Latest / No Mess, No Magic / The Truth About Querying in 2026 with Literary Agent Linda Camacho
Transcript
- Monica Hay: Hello and welcome to the No Mess, No Magic Podcast with Monica Hay. This podcast for writers. Today I am with Linda Camacho. Welcome, Linda. I'm so excited to have you here. Linda Camacho: Well same, I'm excited to be here. Monica Hay: so we are here to talk about querying. And we also have something fun to tease and talk about on this episode. So stay tuned for that. But first, Linda, will you introduce yourself to the audience? Linda Camacho: Yes, I am Linda Camacho, senior agent at Galton Zachary Literary Agency. And I represent so many projects, anything from picture books all the way up through adult fiction. And I'm so glad that I get to be on here and chat with Monica and everybody. Monica Hay: Yeah. So we're gonna talk about querying. We're gonna talk about what agenting and querying looks like in 2026, the industry. We're also gonna talk about an offer that we have. If you are curious, if you're a querying writer listening to this or you're about to query and you write fiction, you might be very, very curious about this offer. But let's let's talk about querying right now. And I wanna Linda Camacho: Mm-hmm. Monica Hay: preface this with Linda. I want you to be honest. with us. and like Don't be afraid to just hurt our feelings a little, 'cause I'd rather have the truth. Linda Camacho: Yeah. Yeah. No. That's fair. That's fair. That's fair. Monica Hay: Yes. Linda Camacho: I will say, right, and again, I I I know Monica knows this about me too. I always go never say never. Like, I mean, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't have some hope in my body somewhere, some sort of optimism. But I will say it is tough. It it's it has I think it has gotten harder for writers and creators all around. It's just look, even on my side of the the desk There are so many mergers and fewer places to shop. And there are a lot of agents, which i I I think is a good thing and sometimes a bad thing because there are a ton of agents and then they're also trying to push on you know, a lot of projects on editors and they have so much bandwidth. So it's just a lot. And so it's gotten harder for writers to get noticed by us because we get deluged. We really do. And it really Monica Hay: Right. Linda Camacho: has come to the point where and not to terrify people, but you know, great writing is the bare minimum. And I think Monica Hay: Right. Linda Camacho: people and I get why they think this, that they're like, Hey, I'm a great writer. That means I'm set. Not necessarily. It's not enough. It's really tough. Monica Hay: necessarily. Can you ex can you explain? Some people might know not know what a merger is. Can you explain what that is? Linda Camacho: yeah, yeah. So that's just basically when companies come together, one will buy the other. So especially when you have like the big publishers, right? If you're thinking about Random House, well technically Penguin Random House and McMillan and HarperCollins and Hachette. So they are buying up a lot of smaller publishers and then merging their teams. And unfortunately, you know, as what happens in mergers, I was there for the Penguin Random House one. A lot of people Do let go in that interim. So not as many editors. Like even imprints are just shutting down. Even established, I mean, there's if you've heard of the dial imprint at Penguin Random House, which is such an established children's publisher that's been around for what, 50 plus years and it's just shuttering. So Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: it just it it it makes the pool smaller. Monica Hay: Yeah, it makes it so that the agents have fewer editors to sell the books to. And so there's there's higher competition. Yep. Linda Camacho: That's right. Yeah, so many people are gone. Yeah. Yeah. Monica Hay: Exactly. So I'm curious, walk me through what happens when a query lands in your inbox in 2026. What is how much time Linda Camacho: Okay. Monica Hay: do you spend on on each email? Linda Camacho: Yeah. I would say Monica Hay: Be honest. Linda Camacho: I really try you know, I I should actually time it, but it is a few seconds because when you're, you know, diving into the So think about this too, the mindset. So I I'd really try to approach it like in a good I try to be in like rev myself up. You know, try to be in a good mood because if I'm going through them and I'm in a bad mood, I'm gonna go, no, no. So I try to go in going, I wanna find something. I really wanna to go in on it. And when Queries are not again, it depends on the stage of the career of the agent, right? Like if someone is growing their list, they're gonna be more aggressive in their queries. Aggressive as in really diving in, wanting to take as many people as possible within limits. And then when the list is fuller, like mine is, I'm a lot pickier. I just don't have the even if I loved everything, I can't take them on. So Monica Hay: Mm-hmm. Right. Linda Camacho: I try to be in a good mood. and I will skim because think about it, I I I'm Close to queries. I've been closed for a long time because my list is so full, though I do take referrals, things like that. But I opened a queries maybe for two weeks a year or two ago. And I got 1200 queries in those two Monica Hay: Right. Linda Camacho: weeks. And I shut down. I'm like, okay, that's a lot. So I go in, I skim. I just try to get a sense of, all right, is this something that catches my eye? And and again, that's subjective. What will catch my eye? Sometimes I'll wake up and I'll be like, I want to read something, I want a horror today or something. I want to be surprised. And that goes to the pages, which we'll talk about later. I want something where I go, I kind of I wanna I wanna know more about this. And then eventually, so it's a skim, maybe I try to give at least 30 seconds. Like sometimes I see something where I just know it's not me, so it's gonna be