Good News Avalanche!

Hey everyone. Sorry this space has been utterly and horribly neglected. To say the last couple of years have been awful is a complete understatement. Sure there were a few okay things here and there, but it was mostly just one major bout of being dumped on after another.

Until now.

For real. The last couple of weeks have been utterly unbelievable. It has been an utter good news avalanche! An avalanche of awesome if you will. I have to wonder if the world is making up for lost time. But the rational side of me keeps saying, it’s just a lot of hard work and perseverance all paying off at once.

It all started with a job offer for a first line manager position, something that I’ve been working on for a while. And after things got a little too crazy I had decided I would put applying for management jobs on the back burner. Right after I did that, an opportunity fell into my lap. I received the offer on a Friday and took the weekend to think it over before accepting. But during that weekend I was flooded with more good news.

Saturday, January 27, 2018 I was at a robotics qualifier with the all-girls robotics team I mentor. They were kicking ass and taking names. The judges were stopping by at regular intervals to check in on them and ask questions (which is always a good sign) and they were winning a lot of their matches. In the middle of all that chaos, I got an email from an agent that had my full manuscript. I fully expected it to say thanks but no thanks in some sort of agenty words. But the preview pane looked a bit different than I expected.

“Jamie, I very much enjoyed reading TRACKER220 and would like to offer…”

And that was it. I popped that sucker open and almost fainted from shock. The next word….

REPRESENTATION

After all this time I thought I was going crazy. Was this some kind of dream? I quickly replied to the agent that I needed to let other agents know who had my material and asked for some time. The agent agreed and scheduled a call with me. Then I sat myself on the sidelines and quickly fired off an email to the other agent who had my full manuscript, an agent who had asked for a revise and resubmit. I was still biting my nails wondering if she would like my revision or not, but tried to put my thoughts aside and return my focus to the robotics meet.

About an hour and a half later I got a reply in my inbox from agent #2.

“This is so funny because I’ve been reading and loving the revisions you made.”

The agent said she would finish up in a couple of days and let me know her decision. Surely that was a good sign? But what if she hated the ending and decided to turn me down? Either way I still had an offer on the table. But quietly sat biting my nails anyway.

Two days later, on a Monday morning, I received a reply from Agent #2.

“Would you be available for a call on Friday?”

Was this what I thought it was? Probably, but what if it wasn’t? I had to wait until Friday to find out for sure.

So I waited and waited and waited until Friday finally came and I got to talk to Agentt #2 then talked to Agent #1 a few hours later.

Both were kind and answered my bazillions of questions. And I’m glad I had a list because I’m sure I would have forgotten something if I didn’t. Both let me contact some of their clients to ask questions and all clients seemed extremely happy with their agents and had nothing but good things to say. But after the calls and the emails, I was pretty sure I knew who I wanted to pick. Despite that I definitely took some time to think it over and weigh my options.

I had met Agent #1 at a conference and she clearly had a passion for my story. Her ears had perked up when I mentioned the tagline which is why I originally queried her. She also had a great submission strategy and we both have a lot in common and got along great on the phone.

Agent #2 on the other hand, I had come across after seeing an interview she had done for MSWL and had mentioned one of her favorite books. I had messaged her on Twitter and had a brief conversation about the interview. I also referenced that conversation in my initial query to her. But months after the initial full request, she came back saying she loved the story but couldn’t offer rep and gave some very detailed feedback as to why. She also said if I wanted to do a revision, she’d be happy to take another look. I sat on the information for a while then decided I agreed with her feedback and that I wanted to try a revision. Her notes pushed me as a writer in a way I never thought possible. And when I talked to her on the phone, she had glowing things to say about the story and additional ideas for my manuscript that would continue to make it stronger.

So ultimately I decided to go with Agent #2, Kira Watson!!!! And I’m so excited to have joined #TeamKira and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with her and seeing where her advice and guidance takes me.

And for the numbers folks here’s my querying history… note the dates, persistence does pay off!

Manuscript #1 did not finish

Manuscript #2

First query sent 1/26/2013

51 queries sent

47 query rejections

4 partial requests that turned into rejections

7% request rate

Manuscript #3

First query sent 11/6/2014

96 queries sent

81 query rejections

9 partials requested (6 from contests/twitter pitches)

1 partial upgraded to a full

8 rejected partials

9 additional full requests (2 from contests)

7 full rejections

1 revise and resubmit

2 offers of representation

The first offer came 5 years and 1 day after the initial query was sent in 2013)

18% request rate

1 AGENT SIGNED

For those doing quick math, that’s right around 150 rejections. And I queried my second manuscript off and on for just over 3 years. I pulled back several times, rethought things, and dove back in (I’ll talk more about this in another blog post coming soon). It’s also important to note, that my perfect agent match wasn’t an agent when I started querying. So for those still waiting on your agent match, keep in mind, your agent may not be there now, but may be there one day soon.

There were definite times I thought this was never going to happen for me. And so many times I almost outright quit. (just ask my CPs) But I’m so glad I didn’t because I finally FINALLY HAVE AN AGENT!!!

