On Getting MY AGENT

**Many apologies to any of you who already came to this half-finished meme which posted automatically without my knowledge! I would never be such a jerk, I swear it!

Writers love How I Got My Agent stories as much as 20-somethings love proposal stories.  And far be it from me to keep you all in suspense, so here is my story.

I started querying my latest project back on November 1, 2010 (I was hoping to slip into a lighter querying period while NaNoWriMo was going on).  I started small, with 5 or so queries, and tried ever so hard to be patient.  The responses were good!  Of course, I got the expected rejections, but I was also getting requests.  I was sending out partial and fulls with every appendage crossed and checking my email like I was getting paid by the 'Refresh.'

Finally, on a Friday in January, I got The E-mail.  It was from a lovely agent who wanted to schedule a phone call with me for the following Tuesday.  I read it, closed it, went back to what I was doing for a few minutes, came back, read it again and went on like that until I'd read the message about 4 times.  Then, I was finally able to respond (with minimum exclamation points, I might add) and we set up a call for the following week.

I spent the weekend tied in knots trying to tell myself it could be a revise & resubmit call, but knowing in my heart it wasn't.  We talked, and it went well.  Very well, in fact.  I was excited and dizzy when I got off the phone.

Like a good little writer who spends all her time reading blogs and Twitter, I knew my next move was to notify everyone who still had a manuscript.  There were nine notifications in all, and they all promised to get back to me by my one week deadline (I couldn't stomach waiting for two. I would have imploded).  A couple of them made me promise not to accept an offer before they could respond.  And one, it turned out, had already read my partial just days before and was waiting for her second reader to finish it before asking for the full.  She wanted the full ASAP.

On Friday of that week, I got my second call (from the agent who had read the partial and asked for the full).  She'd stayed up to an ungodly hour finishing my manuscript and her second reader did the same the next day.  Although my heart was slightly lower than my throat this time, I was still as nervous as they come as we talked.  It was another great call, and that meant I had a very tough decision to make.  I also had a few days to go until my deadline.

The day of my deadline was actually one of the best days I've had as a writer.  Because although most of the remaining agents decided to step aside, they sent me some of the most complimentary and encouraging rejections I've ever received.

Ultimately, I had to base my decision on gut instinct.  Who "got" my work better?  Who had a more compelling vision of my future career as a writer?  Who had more confidence she could sell my project?

It wasn't easy.  Both agents who offered representation were great.  The decision was a matter of degrees, and a certainly "feeling" I got during out phone call.  Sending a message to the other agent declining her offer was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

So, it pleases me something fierce to announce that I have signed with Laura Bradford of The Bradford Literary Agency.  Laura is amazing! (And you should totally follow her on Twitter if you don't already).  She's funny, excited about my work and ready to dig into the submission process as soon as we can get everything ready.  I am so happy to be working with her I could just burst!

Please wish me luck as I head into the next phase of my writing life!

- Liz

Lessons from the Trenches: Practical Query Tips

Courtesy of Getty Images.

Sure, you can find endless blog posts from Agents, Publishers, Writers both Published and Unpublished on how to query.  What makes a good query letter?  How do I know which agents to query?  What not to do with your query letter.  It's all been covered.  Maybe someday I'll amass you all a nice omnibus list of great query resources.


But, as I have recently become a querying machine, I have a few more practical tips.  Things you might not think of when you're starting out writing your letters.  Things that will make your life easier.





THINGS I LEARNED THE HARD WAY


1.  Create a Draft Query:  No matter what e-mail program you use (I use G-mail) there should be a place to save a draft.  Put your query letter in that spot without anyone in the To: field.  Why?  Because e-mail programs sometimes do some quirky formatting stuff, and if you get it all right the first time, you can copy and paste it into a new message whenever you're ready.


