GENREALITY

I asked the lovely and well known non-fiction author Deborah Blake to talk about her agent search to find someone to represent her novels. She has a story that may seem familiar to many of you, and she was kind enough to share it here.

2 Years, 3 Manuscripts, and 50 Rejections: Anatomy of an Agent Search

By Deborah Blake

I have been writing on and off my entire life. In my youth, I even sent out a few short stories (mostly fantasy and science fiction). They got rejected. That led to the “off” part.

Five years ago, almost accidentally, I wrote a book about modern Witchcraft, and started my career as a Llewellyn author. I loved writing the nonfiction, and my fourth and fifth books will be out this year—but truly, my heart was with with fiction world. So I decided I needed to get serious about that side of my writing. That first nonfiction book had taught me something important: I could finish a book.

I set myself some concrete goals: I would write and finish a novel. Then I would get an agent. A top agent, of course. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. But I didn’t realize just how hard and long the journey would be.

Two years, three manuscripts, and well over fifty rejections later, I finally achieved my goal. Along the way, a few surprising things happened, and I learned a lot about the agent search, publishing, and myself.

Candace Havens—one of the best surprises that happened to me on my journey—suggested that I share my travels and a little bit of what I learned, so here it is:

The Journey—

I finished the final edits on the first book in early February of 2008, and sent out my first query about a week later. Over the course of about a year, I sent out a lot of other queries, and got requests for partials and a few requests for fulls (including one from Harlequin editor Patience Smith, as a result of my EMILY “Best of the Best” contest win). I used all the Writer’s Digest GUIDE TO AGENTS and GUIDE TO PUBLISHING books, and the Agent Query site online. I also checked websites for the agencies and agents I was interested in, read the dedication pages of books by authors I respected, and started spending inordinate amounts of time following agents and editors on Facebook and Twitter.

Lesson #1: DO YOUR RESEARCH.

It took insane amounts of time and effort, but the research really did pay off. For one thing, I only sent queries to agents who represented the kind of books I was writing. Which undoubtedly increased the amounts of requests I got (and didn’t piss off the agents—always a plus). It also helped me to come up with a top “wish list’ of agents, one of whom was the agent who signed me.

The Journey –

I also started following some of the authors I really liked and admired, the fabulous Candace Havens among them. I went to blogs and left comments. I bought books and told the authors I’d done so. I supported and applauded their endeavors, asked questions, and soaked up as much wisdom as possible from all these lovely folks who were further down the path than I was. Don’t get me wrong—I wasn’t sucking up. (Much.) I was demonstrating that I was serious about being a successful author, helping out writers whose work I genuinely admired, and learning a lot in the process. The surprise was that many of these folks have ended up being real friends. The help and support I’ve gotten from them—much of which took the form of repeated “don’t give up, I know you’ll make it” mantras—has far exceeded anything I might have hoped for when I started out.

Lesson #2: WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

Writing is a tough business. Some authors see themselves as being in competition with other authors for the few available publishing slots. But most of the authors I know take the opposite view. They cheer each other on, welcome guest blogs from fellow writers, brag about other author’s new releases on twitter, and much, much more. The writing community turned out to be a warm and welcoming place, and I now have friends and critique partners I found along the way. And I have started to mentor other authors who are treading the path I was on, to pass on the help and advice so many other authors shared with me when I needed it.

The Journey –

Eventually, I joined RWA, and a few RWA online chapters that were the most appropriate for my writing. (There is no RWA chapter near me, alas.) I entered contest after contest for almost a year, garnering lots of feedback, which I added to the feedback I’d received from agents and editors. Some of it really resonated with me (or was repeated over and over, which told me that no matter how I perceived my work, others were seeing it differently), and some of it made no sense whatsoever. I also took a number of online writing classes and went to workshops at my first ever RWA Nationals last year. And I kept writing. When book #1 didn’t sell, I wrote book #2. When book #2 didn’t sell, I wrote book #3. And shockingly—each book was a little bit better than the one before it.

Lesson #3: USE ALL THE TOOLS AT YOUR DISPOSAL TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING. THEN WRITE, WRITE, WRITE.

This might have been the most important lesson of all. Writers write. Yes, they blog, and send out queries, and take classes, and spend way too much time on Twitter, but mostly what they do is WRITE. No coming up with excuses for why the writing can’t get done. No indulging in week-long pouts because someone sent you a rejection letter. Just write. Along the way, learn everything you can about how to make your writing better. Listen to those who give you feedback, but also listen to your own inner voice; no one can tell you what is best for your writing. Pay attention to what you like about other authors’ writing, and figure out what works and what doesn’t. Then write some more. When I first started out, every rejection sent me into a tailspin that lasted for days. By the end, I’d shrug, say, “Well, not the right one for me,” and go back to the computer to write the book that WOULD get me the one.

The Journey –

Book one was sent out to over sixty agents. Book two was sent out to two—both folks who’d read the full of #1 and said, “Not quite, but send me the next one.” But as much as I loved the book (and believe it will sell when the market changes), it was clear that humor was a tough sell. So I made a conscious choice to put aside both books 1 and 2 for a bit, took a break from querying, and wrote #3. When it was done, I queried my top three choices. The first choice said he wasn’t taking on anyone new, nothing personal. The second one said she didn’t love the voice. The third one—Lucienne Diver, my top choice, and now a pal—said she loved the book…but she’d recently signed someone whose protagonist was a little too similar to mine, and she felt she wouldn’t be able to sell it. Arghhhhh!

So I took a chance, and asked her if she would mind sending it on to Elaine Spencer, also at The Knight Agency, and Candy’s agent. Elaine had read book #1 and liked it, but felt it was too close to things already being repped by the agency. The next day, I got an email from Elaine telling me she loved the book. Really loved it. That was on a Friday afternoon. On the following Monday, we talked on the phone and she officially agreed to represent me. My journey was over.

Lesson #4 – BE FLEXIBLE AND NEVER GIVE UP

I thought I had a top three list of agents I wanted. It turned out that my real dream agent wasn’t one of them. (Although I confess, she was still up there in the top five.) Rather than be discouraged because things hadn’t turned out exactly the way I wanted, I rolled over into plan B and it turned out even better than I expected. All authors dream of having an agent who is completely enthusiastic about their work, and in Elaine, I have just that. I couldn’t be happier. If you’re going to be a professional author, learning to roll with the punches is an absolute necessity. Even the most successful authors I know still sometimes get their work rejected. (Happened to one of my friends just this week). But they eat a few medicinal chocolates, and then dust themselves off and get back to the work of writing. Because no matter what stage of the journey you’re at, if you’re a writer—you write.

Deborah Blake
www.deborahblakehps.com
Circle, Coven & Grove: A Year of Magical Practice (Llewellyn 2007)
Everyday Witch A to Z (Llewellyn 2008)
The Goddess is in the Details (2009)
Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook (2010)

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