How I Got My Agent
The short answer is a simple one: I got an agent by not giving up, writing and reading as much as possible.
Reality, of course, is a more complicated.
So for the real story, read on loves:
IT STARTED WITH ONE:
I wrote my very first manuscript in 2011, spent years working on it, queried it profusely with a query letter that wasn’t good (I had no idea how to write one!), and accumulated a multitude of form rejections, which I didn’t keep great track of (thank goodness for QueryTracker). I’d estimate the amount at about 80 total. From those 80, and several rounds of revisions on both the manuscript and the query, my first manuscript garnered 1 single request for a full in a two-year time frame. Yup! Two whole years. And one full request.
But that one full request ended up being from a well known agent, who receives tens of thousands of queries a year. And out of all of those, she’d picked mine! It felt amazing! It made me feel like I had a chance! It unfortunately ended in a fairly quick pass, but it was enough to keep me enthusiastically going. If I could get one request, I knew I could get more with my next manuscript! Plus, the agent told me to submit my next project to her!
I KEPT WRITING:
By the time I got that full request and rejection, I’d participated in my first NaNoWriMo, and ended up with a zero draft of a zombie novel I would continue to revise on and off for what felt like forever. I liked the novel. I liked the story. But I wasn’t fully sure who to query with it. The agent who previously passed had said in an interview she didn’t like zombies, so she wasn’t going to be on my list, and I really wanted to have something I could query widely.
Around this time, I discovered Pitch Wars and the YA Twitter family. I learned so much about the industry as I drafted my third manuscript, which I enthusiastically planned to submit to the contest. When the time came, I put together my submission materials, and sent them away, crossing my fingers. Like many others, I didn’t get into Pitch Wars, but I did make many amazing connections! And again, continued to learn so much!
During this time, I also participated in a query and first pages bootcamp and finally learned how to write a decent query, which made a HUGE difference as I began to query my new project. I started to get more requests for fulls than ever before. I eventually submitted that manuscript to Pitch America, which was a miniature version of Pitch Wars, but mostly an agent showcase. One of the things I feared most was not getting a single request for more pages from any agent. The submission garnered a bunch of comments, though, including one from Hannah Fergesen from KT Literary, who I am so excited to say is now my agent!
I submitted the pages to agents, participated in #PitMad and #DVPit, and from those, many turned into full requests. But they all ended up in various versions of passing for various reasons which ranged from it being too dystopian to the agent not connecting with the voice. It did also end up though, with an R&R from Hannah. I bypassed NaNo that year and worked on my R&R. Sent it back to Hannah, who came back and said that it just didn’t seem like the right book to launch with.
At the time, of course I was sad. But I shook it off, and she asked if I had anything else she could read right then. I sent her my first manuscript and then eventually finally finished my zombie book and sent her that one. And those just weren’t right, either. Now at this point you might be thinking: Holy crap that’s depressing. But continuous engagement with Hannah kept me motivated. It seemed like my style was connecting, but I needed to find the right story. So, I kept writing.
I let Hannah know I was working on GHOSTS OF THE VOID, which I was starting from scratch on from an old NaNo project idea, and would send it to her soon. She read it when I finished. Again offered an R&R. I worked for four months on the revision, changing the manuscript from six points of view to one (so intense!), and ended up with a story in a world I fell in love with more than all my others.
I turned in the R&R and then waited nervously to hear back.
IT’LL PAY OFF:
When I got the email from Hannah that she wanted to have a call, it felt amazing!
We hopped on The Call the same day I got the email, during which Hannah talked to me about changes she thought the manuscript still needed, all of which I really connected with. Then I got to ask her a bunch of questions.
After the call, I reached out to a couple of her clients for referrals, who made me even more excited to accept Hannah’s offer! I hadn’t been querying the revision much, but I reached out to the few agents who had my full/or a query and offered a one week turnaround if they were interested. In the end, I signed with Hannah and KT Literary!
Anytime you reach a milestone, it’s easy to look back and see how you got there. For me, there were a lot of pages, lots of lost nights in chapters that would ultimately not make the cut, and a lot of rejection. But because of all that, I got better. Much better.
And it just goes to show how important it is to build a relationship with agents who offer R&R’s to you! And how important it is to keep writing, keep querying, and keep your chin up!