faster if I know, nope, not for me, but 10 seconds depending. and then if I'm even somewhat intrigued, I will like peek at the pages because the pages are are the thing. And I will use more often than not, unless again, there's something I feel just really isn't for me, I'm gonna go look at those pages just to get a sense. Yeah. But it's really quick. Monica Hay: Okay. Nice. And and when you read the pages, how long do you give the pages? A couple sentences maybe? Linda Camacho: You know, I do try to give it, and again, I I think that's what is also hard about it. If the writing style doesn't feel like it's for me, yeah, it might be the first page and you know, a few lines and I'm like, mm, I'll at least give it a page, you know, at least give it a page. And then if I'm not sure, and I think most things fall into the I'm not sure category, which is this is well written. Do I wanna continue? I will try to give it at Monica Hay: Mm. Linda Camacho: least the five pages to you know, i it it is a question in my mind. I do try to give it some time. Yeah, I really do try. Monica Hay: Nice. Yeah. I mean it's similar to when people who are listening, you know, you guys, we go to bookstores and libraries and we pick up a book and we're like, does this interest me? And if it doesn't, you put it back on the shelf, right? And that doesn't mean that it's a bad book or like it just means that it wasn't for you. Right. Linda Camacho: Yeah, I I did hear this on another podcast, an agent friend of mine that was talking to another editor and the editor had said, actually, we as readers are even, you know, harsher. We are Monica Hay: I agree. Linda Camacho: way pickier. Yeah, it's absolutely true, Monica. Like you are gonna go, you skim the jacket copy, you might skim a couple lines, you're like, nope, bye. Cause think about it, you're so you're in a bookstore, thousands Monica Hay: Yep. Yep. Linda Camacho: upon thousands of books. Like, what's gonna grab your attention? Monica Hay: Yeah. Yeah. If that's actually happened, was it Rose and Chains? I this was like months ago. I looked at it and I was like, I can't do this because it was it looked really dark. Like really, really dark. And I was like, I can't read something really dark right now. And then a few friends of mine were like, No, it's really good. You should read it. I was like, okay, okay. Like so I I gave it a second chance because I was recommended to give a second chance. But sometimes sometimes like you just immediately think, Okay, is this my taste? Can I handle something dark like this? Can I handle this? You know? Linda Camacho: Right. Yeah. Monica Hay: Yeah, it's really interesting. And okay. I want to talk about like how querying is basically a sales pitch. And Linda Camacho: Absolutely. Monica Hay: and I think this is something that a lot of writers, which I totally get, because most of us we we're not usually selling something all the time. We write our books and then you're like, okay, you want me to what now? Like you want me to sell it. Linda Camacho: Yeah. Monica Hay: And I'm curious what you why do you think writers struggle with. Diff the difference between summarizing it and actually selling it. Linda Camacho: Yeah, yeah. I I think especially writers I mean, and it this is a broad stroke, but we even people like me in publishing, we're introverts, right? We we we love books, we're book nerds. We, you know, would prefer to hide in a closet most of us and just like, you know, work on our creative stuff and and then we don't think about if especially if I'm the writer and I write as well. right, I have to show this to the world. Are you nuts? You know, like I have to talk it it's even strange when you're talking to your critique partners about just like this is the story, you're like, this sounds kind of nuts that I like this is real. So it's hard to think of the book as the product. And and that is it sounds cold, right? But that's really what it Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: is, right? And it is you're trying to commodify art, which is so difficult Monica Hay: Yep. Linda Camacho: to do. So it really is a sales pitch. And it's also harder, even for me as an agent, I I can pitch my clients' work all day, right? But Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: if it were me pitching my own work, it just feels sometimes icky and just like I wanna go hide. So I think there's that kind of like you wanna go hide, you you want your work to stand for itself, but you really do have to understand if you're looking at traditional publishing, which you don't have to. There's some people who are like, I don't wanna play into that space. That's not for me, and that's fine. But if you do want traditional publishing, you have to view it as a business. Cause you're asking, first of all, if you're going through an agent, me, you're you're like, you want me to be your angel investor in a way, right? You want me to invest. I think I don't get paid until a client makes money. And I am usually investing years of work and development. And and now I we can always talk about the economics of publishing, but things are shrinking in Monica Hay: Right. Linda Camacho: terms of money too. So I have to really believe in something. to go, I will willingly invest all of this time and potentially money, right? Because time is money. Monica Hay: Mm-hmm. Linda Camacho: and hope that something emerges from it. Monica Hay: Right. Well, I think it it's funny. I was I posted this on Instagram maybe a month or two ago. So many people when they go into the query process, it it often feels like, well, what's the point of doing all this stuff that I just want to get an agent's attention? And I'm like, no. They're going to reuse everything from that query in your synopsis because frankly, Linda Camacho: Yes, yes. Monica Hay: not everyone, like you'll even if you sell the book to a publishing house, your whole team won't read that book. They won't have time to read your book. They