By a show of hands, who here likes to have a backup plan?
MEEEE!
Yeah. Me, too. Today's post is all about having a backup plan if you don't get into #PitchWars. On September 10th, Brenda Drake is hosting a Twitter Pitch Party called #PitMad. Because she is a goddess among us.
Agents will peruse the feed and favorite the pitches for manuscripts they want to see. Each agent's guidelines vary, so make sure you check his/her Twitter feed and/or website for submission guidelines. Check Brenda's website for more information on rules and etiquettehere.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, this is a Twitter event in which you pitch your completed, revised manuscript in a 140-characters-or-less tweet. Easy, right? Ha.
It can be done.
Though I got into #PitchWars last year, and my agent participated in the agent round, she did not request pages from me during the contest. However, when I participated in #PitMad afterward, she did request! Something about my Twitter pitch illustrated the concept to her more efficiently than my #PitchWars entry did.
So there you have it, folks. If you don't get into #PitchWars, it is not the end of the world. You can still get your manuscript in front of agents on the Twitter feed on September 10th.
What's in a Twitter pitch, you ask? Your main character, goal, conflict, and stakes.
It's also helpful if the pitch conveys the voice and uniqueness of your manuscript. If you can get accurate comp titles in there, even better!
It can be tricky to include all of this information, I know. You have to be creative and make agents read between the lines to get it all in there.
Here are the two Twitter pitches that got me a few stars, including the one from my agent.
PRACTICAL MAGIC + FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Hidden racism rises in TX football when Dee gives her fullback BFF a love potion by mistake. #PitMad #YA
and
When 17yo Dee gives her BFF a love potion by mistake, bigotry tests friendship & football. PRACTICAL MAGIC+FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS #PitMad #YA
You know based on the comps that there's going to be some kind of ambiguous magic, a female family dynamic, and small-town Texas football. You also know there's a friendship that possibly turns into a romance. (Spoiler alert: it totally does.)
Riggins gifs are basically required for every blog post.
The pitch states the MC made a mistake, so even though her goal isn't expressly stated, you're pretty safe to assume she's going to try to fix that mistake. Meanwhile, small town bigotry is going to play a role in the conflict. And the stakes are that the football games and the friendship between these two characters will be threatened.
While mine is far from a perfect example, it played an important role in landing my agent. And I absolutely owe that to feedback from my brilliant CPs. In our writing group, we always prepared days in advance to get ready for pitch parties.
So in honor of the upcoming #PitchWars results, and #PitMad on the horizon, I'm going to open up the comments section for 48 hours (that's until Wednesday, 9/2 at 8pm CDT) for Twitter pitch critiques. Post your 140-character pitch in the comments section. Don't forget to include the hashtag #PitMad and your genre (i.e. #YA, #SFF, #R, etc.) in those 140 characters, and I will go through and crit them all by the end of this week. My CPs are going to drop by and help me critique if things get crazy, so look for these lovely ladies (all are either mentors and/or former mentees of Pitch Wars): Kes, Janet, Sonia, Tracie,Summer, Carlee, Kristin I've also invited the other Pitch Wars mentors to drop by and comment if/when they have time. Feel free to jump in and help critique each other's pitches, too. Just remember to be kind and respectful to one another!
If you need more guidance before diving in, fellow Team Fury author Ava Jaewrote a great recent post on pitching here. And another one specifically about Twitter pitching here.
Dear Pitch Wars, Last year at this time, I was you. Stressed. Sweating. Swearing. Spiraling. Basically all the S-words.
I do love a good palindrome. And cheesecake. And chocolate. And donuts. And...and...and... Fun Fact: I gained 5 pounds in 2 weeks while waiting on Pitch Wars results last year.
I'd only received one lonely request. Kes and I had followed each other on Twitter before the contest began, so I figured she was just feeling sorry for me or something. A pity request, if you will. She never gave me any indication she was going to choose me. Two years ago at this time, I was also you.
