This is a story about my dream literary agency and finding out they were open for submissions as soon as I finished writing my book but none of my early readers had finished reading it yet and learning I only had FIVE WEEKS to get feedback, make the appropriate changes, and figure out how to query said agency appropriately (which, btw, is A WHOLE THING) before they stopped accepting queries for another year.
(if you read that all in one frantic breath you read it correctly)
Right as I was closing in on the ending of my novel, mere pages away from finishing, I went to see a local author (Lindsay Lynch of Parnassus Books and “Do Tell” fame) talk about her experience of birthing her debut novel (a phrase I find slightly off putting but that gets the point across so…I’ll allow it).
As a complete novice to the industry, I took away a lot from what she said. But if anything in particular stands out in my mind it was her estimate of having received 50-60 rejections before she found an agent willing to represent her. Which is insane because she’s like...Ann Patchett’s protege. She talked about getting feedback on both her query letter and the manuscript itself and how through that process she was able to make the necessary improvements to get her book across the finish line, implementing some hard but important edits. Which eventually led her to the agent that currently represents her and a crazy-good book deal and a national book tour with the aforementioned Ann Patchett. Not too shabby!!
It’s a classic “all my mistakes led me to you” kind of moment. And Lindsay is not the first person I’ve come across to highlight that this is a normal part of the querying process. Which, as I’ve come to discover, is indeed a mammoth-sized undertaking. Like, it feels like a part-time job, it’s so involved.
So imagine my dismay when the agency I’ve really been crossing my fingers about is open to submissions *right* when I’m ready to start querying but haven’t yet had a chance to be rejected a bunch so I can learn from the process and get better. A dilemma! Of epic proportions!!
Of course, I went for it. What choice did I really have? Better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all? Wait, no…that’s not how that saying goes.
Ultimately, I have no experience in this field of authoring. None whatsoever apart from the fact that I read books like I breathe air — constantly and without even thinking about it. So yes, I know how a good book is supposed to feel. And I think mine feels good! But I have no delusions about being so brilliant my first go round that ANY agency will find my natural writing prowess — and my first attempt at querying — so captivating and flawless that they can’t help but fall in love with me and Cora and Lucas and their merry gang of adventurers straight out of the gate.
Nobody gets a one and done query process, least of all me. Because as I’ve mentioned in the past, I am no prodigy. I am more likely a middle of the road-er, as most of us tend to be.
So while I had some help writing my query letter and improving it to a more professional standard, I’m pretty well resigned to having blown my load on that one agency I had my eye on, and you know what? I’m at peace with it.
Would I absolutely die to be represented by the same people who represent one of my all-time favorite authors who I basically think hung the moon and pulls his dialogue straight down from the stars? Yes. Yes I would.
But I’m being zen — choosing a que sera, sera approach, if you will — and taking it all in stride. I know there are a gazillion agents out there and I’ll eventually find the perfect one for me. I’m already compiling a hefty list.
But in the mean time, oh…just let a girl dream…
WESTPHALL 