might, they, they're gonna try, but Linda Camacho: Mm-hmm. Monica Hay: they have 40, 50 titles that they're working on. Your editor will read it and your agent will read it. Marketing might not read it, public, you know, publicity might not read it, sales might not read it because they just they can't. Linda Camacho: Mm-hmm. Monica Hay: And so they need all of that information to help them sell the book to the public. Everything that you send to that agent is probably gonna be reused in some way. And so. I always tell people like it is helpful to have a very good pitch, not only because your agent needs it, but also because your team will need it. Linda Camacho: A hundred percent. Yeah, it yeah, it it it's almost like even when you're doing a synopsis, you're doing the pitch, you're like, why am is this a waste of time? It it really isn't. It really isn't. Yeah, I especially when I have a client that's done such a great job with the pitch, I will repurpose it for my pitch to editors. They repurpose it as well. It will really trickle down to sometimes much of it showing up on the back cover copy. And then in the future, let's say, you know, you were at a book signing, you were at an event. You're gonna be pitching it constantly. People are always gonna be asking you, what's your book about? And you just have to have this snappy thing. Even when you're like, my gosh, please don't no one asked me. Everyone's gonna ask you. Everyone, even your family members get your your mom is gonna be like, What's the book about? You have it ready. So Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: it never ends. Like, so Monica Hay: It never ends. Linda Camacho: it never ends. It it's sometimes even useful to come up with a even if you know pitches evolve with time. But I found that sometimes even in my own writing, I will do like a a pitch for it just to center me that way because when I'm Monica Hay: Mm-hmm. Linda Camacho: in the middle of a story, sometimes I look up and I go, What am I writing again? What is this? I don't Monica Hay: What am I doing? Yeah. Linda Camacho: know what's the I what? And and so I'll look at him like, yeah, that's what this story's about. So Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: it is never not useful. not easy, but very useful. Monica Hay: Exactly. Yeah, it's not if only it were easy. so Linda Camacho: I wash. Monica Hay: let's so okay, I want to talk about twenty twenty six a little bit because I think a lot of people here, if you've been thinking about querying, this is on your mind because it's it is a different world out there. And I hear from a lot of writers I know they're like it feels like a hot mess. Like there's longer waits, there's more silence, Linda Camacho: Yeah. Monica Hay: it's more confusing. You're on the other side of this. So what has changed about querying in the last few years from where you sit? Linda Camacho: Yeah. Things have definitely gone a lot gotten a lot slower. Even on my end as well. But for the querying, especially if you're going for more established agents who have a more full list, things are just taking a lot longer. I know that even once the honestly, look once the pandemic hit, things just slow I just slowed down reading. Like I don't I it's a psychological thing. I'm s I'm Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: only recovering, I feel Within the last year or so where I'm starting to read again. Things that have nothing to do with my own books, which is so wonderful and fr refreshing. So yeah, there are absolutely longer wait times. before it was a little bit like you can sort of be strategic about it, but it's still a little trickier because you know, I always recommend people query in batches, you get a gauge. That's still helpful, but it's gotten harder to tell what's actually working because people are Monica Hay: Mm. Linda Camacho: just not as responsive as they used to be. They really aren't. Monica Hay: Yeah. I'm curious when you say people aren't responsive, you're talking about the editors and these different teams. Linda Camacho: I should yeah, I should say agents are being are not being you know, we're not being as responsive because we're just flooded. And also editors Monica Hay: Mm-hmm. Linda Camacho: have slowed down quite a bit. Yes. Especially the Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: children's side. I I feel like they're getting hit harder. The adult side's a little bit quicker, but I I I suspect there are more I think there are more children's agents that are kind of like bombarding them and pelting them with things. But it's Monica Hay: Mm. Linda Camacho: it has like on the whole, editors have been a lot slower as well. 'Cause they're With all of these mergers and a lot of things falling onto their laps, they just don't have the bandwidth either. Monica Hay: Right. Yeah. And so with the mergers, sometimes they're moving, you know, moving positions and suddenly you're gonna find out, like when you've sent them a pitch and you're like, you don't work in that publisher anymore, right? Like you you find out through through some kind Linda Camacho: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Monica Hay: of channel. Yeah. And I am also curious when when you're saying it's slower right now, are you also finding it really hard to actually make sales to the editors? Like for for agents to actually sell to the editors right now. Okay. Linda Camacho: Yeah. Yes. Yes, it is harder. It is harder. Like even though and I had a meeting with a publisher this week, you know, they they do remain optimistic. We we try, but it it is harder across the board. And they were asking how what w they were asking us as agents. They were like, What what are you seeing on your end? And we're like, It's just hard. Like it's harder. I I know for me, I always feel lucky that I'm still I always go, Man, I'm still here. This is great. I'm still making sales. But I have noticed that a ninety-eight percent Of my sales are by