5 Tips for Stress Free Pitching

Last month I attended the Missouri Writer’s Guild Conference and pitched to agents in person for the first time. I was terrified. We aren’t talking a little stage fright here, I mean full on knees shaking, I think I’m going to puke, terrified. I ran around for weeks prior to the conference freaking out about my upcoming encounters with the agents. The funny thing was I’d been to a conference before, I’d met agents, and it wasn’t a big deal. But this time felt different. I was going to be putting my manuscript out there in the world. What if I didn’t do it justice? What if the agents hated it?

As the conference approached I nearly talked myself out of pitching. Nearly. But there were a few things that helped make the pitch process less painful.

1.) Practice Makes Perfect

Practice Practice Practice. When you are going to give a speech or a presentation what’s the one thing you almost always do? Unless you're the kind of person that likes to “wing it,” and that’s not me at all, you practice. When you're going to pitch an agent you should do the same thing. Spend some time constructing a pitch and then practice it like you are having a conversation with someone. I practiced in the shower, in the car, in front of the mirror, to my dog, and even pitched to fellow writers. So help remove the nerves from the equation and know what you are going to say ahead of time. The more you say it the more naturally it will roll off the tongue, and the more excited you can sound about your work.

2.) Meet the agent first

As a shy introvert I hate meeting new people. I never know what to say and I always feel like I’m an awkward, bumbling idiot. All of those feelings stem from the fact that I fear the unknown. I’m a giant control freak and when I can’t control a situation I start to panic. When you meet someone for the first time there are so many unknowns, which is why I feel so awkward around new people. So for me, taking the unknown out of the picture is key.

In this case, the unknown is the agent that you may have followed on Twitter forever but have never met in person. While you may have some idea of their personality from online interactions (or stalking – don’t lie I know we all do it!) that isn’t always a guarantee of how they will act in person. So if you can, find a good time (yes the “a good time” is important) to introduce yourself to the agent. If you can sit at their table at lunch, catch them after a seminar they gave, or volunteer to shepherd them, those are all good ways to take five minutes to say “Hi I’m so and so, it’s very nice to meet you, I’m glad you’re here.” You can even mention that you liked their seminar or possibly say I’ll be pitching to you later or tomorrow but keep the exchange brief.

Keep in mind, this is not the time to talk about your book or even mention your writing (unless they ask), just meet them. You don’t walk up to random people and start pitching your book, so don’t do this to an agent. From this brief encounter you should be able to tell that the agent is probably pretty nice and not some crazed, axe-murdering psycho setting out to ruin your writing career. See agents are people too!

3.) Don’t worry about being perfect

Now that you’ve practiced your pitch and met the agent, you’re hopefully a little less frazzled and ready to pitch. It’s going to be perfect! But what if it’s not? What if you mess up? What if you forget something? What if… Yeah stop right there. You can what if yourself to death and drive yourself crazy. I know I did. The good news is you don’t have to be perfect and shouldn’t try to be. You know why? The agent doesn’t know your book, they don’t know what you‘re going to say, and they don’t know what you practiced. So if you mess up, the only person who will know is you. Unless you have a really bad poker face like I do. So take a deep breath, calm down, and don’t sweat the small stuff. Give yourself permission to pitch well but not perfect.

4.) Treat it like a conversation with a stranger

Stranger or friend, when people find out that you write, what is usually the first thing that comes out of their mouth?

The encounter usually goes something like this:

Stranger: So what do you do in your free time?

Writer: Free time? What’s that? I spend most of my time writing.

Stranger: Really? That’s so cool! What do you write?

Writer: Middle Grade and Young Adult science fiction mostly.

Stranger: Wow that’s neat what’s your book about?

I’m going to stop the fun, little scenario there because the next thing out of your mouth should be a quick concise couple sentence description of your book. I know writers love to talk about their books, I do as well, but if you go on much longer than a few sentences you risk boring the stranger to death or losing their attention in some crazy long description that they won’t follow. But if you choose your words wisely, the next thing that will come from the stranger after your description is some kind of comparison or question about your book. Something like ohh that’s cool so kind of like X book or movie, or cool, so what happens next?

Now go back to the little scenario and replace the word stranger with agent. Congratulations you’ve just pitched an agent. I just let you in on a little secret that saved me at the conference—the realization that pitching to an agent is no different than talking to a stranger about your book. You’re hoping that they want to know more and one day want to read some of it. If you can keep the agent engaged and get them asking questions you are on the right track. If they ask to read some, you are in. The goal of the pitch is to get the agent to request pages. Plain and simple. So if you can grab their attention and keep them interested, you’ve pitched well.

5.) Realize you have nothing to lose

This one is big. When you walk up to the agent to pitch where are you at? They know nothing about your book, they haven’t read it, and don’t know you exist.  Harsh but true. So if you pitch to the agent and they say no, where are you at then? Well they know who you are, what you write, what your book is about, and that it’s not right for them. So what did you lose? Nothing, in fact if nothing else you met a nice person in the industry. So even if they say no, you are ahead of where you were when you started. And if they say they want to see part of your manuscript even better you’re one step closer!

There you have it, nothing to be so nervous about. Agents are people too, they are nice, and they want to hear about your book, because guess what? They love books! So don’t sweat it! 

So do any of you have upcoming conferences where you will be pitching in person? What scares you the most? Have you pitched in person before? What tips do you have?