I entered Pitch Wars 2013 (with what I later realized was a doomed manuscript), and I did not get in. No requests that year. Zero. Zip. Zilch.
Even with a shiny new manuscript last year, just knowing the sting of rejection made me jump to the worst possible conclusion when my inbox stayed quieter than church in Texas on Superbowl Sunday.
We highly imaginative folk tend to be good at worst-case-scenarios.
I cried to my CPs. I AM TRUNKING THIS MANUSCRIPT, I told them. So what that it had never even been queried! God bless Janet and Sonia for putting up with my stress-induced meltdowns for over two years now.
Did I mention that I met Janet and Sonia on the Pitch Wars thread in 2013? (The year I didn't get in?) These are brilliant, beautiful women who have helped me through so much since I met them. And I now talk to them every single day, either in our writing group, or via phone calls or texts. Janet and I live 45 minutes apart, so I often get to see her in person. Last year, I met even more CPs. The 2014 private mentee Facebook group has been a godsend. Those people are my tribe! Really, I don't know where you can find a more positive, supportive community. Our group is special.
Pitch Wars 2014 be like...
I've received critical feedback from so many talented people that helped me grow and hone my craft. There's no way I'd have been chosen as a mentee in 2014 (technically I was an alternate, but moved up to mentee when the original mentee dropped out), and there's no way I'd have a rockstar agent right now if I had never entered--and been rejected from--Pitch Wars in 2013. If you had tried to tell me through my unstoppable tears in 2013 that I would be co-mentoring Pitch Wars in 2015, I would've asked you what you were smoking, and if I could have some of it.
Don't act like you don't know the song.
Okay, enough silliness. Time to be serious.
My message to you is this: YOU ARE DOING IT RIGHT. You're putting yourself out there and networking with other writers. You're allowing complete strangers to pick your soul apart with a red pen, and you're willing to listen to their feedback. That's how writers become published authors. And that's the goal here, right?
I know you're all struggling right now. I know that struggle. The wait is hard. Last year, all I could think about was the pure torture of waiting so long for the picks to be announced. But now that I've seen things from the mentor side of the fence, I can tell you that it takes every minute of that time for mentors to adequately read and decide. Kes and I received a ton of amazing submissions this year. And even with two of us reading and requesting, it has taken days and days of neglecting everything else to get it done. (And some mentors received TWICE as many subs as us. Just FYI.)
So. Many. Great. Manuscripts.
So, if you like DOs and DON'Ts lists, Pitch Wars, I have one for you.
For those of you who do get in: DO recognize this as an incredible honor (and privilege). You are among a very small percentage of the overall submissions received. DON'T squander this opportunity. Remember mentors aren't getting paid for this. They're helping you because they love your story and believe in it with their whole hearts. DO keep an open line of communication with them. There may be things in their suggestions you don't agree with, and if that happens, talk it out. Understand the mentor's reasoning for making changes, and talk it over with CPs if you're still unsure.
*note: I was pretty reluctant on one plot point Kes wanted me to change last year. She agreed I could keep it since it's my story, after all. Then I got agented. Guess what my agent made me change? Yep, you guessed it! That one thing Kes had already tried to tell me to change. :) DO be grateful, especially to the one and only Brenda Drake. I owe a lot of the progress in my writing career to her generosity, and her genius in creating this beautiful community. DON'T ever be disrespectful or badmouth your mentor or the contest. Doing that will just make you look like an ungrateful asshole jerk. Nobody likes ungrateful assholes jerks.
For those of you who don't get in: DO take whatever feedback you're given, and compare it with notes from your CPs. Apply it. Make your manuscript shine. DON'T let it crush you. Please refer to my sob story from 2013, and remember that your chances of getting in this contest were roughly 1 in 16. *note: That's not my math, that's someone else's math who is better at math than me. I'm just regurgitating.
I need this shirt.
DO keep writing, keep revising, keep querying.