2.  File Names:  Save your completed manuscript with a properly formatted cover page (in Word 97/2000 format, please--a.k.a. .doc NEVER EVER EVER .docx).  In the header, put your e-mail address on the left side.  On the right side of the header put TITLE / PAGE NUMBER.  I personally put my last name on the right side as well, but to each his own.  Just make sure you've got contact information available all the time.  Name the file  LastName_ManuscriptTitle_Full Manuscript


3.  Other Essential Files:  From the completed manuscript, create a new document for each of the following:

• The first 3 chapters
• The first chapter
• The first 50 pages
• The first 5 pages
• The first 10 pages

4.  The E-mail Ready Format:  When you've got your first chapter (or 10 pages, 3 chapters, whatever you've got the ambition for) saved.  Save it as a new document.  Select all, right click and use Paragraph to single space it.  Then, go through the WHOLE thing and put an extra return after every paragraph.  You absolutely must do this manually, even through Paragraph lets you do it the easy way.  Why?  Because then you can just copy and paste it into the body of an e-mail without making your recipient go blind at the massive block of text.

5.  Memorize This:  If you've saved a longer portion in the E-mail Ready format, memorize where your 1, 3, 5, and 10 page breaks are.

6.  Get the Greeting Right:  When you create a new message for your query, CHANGE THE NAME IN THE SALUTATION TO THE PERSON YOU ARE SENDING IT TO BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE.

7.  Join QueryTracker:  The free version will do you just fine unless you start juggling a lot of projects.  Create a list of agents and keep it updated.  Do your fellow QTers a favor and put in a new comment when you get results from a query.

8.  Check For Yourself:  When you use QueryTracker, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS go to the agency's actual website and double check the submission guidelines.  Follow those.  Even if they're not up-to-date, you can't be faulted for following an agent's own guidelines.

9.  Be A Google Genius:  While on QueryTracker, each agent page has a list of links to the left.  Click on the Google link.  But don't stop there.  Change your search to include "agent interview" and probably get rid of the agency name in the search.  Why?  Agents don't always stay at the same agency, or agency's merge, change names, etc.  Their personalities and tastes don't really change though.  There's gold in them thar interviews.

10.  Save It All for Later:  Create a folder in your e-mail program for Query-related messages.  Whenever you get one--even form rejections--save them to this folder.  Why?  Because if you are querying the same agent in the future, you can look back and see what kind of personalization you wrote the first time.  You can see if you got a form rejection or personalized rejection.  If you got something personalized, you might be able to mention it in the future.  You never know what might be useful.

Will these tips help you get an agent?  Not if your story's not ready.  Not if you're chasing a dead trend (and believe me, I know all about that one).  Not if you query the wrong agents for your book.  But, they will help you be professional, efficient and avoid being a #pubtip on Twitter.

Does anyone else have a great querying tip?  Share it in the comments.

- Liz

The World's Worst Blogger

I've been a querying machine lately.  It seems like all I do is research agents, write letters and save small segments of my books in every imaginable page length, document type and font size.

In the midst of all that querying, I read a lot of agent blogs, submission guidelines, FAQs, Writers' Resources and the like.  A lot of them talk about what kind of on-line presence they like writers to have.  Most of them mention a blog.

Some are kind enough to tell you what they don't like to see in a blog.  Namely:  infrequent posting.

Uh...yeah.

Being the insecure little unpub'd writer that I am, I--of course--interpret this to mean:  "Liz, you don't post enough on your blog, and even if I were interested in offering you representation, one little google search would have me thinking otherwise, because here you are NOT POSTING ON YOUR BLOG."

True.

So, now I wonder--is having a bad blog worse than having no blog?  And if so, what do I do now?

I'll tell you one thing--this place needs a cosmetic overhaul.  I've got blog ennui.  It's ugly here and recent attempts to snapify it up have resulted in making it uglier.  It's like I got an ugly house and covered it in a coat of builder's white.  Blech.

New Year's Resolution perhaps?  Perhaps.

What do you guys think:  Is a bad blog worse than no blog?

- Liz

Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

I've been MIA, AWOL and incommunicado on most fronts for quite some time. The main reason is that I've been finishing a major revision on my project The Sorbet Guy. (There have been a few Teaser Tuesdays featuring these revisions.) I'm mostly done now, just doing a final run-through with notes from my critique partners, but that work is easier and lets me venture out of my Fortress of Solitude.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to share some of the things I did and learned during this rewrite. Maybe there will be something in it for you, maybe not, but consider it's all I've been up to, I feel the need to put it out there.

I'm also about to get back in the query saddle again, and I'll give you all updates on how that goes as well. Fingers crossed for requests galore.

