Match Me If You Can
BY swati hegdedell2024Query Letter
Please note this query letter refers to subplots from an older draft of MATCH ME IF YOU CAN. It has undergone significant revisions with my publisher and the final version no longer has a love triangle.
Dear [AGENT], Jia Deshpande has the perfect life: a loving family, check; a writing job with India's biggest dating magazine, check; an anonymous relationship blog that gets thousands of weekly views, check! The final item on her to-do list? Become India's best millennial matchmaker. After successfully setting up not one, but two women with their future husbands, Jia sets her sights on her next project: plain-Jane newbie journalist Charu with the hottie from work. The only obstacle in her path to matchmaker-stardom is her cynical family friend Jaiman, better known as the apple of her dad's eye, an overall pain in the ass, and the only person she's ever been attracted to. Not that she'd admit it to him. Jaiman Patil has always had just one dream: run a successful pub in Mumbai. But the bills are stacking up and profits are dwindling, and he has to do whatever it takes to keep J's Pub afloat. Especially once his arch-nemesis from culinary school starts his own pub next door and catches not just the pubgoers' attention, but also Jia's—the woman Jaiman has (secretly) loved for years now. When Jia's matchmaking goes haywire, breaking a string of hearts along the way and pulling Jaiman into the mess, she realizes there's a lot more to love than she thought—especially when it comes to her own life. MATCH ME IF YOU CAN is a desi romantic comedy set in Mumbai, pitched as a contemporary take on Jane Austen's EMMA with vibes of SET IT UP and HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, complete at 75,000 words. It is written in dual POVs and also features snippets from Jia's anonymous blog.
I am especially querying you because the agency website stated you're looking for retellings of classics, as well as books that address the struggles of your 20s, such as dating woes, career fulfillment, and social media pressures. That about sums up my book!
I'm a freelance editor, mindset coach, and self-proclaimed coffee shop enthusiast who lives in Bangalore, India, and can often be found at the nearest cafe with a hot mug of tea.
About
Age Range
Adult
Genre
Romance
Word Count
70,000-80,000
Book Link
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/730328/match-me-if-you-can-by-swati-hegde/
Agent
Rachel Beck at Liza Dawson Associates
Query Stats
Year Queried
2021
Number of Queries Sent
Around 130 across US and UK agents.
Number of Full Requests Received
54
Number of Offers of Representation
2
Number of Months Spent Querying This Novel
9 months
Years Spent Writing Before Getting an Offer
5
Number of Manuscripts Queried Before This One
More than 3
Publication Status of The Book Queried
Under Contract (Big 5)
Years Spent Writing Before This Book was Published
6
Note to Querying Writers:
Good luck to everyone who's querying! Everyone's journey looks different--mine took 5 years and 6 books, but it all worked out for the best. Try not to be too hard on yourself if your path to publishing isn't as "quick" as someone else's.