DON'T think it's because you aren't talented. Do you know how many incredibly awesome manuscripts Kes and I have to pass on this year because we only get to pick one?! Like, a gajillion. Seriously. That's totally a number. DO remember that cold, hard querying works just as well as contests. My original agent offer actually came from a cold query. Of my offers, only one was from a Pitch Wars request. My agent didn't even request from me last year in Pitch Wars! (It was PitMad she requested in.) Which brings me to another DO... DO get your Twitter pitch ready for the upcoming PitMad! September 10th, people! I'll be watching for my favorites and I will retweet the hell out of them!
DON'T dismiss or neglect your connection with people you met through the contest. A lot of people did a mass-unfollow of the mentors and mentees last year (and the year before) after Pitch Wars. DON'T DO THAT! The mentors want to connect with you on social media, even if they didn't pick you. I don't auto-follow people, so if I'm following you, it's because I think you're interesting and believe I could learn from you.
DO stay positive. A good attitude and a never-say-die will-to-succeed will take you far, no matter the outcome of this contest DO stay positive. Yes, I realize I said that twice, because it's the most important thing on the list. Give yourself a day to cry, then get your manuscript polished and revenge query like a mo-fo.
I swear you can.
Deep breaths, Pitch Warriors. Regardless of whether or not you get in, many of you will be agented this time next year. Statistics don't lie. Or so they tell me. I'm more of a word girl. I'm sending you all the positive ju-ju I've got. Love, Jen PW 2013 Reject PW 2014 Alternate-turned-Mentee PW 2015 Co-Mentor Here are the awesome #DearPW posts from other 2014 mentees:
If you're reading this, you just might be our mentee.
I am so excited to be co-mentoring this year with my mentor from Pitch Wars 2014, Kes Trester! My experience as a mentee in Pitch Wars 2014 helped me land my agent, Louise Fury of The Bent Agency.
Kes has since become a wonderful friend and trusted CP. We have no doubt we'll make a great team to help you tweak your manuscript and get it ready for agents.
* High-concept stories. What is high-concept, you ask? It’s a premise that can be pitched in just one line, often with comp titles that highlight the uniqueness of a story while comparing it to titles (book or film) that have already proven successful. For example, if Lord of the Flies came out in 2015, it could be pitched as SURVIVOR meets CASTAWAY. Here’s a great article on Pitching High Concept.
* Diversity. Narrators of diverse race, ethnicity, religion, and gender. Tell us a story we haven’t heard before. Teach us something new.
* Contemporary works with subtle undertones of believable magic, like THE MEMORY GARDEN by Mary Rickert.
* Edge-of-your-seat thrillers, like a YA Stephen King.
* Fully-fleshed characters. Give us little details that make us know a character without drowning us in backstory. For example, in John Green’s AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES, Colin is constantly anagramming everything. That detail tells us a lot about how his brain works.
* Unreliable narrators, like Alex in Francesca Zappia’s MADE YOU UP. Put us in the unreliable narrator’s shoes. Make us feel what he/she feels without manipulating us.
* Romantic relationships with depth and emotion, like NO PLACE TO FALL by Jaye Robin Brown, or THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson.
If we love your query, we will request a one-page synopsis and possibly the full ms.
We don’t love (so please don’t send it to us):
* Horror. (We’re scaredy-cats who sleep with our closet doors closed.) * Gratuitous rape scenes. * Scenes depicting cruelty to children or animals. * Characters or plots that are misogynistic or racist.
Here's a list of our favorite books:
Jenn’s favorite YA books: Althea & Oliver by Cristina Moracho, Made You Up by Francesca Zappia, No Place to Fall by Jaye Robin Brown, We Were Here by Matt de la Pena, Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell,
The Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.
Kes’s favorite YA books: His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead, Beautiful Creatures by Garcia & Stohl.
If you are thinking about submitting to us, JUST DO IT.
Don't overthink it.
