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.
The Numbers:
📚 ~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 Backstory
Picking It Back Up
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: Building the Whole Toolkit
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 the 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, Marcelle, which I think helped tremendously in the journey to get signed!"
What Made the Biggest Difference
"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."
The Querying Journey
Fall 2024 – August 2025
Daphne started querying in fall 2024 — "probably too early but learned a lot." Her first full request came in October 2024.
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