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…
