Successful Queries: Wendy Sherman and “The Days I Loved You Most,” by Amy Neff

Welcome back to the Successful Queries series. In this installment, find the query letter pitched to Wendy Sherman for Amy Neff’s novel The Days I Loved You Most, recently published by Park Row Books.

Amy Neff (Photo credit: Sylvie Rosokoff)

Amy Neff’s debut novel, The Days I Loved You Most, is a love letter to the seaside town where her family has spent summers since the early 1900s. The Days I Loved You Most is being published in the United States and Canada by Park Row, and in the UK by Bloomsbury; it also is being translated into 19 languages—and counting. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and their two sons. Connect with her on social media, or find her online at amyneff.com.

Here’s her original query:

Dear Wendy,

Thank you so much for your time and consideration of my novel. Coming in at 100,000 words and for readers who enjoyed The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin, Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo, and Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano, it is a love letter to love itself and to the Connecticut beach town where my family has spent summers since the early 1900s.

Evelyn Myers, diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and her husband, Joseph, share a staggering announcement with their family one balmy summer night—they’ve decided to end their lives in one year’s time, when they’re seventy-seven and seventy-nine years-old. The Days I Loved You Most tells a lifelong love story destined to end as I explore the blurred line between devotion and sacrifice—what it means to choose the one you love, even if it means giving up your greatest dream, and what it means to lose the person you love more than life itself.

Set against the backdrop of the Long Island Sound with alternating perspectives and dual timelines, spanning 1940-2002, the novel traces Evelyn and Joseph’s lives together, beginning when they were sun-tanned kids along the shore. Coming-of-age during World War II, Evelyn struggles with her identity as a wife and mother, choosing a life with Joseph over her dreams of traveling the world as a concert pianist. Joseph, committed to running his family’s 200-year-old inn, is loyal to a fault and wrestles with guilt over inescapable tragedies. In their final year, they chase an unfulfilled dream, seek closure on ancient grief, and grasp for a proper goodbye.

Their three adult children are each on a trajectory of heartbreak, self-discovery, and acceptance. Jane, haunted by the death of a beloved aunt whose fate was tragically sealed when she gave into love, is unable to fathom her parents choosing death over a life alone. Violet, who idealized her parents’ marriage, considers divorcing her husband. Thomas, his success built on discipline, condemns his parents’ choice until he almost loses his wife.

Joseph and Evelyn, carrying their own secrets from the past, hope to convince their children and to reassure themselves, but as the deadline approaches, will they be able to follow through? Or, will they learn that loving sometimes means letting go?

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Amy Neff

Check out Amy Neff’s The Days I Loved You Most here:

Bookshop | Amazon

(WD uses affiliate links)

Wendy’s thoughts on Amy’s Query:

I remember exactly where I was when I first read Amy’s query, which is always a good sign. I was on a beach, and that made the reading so much more enjoyable since much of the story is set in a beach town. 

She offered excellent positioning comps, and while I tend to avoid comps of huge bestsellers (because publishers don’t love them) but these really helped me to know it was a story I would find appealing. The conflict really got to me. And I am always drawn to family drama. This one felt timely and deeply emotional. 

And Evelyn’s illness felt like an incredible marketing hook.

Amy’s thoughts on the querying process:

Querying is a long, trying road, and sometimes breaking through is timing, and sometimes it’s luck, but the key, like in most anything in life, is persistence, belief, and the ability to do the work. I always believed in this book and knew it would resonate with readers if only I could get it in front of them, and that belief carried me through years and years of rejections from literary agents.

I started querying the second draft of my novel in 2017. I ended up signing with Wendy Sherman in October, 2022, five years later, with draft seven of that same novel. This book has taken 10 drafts to the final, over 10 years of writing, and I queried it for five years. Breaking into the industry was by far the toughest part for me, without question. I collected over a hundred rejections during those five years. But within those rejections was so much validation. Agents complimented my premise, my writing, the story, the characters, the setting, everything I wanted to hear, just short of offering me representation. So I knew I had what I needed to get there, and that belief kept me going, and with each batch of rejections I went back to the page, worked with developmental editors and beta readers along the way, and revised again and again.

