THE ONE WITHOUT AN AGENT
Cat/genre: Adult romantic fantasy
Oh, where to start?
The beginning would be way too far back, so let me catch you up. This was the fourth book I’d written, revised, and polished. It was mentored during a well-known mentorship program and, in my mind, this book was IT. I’d finally get an agent, editors would love the book, and I’d become a published author.
But things are never that easy.
Several agents requested and read the full manuscript, and all of them rejected. Some feedback varied, but one comment kept coming up over and over again: “I love this. But I don’t think it can sell.”
Ouch. Not what you want to hear on a book you’ve poured your heart and soul into.
I decided to give it one last go and pitched the book during a PitMad event. One of my pitches received a like from an editor at a Big 5 publisher. I was thrilled! But this wasn’t my first rodeo, I knew the drill: Big 5 editor likes are great, but you can’t do much with them until you have an agent who can submit to them for you. And I still didn’t have one.
I reached out to the editor to thank her for liking my pitch, and mentioned I didn’t have an agent yet but appreciated her interest. Her response literally floored me. She loved the pitch, was the acquiring editor for one of my comps, and asked if she could read the manuscript anyway.
Wut? Is that real life? Can that happen?
I agreed to send her the manuscript that day (this is why you polish before you pitch, folks!), and went to bask in the wonder of her request.
Honestly, I never expected to hear back. It was great that she requested, but why would she take the time to read and respond to my little un-agented manuscript that no one seemed to want?
Well, she did read it, and she did respond. Less than a month later, I received an email from the editor telling me how much she enjoyed it. The email was full of praise. “Immediately sucked in”, “a real page-turner.” She even called my writing “a rare talent” and compared it to a bestselling author in the genre.
BUT (because there’s always a ‘but,’ isn’t there?) their imprint wasn’t going to be able to acquire any more books in my sub-genre due to poor print sales.
I cried.
On one hand, the feedback was so astoundingly positive and encouraging, but on the other, it was still a no.
And a genre-based no, too. That kind that makes you wonder why you’re bothering at all when no one can buy what you’re selling no matter how much they love it.
But the praise in that rejection bolstered my spirits enough that I decided to pitch the manuscript again in SFFPit (one final, final go). During that pitch event, I received a request from an editor at a smaller press. It wasn’t the original path I’d planned on taking, but I’d heard a lot of great things about this growing press and that editor in particular. Not to mention they were closed to un-agented submissions, so this was my one chance to sub to them. I took it. One last chance for this book baby before it went on the shelf, maybe forever.
While I waited for the inevitable rejection, I kept writing. It might have been smart to switch genres at this point, but I love what I love, so I didn’t. I just kept going with a new story and characters that absolutely wouldn’t leave me alone (and later got their own book deal, but that’s a different story).
Three months later, I received an update that the editor liked the story, but thought it might be a better fit for one of their colleagues, so they were forwarding my submission to them. At that point, I fully believed it would end up as another rejection. I’d had the same thing happen with agents a few times, and it always ended in rejection, so why would this be any different? I resigned myself to the fact that this book was going nowhere and kept working on my new one.
Except, this is publishing, and the only guarantee is that it’ll never behave the way you expect.
Two months later, I finally got that yes. The editor loved the story. Best of all, she’d taken it to acquisitions and wanted to offer a contract for my book!
The book that couldn’t sell finally sold!
Fifteen months after I started querying that book, and many rejections later, I signed an offer of publication . . . still without an agent.
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The stories on this blog are posted anonymously so that authors can speak candidly about their experience. If you have a sub story you’d like to share, drop me an email at: katedylanbooks@gmail.com
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