Melissa Edwards, Agent at Stonesong Literary

Melissa Edwards joined Stonesong as a literary agent in August 2016. Previously, she was a literary agent at the Aaron Priest Literary Agency, where she managed the foreign rights for a 40-year backlist. After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis and Vanderbilt Law School, Melissa began her career as a litigation attorney before transitioning into publishing. She is a tireless advocate for her clients and a constant partner during the publication process and beyond.

She also represents adult commercial fiction. She’s looking for fresh voices in thrillers, general fiction, and women’s fiction with unusual takes on the tropes that we all love. She represents select children’s authors, as well.

She can be found on Twitter @MelissaLaurenE.

Member Reviews of Melissa

I just had a 10 page/15 minute consultation with Melissa. Her comments were direct and extremely helpful. I left the meeting with a much better understanding of how the process works from an agent’s perspective. She didn’t waste a moment. I know exactly what I need to do to improve my query and pages, and I now feel confident with my query package. I highly recommend Melissa!

Lynda Wilson

My consultation with Melissa has been very useful. She offered clear, direct suggestions that will immediately improve my query. But she also asked a lot of questions that led me to some important answers on my own, which is the best form of teaching. I got so caught up discussing these ideas that my ten minutes went very quickly and I even think she allowed me an extra minute or two. I recommend setting a timer during these consultations, but most of all I recommend consulting with Melissa about your query letter.

James Parsons

Breaks Down Queries with Precision

Melissa always has something concise and powerful to say. Just a few words, and I understand the big picture of what I’m missing and the direction needed to fix it. She is very constructive and helpful with feedback that helps, as I prefer being coached directly, without sugar-coating or apology. I’ve had several sessions with her and wish I could have her advice on speed dial.

ross buckner

My 10-minute consultation with Melissa was a tremendous help. Having heard Melissa on the podcast, my expectations were that she would be straightforward and succinct. She met those expectation. Every critique and suggestion got me excited to dive in and tweak my query. Even during our brief conversation, I got the sense that we were making real progress. I hope to one day work with her further. Thanks!

Bruce Franchi

Melissa’s comments were very helpful. She let me know what confused her and gave me suggestions as to how to deepen the experience for the reader and draw her closer. Her questions made me think about some of my choices and realize how I might improve the novel. She also had feedback on my query. I was very glad that I had the chance to talk to her. I appreciated it.

Karen Uhlmann

Refines Query with Industry Insights

Melissa was very informative and helpful with her consult. She helped tighten and refine my Querry Letter and provided valuable information on the process and industry. Her feedback truly helped!

Margaret Izard

Clarifies Query Letter Comps

Melissa was great. She helped me with my query letter, telling me what worked and what didn’t. She thought I was overthinking the beginning–where I’d tried to list my comps–and she was so right!

Carol Ayer

Melissa was amazing! Our discussion landed in the “sweet spot” of being complimentary yet getting down to the nitty gritty of what I needed to change to make my query letter better represent my work. Thanks, Manuscript Academy and Melissa!

Kristen Robinette

Refines Query with Personalized Notes

Melissa’s review of my query letter was extremely helpful and I appreciated her detailed, personalized notes. Though the ten minutes went fast, she answered all of my questions and gave me a confidence in my (now-revised) query that I lacked. I highly recommend going through this process!

Hilary Wilkes

Very helpful

Melissa was very helpful. She pointed out which sentences were unclear and how to condense and change the order of some of it. I took her advice and sent out 8 new queries. Two days later I had a partial request from one of them!

Dee Garretson

Melissa got right to business in our short ten minute session. That may be a turn off to some but as I thought about it I realized how professional she was. She gave me her frank opinion on my first pages coupled with my query letter and it all seemed to click. Our short ten minutes together showed she knows how to conduct herself in a frank, business like manner. Even better is the fact that the changes she recommended will surely be implemented as I’m now working on a new starting point for my novel.

Chen Okafor

Provides Kind and Insightful Guidance

Melissa was so helpful and more than that she was KIND. I was having one of those days where I couldn’t make sentences, my youngest was screeching at the top of his lungs, and I was feeling less than “authorly”. Melissa put me at ease and then went through my query piece by piece with tangible ways to improve it so that it got right to the heart of my story. I went into the consultation feeling like I’d never be a “real writer” and left it feeling like maybe I was already on my way. Thank you, Melissa!!!

Karen Gibson

Dee Garretson

The advice concerning my query letter from Melissa was probably the best I have received during my writing career.

The advice concerning my query letter from Melissa was probably the best I have received during my writing career. It was personal, and caring, and my query will be much stronger thanks to her help.
I highly recommend other authors to invest in this consultation.

Dave Wickenden

Delivers Actionable Query Advice

Melissa had such constructive things to say about my query! I knew she’d share a deliberate, encouraging perspective after listening to her at a recent MA class. Her thoughts on comps really helped a lot. She didn’t mind answering a prickly question of mine. Concrete, actionable feedback delivered with warmth. Extremely glad, and highly recommend.

Sheryl Stein

Work with Melissa

LIVE Meetings: Meet face-to-face, from home. Choose Zoom, Google Meet, or phone, and speak for the appointed time about your query, first page, and/or first ten pages (for longer meetings). Does not include written notes, but is a chance to have an honest discussion about your work, and to ask follow-up questions. International meetings welcomed.

HYBRID is a live meeting at the appointment time, with written notes.

WRITTEN Critiques: Get detailed, thoughtful notes on your work. Comes with large-scale edits (character, world, plot, tension, concept, conflict, and similar as needed) in an editorial letter and small-scale, line-by-line notes as needed (for longer critiques, an average of three per page). Work arrives in your inbox within 24 hours of thedate on the calendar.