Whether you submit to us or one of the many other outstanding mentors, best of luck in your writing journey!
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As we approach that glorious time of year when everything smells like chlorine, sand exfoliates our bare feet, and the constant buzz of the A/C lulls us into a hypnotic daze, I want to take a moment to honor the people who deserve these happy little things the most: TEACHERS. I wrote a poem for my kids' teachers to go with their end-of-year appreciation gifts. I'd like to extend its sentiments to all teachers. Why? Because teachers are freaking saints, that's why. O.P.K. I'd rather eat a crunchy toenail Or spend the night in a chicken coop Put Icy Hot on a hemorrhoid Or step barefoot in elephant poop I'd rather watch a C-span marathon Without ever going to pee Or put on a stranger's dirty gym socks (that are totally infested with fleas) I'd rather find half a worm in my apple Or trap a mosquito in my ear Give an elderly person an iPhone tutorial Or brush my teeth with warm beer I'd be first in line to sit naked On a pile of giant squids Before I'd ever want to spend eight hours a day With other. people's. kids. -JH
Seriously. It takes such a special person to be a teacher. My oldest has been working on multiple year-end projects lately, and our nights have been filled with making costumes for a wax museum project, constructing charts on urban farming, and molding Roman coins out of polymer clay (gigantic, messy pain in the arse, in case you're wondering). This weekend, he has to build a diorama. I'm exhausted and over it.
4. More. Days. Of. School.
I love helping my kids with projects. But if I had to conjure that kind of enthusiasm every single day for 20 (or more) kids who weren't even mine? Nope. I'd need a straightjacket.
I spent the afternoon with a sweet friend of mine earlier this week who is a teacher. Just hearing the struggles that she and her colleagues face--on top of the gargantuan task of keeping a classroom full of children motivated to learn--fully convinced me that teachers should make *at least* as much as NFL players. And they don't even get to wear a helmet. Pssshhhh.
So for all the teachers out there: hear me now. I see you. Your selflessness and dedication do not go unnoticed. You are changing the world, and I am so grateful for all of you.
I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing vacation. In between workshops and staff development and continuing education hours, of course. Happy Summer!
When I was in the query trenches not so long ago, I tortured myself by reading How I Got My Agent stories. If you’ve
arrived at this page to feed your own masochism, then sit up straight. Yes, you.
No, not that person beside you at Starbucks. I’m talking to you. Sit up
and listen, because I’m going to tell you the secret to getting a literary
agent.
(Spoiler alert: You can scroll to the end if you just want the secret.)
It took a while to get the guts to write this post. Partly
because a snippet of my story was already posted in Brenda Drake’s Pitch Wars
Success Interviews here. No need to be an attention hog. But mostly, I dragged my feet because I know the emotional impact these stories have on querying writers. That made it a heavy responsibility.
After reading How I Got My Agent posts, I always felt
either:
A) More depressed“I sent ten queries on my first manuscript and got eleven offers in a
week!”
or
B) Uplifted and determined to make my own success.
I hope this story has the latter effect on you.
Instead of rambling for days about my journey—believe me, I
could do it—I will focus on timeline and stats. Because that’s what writers
really want, right? Cold, hard numbers. And gifs. Always gifs.
Timeline
1988: I wrote a
story in my third grade writing journal, detailing the summer I spent
with Kirk Cameron at his mansion in California. Look, I was a Growing Pains
fan, okay? Mike Seaver was going to marry me someday, he just didn’t know it
yet.
Liar! My friends
cried. Nay, I said. Fiction writer.
KAPOW.
1999: My senior
English teacher applauded a short story I wrote and asked me why in the world
I wasn’t pursuing a writing career. An aptitude assessment had scored me highest for
medical professions, so I assumed that’s what I was supposed to do. Though I
shrugged her off, Mrs. Ann Looper planted a seed that wouldn’t stop
growing.
