I thought that I'd take a few minutes to update everyone on how things are going since my last post - 'Agent called'.

I have now signed the contract and received a list of the publishers and editors that my agent wants to pitch the book at.

It is all incredibly exciting and more than a little scary (but in a good way!).

Having never had anything to do with the publishing industry before,I am amazed at how quickly things seem to happening now that I have signed up with an agent. Having spent the last nine months desperately trying to get one (keep the faith everyone - you will find someone to love your work in the end), now that I have finally found one, the whole thing is going off at break-neck speed.

I just wanted to ask if this is normal? Does it always go like this - nothing for months on end, and then WHAM. Or is it just that I seem to have a very keen and enthusiastic agent?

P.S. The BEST thing about the whole affair so far was ME rejecting an agent that also had my ms (and surprise surprise wanted to meet with me to discuss what they could do for me once they found out that I had had an offer!). I felt like sending him a form letter, but that would have been impolite and rather churlish wouldn't it??!!!!

Stefland x

That's fantastic! Sadly, I can't say if it's normal, but plenty of other people here can

I think what you'll probably find is there are periods like this, where everything seems to happen quickly and in a flurry of activity, interspersed with long periods where nothing AT ALL seems to happen and you begin to wonder whether it ever will again.

Congratulations!

I completely agree with Jess! And congratulations!

Once your agent's decided it's ready to go out, they don't mess about. But don't forget that the publishers may take very variable amounts of time to get back to your agent, depending on how many people need to okay it, so things may slow to a crawl shortly.

It's all so exciting, but I'd agree that it tends to seem like minutes of terror followed by hours of boredom, as they say.

Emma

That's brilliant! Must be so exciting. How many agents did you submit to before this one? And did any ask for the full?
Susiex

Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate the help.

Susie, I submitted to 47 agents. I had the usual glut of form letters saying 'Thanks but...' (most of which I think were put off by my synopsis - I am USELESS at synopses!).

Eventually, I had three agents with the full ms.

One came back to me saying that she loved my voice and the style of my writing. Amazingly, this agent also took the time to offer me advice to improve the book; suggesting areas that were in need of work and character revisions. The other two did the usual thing of sitting on the manuscript and avoiding my attempts to contact them.

THE CALL came from my favoured agent. They are a big agency and have a great stable of writers as clients (so I'm not sure what I'm doing there!).

I KNOW how incredibly lucky I have been. I read lots of forums like this when I started to write, and was immediately struck by the tales of woe that I read from vast numbers of people. But the thing that I held on to was the advice in Stephen King's book - just keep writing, someone will like your work eventually.

I'll keep the updates coming, and keep asking questions when the worry-monster comes creeping up and breathing down my collar.

Stefland

Wow, Stefland, that is an inspiring story. I'm so glad you shared it. 47 agents is a lot. And it certainly shows that persistence, practice and patience pay off! I'm so pleased for you. Is this your first novel?
Susiex

That is inspiring, Stefland - i thought maybe i'd overdone it sending out 18... think i'll just keep on going

Enjoy the ride, anyway, you deserve it after all your efforts

This is fantastic news. I've had tons of rejections & joined this site because I had got to the stage where I was wondering if I was kidding myself and should just give up trying. Did you send them off in big batches or stick to the more traditional one or two at a time?

Many congratulations, I hope everything works out brilliantly for you & your book.

In my experience the whole thing kind of sloowwwwwssss down once the agent starts sending stuff out, with periods of long waiting (don't get me started on that one, suffice to say that it was during one of those eight-month agonising waits that I made friends with Sapph who was going through the same thing - oh, the torture, oh the self-doubt, oh the endless sympathy emails-) and then something exciting might happen and a flurry of action, and then loads more slooowwwwww waiting for contracts and advances etc and then even longer until the book comes out...

but that's just me.

And it's all part of the process and it's hugely exciting, Stefland, that you're now on that ladder upwards....

Just wanted to add my congratulations, Stefland. Your excitement fairly zings off the page! Lovely stuff. And well done you for being so persistent.

Rosy

Saturday,

I read a lot of things about not sending your ms out to too many agents and drip feeding it out over a period of time as and when you get feedback.

Stuff that!

I sent my ms out to all 47 agents in one hit and waited to see what happened. My research had suggested that I would get a ton of rejections before I hit upon a few agents that would like to read the full ms, so I thought, 'Why hang around for ever and collect batches of rejections before sending out he next lot? Let's get the literary shotgun out and let them have both barrels of double-ought.'

Worked for me. Some people seem to get a bit sniffy at this approach, suggesting that it is unprofessional. NONSENSE. We as writers want our work to be read. So get it out there to as many people as you can in one go. It means that you get a heap load more rejections falling through your letter-box (and they keep on coming), but my advice is to get it out there in numbers and see what the writing-fairy brings back in the end.

Stefland

Congratulations Stefland, and good for you for socking it to all 47 in one go! It obviously worked! Hope things keep moving fast for you.

Caro

Well that's refreshing advice, Stefland!

I sent 18 out in one go last week and thought i was revolutionary!!