To be honest that doesn't sound like hell. You got an agent within a month and already a few publishers are looking at it. You're way ahead already, and probably aren't too far off of getting an offer. So congrats, and go with the ride instead of being so antsy about it.
It took me 10 months to sell my ms. and it was a learning experience. I appreciated it.
No, honest, Ray, it's hell.
I know no one wants to hear that, because having an agent is supposed to be a big enormous step and, why, it's practically
guaranteed that you're going to be published! Yep! Any day now!
WRONG! *cue buzzer*
(Ray -- this is in no way directed at you. Just so you know.
)
All the writing advice I've devoured since I started, all the sites I've visited and experts I've spoken to and books and articles I've read, have a common theme: these days, you can only sell to a major publisher if you have an agent. And it's damned hard to get an agent. And once you have an agent, you know that your writing is at a professional level. Agents sell books all the time! Agent = sale!
I unequivocably believed this, which is why being on submission is hell (for me). Because it don't work that way.
(Another disclaimer: I ADORE my agent. Wouldn't trade her for the world. She's doing a kick-ass job and I appreciate every single thing she does.)
So, I'm on submission now. My agent is with the Donald Maass agency. After seven or eight rounds with other novels that resulted in rejection, rejection, rejection (and falling for more scams than I'd care to think about), getting an agent for this novel happened really, really fast. Out of around a dozen initial queries I sent out, only two of them didn't ask for a partial, and five of them declined the partial because I didn't know the book was urban fantasy (I was calling it a supernatural thriller -- my bad). The rest requested fulls. I went from querying to signed in three weeks.
At this point I thought, Wow! If that many agents liked my stuff, I'm sure there must be editors who will like it, too!
My agent had revisions for me. That took about a month, because she had a ton of other stuff happening all at once. Then I went on submission.
Rejections came in all saying exactly the same thing: love the writing, love the characters, love the story, can't buy it because it's YA. I didn't set out to write a YA novel, but I'm cool with it being YA...
So then my agent compiled a list of YA editors and sent it out to them. And the rejections started coming in: love the writing, love the character, love the story, can't buy it because it's too adult.
ARGH!!!!!!
That's where I am right now. It's out to two more YA editors, and I may end up rewriting to make the novel either more adult or more YA. Meanwhile I'm trying to write my next one as fast as possible, which is another urban fantasty and most decidedly adult.
Good luck to everyone querying, on submission, or just plain writing. May we all some day know the thrill of hearing "yes" all the way down the line.