clients that are already established that have working relationships Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: with editors. And then for debuts, while being a debut can absolutely work to your advantage because you don't have a track record. So I don't want you to be afraid of that. But it is harder to break in and be noticed as a debut. People are editors, and I should even say the powers that be, because editors do try to bring in things, especially the younger ones that are still really hungry. They just need to be supported. It is much harder to grab their attention because they are looking to You know, they're using words like franchising and they're using more they're they're looking for the most part for more commercial projects to feed into Hollywood and and right that that's not new, but it's just gotten more intense where you want them to just say, Hey, you know, we'll take a and sometimes they say this, but it's always hedging where in theory they would like to be able to take chances on people, but They're looking for whatever that surefire thing is, the what's the Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: next big thing. And and and that's so dangerous because how are you cultivating creativity Monica Hay: You know. Linda Camacho: that way and and building people? Because people don't just usually start out, boom, Monica Hay: Right. Linda Camacho: bestseller. Monica Hay: Right. Well, I think it's this is a very tricky conversation because as a business owner myself, I know what risk looks like. Right. Like I took a risk last year to start a new offer and I did it for a year. And it really didn't pay off financially. I barely made it through. And I don't regret that offer at all. I learned a lot, it was wonderful. But I also have bills to pay, just like everybody's publishing houses, right? And I think we so easily are like, well, the industry needs to take more risks. The industry needs to blank, blank, blank. And I'm like, look, they are responding to consumer behavior. We cannot go out and force people to stop buying from Amazon and buy from bookstores. We can't force people to to stop going and getting books for free on the internet and pirating them. Like Linda Camacho: Right. Monica Hay: we The industry has to be able to make a profit because we live under capitalism. I'm pretty sure most people in publishing don't love that. Linda Camacho: Yeah. Right. Monica Hay: And this means that they can take fewer risks because they just don't have the capital. They literally just don't have it. And when people are like, well, then they can create, you know, they could have bigger marketing budgets. And I'm like, okay, but you could have a big marketing budget on a book and it still flops. Like there's no guarantee. Linda Camacho: Yeah. yeah, can. Monica Hay: There's no guarantee. And so Linda Camacho: That's very true. Yeah. Monica Hay: as as a business owner, I I do feel like I actually relate more to the publishing industry in the way that they see risk as than I do with the writers, which I always feel like I'm kind of like, you know, Linda Camacho: Yes. Mm-hmm. Monica Hay: being an ally of the publishers. People are, why would you, you know? And I'm like, because I get it. Linda Camacho: Yeah. Yeah. And and they have to be able it's I was talking to an agent yesterday and they were saying their client was talking about the book of their heart. And I always I have such mixed feelings about that phrasing. I have clients who use that and I always go a little bit like I love that you love your story so much, but What tends to happen is then we tie them the creatives will tie themselves to the pure artistic form and forget, Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: like you're saying, the the business side. You you have to be able to marry both sides of it if you're looking to be in traditional publishing. You have Monica Hay: Yep. Yep. Linda Camacho: to. Monica Hay: You have to. And you have to like if you want to be a successful author, some people are going to have to buy your book. Like they're gonna have to use money Linda Camacho: Right. Monica Hay: that they have earned to buy your work. And Linda Camacho: Right. Monica Hay: it's funny, I don't think a lot of authors or writers or creatives know how hard it is to get people to buy things. Like Linda Camacho: Right. Yeah? Monica Hay: Yeah, like and I I think it's because if they've never, you know, if you've never worked like a job where you're having to do the sales, it's like, yeah, like it's only $17. It should be such an easy sell. It's not always the case, right? And I think we Linda Camacho: Yeah. Monica Hay: we get so caught up in like the industry needs to do this. And I'm like, sure, there are so many things that I think need to change in the industry. But also you have to understand that like There has to be a level of sale so that they can keep making money. And then they can take more risks that if they make more money, they can take more risks on new authors. Linda Camacho: Absolutely. Yeah. Monica Hay: Yep. And I'm trying not to sound too depressing as we talk through this. Linda Camacho: I know. Monica Hay: I think I like to know the truth about industries. Like I'd rather not people I don't I don't want people to lie to me, you know. Like I I want to know the truth about things because then I can come in with the right knowledge and the right, you know, resilience. I'm in I'm very curious what is in a writer's control right now and what isn't? Linda Camacho: I would say the the craft, right? the cra you know, I could even say just knowing what learning the rules as best you can, right? So, you know, f always fin especially talking about fiction, finish your story, make it the best you absolutely can. So craft and then learning the rules, right? So learning what what makes a good query, what makes a good package, what do you know, what are the rules in the industry? What does an agent do? Do I need an agent? What