About this episode

The episode discusses two manuscripts, focusing on emotional depth and character vulnerability.

This week’s Books with Hooks features two very different manuscripts. Carly, CeCe and Bianca discuss a dual-timeline second-chance romance that struggles with stakes, emotional depth, and page-one vulnerability, before diving into an upmarket novel about an adopted Nigerian woman searching for her identity. Along the way, they unpack query structure, interiority, curiosity, and why readers need to feel a character’s messy emotions from the very first page. Note: CeCe Lyra is a literary agent at Wendy Sherman Associates. If you’d like to query CeCe, please refer to the submission guidelines at www.wsherman.com. Carly Watters is a literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency, but her work on this podcast is not affiliated with the agency, and the views expressed by Carly on this podcast are solely that of her as a podcast co-host ​and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of P.S. Literary Agency. Find us on our socials: Threads: https://www.threads.net/@the_shit_about_writing https://www.threads.net/@biancamarais_author https://www.threads.net/@carlywatters https://www.threads.net/@cece_lyra_agent Instagram…

People in this episode

Hosts: Carly Watters, CeCe Lyra, Bianca Marais

Topics covered

• manuscript critique
• query structure
• character development
• emotional depth
• identity exploration

Keywords

• manuscript
• query structure
• emotional depth
• character emotions
• identity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wendy Sherman Associates, P.S. Literary Agency

Books & works: Books with Hooks

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