So, I thank you all for your patience with me of late, as I have been a terrible blog reader as well. And a Twitter has-been. I hope to get back to it all with a bit of moderation. Writing will stay my number one priority, but I miss the community, so I'll be around. Promise.

- Liz

SWF Seeks Literary Agent for Long-Term Commitment, Good Times

The other day it occurred to me that the whole pre-publication process is like dating. Maybe this association took me so long to see because I have such a thin dating history myself, and the rest of you are thinking, "Duh," but this is my blog, so I'm going to wax pathetic for bit, capisce?

A query is like a blind date with someone you met through a personal ad or an on-line dating profile. You might be able to learn a little bit about them, or maybe even a lot, but in the end, you're still left to put yourself out there and hope he or she likes you.

When an agent asks for a partial or full manuscript, a writer sort of feels like she's just been asked to go steady. An agent is probably seeing this as more of a second date. I suppose in the world of He's Just Not That Into You, writers are like women and agents are like men. (No offense intended to either gender in this instance.)

That grand shining moment when an agent offers representation can best be compared to a marriage proposal--every writer wants one, and the ones that have an offer and just as girly-squirrely as a newly engaged women. Trust me, I know two of them right now (the fabulous J.A. Souders and Kelly Gibian) and they're giddy. They practically have the vapors. And like a terminally-single friend of a newly engaged woman, I am thrilled to death for them, but not a little jealous.

After the wonder and glamour of the engagement/agenting, the writer "moves in" with her agent, digging deep into revisions and bringing her manuscript to a high gloss. And, together, they start planning the wedding, er, going out on submission. This is when the agent beings his or her own querying process, offering up the project to editors and hoping for that nibble of interest. Or better yet, those dozens of nibbles that lead a book to sell at auction.

So, now you've got a planned release date for your book (a.k.a. your wedding date), but what you never saw coming was how many details there are in planning a wedding. Quite frankly, I'm a little fuzzy on this part, since I'm still in the blind-date phase, but from what I hear, the work has only just begun once you've got a fiancee, I mean agent.

A lot of this is probably self-evident. (Thank you, Captain Obvious.) We could probably overlay any number of application processes, or relationship-based models onto the pre-publication phase. The reason that the dating metaphor rings so true for me is seeing how I, and my writing friends approach the querying process. We really are like women deep in the trenches of dating.

We check our e-mail obsessively, we stalk prospective agents on-line, we dissect every word over every rejection with our friends. We are filled with hope when we get asked on that second date and devastated when a partial or full request ends in rejection. Probably we could all do well to read He's Just Not That Into You and realize that some writer-agent relationships are just never going to work. Both people have to be just as interested in one another. And as any sensible woman will tell you, begging, insulting or continued stalking are not welcome by the object of your affection. It's time to move on.

There are plenty of fish in the sea.

- Liz

Anyone care to extend this metaphor? Share a story of agenting heartbreak?

Random Acts of Bravery

Today, I committed random acts of bravery. Well, for a writer anyway. See, as a breed, we are largely introverted (though general charming when you get to know us) and writing is by nature a solitary endeavor. To be fair, the very idea of querying was terrifying to me at first, because it meant I had to seek someone else's approval [rejection].

But, I digress. To the list.

1. I did my first "pitch." It wasn't in person, but it was still an experience worth having. The competition is stiff, but we should have answers tomorrow.

2. I internet stalked a number of my fellow pitchers. Why? Because they, like me, are writing contemporary YA, or Women's Fiction, and in the current market [all fantasy/paranormal all the time], it was nice to know I wasn't the only square peg.

3. My stalking resulted in some new e-mail contacts, a couple new followers at Twitter and some fun new blogs to haunt.

4. I wrote a synopsis, which most every writer I have ever met/read about/can imagine dreads the way most people dread a root canal.

5. I sent out four queries. My hands didn't even shake when I hit send this time. [Personal growth!]

So, now we're back to our regularly scheduled program of waiting, obsessively checking my e-mail and trying to tamp down hope. Now if THAT was a career path, I would be the frickin' CEO in no time.

- Liz

image courtesy of: http://www.supermanhomepage.com/images/george-reeves-biopic/s-cost-tb.html