Writing News: I Signed With a Literary Agent! (& How It Happened!)
Hi everyone! If you've been following my blog posts (or follow me on Bookstagram/Twitter!) then you probably have heard that after weeks of querying agents with my YA novel, I signed with Taylor Martindale Kean at Full Circle Literary!
A lot of people have been asking how I went about the process of getting my literary agent. While everyone goes about it differently and authors have so many paths available, here's my story!
If you don't want to read the whole saga or don't enjoy stories with gifs (but who doesn't love gifs?!) , here's the tl;dr:
1. I wrote/edited/fell in love with a book.
2. I researched every agent on planet earth and made a list of ones I'd love to work with.
3. I queried said agents.
4. I found my perfect match!!!!!
Now, for all of you who want the complete story, here we go.
WITHOUT FURTHER ADO:
I had the idea for this novel (its code name will be PROJECT CONTACT - any ideas what it's about? THAT'S RIGHT, THERE'S AN ALIEN) for approximately eight months before I even decided to start writing it, and then I planned out the whole thing (plot, characters, playlists, aesthetics, everything!) in-detail for about a month before beginning to put any words on paper. I'm definitely a planner, but even for me this was a lot!
(Here is just SOME of the prep work I did! character sheets, timelines, chapter outlines, and a four page chapter-by-chapter playlist!)
However, I think it REALLY helped me during the writing process, because since I knew the story and characters inside and out I finished the whole book in January of this year, after only three months of writing!!
You all should know that is NOT typical for me (before Project Contact, writing a complete novel took me about a year to a year and a half). But something about this book felt so RIGHT and I was so incredibly excited for it. Although I knew it wasn't perfect, I honestly loved it, and the plot and characters and story came together fairly easy. I hardcore edited for a couple months (like every single day was spent editing), and sent it out to a couple beta-readers (and my super helpful mom!). I got some great feedback (and also helpful constructive criticism) and after about two months felt ready to begin crafting my query letter.
First of all, I did my research. THIS IS IMPORTANT, Y'ALL. There's no point sending your amazing sci-fi book to an agent who only wants women's fiction, or your amazing non-fiction proposal to an agency who only accept fiction. I did a lot of research online, but another way I found potential agents was to go my bookshelf and find books I felt had similar themes/characters/styles to Project Contact. I looked in the Author's Acknowledgments and 99% of the time the author thanked his or her agents and/or the agency. I then took those names and researched each and every agent to make sure my novel could be, potentially, what they were looking for.
Then I made a list of all agents who I'd truly want to work for, and began to craft my letter.
Let's just put it out there: QUERYING KIND OF SUCKS. You not only have to summarize your book (which is basically your baby by this point) into about a paragraph, but you have to also SELL it and make it sound amazing, complete with pithy pitches and all. You have to suck in a potential agent with one letter and approximately the first ten pages.
"Why love my book and be my agent?" This is what I wished I could say:
But no, you have to craft a "perfect letter" and...IT'S SCARY.
And did I suck in every agent? Um....no. Here's the thing about querying. (This might not happen to everyone, but it did to me). You love your book, and you've been inside your book's world for so long you start to think everyone loves it too. (Especially if you have a boyfriend like mine, who hypes up my book SO MUCH. Like: "You're literally the best writer in the history of time! Anyone would be crazy not to love this book! It's the best!" It's not the best, but he IS the best.)
And as you're pressing "send" on those queries you start to think like this:
and then it's a shock when the agents are like:
OKAY, it's not that bad, but just prepare yourself for rejection. I got rejections, and I just tried to roll with it. A few were personalized, nice rejections, which softened the blow. Some were your standard run-of-the-mill copy and paste rejection letters (but I get it, they're busy, it happens). I got a couple full manuscript requests (which was SO exciting!).
AND THEN!
I got a really enthusiastic full manuscript request from one of my Top Potential Agents. The excitement was REAL. I was a ball of nervous energy for a week. Why just a week? Well, that's about how long it took from full manuscript request to signing with Taylor. That was one thing (of many) that was a huge positive for me about Taylor, there was no waiting around, there was no "meh maybe" feeling at all. From the first email I felt like she truly was interested 100%, which is a great feeling to have.
About a week after the full manuscript request, we arranged a FaceTime call. That was the real clincher, because not only could I feel her enthusiasm for my book, but she answered all my questions, had a plan for publication and future publication, and seemed just as excited as I was.
This brings me to my biggest point: GO WITH YOUR GUT.
I still had full manuscripts out with a couple other agents. And I'm sure if someone else is querying and ends up in this position, they might play it differently, giving the other agents time to throw their hat in the ring. But I thought about it, and discussed it with people whose opinions I really trusted, and decided to go with my gut feeling. At the end of the day it's YOUR agent, YOUR book, YOUR career. And I knew I wanted her as my agent, so what was the point in prolonging it?
DECISION MADE!
I was absolutely thrilled and100% sure (still am!!) that I'd chosen the right agent. I feel so lucky that I had a relatively short querying time, and am so happy to be with Full Circle Lit!
That's all, folks! Now I'm editing once more, tightening up a few things before we send it off to publishers. If you have an agent, how did your story go down? And if you have any questions, feel free to ask as a comment or on Twitter/Instagram!