The mission of Pitch Your Novel is to provide the best and most timely information to help you realize your publishing dreams. Or, if you’re already published, it’s one of the best places to stay on top of your industry and thrive. I’ve been involved in publishing for over 20 years as an author, but every week I research the most up-to-date information to help you succeed and flourish in this complicated business.
Free subscribers get one free article per month, and I also usually take the paywall off of one or two archived articles. Also, here’s a little welcome gift. I do appreciate you but understand that money can be tight. I try to keep the yearly rate budget-friendly at $.67 an issue for 52 issues.
As for paid subscribers, this is what you’ll get each week:
A top story that’s relevant to your writing/publishing career.
Coverage of the top debut novels and links to their agent, and when available links to their query letters, publishing journeys and more as well as non-debut releases and links to author inteviews offering writing or publishing advice.
Analysis of the bestselling lists which reflects what publishers and agents are looking for.
Timely links to marketing, publishing, the writers life and any information that will help you thrive as an author.
Sample Issue:
Every month you’ll get:
A summary of the month’s fiction deals including an analysis of why the author got that deal, and a summary of trends. Here’s a sample:
Access to Pitch Tank where you can throw out novel ideas, comps and mash-ups and I’ll weigh in on market viability.
Extras:
You will have also have access to the GET YOUR STORY STRAIGHT challenge, an eight-week self-guided course to pre-plan important elements of your novel.
Ten percent off services (see below).
Access to more two years of weekly archived articles on every aspect of author success you can imagine.
WRITING SERVICES: I no longer do beta reads except in very special cases. (Please see below for a referral if you need a beta read.) New prices. Any job booked prior to August 18, 2026 will be for the old prices.
Query Letter Critique $90 (I’ll also help you write a one-sentence pitch) Anyone who is querying should have a pro take a look. I’ve looked at hundreds of letters over the years and about ninety percent need a major overhaul. My first agent once told me I had the best query letter she’d ever gotten. But trends in query letters have changed since then, and I regularly keep up with those trends. Here’s a document that Jane Friedman, literary agent Erica Nuimata and I collaborated on with our best querying advice.
Submission Packet Critique. $175
Includes synopsis, query letter and first ten pages. (If you want more pages evaluated, ask me for a quote.)
First ten pages: Line edit and macro edit for $35.
Consultations or other jobs not listed. $50 an hour, $25 minimum
Sometimes you need to talk your issue through. I have knowledge in self-publishing, traditional publishing, MFA programs, idea exploration, and literary agent issues. I’ll be happy to walk you through the solutions.
Beta Read: I no longer do beta reads but I highly recommend Kimberly Angle who has a PhD in creative writing, writer coach training and is a published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. She has the best bookside manner of anyone I know. Link to her website
ENDORSEMENTS:
“Wow. Just wow. In a day, you have gotten to the heart of what I want my query to say so succinctly - something I have been struggling with for years.” ~Katherine Caldwell, women’s fiction novelist
“Karin’s query critique while I was in the early stages of writing my manuscript was immensely helpful for getting the stakes right. Her very specific query feedback helped me avoid structural issues later! When I completed the draft, her beta read notes were also amazing and specific as another reviewer noted. I have no doubt that her notes will strengthen the work, and the specificity makes planning the revision feel achievable.
~L.D. Hawke
"Thank you for your help! Since tweaking my Query with your advice- An agent asked me for a phone call and full pick-up!!!!!~Angelique Fawns
"This is so helpful!I struggle so much to articulate the stakes, the desire, the antagonist, and my protagonist's arc. Your notes are really amazing and specific. I actually feel like I have all of these in my book, so now I can re-write the query letter to reflect what is happening in the book. " Carley Moore, author of four books; a LAMBDA and Firecracker Finalist.
For more info, message me below, or email me at Karin.gillespie (at) gmail.com
This is very helpful, especially the distinction between query feedback in isolation and feedback that looks at the query, synopsis, and opening pages together.
I’m rewriting The First Record, which I’m currently thinking of as upmarket suspense with a medical thriller engine. It is rooted in Alzheimer’s, biomarkers, institutional silence, and the gap between what medicine can detect and what families are actually prepared to live with.
The science is the fuse, but the real explosion is identity, agency, family fear, and what happens when diagnosis arrives faster than support.
This makes me think a submission packet critique may be more useful than a query-only critique when I’m ready. The pitch has to match the book’s engine, not just summarize its plot.
Is it always possible to accurately evaluate a query letter without reading the manuscript in full?
For the past six months, I’ve been in the querying process. Early on, I hired an editor to review my query letter. She suggested a few revisions and felt that, overall, the letter was working well. However, after three months of querying without any success, I revisited the letter myself and realized that it didn’t truly reflect the book I had written. The comps were not quite right, and more importantly, the letter framed the novel as plot-driven, while the manuscript itself is very much character-driven, with a slowly unfolding narrative.
Even the first ten pages don’t fully represent the book’s core or its pacing. I’ve since rewritten the query to better align with the manuscript, but I’m still not seeing results. This has made me question how effective query evaluations can be when they’re done in isolation, without deeper engagement with the text itself.
I’m considering seeking professional feedback again, but with less confidence that this format of evaluation can fully capture what the book is actually doing.