{"id":747,"date":"2011-01-31T10:59:06","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T15:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.old.caraghobrien.com\/book\/?p=747"},"modified":"2011-01-31T10:59:06","modified_gmt":"2011-01-31T15:59:06","slug":"slush-pile-part-deux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/miscellaneous\/slush-pile-part-deux\/","title":{"rendered":"Slush Pile Part Deux"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birthmarked<\/em> wasn\u2019t in the slush pile for long\u2014two months\u2014but that\u2019s where it started. \u00a0What I knew about the process of trying to sell a novel was based on my failures with my literary novels (see previous post: Slush Pile Code<\/a>) and my success with six romances I\u2019d published (agentless) before I became a teacher.\u00a0 I had no experience with children\u2019s publishing whatsoever and no contacts, but there’s a way in for unknown people like me: through the slush pile.<\/p>\n

I knew one thing for certain: the only way my book would get noticed was if it was genuinely good enough to merit attention. \u00a0That seemed fair to me. \u00a0Though I didn\u2019t expect to succeed, I wanted the self-respect that would come with knowing I tried to sell my novel. \u00a0My work deserved that much.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So here\u2019s what I did.\u00a0 Once I had a complete manuscript of Birthmarked<\/em>, to start my list of potential agents, I went to the library, looked up the latest YALSA<\/a> Best Books for Young Adults list, pulled the available novels, and checked acknowledgement pages for writers who thanked their agents.\u00a0 For more leads, I bought a copy of The Writers Market<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/span>, read its section about agents, and searched online for lists of the best agents for YA novels.\u00a0 Then I searched the AgentQuery.com<\/a> database for four criteria: agents who represented YA, accepted email queries, were open to new clients, and were members of the Association of Authors\u2019 Representatives (AAR)<\/a>.\u00a0 I checked agencies\u2019 websites to read about the agents and what sorts of books they represented, studied their submission requirements, picked the agents that best matched my work, polished my query letter, customized it for each agent, and contacted sixteen agents by email.<\/p>\n

Done, I thought. \u00a0That same afternoon, one of the agents replied and asked to see the first fifty pages.\u00a0 I sent them along, and four days later he emailed back to say he thought the book was good but he didn\u2019t know whom he would send it to, so he wished me luck, recommended I check out Jeff Herman\u2019s Guide<\/a>, and passed.<\/p>\n

No surprise there.\u00a0 I thought, this is going to take four years and no one will ever want the book, so I might as well maximize the speed of rejections and expand my search now.<\/p>\n

I went back to AgentQuery.com and dropped the AAR criteria because, on further reading, I\u2019d learned that plenty of legitimate agents didn\u2019t bother with the AAR credential.\u00a0 I spent another three weeks researching individual agents like I had with my short list, tightened my query letter<\/a> again, and sent out a second batch of email queries to twenty-five more agents.<\/p>\n

The next day, I started receiving requests for the complete manuscript.\u00a0 Within a few weeks, eleven agents had requested partials or the complete manuscript, which seemed like a lot to me.\u00a0 Since they didn\u2019t ask for exclusive looks, I didn\u2019t mention that other agents had also requested the manuscript. \u00a0I thought I might sound pushy if I did. \u00a0I did start to worry, though, about the etiquette for handling it if more than one agent offered representation, so I studied articles about that on AgentQuery.\u00a0 I calmed down again.\u00a0 It almost never happens.<\/p>\n

Then I received an offer of representation.\u00a0 It was three weeks after I\u2019d sent out the second batch of queries, and this agent was excited about my book.\u00a0 He thought it was great.\u00a0 We talked for a while, and then I explained that other agents were considering the manuscript and asked for a little time to check back with them.\u00a0 He said that would be fine, and to let him know if I had more questions.\u00a0 We politely hung up.<\/p>\n

Dancing and hooting ensued.<\/p>\n

Agents, I found, were very courteous, hard-working people.\u00a0 When I emailed the others who had the manuscript to say I had an offer of representation, they responded within hours.\u00a0 They were very patient with me and their colleagues while I waited for other agents to read the manuscript and make an offer or not.\u00a0 The ones I spoke to all believed it mattered to find a good author-agent match and agreed it was worth taking the time to consider carefully, even if that took a couple weeks.\u00a0 So I did.<\/p>\n

After talking to five of the interested agents, I ended up with four offers of representation. Then I had to decide, and I didn\u2019t know what mattered most: experience, a list of award-winning writers, a specialization in children\u2019s lit, the size of the agency, a strong foreign rights department, or an ability to represent adult novels too should I want to return to that.\u00a0 I asked questions and took notes during the phone calls.\u00a0 The agents connected me with some of their clients and to a retired editor so I could talk to them, and I learned a lot, fast.<\/p>\n

I ended up with Kirby Kim of Endeavor, shortly before it merged with William Morris, and a smarter, nicer guy you\u2019ll never find.\u00a0 In my opinion, that\u2019s when I made it out of the slush pile, because that\u2019s when I gained an ally to represent my work.\u00a0 Kirby guided me through three fairly light revisions, and then in late October, 2008, Kirby submitted my book to fourteen editors.\u00a0 That waiting time was the most stressful. \u00a0I had no idea how long it would last or if we\u2019d get an offer, and the stakes felt high.<\/p>\n

A few weeks later, Kirby said he was getting some interest.\u00a0 He set a deadline for offers at 3:00, the Friday before Thanksgiving.\u00a0 I hurried home from school to be there for a phone call, and I distinctly remember looking out the kitchen window, half sick with hope and doubt, praying that someone would buy my book.<\/p>\n

Kirby called at 3:15.\u00a0 We had three offers for Birthmarked<\/em>, and the best offer, from Nancy Mercado at Roaring Brook, was a three-book deal.\u00a0 It was beyond belief.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, two-and-a-half years later, it\u2019s still beyond belief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Birthmarked wasn\u2019t in the slush pile for long\u2014two months\u2014but that\u2019s where it started. \u00a0What I knew about the process of trying to sell a novel was based on my failures with my literary novels (see previous post: Slush Pile Code) and my success with six romances I\u2019d published (agentless) before I became a teacher.\u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[53,9,28],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","tag-agents","tag-birthmarked-2","tag-query"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":751,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions\/751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}