Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Anticipation

Well, I landed an agent who sent my story collection out the first week in March. A few days later my agent called and left a voicemail. She said she'd only call unless she had hard news, not just so-and-so may be interested. So imagine my anticipation when I called her back, hands shaking. She said PublisherA had called her and complimented her on the writing, saying they liked it, but they wanted to know if I had a novel or was working on a novel or had a synopsis. I had just finished the collection weeks earlier so hadn't begun anything new but had been kicking around a novel idea. My agent and I talked it over on the phone and she said to write a synopsis that night, and get it to her the next morning, which I did. Then they apparently called her back and asked if I had sample pages, which I don't. All this was exactly a week ago on March 18, 2009. Meanwhile, she reads me the first rejection over the phone from PublisherB, which was a so-called nice rejection. So out of the first net my agent cast two weeks ago, of the 11, only one has outright rejected, one has expressed interest, and no word from nine others. I've started this blog to get a few things off my mind and show other writers who are fishing around for an agent how this all works. Since this is a new blog, other details are in order. It's adult literary fiction. A short-story collection, many of which have been previously published and won an O. Henry prize and a Pushcart special mention. Agent is from reputable agency, "highly recommended" agency as listed in Preditor, and has made about 40 debut fiction and general fiction sales dating to 2001. I don't want to hound her, since it's only been two weeks, but was thinking a weekly e-mail wouldn't be too much hounding, unless, of course, I get THE CALL from her.

1 comment:

  1. Hey, great blog. I don't think e-mailing once a week is pestering. Anyway, rock on and good luck!

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