How Did You Get the News?

I was out of the country when the agent who had my full emailed to arrange a phone call to discuss representation. She had only had the full a short time, so I hadn't expected a response yet, and had no access to email myself; my husband at home was checking it for me. I also had only minimal phone access so I scheduled the call (via my husband) for ten days later, when I would be back home. During those ten days I was convinced that the agent would realize that representing me is a terrible idea. But, amazingly, ten days later we talked and she offered

I got a phone call about 2 weeks after I'd sent in the full. Of course, being particularly plagued by doubt at that point, I didn't catch on that when he said "I love this book and really want to represent it, but it needs some work first," that he wasn't asking for an R&R, but actually offering rep. I didn't catch that during the subsequent 1 1/2 hour phone call a few weeks after that (when we went over the revisions that needed to be made to the MS) either. It wasn't 'til I was nearly ready to send back the revisions (after about 8 weeks of work) and had emailed to say I was nearly done, that he said "I can't wait to start sending this out in January," and I realized he meant "I love this book and I really want to represent it, but it needs some work before I send it out."

Hah! (Moral of this story is, when in doubt - ask for clarification.)

My agent called me to meet for drinks, didn't offer over the phone call. I went for drinks. About maybe an hour or so into it after she had more suggestions and we talked about my book I finally had to ask: "So if I do those things . . . what happens next . . .?" And she said, "I always wait to see when the author will ask that question." She smiled. "Yes I'd like to represent you."

Then we hung out for another 4 hours eating and drinking.

It was fun.

E-mail and then call the next day. She said that if I'd put my phone number on my manuscript or in my e-mail (don't ask me why I didn't) she would've just called straight out.

The news for being represented or published? Still waiting on the publishing one. LOL. My agent's assistant sent me an email asking to set up a phone call. This was after a round of revisions.

I've gotten two offers, and both came via a prelude email asking to set up a day/time to talk by phone. (And my phone number was in my email footer and on my manuscript, so the agents could've called directly.)

It was a Wednesday afternoon and I was on the way to pick up my middle daughter from a Camp Half Blood summer camp (Rick Riordan's fans will understand this). The drive in traffic took almost an hour so I was chatting with a friend and while I was stopped at a light a 212 area code popped up on my phone. I answered immediately only to realize several seconds later that I'd just hung up on my friend without warning. Luckily, the light took forever so I was able to shoot her a text and tell her what happened. My agent and I chatted for about forty-five minutes. She had questions about my story, how I came up with the idea, what else I was working on. She suggested a very minor change in a single scene and I told her if she'd like to send her notes I'd be happy to do an R&R and she replied with "Well, I was really wanting to represent you." Stunned. I was completely stunned. And I did the big no-no and accepted representation without giving any agents with my manuscript a chance to respond. (Which shocked the hell out of my friend once I finally called her back.) I simply went with my gut. It sucked sending those "withdrawing my manuscript from consideration" emails, but I have zero regrets. Zero. My agent then called me out of the blue two months later to say I'd received my first offer.

I got an email, which was good, because I sobbed for five solid minutes. We talked on the phone that afternoon, when I was nicely composed.

Email, then call. Which was useful this time around, because I had to drive 40 miles down the mountain to get a cell signal because of a storm!

It's always been e-mails for me. E-mails setting up times to call and/or times to meet up. I much prefer getting the initial "We love this and want to talk!" news over e-mail. That way, I have time to shit my pants and squee and sob and whatever else it is I do before putting on my professional voice for the offering agent.

First time, it was a call out of the blue on a day when I was SO busy meeting deadlines that I actually had to ask the agent to call back later. Not fun.

Second time, email to arrange a call. So I could choose a time with no pressing deadlines, which was great, but waiting a night turned out to be really hard. I didn't sleep much.