Wednesday I spent the whole day working on a query letter for A Mother for the Seasonings.
Wednesday night I spent an hour and a half searching for perfect words.
Thursday morning I decided I'd look at sending it to an agent.
Thursday afternoon I rewrote the perfect query letter, cutting it to shreds and re-piecing it for the agent's particular case.
Thursday evening I sent the query letter to the agent.
Two hours later he emailed back asking to read the manuscript.
Since then I've been taking a leisurely view of life and saying aloud now and then, "Oh...an agent is looking at my work."
The words still taste strange, but they feel right. And I feel right saying them. The day has finally come when I dusted off my courage, glared at it for a moment, polished it up shiny-bright and sent a query letter round, expecting to be rejected. This agent may still reject me. He probably will. But I am so excited that my first letter to my first agent was enough to catch his interest.
He requested the manuscript.
It must have done the job! I am still waiting for an email or a phone-call and debating within myself how long that might take to come. I'd like to know whether it's a yes or no so I can send it out to someone else, but I already feel this was a minor success. I was expecting to be refused right off after a pause of four weeks. Instead, the Lord blessed me by having me affirmed in two hours. Amazing. So even if the guy decides A Mother for the Seasonings isn't his cup of tea, I won't be terribly disheartened. He's already done me a great service by asking to take a second look. :)
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17 comments:
I wish you luck!
Ooh!! How terribly and deliciously exciting!!!!!! You sound so calm about it. I know that if it was me waiting on that second glance, I'd be full of pins and needles, just waiting for that reject! But, he asked for your manuscript!! Wow! Something must have really sparked his interest in the query letter!! Perhaps you should do a tutorial on how to write swell query letters for one of your posts. ;)
Wow. This is amazing. Good for you.
SCREAM! Oh Rachel I'm so happy for you! my fingers are shaking! I think I'm going to start yelling and not be able to stop! Congratulations! Three cheers!
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Jeevesie! I'm so thrilled for you! How terribly, terribly exciting! I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this just about takes the giddy biscuit!!
Am I the only one who's dreadfully curious to know how the general flow of your query letter went? I've always wondered what those things are supposed to say-- would you be comfortable sharing a snippet or two?
Kendra-- thank you!
Kiri-Liz, well I *am* a fairly calm about the whole thing simply because it was so unexpected. I went in preparing myself to be refused, and though I was rather shaky when I saw the email, I soon calmed down again thinking to myself: Well, that was an unexpected blessing in itself even if it's followed by a refusal!
Anne-girl, thanks a million for the congratulations and the fingers-shaking-on-my-behalf!
Miss Dashwood, since you are the second person to ask about How It Was Done, I will share my thoughts....though I do feel silly for doing that since this is my first query letter and the chap just happened to like it. :P
That's wonderful, Rachel! Good luck! :-D
I hope it's followed with an acceptance. ;-)
Wow, I really hope he likes it!
Congrats!!! What is that book about?
HURRAH!!! :) Do keep us posted on how it goes, dear! Gracious, this is terribly exciting! And even though two others asked you on how you wrote the query letter, my curiosity is piqued as well on the convincing message that caused the agent to wish to see more of your darling story. :) I'd love to hear about it!
@Mamie, this was my first "good" book and it follows a family of 5 Victorian children who are not at all proper and run about their British-occupied-Indian village trying to convince someone to marry their father and be their mother. :D
Yay!! I'm so happy for you, dear! :) Do keep us updated. ;)
RACHEL!
That's fantastic! I can see it now - you'll be an instant success and quickly blast away on a trail of rocket-fuel on a non-stop path to the stars and I'll be able to hold my head high with a twinkle in my eye and proudly say "I KNEW HER WHEN...!!!" pointing at you on your porcelain pedestal of fame. :D
Really! If you can read between the lines of all that frippery, I am all a-tremble with joy for your sake.
I must see this "query letter" you sent... ;)
Hugs!
~Julia
I'm grinning here at my computer screen for you, how exciting. Of course he asked to read your manuscript, your writing is needless to say excellent and your stories sound interesting, and a bit old fashioned which I think is something we have lost with the day and age we live in now, the beauty of a simple enjoyable story that warms our heart. I really hope all goes well for you ! May God bless you in this endeavor.
~ Rachel Hope
How do you know a particular agent is the right one for your story?
Gabrielle: The way I determined to send my letter to this agent was because he was a Christian agent, had worked with authors I was somewhat familiar with, and he was looking for children's fiction, which is what I write. :) Generally you want to look around at the authors your agent has worked with and be sure they're legit, then look at what the agent is asking for...what genres he or she works with. :)
Okay. Awesome! Thank your for answering my question.
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