My Journey to Agented

Finally, the long overdue post on how I signed with my amazing agent. My journey was not a straight line from querying to signed. It was 4 months of querying a manuscript that wasn't ready, pulling the manuscript, and re-querying. It was rewriting the entire book 3 times. It was participating in several Twitter Pitch events and praying for "favorites." It was essentially figuring out when my story was ready, who would be a good fit, and shooting my shot.

The most important piece of advice I can give is to have as many beta readers as possible, to follow a plot device like "Save the Cat" and to know that querying isn't a one and done adventure. I had about 6 beta readers. I also hired a developmental editor who taught me how to plot a book lol. You don't need to hire anyone, but I knew nothing about writing when I started this journey, so I knew I'd need a bit of a nudge in the right direction. Don't be afraid to keep working on your story. You'll get to a point where you know in your heart it's ready for an agent. And even then, the book will go through many more rounds of revisions!

Here's a list of steps because I like lists:

1. write the book

2. let the book sit for a month.

3. revise using a plotting tool like "Save the Cat" or "the Hero's Journey"

3. let the book sit for a month

4. reread/copyedit

5. send to at least 3 beta readers who are at your writing level or higher

6. incorporate changes

7. let the book sit and write that query letter and synopsis. Make sure you have a "one-line hook." Look for agents representing your book's age category and genre. I used Manuscript Wishlist, QueryTracker, and Twitter #MSWL

8. have your query and synopsis reviewed by your betas. They know your book.

9. Take a deep breath. Query 10 agents, not 50. If you get feedback, make a note of it. You may want to incorporate that into your story before querying the next batch of agents.

10. Query 10 more. In the meantime, consider participating in a pitch event like: #DVPit (if you are a marginalized writer), #SFFPit (if you write fantasy), and #PitMad

11. Send queries to agents who like your pitch within a week.

12. REPEAT!

Best of Luck!