Much of the heavy lifting of my querying began in fall 2019 through fall of 2022. I received over 30 requests for full manuscripts, but as we all now know, these requests overlapped with the pandemic. My novel is a love story, but it also grapples with heavy themes related to grief and death and illness, and many agents told me frankly that they loved my story but that they couldn’t sell it in the current market. It wasn’t the right time. So I continued to work on it, again and again. The Steve Martin quote was in my head, “Be so good they can’t ignore you” and I held the belief that despite poor timing or the state of the world, that if I could remove every possible objection about my book, if I could make it the best possible version, that eventually, someone would be unable to say no. And that was the version that got me my yes.

In hindsight, I am incredibly thankful for how long it took to break through. Without the pandemic, there is a chance an earlier version of this book could have been signed. And what a shame that would have been. The rejections gave me time to sit with the book longer than I ever would have, and forced me to uncover layers, to peel back character motivations and fears and regrets, and deepen the story on every level. The book is stronger and better for the rejections, and so am I. I am far better equipped to handle reviews and criticism and better prepared for life after publication because of all I went through to get here. The book that took me 10 years to write and five years to get an agent, ended up landing me the agent of my dreams. Wendy worked with me on one final revision, and then sold that version in four days to Park Row Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. It was basically 10 years and a week to a dream come true.

Querying is not for the faint of heart, but keep the faith, use the feedback to make your work stronger, and take the rejections as training ground for the creative life. One day your book will be published, and all the years and heartache it took you to get there will become fodder for interviews just like these. And you will be able to look back, see how far you’ve come, and be grateful for the ride.

Additional thoughts from Wendy:

I have so much compassion for writers who are seeking an agent, specially at a time when there are so many folks looking to get published. The online querying process can be so lonely, frustrating, and discouraging, and there was something in the way Amy shared her tenacity, faith in herself, and determination to find the perfect agent (for herself) that made me feel like she’d be someone I would like to worth with. 

Querying is a long, lonely, and very hard road and a writer can’t give up. By the same token, if you get feedback, it’s important to listen. Agents are inundated and it’s often the luck of timing, a circumstance, or one inexplainable thing in the pitch that grabs an agent’s attention. Amy’s attitude that every ‘pass’ was actually a valuable lesson is very rare and her mindset has proven to be a gift during the long road to publication. I wish I could bottle up her determination/self-confidence/professionalism. 

We’ve now sold her debut throughout the world, and she has been tirelessly working to elevate each and every publisher’s experience and launch. She never says no when asked to record a video or promote online through print media or social media (and she’s one for the best on social I’ve ever met. Her publishing partners around the world adore her. She is always willing to go above and beyond. When a writer says they just want to be ‘done,’ that’s a huge red flag.

Bottom line: We publishing folks are all just as good as our opinions, so it’s a balance for a writer of holding tight to your belief in what you’ve crafted in your novel and listening to the pro and market. The right agent for YOU is the agent who shares your vision. I suggest that writers don’t get on stuck any particular agent, and definitely don’t get stuck on the biggest, fanciest names in the business. Like any personal or professional relationship, the magic happens where it is meant to be.

Full Circle: This same novel that first grabbed my attention on a beach two years ago, then was wildly auctioned around the world last summer while I was on that same beach, will be published this summer, on July 30. I’ll be back on that beach thinking about how much readers are going to absolutely fall in love with The Days I Loved You Most. Publishing magic.

*****

Wendy Sherman founded her agency in 1999 after a long career as a publisher – working for Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Henry Holt, where she was Associate Publisher. Her agency Wendy Sherman Associates is the home New York Times Bestsellers, and of award-winning authors in fiction and non-fiction including Tia Williams, Sadeqa Johnson, Therese Anne Fowler, Marjan Kamali, and most recently the #1 NY Times Bestseller PlantYou Scrappy Cooking by Carleigh Bodrug.

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