Querying, And How I Found My Agent

Previously, I told you about my time in query-land, which actually drummed up very little in the way of results. I never would have anticipated how I finally ended up getting an agent.

Whilst investigating agents, author blogs, and lord knows what else, I somehow stumbled upon Query Kombat, hosted by Michelle 4 Laughs, a few days before submissions started. It quite explicitly stated that if you're an unagented author currently querying, this competition is for you! So heck, I had to join. I didn't expect to make the cut, but I had nothing to lose by submitting, so I queried QK just like I queried everyone else.

I noticed there were lots of haps going on over at Twitter, and it occurred to me that if I was going to be entering writing contests, I should really make a Twitter account. And I guess that's kind of important and helpful for publishing and reaching an audience and all that. Turns out it was the best decision ever.

To my surprise, I made it into QK. They chose 64 combatants out of ~340 entrants. Eek, my query was good enough to compete! In order to progress to the agent round, in which agents reviewed all the competitors and made requests as they saw fit, I needed to win round 1. Again, I was doubtful, sure I'd already pushed my luck as far as it was going to go--but then I ended up taking home a 9-0 victory against my graceful opponent. Onto the agent round!

Remember how I mentioned Twitter? Well, I was getting my feet wet by tweeting about QK. I loved the positive atmosphere, friendly banter, and hanging off every word the hosts tweeted. It was a great feeling to connect to so many other authors in a similar place to myself, and to see some really exciting sci-fi entries! Amid all the madness, someone tagged both #QueryKombat and #PitMad. Thus one writing contest led me to another. And by a stroke of timing, I stumbled onto the rules for #PitMad a few days before it started, same as I'd done with QK.

#PitMad is a Twitter event where freaking everyone tweets a one-sentence pitch, and a gajillion agents and editors trawl the feed requesting anything that tickles their fancy. The main feed sped by with new posts every few seconds. It's in your best interest to tag your genres, so agents can find things they represent more easily. We were allowed to tweet up to 3 pitches per novel throughout the day. Here are mine, all variations on the same thing:

An idealistic revolutionary falls in love with the Emperor he's meant to betray. #PitMad #A #SF #LGBT

Idealist is recruited into a conspiracy to overthrow the Empire, falls in love with the Emperor he's going to betray. #PitMad #A #SF #LGBT

Rebel must choose between fighting for his ideals or protecting the man he loves--the Emperor he betrayed. #PitMad #A #SF #LGBT

The first one is my go-to when anyone asks me what my novel is about. Spoiler - it's also the one that got me an agent. ;)

I got a much better response than I expected. Several LGBT romance publishers requested it, but I was hesitant to submit to a publisher unagented. I know so little about the industry and contracts, I really need an advocate who knows what they're doing. But you can imagine my shock when some big name agents from some big name agencies requested material, too!

I excitedly sent off my stuff to agent #1. Agent #2 came along the next day, which surprised me--turns out many agents still cruise the feed for a day or two. When I went to send pages to agent #2, I saw an email from #1--a full request already! Mind blown. She read it so quickly, she finished it that same day, emailing back and forth with me the entire time... and made an offer! She told me she loved the writing so much, she read parts of it aloud to her husband. And holy moly, she's the president of a very well known agency, a NYT bestselling author herself, with a hugely impressive client list. (Another spoiler - this is not my agent. More on this next time!)

After having a heart attack, I promptly rushed around trying to figure out what to do. I needed to notify anyone who had my manuscript already, and see if anyone else wanted to make an offer. I had to let Query Kombat know, so they could release any requests I got from the agent round. I was very sad to pull out so early, as I wanted to see if I could keep up that winning streak, but it's hard to be too upset because, well, I got an offer of rep.

The others I contacted had varying responses.

• One who had the partial - "I'll step aside, good luck."
• One who had the full - "I don't have time for a rushed read right now, sorry."
• The one who requested from QK - "Great so far, send me the full!"
• The other who had #PitMad material - "I loved it, send me the full!"

So now I had three agents reading the full, who were all loving it. I never, ever would have expected to get offers from a last-minute Twitter pitch. I spent hours upon hours working on my query; the Twitter pitch I thought up in about thirty seconds and it sounded good so I stuck with it. And yet, that's what got me my first offer, which snowballed into everything else. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to keep your feelers out and seize opportunities. If I hadn't stepped outside my comfort zone and entered QK and #PitMad, I might not be where I am now.

Then again, I was actually planning on querying my current agent once I finished polishing things up based on QK feedback. So maybe it would have still worked out. :)

Now, picking out of those agents was agonizingly difficult, and considering this post is already running on far longer than I intended, I shall devote another post to how I made that decision. Tune in next time as the saga continues!