is those basic things. And then beyond that, it's really out of your hands. Like at least before the sale. Like there are certain things in your hands after the sale, but let's say before you ever get there, the only thing is learning as much as possible about the business and the book itself. Monica Hay: Yep. Yeah. Really putting putting your eyes on the prize, which is the creative process. You know, like making your book good, learning how to sell it, learning how to be able to pitch it, things like that. And I I'm also curious, what have you noticed helps writers feel steadier when things are so unpredictable? Has have there been certain things that have helped your clients and things like that? Linda Camacho: Yeah, I I I always joke that I'm sort of their emotional support person. And it is tough, right? Because you're seeing them through the downs, mostly downs, it feels sometimes. But then you have those beautiful moments where things are on the up. But yeah, when Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: things are down, I it it's in general, I always try to manage their expectations. And it is a fine line because I also want to tell my clients, shoot for the start and yes, aim high. Like it doesn't mean you won't be a best seller. I want you to, but also understand. What does that mean? How often does it Monica Hay: Mm. Linda Camacho: happen? And reminding them, okay, why are you doing this work? Like really, it does help it really helps them to bring them back to kind of like base camp. Why are you doing Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: this? Right? Because look, it's okay to want a book deal. It's okay to want money, all of the things. But if that's the only reason, like if you okay, so I had a client that they haven't sold this project and they haven't sold anything yet. They're so talented. And they said, I've been doing this for 10 years and no luck. And I said, No, I hear you. I I I I told her, I hear you. It it just sucks. Could you be okay with if I told you and I had a crystal ball that you would not do this, you could try and try and you and you wouldn't sell a book for at least another 10 years. Would you do this? And that's what you have to ask yourself. Like if you Monica Hay: Mm. Linda Camacho: never sold anything in this particular case. Would you still create? Would you still write? Like that and if the answer Monica Hay: Yeah. Yeah. Linda Camacho: is no, that's something you want to evaluate, you know. Monica Hay: Yeah. Linda Camacho: That's because again, it doesn't mean that you're only create it doesn't mean you're only creating for yourself, but you have to really love, even when you hate it sometimes. Like you really have to, right? Monica Hay: When you're pulling your hair out. Linda Camacho: Yeah, there there are those moments because it's such a it's it's difficult. And if it's only money, there are easier ways to make money. Monica Hay: These are going to make money. Linda Camacho: No, there is there are. Like honestly, you're not likely to make millions. You could. It's not impossible. But it's like kind of like that lotto ticket scenario. You gotta begin it Monica Hay: Yeah. Yeah. That's so funny. Linda Camacho: to win it, right? But go back to why are you doing this? It it really does help. Monica Hay: Yeah. Yeah. And so I think what we're talking about here is why we created this offer. So I'm gonna go ahead and tell you guys because I teased it in the beginning. So what we have kept seeing, and I approached Linda with this maybe a year ago now. I think it's been a minute. Linda Camacho: Yeah, I think it's yeah. Monica Hay: I kept seeing people telling me how much of a hot mess it felt like. And you know, I see people who are doing everything quote unquote right. So like going to workshops. having critique partners. They might even go to a conference, meet agents. They might have an an agent read through their first pages. Like there's so many different things that people do to to prepare themselves. And then of course we have like all the online advice, like all the threads and the Reddit, the Linda Camacho: Yeah. Monica Hay: Reddit threads. And then when they hit send, people are generally on their own and there's a lot of confusion around what to do. When you're kind of just in the query trenches. Like even if you got an an agent to read your pages, like they're editing it once and then they send you off. Right. So Linda and I made something for the the trenches, basically. And it's called the Query Lab. And we're opening it up for a very small beta round. And so you might be like, what the hell is a query lab? And for those listening, it's basically the short version is a three months. of support while you're querying. It's not just to help you write the query. Well, we do that as well. But it's actually support throughout the process for three months. So let me explain what's in it and then Linda, I can let you chat through some of some stuff. So we have the query lab basically is is comprised of five, four things. I should probably do better math than that. Your package review. Linda Camacho: Well we're we're in the writing space, not the math space. That's okay. Monica Hay: I know we're not we're not math people. If I had been good at math, would I be in this industry? Yes, I probably would still be. your package review. So Linda will look at your query, your first pages, and your synopsis, and we'll work on those to get them really good. There is a monthly strategy call with Linda every month. And you can also get one additional review of your materials throughout program if you're realizing like things aren't clicking for people, you're getting weird responses. And the strategy call. My hope is that people can show up and just like talk about like what is happening for them in the trenches. Like what are the responses people are getting? they can they can talk through do I nudge here, what do I do here, things like that. There's also coaching