The Problem With The Other Side

BY kwame ivery

soho teen

2021

Query Letter

My name is Kwame Ivery and I have written a Contemporary Young Adult novel entitled The Problem With The Other Side; its length is approximately 82,000 words. Here’s a nutshell summary:

A blossoming interracial romance between New Jersey high school sophomores Ulysses Gates and Sallie Walls is disrupted when Ulysses’ older sister Regina, a black “militant” who distrusts white people, decides to run for school-body president against Sallie’s older sister Leona, an increasingly popular firebrand who feels their school would be better without its minority population. Sibling loyalty and romantic love quickly find themselves at odds when Ulysses and Sallie are each asked by their sister to be campaign manager.

My novel has some echoes of Tom Perrotta’s Election and the film “Do The Right Thing”.

Some information about me: I’m a high school English teacher with 100-plus teenage students who, on a daily basis, teach me just as many things as I teach them. I have an MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University's Tisch School Of The Arts. I’ve had a screenplay optioned by Hollywood storyboard artist Karl Shefelman (“The Silence of the Lambs”, “American Gangster,” “Confessions of a Shopaholic”,etc.) My short story, "Why Kristen Misses Push & Turn," appeared in the literary ezine Smashed Cat in August 2012.

If you’d like to consider The Problem With The Other Side, please respond to this email, and I will send you the manuscript or sample chapters--whichever you prefer.

About

Age Range

Young Adult

Genre

Contemporary Fiction

Word Count

87,000

Book Link

https://www.amazon.com/Problem-Other-Side-Kwame-Ivery/

Agent

Penelope Burns (of Gelfman-Schneider Literary Agency)

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Query Stats

Year Queried

2018

Number of Queries Sent

41

Number of Full Requests Received

5

Number of Offers of Representation

3

Number of Months Spent Querying This Novel

3 months

Years Spent Writing Before Getting an Offer

30

Number of Manuscripts Queried Before This One

More than 3

Publication Status of The Book Queried

Published (Independent /Boutique / Indy Publisher)

Years Spent Writing Before This Book was Published

30

Note to Querying Writers:

1. My Twitter handle: @kwameivery
2. my website kwameivery.com