A New Door to Knock On

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