Successful Queries: Jade Kavanagh and “Wildwood,” by Ashley Woo

Welcome back to the Successful Queries series. In this installment, find a query letter to agent Jade Kavanagh (Darley Anderson & Associates) for Ashley Woo's debut novel, Wildwood.

Ashley Woo studied English Literature at Emory University and has masters degrees from Harvard University and Babson College. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she currently lives in Vermont with her husband and two young children. She writes gothic thrillers and her current work in progress is a murder mystery.

Dear Ms. Kavanagh,

I am writing to you because your wishlist includes many interests that are a part of my debut novel, Among the Painted Trees, a completed, 88,000-word contemporary Gothic thriller. The novel is a haunting story, set in atmospheric Vermont, with a strong female protagonist and whispers of a witch. Among the Painted Trees would appeal to fans of Ruth Ware, Tana French, Sarah Pearse, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Shirley Jackson. More specifically, it would appeal to fans of The Turn of the Key and The Sanatorium who were left wishing for an actual ghost, and fans of Mexican Gothic who also love twisty thrillers.

The novel opens with pregnant and creative Elinor, convincing her doctor husband, Topher, to leave the city and move into the sprawling Vermont estate left to her by her mysterious uncle Ezra. Once there, Elinor becomes entranced by an eerie 19^th century mural in the master bedroom that she calls “the Forest of the Dead”, done by an itinerant painter. She and Topher befriend the Brooks, the wealthy family who, for 200 years, has lived on the hill across the street from Meadowview. Not long after, Elinor begins to have dreams, ones that feel like memories, of something terrible that happened long, long ago. Desperate to understand what happened at Meadowview and why her family fell apart, Elinor embarks on a journey that takes her back in history, to the dark recesses of her memories, to the streets of modern Salem, and, increasingly, to the haunted corners of the property.

While it is not a story about race specifically, the main character, like me, is bi-racial, and as Elinor goes through this journey, she is forced to confront her “otherness”, the feeling of not fully belonging and her complex feelings about having a background of privilege on one side and first-generation immigration on the other. In this way, it is a story about class.  

I hold a bachelor’s degree in English from Emory University, and master’s degrees from Harvard University and Babson College. Though I’m currently a recovering consultant, many moons ago I worked as a freelance writer for Insight, the journal of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and City Weekend, an entertainment magazine. My editor, the award-winning author Laura Joyce, PhD in Creative Writing, whose clients include many bestselling authors, said Among the Painted Trees is “one of my favorite ever client novels”.

I’ve always felt that writing was in my blood, and I have ideas for many more books to come. I am a recent transplant to a little village in Vermont, so I can write authentically about Elinor’s experiences and emotions as a transplant to Newfield. I can be reached via email at <email address> or at <phone number>. Thank you for your consideration.

Warm regards,

Ashley

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I love when I’m reading a brilliant query letter. I remember coming across Ashley’s and wanting to stay with it and find out more about this submission immediately. Initially, I appreciate a letter like this one where it’s professional, well laid out and polite. All of those things might sound standard, but they're different. Then, when you get to the detail of the query, everything is handled efficiently, structured well and captures everything an agent needs to know--and this isn’t easy to do! 

It’s clear right away what I am about to read in the chapters. The genre is defined and Ashley points to comparison authors and titles right away. This works well because not only can I tell how thoughtfully the letter has been put together, I immediately start to get a good, rounded idea of what to expect from the chapters, Ashley’s style, and what sort of readers would like this.  

Ashley introduces the haunting setting, which is a key component of the novel and of books in this genre, which is a perfect choice to put this front and center of the letter. I was immediately longing to be swept away from dull London to gorgeous Fall Vermont, ready to get lost in the setting. 

We then move on to a concise but alluring blurb. It helped, of course, that a gothic thriller was exactly what I wanted, but once I read Ashley’s blurb I could see this was so much more than that, too. Yes, it was a classic ghost story (yay), but it had depth and layers I was excited to discover. The storyline is summed up and introduced thoroughly without being spoiled. That’s a fine line to walk which Ashley’s blurb achieves.  

By this stage, I was convinced to read the chapters right away. I had high hopes they would mirror the polished style of the letter, and the blurb had certainly sparked my interest. 

Again, the structure is handled well. We then move on to Ashley and why she is writing this book. I really love this part of a cover letter because it introduces me to the person responsible for this work and, specifically, tells me why this story? Why this genre? It could be anything, but the individual experience and perspective behind a story, or the inspiration for writing it, is so interesting to me. It adds another layer of understanding. And as a note to keep in mind--this can really be anything! “I wanted to write this story because I was inspired by the cashier at my local shop!” I just like to know. 

Then comes all the brilliant bits about industry achievement, the day job or any little personal details--all key information and a lovely way to round off a letter. And if I wasn’t convinced already, finding out at the very end that Ashley had recently moved to Vermont and that this had inspired the story, was the cherry on the cake for me. 

I’m sure I went back and reread the blurb and then raced through the opening chapters. I loved Ashley’s writing style and I think I requested the full manuscript and spent the weekend getting lost in the haunted grounds of WILDWOOD. 

Overall, I remember reading Ashley’s query and being so excited to get to her chapters. I felt thoroughly introduced to both the story and the author, knew what to expect, and was full of that little buzz an agent gets when something piques their interest--which is exactly the aim of the query letter! 

Go slow to go fast: While nothing in publishing is actually “fast” I think the adage of “go slow to go fast” is still apt. I spent years working on my debut to get it into the best possible shape before even considering sending it out to agents. This process included having beta reads, hiring a professional editor (a privilege to do this, of course), and re-reading and re-working the manuscript endlessly. Once it was finally ready to go, things happened quickly. I signed with my agent in two months, we went on submission two weeks later, and had an offer two weeks after that. I hear that a common mistake writers make is rushing to query and sending the manuscript out too soon. 

Your cover letter should highlight what sets your book apart: At the end of the day, no story is truly the first of its kind. Your job in your query letter is to highlight what specifically makes your story unique. There have been countless haunted house stories, so to make my query stand out, I highlighted “The Forest of the Dead,” a creepy 19^th century mural on the wall of the primary bedroom, a mural that seems to come alive and entrance the protagonist. I also highlighted the places a reader would travel to in my story, from the atmospheric woods of Vermont to the streets of modern Salem. I think this helped set my query apart, and intrigued Jade to want to read more. 

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Jade Kavanagh is literary agent at Darley Anderson & Associates based in London where she has represents a growing list of thriller, horror and book club authors.