with me, and I'm gonna do the emotional support coaching through all this stuff. I'm sure Linda will probably seek your way into that as well on some of the strategy calls. And then we have weekly Voxer office hours. With Linda and me, I will say very clearly, this is not 247. we're gonna have specific hours that you can message and and expect a response. It's not gonna be like you can message and within 24 hours, you're gonna hear back. We are gonna have actual office hours. and then we're also gonna have querying 101, which we are recording is basically Linda to teaching you what it looks like. If you're new to querying and you haven't learned about like what It actually looks like to create a query and things like that. There's going to be a course that you can watch to understand what to do. my part is you're an emotional emotional roller coaster and I'm gonna help you through that. And Linda's part is let's talk about what's going on in the trenches and talk through that. I do want to bring up a couple ethics that we have in here, because I think it's very important for people who are listening to understand this. You cannot query Linda if you join this program. So this is an application only program. It's for fiction writers. Your book needs to be written and polished or close to being sent. Like we want you to get the benefits of the program, which means we don't want you to like never query while you're in the program. We want you to at some point query. So ideally within the first month, I would say, hopefully you're gonna start querying. you cannot query Linda, however. Because there's ethics around this. Linda, do you kinda want explain this a little bit? Linda Camacho: Yes, yes, absolutely. So I think it whenever you are a especially if we're thinking of myself if I thought of myself as a writer and I'm approaching an agent, there is that hope, you know, that that that you would potentially offer representation. And it does affect how you're gonna show up in the room. It really does. Like you're not you're you're gonna afraid to be messy and you need to be, right? Like that that's the learning process. And even when I do critiques at conferences. And that's a very different kind of thing, but I can tell. I you know, I always tell them, this is a learning experience, this is your time. Ask me questions, even if you think they're silly. Like I want all of the things. I want you to be fully engaged and open to learning. And it's just really hard if you're thinking, my God, Linda may offer. I I need to be in my Monica Hay: Right. Linda Camacho: best behavior. So let's just keep that like separate. Monica Hay: Yes. Yeah. And we also want to make it clear that this is a beta offer. We've I've never offered anything like this before. And I don't think, Linda, you've been in like a particular I mean, you've probably done query critiques and lots of different critiques for people. but this is something that we've never yeah, exactly. We've never never done this kind of thing. Linda Camacho: Yeah. Right. But never in this kind of container. Yeah. Monica Hay: So it is a beta offer, which means it is a little bit lower cost than it normally probably would be. we don't people might ask like, Are you gonna run it again at some point? I have no idea, frankly. I don't know. I I'm not one of those entrepreneurs who like schedules my life in a year in advance. I find those people fascinating. we don't know how it will go, we don't know what's gonna look like, and I wanna I don't want to promise something I can't promise. So we don't know. And I also want to say that we are not guaranteeing representation. This is like you cannot ethically guarantee that. Like, we're not that's Linda Camacho: Well Monica Hay: If anybody's doing that Linda Camacho: yeah. Monica Hay: to you, they're they're a scammer, by the way. Linda Camacho: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Monica Hay: you're not guaranteeing that you'll get representation. The whole point is that you get support while you're in the trenches. That's like the whole idea of this offer. And so you're not querying Linda. who is this for and who is this not for? So I said fiction. Linda, do you want to kind of talk about your typical, like what you represent the most in your clients? Linda Camacho: Yeah. Yeah. So I represent I I try to call myself genre agnostic. So while I do some literary fiction, I think a little bit of everything, honestly. So anything from picture books to graphic novels to middle grade, young adult, adult fiction. I do love romance and horror and sci fi fantasy, but honestly I've I've critiqued everything. So I'm really broad within that fiction space. Monica Hay: Cool. Perfect. and but we're not doing nonfiction. I th that's right, right, Linda? Like you don't yeah. It's a different. Linda Camacho: Right, 'cause that's yeah, 'cause that's super specific. It is like pitch and proposal oriented and while I've done it, it's not my bread and butter. Monica Hay: Yeah, it's more it's it's just a different beast. So yeah, we're not gonna be doing that at this time. I do wanna mention some of you are in the US, some of you in the UK. so I wanted to bring up that Linda's your experience is mostly with the US market. Is that correct? Linda Camacho: That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Anything I would say if anything you're writing, because again, right, you might be based in the UK and you're like, I I want my work to be in let's say the North American market, the US and Canada. I think that that would work well. And while there is, I know Monica and I were talking about this, there can be crossover. the UK has its own flavor, as does the US, right? And sometimes Monica Hay: For sure. Linda Camacho: we try to sell I've, you know, or I should say my brilliant foreign rights team has sold things to the UK. And sometimes I'm like, why did that sound the other thing did not? They're like, it's just its own flavor. So yeah. If you're targeting North American market, English, this is the place. Monica Hay: Cool. Love it. so what we're gonna do is we're opening it up. Applications are open now, because this will I know technically not the second that we're recording this, but when it's when this lands, applications Linda Camacho: What's us? Monica Hay: are open. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna apply. there are quite a few questions, I think there's 25 or something like that. And I I will say we're going to it ideally you won't have queried a million agents. So I I do want to be Linda Camacho: Right. Yes. Monica Hay: honest about that. I can't say that we have like a full number of like this is a stopping point. I think we're gonna do a case by case basis. If you have queried some people, you can still apply, we can still look at your application. but like this isn't a way to save a manuscript that has been queried. By 100 people right now. Like that's I'm just being honest with you guys. we are only kit taking five to seven people. So I'm just letting everybody know we're keeping it really small on purpose. We I don't want there to be a hundred people in the room. I want it to be small and collaborative. also because this is new and I want to be able to get you guys feedback. And that's another thing about beta that I find really exciting personally, is that You can give us feedback and tell us what's working, what's not working. the whole point of a beta round is that we get your feedback. You can give us like your honest thoughts on how the program went, what needs shifting, what needs improving. And we really love that that kind of feedback. And that also makes it so that you can kind of help us shape it, which is really cool. but let me look. Okay, five to seven. Linda Camacho: It's like you're a co creator in the process. Monica Hay: You are a co-creator in the process, yes, which I love. I think. I love beta offers because it gives me the opportunity to just see what what's landing. And when it's some new offer, you don't know what's what's gonna happen. Linda Camacho: Mm-hmm. That's true. Monica Hay: it's kind of like you don't know what's gonna happen when you publish your book. Linda Camacho: Right. So it's like getting comfortable with that uncertainty. Monica Hay: Yes. Yes. let me look and see if there's anything else. Is there anything else I missed that you think I might have missed? Linda Camacho: No, I I really like that I don't think you did. I I think the thing is, yeah, I like that you said this isn't trying to revive something that has already been queried to everybody. because it's really hard Monica Hay: Yes. Linda Camacho: to revisit people that have already seen your work unless they've specifically asked for Monica Hay: Yes. Linda Camacho: it. But that doesn't happen all the time. That's the big Monica Hay: Yes. Linda Camacho: one I would say. Monica Hay: I'm looking at my QA and we can mention this really quickly. What Linda Camacho: Trying think what else, what else? Monica Hay: if Linda? Okay. Another question we might get is will Linda read your whole manuscript? No. She's not reading your whole manuscript. She's reading the the queries like the submission package that you have. Okay. So I will say if you're thinking like, I need critique partners to look at my work, you want to do that on your own first before you apply for this. this is like kind of meant for if you're pretty much done with your book or really close to being done. And like we said, because it's we want you to actually query in this process. We don't want you to like miss out on the actual purpose of the program. You should probably mostly be done with the book and have it been revised already. I should probably mention start dates, lol. So so we plan to let me look at my dates because I don't remember them off the top of my head. So applications close Monday, October 12th, as as of now. We might shift that depending on what things look like. We are planning to send out information about whether you've been accepted right now by October 19th. That might shift as well. Remember, it's a beta offer, so we're still trying to figure that out. But that's the hope is October 19th. I do have something in the in the application that says if you are accepted. we do ask that you sign up within five days because there might be people who we wait list. So like I said, we're not sure like what it's going to look like when people apply. We don't know what people's applications are going to look like. If you're waitlisted, we'll let you know. But if you are accepted, we'll send you a link to everything. And then we officially begin on October 26th. That's when it officially starts. So right in time for the now RIP nano wrimo Linda Camacho: yeah. Ooh. Monica Hay: I know, I had to. Every every time at this time of year, I'm just like, no, like, you know, I miss it. Linda Camacho: I know. I miss it too. I do miss it. Yeah. Monica Hay: So that's what it looks like. there'll be a link below, but the link is query lab. So the way you spoke query and then lab.monicahay coaching dot com. That's where you can find the link to apply and the link to seeing information about it. Let me look at really quickly. You might I probably mention. Linda Camacho: yeah, and and actually d and I I'll I don't want to cut you off. I'll bring it up after you. Monica Hay: No, go ahead. Linda Camacho: Okay. I was gonna say, Monica, because you did mention like you should basically be done with your manuscript. And just to clarify a little bit more too, not as in done with your first draft. You that should have been long done, you know, because ideally when you're querying, it's not draft one. I have gotten those as well, where someone once emailed me like, I'm almost finished because I was waiting, and then I'm like, But that doesn't mean you're sending it to me. And then they sent me the first draft. So it's draft twenty or wherever you are in that revision Monica Hay: Yes. Linda