full image - Repost: [QCrit] YA Spy Thriller - CODE NAME ALASKA (90k-100k (TBC) / 1st attempt) (from Reddit.com, [QCrit] YA Spy Thriller - CODE NAME ALASKA (90k-100k (TBC) / 1st attempt))
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Dear [Publisher],For official purposes, the DGSE does not employ teenage spies. Their most promising agent just happens to be fifteen years old.Together with Arizona, an agent sixteen years his senior, Jules Armand has infiltrated an Islamic State recruitment network in the Parisian banlieue. His mission: retracing the steps of Abu Mohammad al-Anbari, a French-Lebanese executioner for Daesh in Syria. When the radical imam of his mosque offers him the chance to fight in rebel-held territory, Jules seizes the opportunity despite the reluctance of Arizona. Two weeks after their arrival on the terrorist base, they are dragged out of bed in the middle of the night and thrown in prison.Day and night, he hears ISIS soldiers torturing Arizona in the cell next door. One morning, al-Anbari makes his entrance, and Jules understands that his hours are numbered. As he is about to be executed live on the Internet, Jules is saved by a raid of the Action Division, while Arizona dies in the crossfire.Six months later, Jules has left the service and moved to Wasilla, Alaska with his uncle Camille, himself a spy. He has pieced himself back together away from the world of espionage, but his relationships with his friends and girlfriend suffer from the weight of the secrecy. The precarious balance of his new life collapses when Jules breaks into his uncle’s office and finds evidence that Arizona is alive and working for al-Anbari.CODE NAME ALASKA is a 90,000 – 100,000-word YA spy thriller with sequel potential. I grew up with Robert Muchamore’s CHERUB series, whose concern for realism is mirrored in CODE NAME ALASKA. The gritty treatment of espionage is reminiscent of Eric Rochant's The Bureau.I am a French expat in London, openly trans and gay, who noticed that the world of spy fiction was painfully heterosexual. CODE NAME ALASKA, featuring an openly bisexual main character and several LGBTQ+ support characters, is my attempt to challenge this.[Publisher-specific paragraph]Thank you for your consideration,---Hi all,I have recently been hacking away at the 2nd draft of my YA spy novel, and it had me considering how I was going to pitch it to publishers. A few things to keep in mind:1/ I'm hoping to publish in France, where literary agents aren't the norm (only big, well-established authors have them), and where query letters aren't really a thing either - but it doesn't hurt to know how to sell my story in a concise way. I'm hoping this follows most UK/US agent querying conventions but please let me know otherwise.2/ The word count isn't exact but it should be the ballpark after the first revision.3/ The comps are: old (CHERUB was published between 2004 and 2016) or the wrong medium. (The Bureau is a French TV series) My research tells me that French publishers aren't as fussy with comps - or even require them at all - which dictated these particular choices. That said, I would be grateful for any suggestion of recent contemporary YA spy thrillers. I've only been able to find recent historical fiction in YA so far, which is a bit disheartening.4/ One rule I know I've skirted is the point where the synopsis ends, which is currently about halfway into the book. I'm struggling to find a point to cut earlier - which in all honesty may point to a structural issue with the manuscript. The 1st paragraph is the first 7-ish chapters, the 2nd paragraph is only told through flashbacks later on while the 3rd paragraph eclipses everything not directly related to the plot that happens in Alaska. Should I just stretch the first paragraph with details about the mission and Jules' relationship with Arizona and the DGSE, and remove the other two?Any comments are much appreciated.
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