My Heart’s All a Flutter

July 15, 2008 By Leave a Comment

 

I brought coffee to Daisy at precisely 7:00 AM, just like every weekday morning.  As I rounded the corner into our bedroom, I could see Max working on the Mac.  I squinted my eyes, and peered across the room at the little red dot resting just at the bottom of the little blue mail icon.  

No big deal, there’s always a little red dot, resting just at the bottom of the little blue icon.  And I’ve been checking that red dot compulsively, every time it’s colored the dock for a good six weeks, ever since we sent our first query.  

Most often, it’s Apple telling me about the newest version of the ipod, or something else equally frivolous.  Only the tiniest part of my heart even dared to hope that it had anything to do with our now two week old query to the second agent. 

That tiniest part of my heart thudded, then exploded.

I opened the e-mail, and saw the agent’s name staring at me from the sender field.  It was only a few sentences, but that’s all I needed to make my entire week (and maybe the next one too).

The e-mail said, thank you for your query, and for allowing the agency the opportunity to evaluate your work.  It is being seriously considered.  

Yes.  That’s all I wanted. 

I’d be foolish to think that everything will just magically fall into place overnight.  And honestly, I wouldn’t want it to.  Life is an adventure, this is all part of it, and I want to enjoy every second.  The agency we’ve queried, only took on five new clients last year, and they get three hundred submissions per week.

The odds are not in our favor.

But it only takes one yes; I want to know we’re making progress.  This morning’s email did that for me.

Writer Dad

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A New Door to Knock On

June 28, 2008 By 1 Comment

 

We’ve been rambling down the road of finding an agent.  Yesterday, we received our first response; exactly forty-five minutes before the work week ended.  The answer to our query was both relieving and disappointing, though a good deal more of the former. 

As is often the case, life saw fit to open one door just as it was shutting another.  The response was from the same agent we’d already sent a query once before; he of the, “shudders of horror” fame. 

After we were knocked down a few notches by our first query, we sent out a much subdued second.  Finding an agent is a long process and unfortunately, the neutered query received no response even after two weeks.  Last night Daisy and I e-mailed a rather bold, imaginative, third. 

We were finding an agent and it was the right thing to do.

We received a reply in eighteen hours to the same question that had remained unanswered for two weeks.  Though the agent’s answer hung low beneath a cloud of definitive rejection, it had a gleaming silver lining shining underneath. 

The agent said no to our work, but enjoyed the query.  He said it was, “Very clever query without falling off into the pit of silly.”  The agent also said that he was entirely deaf to books for our targeted age group, and suggested another agent he thought might work out wonderfully. 

He even said we could use his name in our query. 

To me, this was better than finding an agent, at least the first one willing to say yes.  It isn’t about how fast we can succeed in finding an agent, it’s about finding an agent that will be best for us in the long term.  I just want to write; finding an agent who understands me will help me to do just that.  

My expectations for finding an agent aren’t that different from my expectations in a good teacher.  

I want someone who will tell me what I’m good at, and where I need to work harder.  I need my very own literary Yoda.  So, this weekend, we plan to carefully draft our new query, and hit send before our faces touch the pillow on Sunday night. 

I know I’m just finding an agent, but I feel like I’m drafting a letter to Santa Clause.

Writer Dad

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Shudders of Horror!

June 13, 2008 By 2 Comments

 

Finding an Agent

finding an agentLife’s significant moments need to stop colliding with such unrelenting regularity. Yesterday, Mia left Kinder behind.  Today, Daisy and I finally received a long anticipated email regarding finding an agent.  

Now that it’s here, it’s impossible to ignore the fact it could change our lives forever.

About three weeks ago, we sent out our first query letter.  We sent it to a local agent in the hopes that he could represent some of our already finished children’s stories.  We selected the agent with care, drafted our e-query, and hit send.  We thought it would take somewhere between all week and all Summer to get a response in our new quest at finding an agent. 

It didn’t.  

Precisely ten minutes after I heard the woosh of the query leaving my laptop, I heard the ding of an incoming message.  

It was from the agent, and he did not like our query.

To be more specific, the agent said the query gave him “shudders of horror,” and that, “it did not work at all.”  I made the mistake of writing my query letter in rhyme, as though it were a children’s book; a deadly sin to an agent that I will never commit again.  

We had decent luck in finding an agent, just not impressing him.  Fortunately, the agent didn’t slam the door in our face.  He said with a letter of recommendation from a previously published children’s author, he would accept our query.  Daisy knows a wonderful author, Debbie Yamada, who spoke to her fourth grade class during Author’s Day the year before she left the classrom.  Debbie has written a wonderful chapter book about the Chinese gold rush, called, Strike it Rich!  

We contacted Debbie.  We asked her if she would please look at our material and help us in finding an agent. 

She did; she loved it; she agreed to write our letter.

Debbie’s letter is in my inbox.  All that’s left to do is attach it to our already drafted query and send it to the gentleman who might one day be our agent.  

I’ll keep you posted.  Who knows?  Maybe the task of finding an agent is only just beginning.

Writer Dad

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