agents, and publisher, and facebook, oh, my...

Authonomy Update: 43!

agents, and publisher, and facebook, oh, my...

Pearl has had quite the roller coaster ride in the last couple of weeks.

First, I skyped with an agent and talked through Pearl's first chapter. He had read it and critiqued it, and this was a culminating exercise.

He had good things to say about the premise and had some insights on the writing (simpler is better). I think the meeting went well, but since he doesn't agent fantasy, he won't be picking up my book. Bummer. He seems like a really nice guy and would be good to work with.

So, these are some things I learned from the process:

1. Know your agent: This critique came from a seminar in Montana, and it was a very last minute submission, so I didn't have time to research Mark and find out if he would be a good fit for the book. Although, as stated, he was nice, if he doesn't rep my genre, he doesn't rep my genre.

2. Time is relevant in the publishing world: I submitted the first chapter in May, and didn't get the critique until last week. I totally understand the chaos of life and especially summer, but it seemed like a long time to wait. To his defense, he did apologize. To mine, I should realize that these things take time.

3. Simple is better: I had decided to add a bunch of things to my first chapter and it got bogged down. It really did. My husband in his infinite wisdom told me that I needed to go back to when I first wrote and look at the freshness of it. I did that and realized it was pretty good. With a couple of tweaks, it is back to the original. Simple.

Next on the ride:

I received a really nice rejection letter from an agent. Truly nice. In fact, she said she was probably crazy for rejecting it and gave me several things that she saw to improve, and I had an aha moment. I wrote back and thanked her (which you should always do), and she wrote me back (which they never do) and told me if I revise, to let her know. So now, I need to decide: To revise or not to revise, that is the question. Or aye, that's the rub.

On the same day she rejected me, a small publishing company asked for a full manuscript.

So here are the stats:

1 agent critigue
1 agent semi-sorta rejection
1 publishing company ask

Oh, and I also had another agent ask for the first 50 pages, so add 1 partial to the list. Annnnnddd....I now have 158 fans on my FB page.

Pretty good couple of weeks, I'd say.