Successful Queries: Brent Taylor and “Violet Thistlethwaite Is Not a Villain Anymore,” by Emily Krempholtz

Welcome back to the Successful Queries series. In this installment, find a query letter to agent Brent Taylor for Emily Krempholtz's debut novel, Violet Thistlethwaite Is Not a Villain Anymore.

Emily Krempholtz has never quit her day job to open a flower shop, but that’s because she’s already doing what she loves. As a bestselling ghostwriter, editor, and book coach, Emily spends all day every day in the world of books and is delighted to finally have one with her own name on the cover.

When she’s not writing or reading, Emily bakes cakes that look like book covers and changes her hair color like some kind of mood ring. She lives in sunny Colorado, where you’ll often find her in the mountains—either hiking (and pretending to be a character in a novel) or curled up in a hammock with a book (also pretending to be a character in a novel). She’s on a lifelong quest to discover the magic in the world and has a sneaking suspicion the written word is where she’ll find it.

Hi Brent,

I was so pleased to see cozy fantasy on your MSWL (And ASSISTANT TO THE VILLAIN on your client list!) and I'm thrilled to throw my hat into the ring with my adult cozy fantasy, VIOLET THISTLETHWAITE IS NOT A VILLAIN ANYMORE.

After the evil sorcerer that Violet has served her entire life is vanquished, all she wants is a chance to start over and set down some roots that sprout peonies instead of poisons for once. She settles in the town of Dragon’s Rest, where she hopes to open a flower shop, keep her sentient (and mildly homicidal) pet houseplant out of trouble, and cold-turkey quit the use of dark magic after a lifetime of villainy. Simple, right?

Violet’s vibrant bouquets and feats of plant magic soon charm the welcoming townsfolk, although nothing she does seems to impress Nathaniel Marsh, the prickly-yet-handsome alchemist who shares her greenhouse and is desperately seeking a second chance of his own.

But just as Violet starts to think she’s pruned away all the thorns of her nefarious former life, a mysterious blight threatens her new home. Violet and Nathaniel must work together through their fears, their pasts, and their growing feelings for one another to save their community. When a figure from Violet’s past comes knocking on her door, threatening to expose her secret and destroy everything she’s built, Violet is forced to face whether a villain like her ever truly deserves to grow her own happily ever after.

VIOLET THISTLETHWAITE IS NOT A VILLAIN ANYMORE is an 80,000-word cozy fantasy romance about second chances, found family, and redemption. Bursting with cottagecore garden imagery, compelling stakes, big emotions, and spice (and I’m not talking the spices you grow in a garden), VIOLET THISTLETHWAITE is perfect for adult readers who loved the warm community of LEGENDS & LATTES, the sweet-and-spicy romance of THE UNDERTAKING OF HART AND MERCY, and the immersive lore of EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAERIES. Given its initial success as well as the growing need for gentle escapism, cozy fantasy as a genre is here to stay. By fusing it with the rabid romance reader base and the powerful zeitgeist that is Booktok, VIOLET THISTLETHWAITE is well poised to bloom in an even larger market.

I’m a bestselling ghostwriter, editor, and award-winning book coach who has worked with hundreds of authors as they write, edit, and publish their books. I’ve worked on projects that have sold for six figures to Big 5 publishers and been featured on the USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly, Wall Street Journal, and LA Times best sellers lists. Outside of my day job, I teach about writing and decorate bookish cakes to my social media following of 8K+ across platforms. I’ve gone viral several times recently on TikTok (@writersofrohan), all relating to romance and fantasy writing, and my platform there has grown by more than 3K since the start of 2024. I live in beautiful Denver, CO, and spend as much time hiking and traveling as possible—I find it’s much easier to pretend I’m a character in a book that way.

Thank you for your consideration,

Emily Krempholtz

Bookshop | Amazon

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By the time I signed with Brent, I was on my fourth round of querying and ready to throw in the towel. Each of the three books I’d queried before had gotten more requests than the previous, but the consensus was still the same: “There’s much to love here, but I’m sorry to say it’s not a fit for me” or “This was a close call, but I have to pass” or “I have a similar title on my list already.” Every no had begun to weigh on me in a big way.

At the time, I had built a full-time freelance career for myself as a ghostwriter, editor, and book coach, and I was connected with a lot of incredible and successful indie authors who were finding their way on their own. I had a baseline of industry knowledge and enough understanding of marketing that I thought to myself, You know what, I just want to hold my book in my hands. I’m going to write another one for self-pub and see if I can make it on my own.

I wrote the book, revised it, and sent it off to my critique partner—who flew through the manuscript and gently let me know she thought I’d regret it if I didn’t query this one, at least to a few dream agents.

She was right. This was the one, and it became apparent almost immediately that I wasn’t dealing with the same polite rejections and occasional personal feedback of my past attempts. Just about half of the queries I sent out came back asking for the full manuscript, and after only two months, I had not one but four offers of representation.

Emily’s query was one of the strongest I ever read. The moment I skimmed it in my inbox, I knew that I wanted to read the book immediately.

I really appreciated that Emily started the query off with a personalization, pointing to the fact that I represented ASSISTANT TO THE VILLAIN. This type of personalization makes it feel like the writer very intentionally wants to share their work with me and I’m not just one out of a hundred agents to whom they are submitting.

There are also some great buzz words here that are of interest to me— “cozy fantasy,” “cottagecore,” “sweet-and-spicy romance.” These words and phrases really stand out in a query. As someone who receives hundreds of queries every week, I can’t read each one word for word, so I do need to see strong phrases like this that really stand out and “pop off” the page/screen. I was so intrigued by the setting and loved that the town was called Dragon’s Rest.

Emily also included very strong comp titles, and she went the extra mile by pointing out why each one was a comp and what it had in common with her manuscript.

On a final note, I absolutely loved Emily’s bio paragraph. I got a strong sense of who she is, why she wrote this manuscript, and she came across as a credible person who had the background to write a really compelling novel.

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Brent Taylor joined Triada US as an intern to Uwe Stender in the summer of 2014 and became an agent that fall. Over his ten years with Triada, Brent has represented bestsellers and award-winners. He has represented numerous New York Times bestsellers (including  a #1 New York Times bestseller), a Newbery Honor winner, a Printz Honor winner, a Schneider Family Book Award winner, a YALSA Award for Excellence in Non-Fiction for Young Adults winner and finalist, numerous Stonewall Honor winners, and an E.B. White Read Aloud Honor Book. His clients’ books have collectively earned over 80 starred reviews from the trade reviewers such as Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, School Library Journal, and others.