2000-2007: I
started and stopped post-secondary education multiple times. Got married, had
my first child.During this time,
I wrote short stories, bad poetry, and journaled. I worked a few different jobs, still unsure of my career path. Finally, I decided to go back
to nursing school and finish my degree.
2008: While on a
break between clinical rotations, I sat down and wrote the opening lines of
what would become the biggest piece of shit I’ve ever written. AKA my first
novel.Seriously, the Kirk Cameron
story was better. Thankfully I had the self-awareness to know better than to
query it.
2009-2011: I graduated
nursing school and began working a hectic third shift schedule in the hospital.
I had my second child. While on maternity leave in 2011, I began sketching
another story idea. During late night feedings I started writing with a baby
attached to me. It wasn’t until I returned to work from maternity leave that I
realized just how unhappy I was with my job. I wanted to write. But my education
wasn’t in a creative field. Maybe I was kidding myself to think I could make
it doing something I’d only pursued as a hobby. But too bad! I’m
stubborn, so I pressed on.
I wrote between shifts, while my kids slept or
played. I scribbled scenes on my lunch breaks. On napkins and post-it notes, and
in emails to myself on my phone while I hid in the bathroom after dinner. At
the end of 2011, my hubby accepted a great job that would relocate us, and he made a suggestion I
couldn’t resist: When we move to Texas, stay home with the baby and finish
writing your book. He believed in me, and since he’s the smartest person I’ve
ever met, I started believing in me, too.
2012: I finished the rough draft of my
second manuscript, an adult fantasy, and began researching agents. I
revised. I shared with friends who loved it and encouraged me to pursue
publication. One problem, though: it was nearly 180,000 words long. Yep, it was the length of three novels. I started sending queries,
anyway. In my query, I called it a "tri-genre amalgamation." *FACEPALM* Oh, rookie mistakes! Though I did get some positive feedback from
agents on the sample pages, the consensus was the same: This
novel is much too long.
That's what she said.
2013: I got my
first full manuscript request. This agent said she loved my opening pages! Clearly,
this was it. Told everyone and their
cousin’s monkey’s younger brother’s roommate's uncle. I bragged to family in a
group email. Two weeks later, I received a kind but generic rejection.
To pick myself up, I joined The Writer’s League of Texas. I networked on Twitter with other writers. I heard about a contest called Pitch
Wars, for unagented writers seeking a mentorship. Then I did something that changed my career: I followed Brenda Drake on Twitter. Though I’d whittled my adult
fantasy word count down to 125k, I knew it could still use work. After all, the
assistant of my dream agent was going to be a mentor! And since DREAM AGENT was
closed to queries, I thought landing this mentor would put me in the agent's field of vision.
I had only sent about 25 queries, so I
stopped querying and put all of my eggs in the Pitch Wars basket. I revised until I got my word count under 100k. I attended Writer’s Digest
seminars on query and pitch writing. When the Pitch Wars submission window
opened in December (on my birthday! It had to be a sign!), I entered, with Lady
Lioness—assistant to Louise Fury—at the top of my mentor list. Though I felt
confident when I clicked send, disappointment soon followed. I did not get in.
Womp womp.
However, I got one hell of a consolation prize: critique
partners. Also known as life-changers. These three women--Janet, Sonia, & Kristin--have read every
flaming piece of garbage I’ve ever written, and they've given me tactful, tough
love to help me grow and improve. Also, I get to read their books before everyone else for life so HA. Be jealous.
2014:
January-February:
My CPs read my manuscript and gave me some constructive advice and
encouragement. I read for them, too. I learned how to critique, how to apply
feedback, and how to pace my plot so it didn't turn into a word-count monster.
March: Entered
Pitch Madness. I realized one of the hosts was tweeting about my story a day
before the reveal. There can't be another entrant with the same name as a former Miss Universe, right? Got my hopes up so far they needed a spacecraft to reenter
the earth’s atmosphere. DUN DUN DUN. Did not get in. Cue tears, beers, and irrational fears. I later found out I was a finalist, but didn’t make the cut.
