Maria Vicente

Query Letter Workshop — Maria Vicente, Literary Agent

Need help with your query letter? Join me for a fall session of my virtual Query Letter Workshop. 👩🏻‍🏫

Registration includes a 2 hour live class, Q&A, and a critique of your query letter. You can sign up now for the October 1st or November 5th workshops.

www.mariavicente.com/query-letter-workshop

My query letter workshop is back! The two fall sessions (October and November) are now open for registration. The workshop includes a virtual 2 hour class followed by a Q&A session and a professional critique of your query letter.

www.mariavicente.com/query-letter...

Image reads "Congratulations, Maria! Publishers Weekly Job Moves. Here are our latest job moves. 09/04/2025. Maria Vicente has been promoted to senior literary agent and senior advisor at P.S. Literary Agency." and feature he black and white headshot of a woman with mid-length dark hair who is smiling with a closed mouth. The P.S. Literary Agency logo appears at bottom.

We are delighted to share that senior agent @mariavicente.com will be expanding her impact by serving as a senior advisor, providing strategic consultation on the development of the agency.

Please join us in congratulating her on this expanded role and in celebrating her 12 years of excellence!

I have never used QueryManager, so unfortunately I can’t help with this!

Please confirm with me (visit my website’s contact page for verified contact options) that any request you receive outside of official channels is legitimate before sharing your work.

www.mariavicente.com/contact

Someone is impersonating me as a means to request material from writers in various online communities. All my requests are sent from a P.S. Literary email address (maria@psliterary or submissions@psliterary).

The Graphic Novel Proposal Workshop still has a few spots left. We start next week! ✨

www.mariavicente.com/workshops

The Graphic Novel Proposal Workshop still has a few spots left. We start next week! ✨

www.mariavicente.com/workshops

Nope! 3rd person is more common, but 1st person can work just as well. Really depends on the story.

Thank you, Sage!

My stance is that I will not consider any projects I see during a workshop as a submission for representation. If someone wants to send me an official query letter in the future, following my standard submission guidelines, that’s ok.

Two of my workshops are open for registration. Space is limited.

Graphic Novel Proposal Workshop starts May 13.

Query Letter Workshop is in June.

Both have a small class size, there's plenty of time for Q&A, and you'll receive personalized feedback on your work.

www.mariavicente.com/workshops

We try to reply within 4-6 weeks if we’re interested in seeing more. Full guidelines are on this page. www.psliterary.com/submissions/

I just think they’re rare. It’s not often that we see a novel in verse on bestseller lists for example, so publishers don’t acquire very many, which makes them harder for agents to sell. And some people are just not into poetry.

Don’t have the time or vision to edit as much as the project needs, editors not really asking for the type of project it is (not confident we can sell it), too similar to something a current client is working on.

It mostly depends on my clients’ career goals. They might pursue self-publishing, or we might do a major revision, or (most common) we set it aside for the moment and consider re-submitting it in the future.

Researching deals and agents is the big one. I believe there’s a writer-focused newsletter as well, but typically writers have accounts just to keep track of deals.

When there are no imprints left to pitch that we (me + my client) believe would be a good fit for the project. Similar to querying agents—you make your list of people that fit whatever criteria you’re looking for, and if you run out, then you need to move on to the next project.

If you’re not seeing what you’re writing on many manuscript wish lists & you’re not getting requests based on your query then the timing could be wrong.

If you are getting requests for pages and then receiving passes, it might be that the pages need revising and the concept is fine.

They are both different scenarios. Debut is great because we’re starting from scratch and can build something together. Previously published can go either way: successful prev books could be an easy path to more deals. Books that haven’t sold well can make it difficult to sell future projects.

No, sorry. I don’t often keep tabs on what other agents are looking for. And novellas aren’t typically in-demand at bigger traditional publishers, which is where my focus is.

Yes, absolutely. Sometimes we can see that a manuscript has potential, but we may not be the right person to get it to where it needs to be (for various reasons, time being one of them).

Unless you’re looking for an agent to help pursue subrights sales for your self-published books (audio, film, etc.), it’s best to query with something new. Generally an agent won’t be pitching your self-published books to a traditional publisher.

It’s been a couple of months, so let’s do another #askagent.

Have publishing questions? Reply to ask, and I’ll do my best to answer.

Love the enthusiasm! 📝

🙌🏼

Workshops — Maria Vicente, Literary Agent

Registration is open for my April and May query letter workshops. 👩🏻‍💻

🔸 Live virtual class
🔸 Professional critique
🔸 Q&A session

Space is limited (smaller group = more time to chat), so don’t wait too long to sign up!

Thank you!

What’s most common? A pass after you’ve sent requested material? Or not receiving requests at all? That should help decide between pages or query.

If you’re sending to agents based on their current wish lists and guidelines, then bad timing shouldn’t be a thing to worry about.