Camacho: process that you should be wrapping up. Monica Hay: Yes, it means that your book is like polished. Like Linda Camacho: Yes. Monica Hay: it's not that you you finish the first draft and you're like, okay, I'm gonna start querying. Like ideally you'll have spent time revising Linda Camacho: Yes. Monica Hay: it and making it as good as it can be. And you might be wondering, guys, how much does it cost? So we have priced it at 1497. So 1497. And that's in USD for any of my Europeans out there. I don't know what that is in Euros. I'm sorry. and that's that's what we've decided for now. If it's if we do another round, the price will probably raise to over 2K, just because you are paying for basically, you know, a program that is really meant to give you very hands-on support. but yeah, for now, that is what we're pricing it at. And we don't currently, I'm not currently offering scholarships. I'd love to do them in the future if that's possible. if if we do another round and scholarships are available. We Are also not looking at doing payment plans this second. In the future, again, if we do open this up, we may be able to do that. but for the beta round, we're we're trying to keep it pretty clean and just keep it simple. I'm gonna say as well Linda will not be introducing people to agents. just wanted to bring that up since it's possible that that might be on somebody's mind listening to this, which like I don't blame you. Obviously, referrals are nice, but that's not something that is gonna be a part of this program. She's not offering referrals to anybody. Okay, so this whole program is really meant to just like help you within the query trenches. To understand what's going on, to have somebody to to land, like somewhere to land to get actual expertise, like somewhere that there's an expert waiting to talk to you. A lot of times, people who are selling this kind of stuff, they don't actually have the expertise all the time to sell it. And that's not to say like that people are all scammers. It's more that there's a reason I brought Linda into this program, right? Like I wanted to have an actual agent who's in the industry and sees it in 2026 and understands what it's looking like and can give feedback and advice based on that. Linda Camacho: Yeah. No, I think it is helpful because I especially I was sometimes I call myself like a translator, right? What what is it that you're looking at, you know, when someone says it's not for me or or they're not responding and and at most, you know, just telling you, okay, this is what it is really saying versus what you think it means. And it just Monica Hay: Right. Linda Camacho: helps. It helps kind of like keep you pushed moving forward and to have that kind of accountability partner to keep you supportive when you want to stop. You know, and sometimes Monica Hay: Mm-hmm. Linda Camacho: there will be many times in the process you're like, I'd I just give up and we try to keep Monica Hay: Right. Linda Camacho: you moving forward. Monica Hay: as far as we know, there's not another program like this. Maybe I I did some research and I didn't find anything. But we, you know, most programs are out there to help you write a query, which we do that, yes, but we're also going to be there in the trenches with you. the way I see it, you know, you might spend money going to conferences, getting your query ready, getting your manuscript ready. And this is a way to invest in. Kind of like a level of professionalism that you can use throughout the process of querying so that you don't lose your mind. Linda Camacho: Yeah. Monica Hay: I keep thinking about when I had to renew my visa and my husband and I applied and we were like, we don't need to hire an immigration lawyer. Let me tell you how much I regretted that decision within like Linda Camacho: Famous last words, right? Monica Hay: two seconds. Yes. It's we thought it would take like two months. And it took six to get our renewals. And I we were so stressed out. So You know, I'm just I'm just saying that it's nice to have somebody on your side of the fence who can keep you sane while you're going through something stressful. Linda Camacho: Yeah. Yeah, someone helps you navigate the process. I think it just Yeah, like it because questions will arise. It's you know, an agent said this or they asked for an R and R. What do I do it? What's an R and R? You know, all of these little things. Should I nudge them? wow, I got an offer. What do I do now? Like how do I respond? Monica Hay: Exactly. Linda Camacho: So all of and it's not intuitive. And even when you Google it and it it, you know, mileage will vary. There's some great stuff on there. There's also a lot of not great stuff on there. And I see a lot of things where I'm like, What are they saying? Like it just makes no sense. And people of course don't they don't know. They're gonna follow a lot of bad advice. Monica Hay: Right. Because people, yeah, if they if you're not if you're new to the industry, you're not, you don't know. Like you Linda Camacho: Yeah, absolutely. Monica Hay: don't know what don't know. Yeah. So thank you guys for listening. If you have questions, you can email me at support at monicahay.com if you have questions about this. please don't send questions to Linda. Please don't email Linda. Send them to me. And if you you can also just go to my website, monica.com, and there's a contact form. You can also just use that. That's easier. And we look forward to your applications. And Yeah. Anything else to add as we wrap up? Linda Camacho: Yeah. Yes. Like I know this whole thing has been scary. I I'm sorry. We're we're not trying to scare you, but I I I think we're gonna make this as fun as we can. Like this is I mean, this is books. This is publishing. I think we're here to also be your cheerleaders, even when we're giving you the truth. So we we want you to succeed and we want to be Monica Hay: Yes. Yes. Linda Camacho: able to celebrate with you. So let's have some fun.