April: I entered
Nest Pitch, either because I’m tenacious or insane. Guess what? I GOT
IN! I even got some requests! Kept my optimism in check, though. Joined my
local chapter of RWA. Distracted myself by surrounding myself with other writers with similar goals, reading books about writing (I highly recommend On Writing by Stephen King and anything by Angela Ackerman) and learning as much
as possible. At the end of the month, I won an honorable mention for a short story I submitted to a Writers' Weekly contest.
May: As the
rejections on the requests I got in NestPitch poured in, I started writing the
outline for my third manuscript—a YA contemporary with a twist of magic called
FALSE START.
June: I sent my
final query for the adult fantasy manuscript (which turned into an R&R by
December—more on that in a minute) and held a memorial service for it. I was ready to move on.
July: I wrote my
third manuscript hard and fast. It took me 6 weeks, start-to-finish, to write
FALSE START. Much faster than the 18 months it took me to write the previous
one. Meanwhile, one of my short stories was accepted for publication in a literary journal. I joined SCBWI.
August: My CPs
encouraged me to enter the new manuscript in Pitch Wars. So because I’m basically this Chumbawamba song, I took their advice.
September: Kes
Trester, one of the Pitch Wars mentors I submitted to, emailed me and
asked for additional pages and a synopsis. Not gonna lie, I peed a little. I hadn’t heard a peep from any of the
mentors the year before, so I knew this was a great sign. A few days later, Kes
emailed me with her thoughts and made some suggestions that would mean
rewriting a big portion of my story. Was I willing to do that? I wanted a
mentor and I wanted to have the best possible manuscript before I presented it to the agent world, so it only took me a minute to respond with an
emphatic YES. For the next 10 days, I waited for the mentee picks to be
announced. Self doubt is a beast. I slowly spiraled into a pit of despair. She wouldn't pick me, I just
knew it. It was going to be another dream crusher. But then on September 15th at midnight, the picks were
announced. That brilliant, glorious, flaxen-haired goddess had chosen me! I was
IN.
Kes
Mid
September-November: Kes did not go easy on me. She made me make hard decisions. I revised. And revised. And
revised some more. We ended up with a story that was so much better than the
one I submitted. When the agent round went live, I got multiple requests.
But did DREAM AGENT request from me? Sadly, no. She passed my entry right on
by.
I queried more agents on my
list while the Pitch Wars agents were reading. Requests began to trickle in
faster than they had for my previous manuscript. I joined a secret
society of Pitch Wars mentees on Facebook. Made lots of new friends and
gained more CPs. They kept me sane as we all waited together. (I am still
pretty fond of them. Pitch Wars Class of 2014 4EVA.)
December 7:
Participated in #PitMad on Twitter. Thanks to Janet, pitch-critiquer-extraordinaire, I got several favorites (requests). One of them happened
to be DREAM AGENT WHO PASSED ME BY IN PITCH WARS. After two years of trying to
find a way to get my words in front of this closed-to-queries-agent (including applying for her intern position a couple of times, haha I’m
SHAMELESS y’all), it was finally happening.
December 12: I
got an out-of-the-blue R&R on my adult fantasy manuscript from an agent who’d had it since
June. She'd been busy and was also closed to queries during this time. I was
ecstatic! We corresponded a few times, and I mentioned my new YA story. During
this correspondence, we talked cordially, and I got a little too comfortable, so I made an inappropriate joke about
balls. Not the sports kind. Because apparently, optimism flips my dumbass switch. She opened the
door for the joke, and I blasted through the wall like the Kool-Aid man. Lucky
for me, she was totally cool with balls jokes. She wrote back and asked to see
the full for FALSE START, so I sent that one to her and crossed my fingers. *Note: I do not recommend making jokes to agents about genitalia. I just got
lucky that it didn’t backfire.*
BALLS!
