In the blog prior to this, I outlined my process for getting an agent. How I combed through every US agent listed on www.QueryTracker.net, browsed “Best of Agent” lists, and as many individual agency profiles as I could find. How I created spreadsheets, templates for my query letter, and a Google doc with all my WIP’s info.
In this blog, I want to tell you how all that careful preparation went.
I’ll admit, I had high hopes that I could one and done the querying process. I knew it was wildly improbable, but I had grand ambitions of being a unicorn. Not quite 24 hours after I submitted my first query, my optimism was rewarded with a swift, if gracious, rejection. Despite my minor delusions of grandeur, the rejection itself was not a surprise, and I handled it far better than I expected. The process felt real then, that I was actually doing the thing.
Fortunately, it was more than a form rejection. They loved my writing and said my query was great. They were just the dreaded “not right fit”. And since I was always a fixer before a feeler, I focused on using their suggestions to tweak my query letter. Two-ish weeks later I divided up my spreadsheet of 50+ agents into five rounds of ten. Again, I was prepared for the long haul.
I strapped myself in for what I expected to be a grueling ordeal, a crucible if you will. Unfortunately, some of the agents I was interested in closed themselves to queries. I found who would become my agent while perusing #mswl on Twitter for what I will loosely call “replacements.” I saw she tweeted about being a new agent open to queries September 1st on August 28th. I remember thinking “She seems nice? Why not?” I checked out the agency and her profile and was comfortable enough with what I found to add her to my list.
By then, I received two more rejections and by September 9th I received a third. I was down to my future agent and another agent I, to be fair, had no business querying my first go around. But because my future agent was active on Twitter, I got daily updates on how her query inbox swelled to hundreds. I won’t say I stalked her timeline per say, but I may or may not have known how many queries she had left or what genre she was reading at any given moment. She passed a thousand by the way, and had a penchant for horror.
I watched in nervous interest and was pleasantly surprised to receive a partial request September 10th. Surprise turned into anxiety and I gambled with fate by reading through my pages before sending them in a few hours later. The whole time I questioned whether I was breaking some unknown publishing rule but I wanted mental reassurance. However, I nearly gave in to despair when a few days later, she posted the following tweet and I hadn’t gotten a full request.
An hour later, it showed up in my email.
I want to say I sent my full within the hour. Wasn’t taking any chances that time. I told my closest friends, who were as excited as I wanted to let myself be. But I hedged my expectations, told myself as much as them that it’s a great sign but she can still say no. I’ve always been a cautious person. But the next day, a dangerous bit of hope kindled in my dark little heart when she tweeted this.
The first tweet sent me into a tizzy. The second had me pacing my office, praying to whatever gods would listen that she meant me. And then it happened. At 9:33a.m. on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, I received the email. I received THE offer of representation that may or may not have made me scream in said office. I tweeted this, which prompted Helen’s third tweet and it nearly undid me because she was following me at this point, and I figured she knew my tweet was about her.
After the customary offer notification, my final rejection came arrived, which was a relief at that point. I wouldn’t have known how to act if multiple agents chose me. After some more discussion and more research, I signed with Helen Lane of Booker Albert Literary Agency. I chose Helen because she is a lovely human being kind, thoughtful, and a touch mischievous. She also legitimately loves my book, the characters, and the world. I expected to be told “Hey your WIP is great, but you need to cut it in half and start over.” Instead, Helen said “I love it, give me more.” She was invested, and I knew I wanted someone with that passion in my corner.
I closed out my querying journey after thirty-eight days and six queries. And according to Helen, I was officially a literary unicorn.
Thinking back on it now, it feels no less surreal. There is no equivocating I am exceptionally lucky to find Helen when and how I did. It’s the kind of luck unfortunately too few of my peers will experience. But it is also not lost on me Helen chose me out of a thousand queries to build her list with and I stand by everything I did to prepare myself for querying. Was I lucky to be browsing the hashtag when I found her? Yes. Did I do all the work to put my best foot forward when our paths crossed? Also, yes.
Finding Helen was lucky, looking for her wasn’t. And so, writers and worldbuilders, I say all this to say that with a little luck and a lot of legwork you can conquer querying. You too can be a unicorn.
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