And I’m a little nervous about it.
So.
I’ve been a full-time published writer for 11 years. 75 books, a few anthologies, a few novellas.
I’ve had 4 publishers that I actively sought out because I had no literary agent.
Let me repeat that: I’ve had 4 publishers, over 75 published works, and no agent.
It’s not like I haven’t tried to get an agent. I have tried. Or, rather, I had tried.
After too many form rejections, one person should shudder through, I was able to pitch to an agent at the RWA 2017 conference. You had to send 3 chapters of your WIP prior to the meeting so she would know the work you were pitching.
My appointed time came, and we met, shook hands, and then I introduced myself and reminded her which was my work because she was seeing people every 15 minutes for 2 hours. The very first thing out of her mouth was, “Oh, yes. I didn’t like your voice.”
I’m sorry…what?
She didn’t like my writing voice, so the appropriate assumption was that she didn’t like the work I’d sent either; that assumption was proven correct when her next sentence was, “I didn’t like the pages you sent.”
Okay. So…what now? I’ve got a 15-minute pitch session with this woman who absolutely shut me down before I ever said a word. Do I stay and talk about the weather? Politics? How ’bout those Yankees?
Yeah…not happening. Can you spell awkward?
What would you have done?
I’ll tell you what I did. Blinked a few times and took a few breaths so I wouldn’t go postal on her, then stood back up, plastered a fake as a three-dollar bill on my face, put out my hand and said, “Have a nice day.”
And then I turned and left. She never stopped me. Never said, wait, tell me about something else you’ve got. What else are you working on?
Nothing/Nada/zilch/zip.
Nice, right? ( insert sarcasm)
Ever since then, I haven’t pursued getting a literary agent. Why would I? I mean, a masochist I am not.
But…
About a year ago, I started writing a book that I truly feel is my best writing to date. Layered characters, a great backstory, a present-day situation anyone can relate to. And I thought, do I really want to self-publish this one? Wouldn’t it be nicer if I could get it trad pubbed?
Yeah, I answered. It would.
So…last week I reactivated my Query Tracker account and started searching for agents.
I know…am I crazy? Like I said…masochistic? Or just plain stupid to even try?
The one saving grace for me in using this tool (QT) is that I don’t have to sit through a face-to-face rejection. It will come in the form of an email. So much easier to stomach. At least for me. I don’t have to pretend my heart isn’t breaking or put on a good show face when I’m told, in person, “I didn’t like your story.” A faceless, speechless encounter is about all I can stomach at this point in my life.
You would think after all the writing awards I’ve won ( and you know they’re a lot! -No brag, just truth.) and the number of books I’ve had indie and trad published, someone, SOMEONE, and by someone I mean a literary agent, would want to take a chance on me and my story.
Most of the agents I queried have a response time of 8-12 weeks, so I’ll be debating with myself until the end of summer if this was a good idea or not. Until then, I’m perfecting the story and if I get nothing but rejections, it’s going live immediately!!
Why is this so hard, kids? Why?
~ Peg
Peggy Jaeger, Author 