December 17: As I
sat in Chili’s eating dinner with my family, my email dinged. It was a response
to one of my full requests for FALSE START. Another rejection, I assumed as I
skimmed it. But wait… no. This one was different. This one wanted to talk to me
on the phone. Sweet Lord and all the heavenly saints, it was THE CALL. That
magical unicorn that only exists in dreams was finally standing right in front
of me. A Christmas miracle come early!
I read the email at least 10 times in shocked silence before
my husband finally asked me if I was okay. I looked up at him, burst into
tears, and handed him my phone, because I couldn’t speak. The Chili’s patrons
probably thought we were having a fight. I was crying, and he kept screaming,
“What! WHAT?! WHAT!!!” as he read the email himself. Our children stared at us
like we had nipples on our foreheads.
December 19: I
stuttered and bumbled through THE CALL with offering agent. It was all I could
do to keep from jumping through the phone and spooning this woman for the flattering things she said about my story.Since the holidays were near, I asked for ten days to consider her
offer, so I could respectfully let other agents with the manuscript know and
give them a chance to offer as well. She agreed.
That afternoon, I nudged all of the agents with my
manuscript, and the ones I’d queried but hadn’t heard from. A flood of full requests
came in after that. One of them
was from DREAM AGENT, who already had a partial from #PitMad.
Over the next ten days, I received more offers. What would I
do? How would I choose? They were all wonderful!
There is no greater validation than having literary
professionals champion your work. I had been starving for this validation. Starving like a premenstrual woman
doing a juice cleanse across the street from Ben & Jerry’s.
December 29: DREAM
AGENT followed me on Twitter. Cue the freakout, since she was still reading my
manuscript on deadline day. Soon after, she emailed me asking for a call. I’m not gonna tell
you what I did, but it may or may not have involved a furniture trample that
would make Tom Cruise’s couch dance look like tea with Her Majesty.
You’d think I would’ve been ready to talk to her after all
the calls I had that week, but nope. I was still a blubbering idiot. She
offered anyway. She was funny and smart and just as lovely as I always imagined
she would be. Not only did she get my characters, she had specific revisions in
mind that resonated with my vision for the story. She told me, in no uncertain
terms, she would expect me to work hard. In return, she would work hard for me.
We would be investing in each other. I was sold.
December 30: I
accepted an offer of representation from Louise Fury. For two years, I had been
trying to weasel my way into this lady’s good graces, and it finally came to
fruition. I was on top of the world!
Then came the not-so-fun part: I had to write five separate emails letting the other
agents down.
Y’all. This was hard. So hard.
I saved the hardest one for last, and I sobbed all the way
through it as I wrote.
Though I know without a doubt that I made the right decision
for my career, it’s very hard to reject people who believein you.
That’s when I finally understood why agents send form rejections. Man, form
rejections used to piss me off. But I get it now.
December 31: Got
a seventh email asking for a call if I hadn’t already made a decision. I got
the immense pleasure of responding with a polite thanks-but-no-thanks, then breaking the
news that I had accepted representation from Louise Fury of The Bent Agency.
Louise Fury
Now for stats!
First novel:
Never queried. Trunked for life unless I decide to burn it.
Although I like to glance back at it from time to time so I can appreciate how
far I’ve come.
Second novel:
Queries sent: 110 (including contest requests)
Full requests: 11
Partial requests: 6
Rejections: 87
No response: 22
R&R: 1
Third novel:
Queries sent: 82 (including contest requests)
Full requests: 19
Partial requests: 4 (later upgraded to fulls)
Rejections: 36
No response: 23
Offers of representation: 7
So if you’ve made it this far, you deserve to know the
secret to getting an agent.
The secret is….
DON’T GIVE UP!
Surround yourself with supportive people. Write like you
mean it. Take criticism from CPs with grace. Make changes. Take chances. Be
brave. Your time is coming. Anything is possible if you believe.
