On Finally Securing an Agent, and Coming Back to Earth.

I had a range of reactions to getting that 'Yes!' from the British agent this weekend: disbelief, shock, joy, doubt, suspicion, then joy again. I did little writing, which was to be expected considering how out of things I felt. This morning I am accepting and grateful, now the adrenaline has worn off. I've apparently cleared the penultimate hurdle in this writer's foot race, but it has left me tired, as I slowly flutter back to earth today.

Although I did my usual snoop around, prior to sending off my query to them, I've since done even more homework on the company, and have found nothing negative. It's a relatively small outfit, with an equally smallish list of clients. This is possibly why they take such a personal approach with their queries. On their submission site, they are encouraging, warm and humorous - no drill sergeant orders here. I showed a snippet of their guidelines on May 29, in case you missed it. I certainly was getting impatient with being addressed like a wayward child on some of those other agency pages - in fact, I didn't query agents whose wording was overly demanding or patronizing.

All I have to do now is sign the agency agreement, assuming I like their terms. Practical as ever, I believe it's never over 'til it's over. The final hurdle will be their success in finding a publisher. And that's a whole new challenge in the race, akin to marathon runners 'hitting the wall', as they put it, but who's going to give up now, so close to the winner's line?


Anne Mini of Author!, Author! (left side bar under Helpful Sites) has a wealth of information - I mention her a lot, because she's so good. She's covered just about every question the unpublished writer could ask. Here's a paragraph on rejection that I'd like to share:

"The important thing to bear in mind is that at the query or pitching stage, the book could not possibly have been rejected because the manuscript was poorly written . The query might have been rejected for that reason, naturally, but it’s logically impossible for an agent to pass judgment on a manuscript’s writing quality without reading it."

So my suggestion to you today, if you're not quite convinced your query is the best it could be, or your automatic rejects are coming at you fast and furiously, give that vital letter an overhaul. Check out Anne's site and all those others offering tips.

Right now, with each query, you're standing outside the agent's door, your email 'send' button is your foot inching around the door, but your fascinating query is the only thing that's going to fling that door wide open. Once it's open, you'd better have a fantastic manuscript to follow up with. And I know you do.

Go get 'em!

 

How Many Queries Are Too Many?

Very little work has been done on Strachan's Attic, you'll see. I'm moving into the main theme of the book now, and I need to get it right. I'm writing about the 1940s in some detail, and it needs to be spot on. I'm also reconsidering the use of that first person point of view. I feel strongly that Strachan has to be in your face, as it were, and I'm not sure if I can achieve that in the third person. But there are a lot of clever writers out there, including Melissa, who aren't fond of the current approach. I'll mull over it, ask Prof. Ostrom what he thinks - perhaps he'll write something about it to inspire me.

I've been researching more literary agents, which leads to a question that I should be able to find out myself, but thought one of you could answer immediately. How many submissions are too many at one time? I'm aware of the protocol in advising agents how many other queries are out there, but what's the acceptable maximum, if there is one?

I sent off two more queries in the last 48 hours, which brings the total distributed to twelve, and one of those agents wanted fifty pages, which is amazing; that's the most generous submission requirement I've seen so far. I've had no further rejections since the three I told you about on Monday. I am buzzing with adrenaline now, and want to send off more, but will wait to hear back from you.

They take a long time to compose, by the way, these letters, for those of you who aren't quite at that point yet. I have several synopses of from one paragraph up to three pages, and various styles of letters. But each agent is so different, so there's still customizing involved for them, re-reading, tweaking, before I push that Send button. The thing that occurs to me, each time I rearrange the words describing the book, is just how many aspects of the story there are. If you say this in the prescribed word limitation, perhaps you should have said this, instead. A lot of it comes back to your gut reaction to the agent's profile or blog, and the way their own words resonate with you.

I wish I could swing a deal with one of the people I've come to admire. I've wanted to say corny things in my letter like, "Oh, I so get you!", "I love all of Tom Hanks's movies, too!", "You're a Jobim nut!", "I thought I was the only one left who knew who Blossom Dearie was." Stuff like that. But these queries are meant to be business-like, and there's a fine line between that and slipping in fan mail that sounds gushy, taking into account the genre of the book. Well, that's my conclusion. Perhaps it would be fine with YA. If the rejects pile up, perhaps I'll rethink it.

Have a good, relaxing weekend. Be in love with your work.