My Agent Story! (How Michelle Wolfson offered representation.)

As you can see, this is my very first blog post! And I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to upload it later… but I’ll do my best!

I just wanted to share with you, friends and fellow-writers, my AGENT STORY!

I’ve been writing for years now, and it has been a LONG journey since I began writing in Spanish. What? I hear you say.  Yeah, I’m a native Spanish speaker and my first two books couldn’t land an agent here, in Chile, because there are NO agents where I live.  Or well, maybe there are like two, but I couldn’t find any. 

So I said to myself, “Okay, I’ll write in English, then.” (I’d learned during an exchange program in high-school.) So I wrote what I thought was going to be the next bestseller--sure, you can laugh at me, I give you my permission. ;)

I had no idea everything was going to be so difficult!  First, I had overestimated my English knowledge.  Second, after I sent more than 50 queries and received just a couple of requests, I realized I didn’t know how to write. 

Despite feeling utterly rejected, I didn’t give up.  I wrote a second novel in English.  Got like 3 critique groups, critique partners, writing classes, you name it.  Held up my breath and sent 100 queries.  Got 7 requests, which later turned into rejections, and the rest, all big, fat Rs.  

I wondered if what I was doing was crazy—if I had wasted years of my life for nothing.  But then I realized that no matter what, I would still write.  Because I loved it.

So I got up from my sorrow bed, and wrote a third book in English.  And my query stats increased dramatically. I just couldn’t believe it!  

I was waiting impatiently for the agents to answer when I read about the Baker’s Dozen Auction.  I just couldn’t miss that opportunity! So I entered and was lucky enough to get chosen.  But I was scared to death because most of the agents in the auction happened to be the ones who had already rejected my query.  So I was pretty sure no agent would be interested in my ms. Boy, was I wrong.  In the end, even the agents who had already rejected my query bid for reading pages of my YA novel.  (What??) I know! So weird.  (I have a theory, though: my query wasn’t as good as my first page? I don’t know, otherwise I can’t explain what happened in the auction.  And I even got a shower of requests when the auction ended.)

I sent my fulls/partials that weekend and did what I always did and hated to do.  I waited.  Until one morning, I woke up, grabbed my iPod from my nightstand—without my glasses on—to check out my email. 

The first thing I saw was this blurry Twitter notification.  Michelle Wolfson is now following you on Twitter.  I squinted at the iPod, the room still a bit dark.  No way, I thought.  She can’t be THE Michelle Wolfson (who by the way, I already loved—because, c’mon, she’s an AWESOME agent! :D). Anyway, agents don’t follow girls like me on Twitter… I mean, I was still pretty new to it.  

Then I read the following message: RE: Authoress Auction Requested. It was Michelle's reply to my full!  I quickly fumbled for my glasses and read the email.  SHE HAD LOVED MY MS!  You think I smiled?  Laughed?  NO! I started to cry like a baby.  

I called my husband, who was on his way to work, and I just couldn’t speak because I was still crying so hard.  He heard my sobs and almost drove back to the house to, I don’t know, take one of the kids to the hospital? Call the police? But luckily, I could muster the words, “I think I have an offer.”

Only after telling my husband that, I smiled! And I guess I haven’t stopped smiling ever since!

And then Michelle and I scheduled THE call :D

To be continued…