• My Thoughts

    You like me! You really like me!

    ‘Where are you with your book?’
    It’s a question I’ve heard a million times since I started letting people know I’d submitted my manuscript to an agent for representation. ‘It’s a long process’ I would tell them. I’d submitted to agents at the end of 2012 and first part of 2013. By April of 2013 I’d received 12 rejections and it was hard not to be discouraged. Instead of giving up, my cute husband booked a trip for the Las Vegas Writers Conference. The luck of the draw had me submitting 5 pages to be reviewed by author Mia Thompson, and there was so much validation with that review that I was encouraged all over again to keep going. Then Mia suggested I sit down with her agent, Liz Kracht, from Kimberly Cameron & Associates. After attending a few sessions with her, then sitting down with her, I decided to make the process of landing an agent a little more difficult.
    I spent the rest of the year cleaning up my story. I hired an editor and then cleaned it up some more. Then I sent a query with my first 50 pages off to Liz, and only her, and I waited. I started working on book two and waited a little more. After a little more waiting I got an email back; she wanted to read the full. I was on cloud nine! But because I’m also the sensitive, creative type, I stressed out about whether or not she would like it every time I thought about it so I tried not to think about it.
    I worked on my second story, answered the questions always in the same way, and tried to be the most patient person I could be. In Vegas I’d had someone ask for the full manuscript but I didn’t send it. There wasn’t anything that clicked with her for me and I am a person that tends to go with my gut. She liked my story concept when I pitched it but I wasn’t sure she’d get my characters the same way I do, and that mattered. When I first met Liz I knew she was the agent I wanted to work with. She was so enthusiastic about the industry and her writers. That was the kind of agent I needed.  And the events of last week proved that my patience has been worth it.
    She liked it! She really liked it!
    After all the work and all the waiting I will now be working with Liz Kracht to get my first novel out into the world. I don’t think I stopped smiling for three days after getting that phone call. I’ve become more determined than ever to make this story the best version that I can, and to step it up with the second. I’ve also decided that adding the words ‘my agent’ to sentences concerning my writing is the coolest thing ever.
    So, keep checking back while I move this project forward. I’ll be updating here on a regular basis. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to say that not only do I have an agent, I now have a publisher. 🙂

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