.
      • 3-Hour Short Story Workshop: Write a whole short story draft.
      • Excerpt Workshop: Look for stand-alone pieces in your manuscript to submit as short stories or essays.
      • Openings Workshop: Deep dive into what makes for an opening that keeps the reader reading all the way to YES!

• Presentations and Gatherings

  • • Monthly meetings–coaching, lessons, and inspiration.
    • Taking Action: accountability gatherings to keep getting your work out there.
    • Guest Spots: throughout the year, we will have additional meetings with agents, editors, and other industry professionals.
    • Agent-led workshop on YOUR query letters and more.
    • FOUR separate workshops to nail your opening and develop short pieces to publish along to way, to get attention from agents, the literary community, and readers at each step.
    • Alumni-led Sit&Submit sessions and Productivity Days for butt-in-chair action to get your work into the world.

• Agent Success Pathway

  • • The Marked Trail: Get clear on the whole process of finding an agent– overview and step-by-step. Plus learn how and where to position your work in the market, non-agented pathways, and career-building.
    • Query Letter Template and Examples: Get a stellar query letter prepped. I’ll show you my query that got me multiple offers, the submissions letters my agents put together, and other samples; you’ll get a template with elements of a query to fill in.
    • Editing checklist: make your writing powerful and professional.
    • Tracking spreadsheet: keep your records together and clear as you build your network.
    • Shared resources, reviews, and coaching throughout the month.

All sessions are recorded!

Schedule: This class will generally meet the first Saturday of the month, January 2025 – December 2025, 10:30 am – 12 pm PT on Zoom. These sessions with Janklow & Nesbit literary agent Madeline Tickor and me will include coaching, learning the ropes–comps, professional expectations, the market, pep talks to keep momentum going and numbers/ outreach growing, work on query letters, pitches, and more. 

Additional meetings (to be scheduled) include conversations with agents and other industry experts; the 3-hour Essay and Short Story Generative Workshops, plus 2-Hour Openings and Excerpts Workshops, as well as a 3-hour story Structure Session with Angie that will include direct feedback on your book’s structure;  Query Letter Workshops with literary agent Madeline Ticknor; and an asynchronous critique discussion of your book openings. There will also be several online or hybrid productivity hours (Sit & Submit sessions), and even full days where you can come set goals, get accountability, check in, get things done!

Additional Accountabilty and Support:

You will be put in a small affinity group/ core team, and you will be accountable to each other between meetings. 

You will participate in providing feedback on the queries and opening pages of your cohort, as it is eye-opening to see other people’s packages, on which we have a great deal more perspective. 

We will also have a space for ongoing conversation, cheerleading, resource sharing, emergency coaching and updates!

My goal is to create a system whereby you are taking massive, effective action throughout the year.

Who is this class for?
Anyone who is currently querying OR planning to query in the next year. This class provides a tremendous professionalization: understand the industry you want to jettison you to your literary dreams–from the inside! We give you step-by-step support, handholding, connections, effective and powerful materials to represent your best work, and encouragement to keep going in the right direction. We prepare you to survive, thrive and succeed in the turbulent literary marketplace. 

What is the difference between the most successful writers and YOU? They have collected more rejections. It is okay if you are afraid of rejection–as long as you are willing NOT to let that hold you back. When someone says no to some of  your work, you join the path of ALL our favorite authors, the ones whose books we cannot live without, the ones who win awards, produce bestsellers, the ones whose books sustain us. Learn how to turn no’s into networking, and how to hone and hang in until you get to yes!

From 2023-24 Participants:

“I feel this class was everything it was billed as. I almost feel like an “expert” in how to enter the agent search in terms of my comfort level with the process, at least, and with knowing what steps to take, what tricks to incorporate in a query, as well as how to manage my expectations.”

“Basically — I loved all of it!”

A Note on Pricing: Most year-long intensive courses of this kind with industry experts cost well over $10,000. An MFA can cost $50k or more and leave you without any of this professional knowledge. This year I have upgraded the program and added multiple workshops this year without raising the price at all! This is likely the last year this unique program will be offered at this price!

Your Investment for Everything in this Year-long Program:

$5495 / year

$465/ month for a year (12 payments)

$318/ month for 18 months (18 payments)

The Fine Print/ Terms and Conditions:

When you sign up for this course, you are signing on for a year-long-plus series of events that will be tailored to your goals, your book, your strengths, your areas of growth. You will take a place that can no longer be taken by someone else, and that place will be shaped for you, around your needs and dreams. And guess what? You deserve it!

Please Note: A payment plan is not a monthly payment for the ongoing class, it is a commitment to pay the entire tuition over time. Cancellation up to 40 days before the first meeting will result in a $175 administrative fee plus PayPal or Stripe fees of 3% on any electronic payments being refunded. Note: if you attend the pre-term Publishing Meetings and any private coaching consultation, this will count as your first meeting. Within 30 days of the first meeting, but before class begins, cancellation is not possible for a refund. You can find a replacement for yourself or gift your space to someone. After class starts, there are no refunds or replacements. We will do what we can to accommodate any forced absences, including recording all sessions unless, on occasion, a guest presenter objects. You will have access to the recordings and other materials for six months beyond the final December meeting.