Specificity Sells: How Julia Alexandra Found Her Agent and Book Deal

Julia Alexandra knows rejection. After querying in high school and again in graduate school, she hit a wall of passes on a book she now admits wasn't ready. Worse, she spent years self-rejecting, holding back books that were probably ready long before she sent them. In this episode, Jessica Sinsheimer and Julie Kingsley talk with Julia about her debut YA fantasy, Midnight on the Celestial, the story of a girl with the rare power to raise spirits of the dead who fails her realm's trial and must serve aboard a magical--and dangerous--cruise ship to earn one last chance to save her magic. Julia breaks down how just a few precise words (a color-changing lagoon, sea dragons you can ride, hallways that come alive) transformed her query, why she queried in rounds of only five to seven agents, and why a revise and resubmit turned out to be a gift. She also shares the moment she got the offer, and her advice for any writer thinking about giving up. Connect with Julia: https://www.juliaalexandrawrites.com/about and preview her next book at https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250380241/huntthewildnight/ In this episode ****Why "a magical cruise ship" isn't specific enough, and how two or three vivid words can set your book apart ****Swapping vague stakes ("her world turned upside down") for the actual choice and the actual disaster ****How self-rejection can hold you back more than agent rejections ever will ****Small querying rounds as a strategy for protecting your energy ****What a revise and resubmit reveals about working with an agent, for both of you ****Why your demeanor and openness to feedback matter alongside your pages ****Why a temporary pause isn't giving up Timestamps 00:00 Querying again after years of self-rejection 00:26 Meet Julia Alexandra 00:43 What Midnight on the Celestial is about 01:01 Knowing her final querying round felt different 01:46 Why specificity matters in your query 03:05 Swapping vague stakes for the real choice and the real disaster 03:18 How images in a query signal an immersive book 03:55 Get your cinematic pages into your query 04:08 Keeping your love of writing alive 04:37 Confidence, feedback, and being someone agents want to work with 05:44 Small querying rounds and why it only takes one 06:50 The story of her agent offer 07:37 Why a revise and resubmit can be a gift 08:46 The moment she got the offer 09:36 Hearing from her future editor 10:06 Advice for writers thinking about giving up