Yes, it has been a very long time since I blogged. That's because I was dedicating every minute of free time to the Great Agent Hunt, also fondly known as GAH!!!!
I will say, I did things quite a bit differently this time. I had two manuscripts ready, so I tried to gauge agent personalities and send the right one to the right person.
I also queried a lot more widely. Instead of sticking to those representing science fiction and fantasy, I also queried agents who handled "general" and "commercial" fiction. Surprisingly, I got a lot of requests from those areas.
After I got the first offer of representation, I also decided to nudge agents who already had my partials and fulls. But in addition, I nudged those with only queries from me. This generated a firestorm of sorts, nine full requests in one day, and many more over the course of the next several days. I also received a large number of thank-you notes from agents who appreciated being "kept in the loop" even though they only had my query letter. Apparently, this sort of notification isn't normally done, but some agents have backlogs of emails, and I gathered that they are frequently disappointed if they finally get to a query letter, only to make a request and find out the writer has already accepted representation elsewhere.
The next thing I knew, I had SEVEN offers of representation, all from wonderful agents. Each night brought a different CALL. I ate little, and slept less while I agonized over making the right decision.
Some were boutique agencies. Others were major, long-established agencies in New York. Every single one of them had something positive to offer. I asked questions, spoke with their clients, did anything I could to narrow down my choices. I called friends and family members who were patient while I brainstormed my decision-making process out loud to them.
After much deliberation, I selected the fabulous Amy Boggs of The Donald Maass Literary Agency. Many, many of my favorite authors are represented by them. I am honored to be part of the Maass Agency family.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
All right! *fistbump*
Congrats!!! How exciting.
Congratulations, I am getting ready to query a project and hope I have half the interest that you did.
Yay! Congrats!
Congratulations! You must have quite a manuscript! I saw all the offers on QueryTracker and then the link to your announcement post on Absolute Write. That's awesome!
Amy Boggs is a fantastic agent, and it doesn't get much better than the Donald Maass Literary Agency. Best of luck as you go out on submission!
That's awesome! Congratulations! She seems awesome. :)
Wow! What an incredible story! When I got my three offers of rep, I never even considered poking the ones who just had query letters (there were about five at the time).
I actually sent them a status update stating I was accepting representation elsewhere, even though I hadn't decided between the three yet. I don't HOW you decided between seven. On the one hand, I'm kind of glad I didn't have any more to choose from than I did. I don't think I would've gotten any sleep otherwise!
This must be an INCREDIBLE book. Please keep us posted so we know when to buy buy buy!!
Congrats, you earned this success with your savvy and talent!
(raven1 from QT)
Wow!! What a story!! Congrats. So EXCITING!!!!!
Well done.
Amy Boggs is good people.
Found you on QT and just read this story--very informative! Congratulations to you! I liked the query-nudge approach...bold and smart, too. I really liked how you noted querying outside of genre got you some hits. I hadn't thought of doing that, but now I may.
Thanks for sharing, esp about nudging the agents with your query. Good luck!
Post a Comment