How I Got an Agent: The End

Okay, this ongoing saga has gone on long enough. Time to bring it to a stunning conclusion. Or at least an end. In our last episode, I had just revised my whole book in about two weeks, despite a busy September. Stacy had it, and it was out of my hands. The next waiting game wasn’t as bad as before. I knew it wouldn’t last forever, for one thing, and I hoped that even if it went poorly, I’d be able to revise once again. At the same time, Joshua happened to send me a shipment of German books. (I’ve been very happy to get one of these a few times a year from him. He gets book deals in German, they send him the books to show it really has been printed, he sends the books to me. It’s a wonderfully parasitic relationship, and it keeps me stocked with all the German fantasy I could ever read.)

Anyway, I happened to get a shipment, and since I always would email to thank him, I emailed him and said thanks and “oh by the way” Vodnik was up at an acquisitions meeting and I’d hopefully be looking for representation soon. He emailed right back to ask to see the revision, and I emailed it off.

A few weeks later, I got the email from Stacy: they wanted to make an offer on Vodnik. I called Joshua to tell him, and he asked for an evening to read the revision and make up his mind. Now, some of you are no doubt thinking, “Duh. Of course he’d represent you once you already have a deal set to go through. Free money.” But that’s not really how it works with good agents. They don’t just want to represent anybody–they want to represent people and books they really love. One of my friends was in this exact situation before with Joshua, and Joshua ended up turning him down. (He went on to make a killer deal on his series, so don’t feel too bad for him.) So this was by no means a slam dunk yet.

But happily, I talked to Joshua the next day. It was a yes. Actually, Eddie Schneider is the agent in charge of YA at JABberwocky, so he’s been handling the negotiations and such, but since Joshua and I have this five years of history at this point, Joshua’s still staying in the loop to give me writing and career advice.

Now that it’s all done, how does it feel? About like how all my author friends said it would feel. There was about a week or two of intense elation, and then that subsided into a “what do I do now” stage. For so long, I’ve been focused on writing a new book or sending out queries on existing books, trying to get to where I am now. Now that I’m here, I have a whole different set of things to focus on. Revising Vodnik again, for one thing–I’ll start that soon. And after that, writing my next piece: either revising something I’ve written, or writing something new. We’ll see what it is.

Whatever it is, I’m looking forward to the months and years ahead. It’s been a long road to get to this point, and then you discover there’s just more road in front of you. There’s probably something deep to think about there, but it’s Monday, and I’m not up for deep. If anyone has any questions, please ask.