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How to use AI to pitch a book to agents

2026-05-20 · 4 min read

Short answer. AI helps with the four mechanical parts of pitching agents, finding the right agents, building a comp set, drafting a personalized query and synopsis, and tracking submissions, but it cannot want your book the way you do, and an obviously AI-written query gets rejected fast. Use AI to do the research and the first drafts, then make every word sound like a writer who has read the agent's list. WriteLoom's Pitch studio is built around this exact sequence.

Step 1: Find agents who actually represent your book

The most common querying mistake is sending to agents who don't represent your genre. AI is genuinely good at this research because it's a filtering problem: given your genre, comps, and tone, which agents have a track record in this space and an open list? WriteLoom's AI agent and publisher search filters to agents whose recent deals match your book, which beats querying from a static spreadsheet that went stale two seasons ago. Agent interests change; a query to an agent who stopped taking fantasy last year is wasted.

Step 2: Build an honest comp set

Comps (comparable titles) tell an agent where your book sits on the shelf. A strong comp set is recent (roughly the last two to four years), genre-appropriate, and honest, not a list of mega-bestsellers you wish you'd written. AI can surface candidate comps you haven't read and explain why each one fits, which is faster than trawling Amazon also-boughts by hand. WriteLoom's comp curation does this inside your project, so the comps flow straight into the query. (We wrote a separate field guide on picking five good comps.)

Step 3: Draft the query and synopsis

A query letter has a tight job: hook, mini-synopsis, comps, bio, and a personalized line about why this agent. A synopsis is the whole plot, ending included, in one to two pages. Both are exactly the kind of structured, conventional writing AI drafts well. WriteLoom's Pitch studio drafts a personalized query and a synopsis from your project, so the first draft already knows your characters, comps, and bio.

But the first draft is a starting line, not a finish line. Here's what to do next.

Step 4: De-genericize everything

This is the step that separates queries that work from queries that get auto-rejected. Agents read hundreds of queries a week and recognize AI boilerplate instantly. Take the AI draft and:

  • Rewrite the hook in your own voice; it should sound like the book.
  • Replace any generic praise of the agent with a specific, true reason you're querying them, a client, a deal, an interview, a manuscript wish-list post.
  • Cut anything that sounds like it could describe a hundred other books.
  • Read it aloud; if it sounds like a press release, keep cutting.

Step 5: Track submissions

Querying is a numbers game spread over months, and the admin sinks people, who queried whom, when, what they sent, who replied. AI-adjacent tooling helps mostly by keeping this organized. WriteLoom's submission organizer tracks each agent, the date, the materials sent, and the response, so you don't accidentally re-query someone or lose track of a partial request.

What AI cannot do here

AI canYou must
Filter agents by genre and recent dealsRead the agent's actual list and wish-list
Suggest and explain compsDecide which comps are honest
Draft query and synopsisMake every line sound like you
Track who you queried and whenDecide who deserves the personalized pitch

The summary: AI removes the research drudgery and the blank page, which is most of the friction. It does not, and should not, send a letter that sounds like a machine. Use it to get to a strong draft fast, then spend your human attention on the 20% that actually persuades an agent, the voice and the personalization.

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Find more field notes on the blog.