Story time!. Feel free to flop down in the beanbags. Hot chocolate's on the stove.
So...
Those of you who've been around these parts a while may remember me posting a query. It not only got the squirrel treatment, but a friendly bite from La Shark herself - this resulted in an immediate request for the book from her, several other agents who either read the query here or on her blog, plus a request from an editor at a (legit) publishing house. Wheeeee!
The only problem? That book wasn't finished. I was working on its (weird) query while putting my primary book through the polisher.
What that weird little query did get me was a recommendation to send my primary book to another agent. This other agent I had interacted with via their blog. So off goes the primary book. Agent has a stated X-week reading window. However, she recognized my name, as did the recommending agent, so she requested the book by the end of the day. 2-days later, she's almost finished the book. A week or so later we're on the phone. A week or so later I'm signing a contract with her agency. Wheeeeeee!
After the book's gone through some edits, off it goes on submission. 30 hours or so after this, agent calls and says an editor's reading it while on vacation. She wants to make a preempt that puts the book into "major deal" territory. After I remember that respiration is required for living and accepting offers, I accept and the deal's done within 48 hours. Editor literally chases down someone from the publisher during the "we're on vacay" month and makes them do my contract and pay me, so we don't have to wait for the month to be over. Wheeeeeeee!
Edits start, but the editor and I have trouble communicating. (More accurate to say I had trouble understanding what it was she wanted from me.) We go through many rounds of arduous edits, and I still don't really understand until she switches formats and tries sending digital edits, rather than pen on paper.
I get a ginormous movie deal with a great production company and studio.
By this point, the publisher's getting wary of being on the downward crest of a wave. My publication date gets pushed back. Certain marketing / promotional things fall through. Other things happen, and the book doesn't sell through at release.
During this time, my 1st agent and I part ways (for non-nefarious, personality difference reasons; she's still a rockstar YA agent who I recommend to new writers), but I get a second agent. This one sends my next series out to a handful of places. Other books don't go out at all. Final book she sends out on submission, then while it's on submission, life happens with a vengeance and she has to scale back, leaving that book dead in the water.
Now, on agent #3, back out on submission, and things are looking good.
Wheeeee!
So basically, hang in there. There's no road map.
