Hi all, just thought I'd post a little note to say I've been taken on by an agent. It's an agency I've been really keen on for a while, so I've tried them again and again with new work and with rewrites of things that have been rejected. The agent in question finally took a risk and asked for a full manuscript of The Devil's Prayer. That was about three weeks back. I got a phone call from her yesterday afternoon and after a good hour of chat, anecdotes and jokes, she offered me a contract.

So far, I've never met the agent. It's all been done by sending stuff to the slush pile, reworking it, scrapping, starting again and pure bloody determination. I just wanted to mention that to let people out there know that it does happen: it's not who you know - it's what you write!

No talk of publishers as yet - I've got some editing and revision to do for the next few weeks.

Best of luck to everyone else who is climbing this ladder.

Colin M

Well done, Colin, that's really great news! Good luck with the next stage, keep us posted.
x
tc

Well done, Colin - that's fantastic news! Are we allowed to know who the lucky agent is?

)

A
xxx

That’s fantastic news, Colin. You deserve it! Best of luck, and keep us posted.

Dee

Well done, Colin - that's brilliant!

Frances

Thanks all - Holly, I'll mail you as this isn't a lounge thread (open to all).

Please mail me too!

I'd love to know, too. Maybe you should make it a lounge thread!

Huge congratulations! You really deserve this. Good luck!

Luisa

Very well done, Colin. It's heartening to learn that someone who's persisted as much as you have, and worked so hard at their writing, has found an agent. You don't come from the usual background for children's writers; you don't have relatives/friends/partners in the business (other than contacts you've made yourself); and you haven't adapted your writing to suit the status quo. So, well done again; it's entirely merited.

Terry

Ooh, well done!

Fantastic news, Colin. Well done!
Tony

Congrats!

Hurrah, Colin!

Great news Colin. Fantastic to hear of your success.

Just to remind you Colin - and all you others so keen to get agents. Some of us have been there before you and decided our own path. It's good that you have got an agent - and big up to all you out there who have also managed to snag one - BUT... you need to find your own path. There will be lots of writers on this site who are being led to believe that the agent path is the only way. Believe me - it isn't. Truly. this isn't sour grapes, but if I was a would be publshed writer I'd be getting a bit fed up with these agent threads. Contoversial I know, but maybe someone's got to say it?