Two queries back to back, same agent

paqart

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I have lurked in this forum for years because people keep telling me to write. I am a professional artist, not a writer. For that reason, I have occasionally been curious enough to investigate the possibility but didn't go very far. Some here might disagree because I now have five published books under my belt and dozens of articles. There are, however, caveats.

As an artist, art director, and co-founder of a successful academy, I haven't needed to look elsewhere for career satisfaction. I am, however, constantly asked to write for a living. This has been the case since the first such request that I can recall, in February of 1983. On that occasion, I was seventeen and shared a bus ride to college with a young woman named Gretchen. To pass the time, we would talk. She frequently suggested that I write a book. It was easy to ignore her suggestion because she was young, a friend, and likely naive regarding publication criteria.

Later suggestions were harder to ignore. I had three such from very well-known syndicated columnists. One of those gave me the name of her agent and told me to get in touch with him about becoming a columnist myself. I contacted him, then chickened out when he asked me to write three 750 word articles as samples. At the time, I didn't understand how to come up with an original article, as opposed to the column-like replies I had sent to the columnist who recommended me to her agent. She thought my replies showed sufficient skill but I lacked the confidence to try writing something from scratch rather than commenting on what someone else had written.

In my career as an artist and educator, I became an expert in computer graphics, among other things. This led to requests that I write text books, which I did. Three of them. I don't count those as "writing" because I made the books as a utility for my students. From my perspective, the only creativity involved was in the 500 illustrations I made to accompany the text. An interest in paranormal dreams led me to write on that subject also. I wrote six peer-reviewed journal articles and a book, all published. Again, I didn't think of those as "serious" or "real" writing because they were simple extensions of debates I'd had with parapsychology skeptics on line. Most of the articles were written specifically so that I wouldn't have to repeat myself when answering questions online. I felt it would be better to get the material published, then point interested parties to the articles or the book.

The dean of the academy I taught at asked me to get a PhD to enhance the prestige of the department. At the time, none of our lecturers had advanced degrees. "Don't worry about cost. The university will pay all expenses." He added that if I didn't, I might lose tenure, thanks to new rules from the ministry of education. With both carrot and stick to lead me, I completed my PhD at King's College, London in 2018. By the time it was done, I had become more competent as a writer. The publisher of my textbooks (Springer) wanted to see my thesis. She liked it enough that I was paid a modest advance for it and it was published as a book.

The previous paragraphs account for all five of my published books and some of my journal articles. After finishing my PhD, I moved back to the US (New York) from the Netherlands. On arrival, I knew I wanted to freelance, but as what? I could work as an illustrator, comic book artist, CG artist, gallery artist, photographer or, if I was so bold, a writer. I wasn't so bold, so I decided to invest in becoming a commercial photographer. It took two years to make my first sales as a photographer, but they were good ones to a huge client. During that time, friends of mine who were professional writers would occasionally say of my longer Facebook posts, "you should be writing a book about this" (or that). At the same time, another request for writing came my way.

I was talking with someone about licensing some photos I'd taken of firemen during the covid crisis. During our conversation, he suddenly stopped and said, "you are very articulate. I think you'd make a good writer. Would you consider writing some columns for me? I have a magazine and am looking for writers." At that point, I began to think that it was finally time to find out one way or another. Am I fit to work as a writer or not? I worried that I wasn't. To bolster my nerve, I went on my favorite private Facebook page and asked two of the more successful writers there if they thought I had a chance, or if it made any sense.

The first writer didn't get back to me right away but the second one did. He told me he was going to call me and he did a few minutes later. He was very positive and then, he gave me the name of an agent I should contact. "Tell her I sent you" he said. To my surprise, this agent had a partner who represented the columnist who had given me her agent's contact information back in 2006. I don't recall now the name she gave me, nor do I have a record, so it is possible she changed since then. Still, it seemed like a fortuitous coincidence. My friend then told me to simply send some of my Facebook posts as writing samples (at the same time he told me he was borrowing part of one for a book he was writing).

A look at the writers represented by this agent told me that if any agent was going to work, she was the one. I had books by many of her authors on my bookshelves at home, knew several of her authors personally or had interacted with them by email, and had received recommendations from two of them. Later, a third client of hers also encouraged me to write books, though he didn't give me her contact info. He said, "I don't like to encourage my competition."

With all that background, one more thing happened. My mother died. She lived in a small house in the middle of the desert. Upon her death, ownership of the house reverted to me. It wasn't worth much but it would be enough to cover my expenses for a couple of years if I sold it and was careful with the proceeds. If ever there was a moment to start writing seriously, as if covid-19 and the near-complete shutdown of all commercial photography projects in the New York market wasn't enough, this was it.

I wrote the agent as my friend suggested. I included the samples he said should be included, and a letter of introduction. Then, I accepted the writing assignment from the magazine. I have since written twenty-one articles and have started a book. I wish now that I had done it the other way around: written the articles and started the book, then contacted the agent.

Almost as soon as I sent the email introduction to the agent, I realized my mistake. I hadn't queried her with a project she could sell, but the idea of me being a writer on the basis of some Facebook posts. My friend the author might have a number of published books to his credit but I started to have the feeling it would have been better to pitch something more tangible. I didn't even include a CV.

So now I am working hard on a serious book proposal. It is non-fiction, so my plan is to write three chapters and a well-structured outline. I will add a marketing plan and competitive analysis with books on similar subjects. After that, I will take my three favorite op-ed articles, and tighten them as much as needed. These will be my "creative samples". My intention is to send the new creative samples along with a new introduction letter, query, bio, and CV to the same agent. My concern is that I will be sending it so soon after the previous email, about two months later, that it may not be taken seriously. Is that too soon? Or does the addition of new material make it acceptable to resubmit?

I would like to add one more thing. Readers of my post so far can be forgiven if they think I sound somewhat less than serious about my writing. I would have agreed with that assessment up until about a month ago. The inflection point was when I suddenly realized what kind of writing made the most sense to me. A few years ago, my daughter asked me to write a fantasy novel for her. I did, all 85,000 words of it. It was, however, an unnatural way to write. That i how I felt about all of my writing until recently. It reminded me of a similar moment in my art career.

I had always been better than professionally competent on a technical level but in the year 1997 I discovered something wonderful: every time I sat down to make a painting or drawing, it came out exactly the way I wanted to. Until then, I always felt unsure whether I would get what I wanted whenever I sat down to make some art. The reason, I felt, is that I had stopped having any expectations for how I made my art.

I had cracked the six-figure salary barrier at my job as an art director, had nothing to prove, no clients to please, but an expensive mountain bike to justify. I had spent $10,000 on three fancy bicycles in the same month. This was to satisfy a promise I had made as a child when I lived in San Jose during the 1970's. At the time, my family was very poor. My bicycle came from Goodwill and had no seat. When we moved away, I vowed that if I ever moved back, I would buy a better bike, the best. When my employer sent me to San Jose, I fulfilled my promise three times over. However, I felt so guilty about the purchases that I told my wife I would make them pay off by making paintings on my many cycling trips. I did, and I became fluent.

With writing, I discovered that I enjoy analyzing and explaining things. Writing commentary about current events gave me an opportunity to do exactly that, and it felt natural. When I wrote my articles, I first dived into the huge online databases that my alumni status at King's College gave me free access to, read articles I felt were relevant until I felt sufficiently grounded, then wrote on the topic I was given. Without the PhD, I wouldn't have been comfortable doing that but now I am. I hope this works out because for the first time I am beginning to believe I can do this.
 

LaneHeymont

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You're fine. Two months might as well be two years.