ALT Text: An agent’s guide to The Ballad of Agnes Day, a 112k upmarket historical novel. Image: Two vintage-style mermaids with their tails entwined and a blood spatter across one corner.

ALT The pitch: When a storms wrecks his islands’s passenger steamer, sparing only a girl believed to be one of the monstrous Finfolk, a grieving musician must uncover who she really is before more of his people die. Moodboard: Evil-looking mermaids, a violin, poisonous mushrooms and passenger steamers on stormy seas, with a moody blue-green hue.

ALT Comps: The Sirens by Emilia Hart, Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson as book covers

ALT The snippet: ‘Are you seeing this?’ he cried. ‘Do you see them?’ ​ Dazed, Morton peered around him. All he could see was the black oil spill of the water, its steady surge and release. ‘What do you mean?’ he called back, blood thundering in his ears. ​ Edward’s eyes grew glossy with tears. Then he began to jerk around like a petrified beast, causing the boat to lurch beneath them. ‘They’re everywhere,’ he said in terror and wonderment. ‘They’re coming for me.’