From First Word to Agented in 20 Months
Daphne Cole wrote her first word on March 23, 2024. Twenty months later she was agented and on submission — with four books written along the way.
📚 ~170 Queries Sent
💬 6 Full Requests + 1 R&R
🎉 1 Agent Offer (August 2025)
✍️ 8 Drafts of Her First Manuscript
⏱️ 20 Months from First Word to Agented
The Numbers:
The Backstory
Returning to Her Childhood Passion
Daphne loved writing as a child, then put it away in high school and college. She started writing fiction again in March 2024.
“Writing is such a vulnerable and scary thing and knowing you’re not alone makes a huge difference.”
The Struggle Before Query Bootcamp
"Understanding how everything worked. I was totally new to this world and there is so much to learn, and I felt much more confident going into the process."
The Turning Point
Fall 2023 Onward: First Discovering Lauren Kay Writes
Daphne's path ran through nearly every resource — free and paid — over about two years. In her own words:
"At first it was the basic story structure posts and the free resources that came with that, like the beat sheet and outline tools. Then after my first draft was done I signed up for Lauren’s writing class with Francesca and that was unbelievably helpful. Then used a lot of the free resources for querying, the Excel chart, the genre categories, coming to how I got my agent panels and query letter panels. Then I signed up for bootcamp and got to learn top to bottom how querying works and it sped up my querying process because all of the information was still there. The entire time this was going on I was also using the Critique Partner Connection and then eventually used an editor, which I think helped tremendously in the journey to get signed!"
What She Loved Most About Query Bootcamp
"Organization of the query tools and the community that came with it. Understanding that everyone faces rejection and that I wasn't alone in the process."
A Moment She Still Remembers
"One of the participants in the writing class told me the first day 'I looked at you and thought that girl's an author' — which was very kind and I still remember it to this day."
Working With Her Editor
Daphne brought in a developmental editor while she was deep in revisions on OPERATION HASHTAG. What she valued most wasn't just the notes themselves — it was that every note came with a reason.
"Not only did she provide actionable steps to improve areas of my book, but she also provided reasons why she thought these steps were necessary. It gave context and allowed me to understand her point of view."
"The line edits were just as good as the overall edits. She left constructive line notes but also left her reactions while reading. I've gotten so familiar with the story and the flow that I forgot the excitement of reading it for the first time. Her reactions were exactly what I hoped for, which helped boost my confidence during the querying process."
“I thought her balance of constructive criticism and positive encouragement was a great balance for me. It's something I need while getting feedback and got exactly that.”
In February 2025, right after the edit, she wrote:
I haven't gotten any new fulls from this edit but I feel much more confident in my story and I have seen the improvement since working with my editor!
Little did she know what was coming next:
More full requests, and by summer? She was represented by her agent, Christina Miller at Nancy Yost Literary Agency.
The Querying Journey
Fall 2024 – August 2025
Daphne took Query Bootcamp in summer 2024 and started querying in fall 2024 — "probably too early but learned a lot."
Her first full request came in October 2024.
Then she stopped and went back to the manuscript. She worked with a developmental editor in January 2025.
She queried her eventual agent in April 2025, got the full request in June, and received the offer in August 2025.
Across the whole search: about 170 queries, 6 full requests, and 1 R&R.
Her first manuscript, OPERATION HASHTAG, went through 8 drafts before she landed her agent.
What’s Next?
The Next Chapter
Daphne is now represented by Christina Miller at Nancy Yost Literary Agency and is on submission.
About Operation Hashtag
Two rival CIA agents must go undercover as Instagram influencers to stop a rogue agent before they can sell stolen classified documents—all while trying (and failing) not to fall in bed, or worse, in love with each other.
Daphne's Reflection — On Being Mid-Journey:
"I am still on submission and feel like maybe this first book might die there, but I have full confidence that the next book will succeed or the one after that and having that courage to continue makes all the difference! I also have to constantly remind myself how far I've come. I wrote my first word on March 23 2024 and within 20 months I was agented and on submission, and even though the journey seemed VERY long to me, it's not and there's so much ahead of me."
Follow Daphne on Instagram: @daphnecolewrites