My HOW I GOT MY AGENT STORY!!!

This is a tad late. I think it's maybe because I thought I was dreaming? I'm not sure. If I am, this is a super long dream and I work too much ;)

This is me, pointing to my signature

So. A few months ago, I signed with Jordy Albert for Monster Whisperer, my picture book I wrote for my two littlests, so they wouldn't be afraid of the dark. Here's my story:

Before I got my agent, I had published thirteen novels through a small publisher and self-publishing. Monster Whisperer was something different though. It was a picture book, and I had no idea how to do that on my own. So I started querying and entering contests, not with a lot of hope, because I had queried my debut novel, Feudlings, for a year with many, many rejections before my publisher, Clean Reads, found me. But the contests were fun, and I liked to meet other authors who were in the trenches with me.

I entered the Twitter Pitmad contest, where you try to describe your book in less than 140 characters, and make it interesting enough to catch attention. Somehow, miracle of miracles, I caught Jordy’s eye, and she asked to see it. Since it’s barely 1,000 words,  I sent the whole thing. And then…I waited. While I waited, I continued to query and work on other projects to save my sanity.  A month later, she sent me an email asking if I was still seeking representation.

I may have squealed. A lot.

Then I wrote her back and said yes, yes I was, and I think I used a lot of exclamation points. We set up a time to chat on the phone, and then I waited some more. Unfortunately, I am TERRIFIED of the phone. My adorable husband came home from work so he could offer moral support during the call, and I paced back and forth and back and forth, like, a gazillion times through my kitchen. Honestly, I can’t remember much of what we talked about. I had researched questions to ask ahead of time, and things to think about and things to watch out for, but I didn’t remember anything.

I do remember, though, how nice she was. We had  similar interests and I told her the story of Monster Whisperer, which was based on my two little ones and their fear of the monsters in the dark. She then said she had to talk to her partner about representing me, and she would send a contract. In celebration, I bought thigh-high pink boots.

So there it is. How I got my agent. And she is awesome!

My pink boots. I still haven't found anything to wear them with yet

Tools of the Querying Kind - Querytracker.net

I remember, long ago (like last year), when I started querying. I was sooo overwhelmed. I didn't know how to find an agent to query. I started stalking all my favorite authors and trying their agents, but it was a time consuming process.
And then I found Writers Market. Writers Market publishes a book every year that weighs as much as my youngest child. It has lists and lists of agents, publishers, contests, ect. But going through it takes forever, especially in the newer versions that don't separate it into genres.

And then I had to make a spreadsheet to keep track of the agents I did query. I like spreadsheets, so this wasn't a huge deal, but I kept thinking, there has GOT to be a better way.

There is.

I don't remember how, but I stumbled across querytracker.net. It made everything so easy that at first I was thinking, this has got to be some sort of scam.

It isn't.

What it is is a database that has nearly every agent out there. You can search by name, agency, or genre. It keeps track of everyone you have queried, when and how they responded. It has a comment section where others who have queried can post genre, when they queried, and when they got a response, and any other comments they might think helpful to others. And it generates a report on each agent showing their number of responses - like whether they requested fulls or partial. There is also a forum to chat with other members, and a resource for writers section. And this is all for free.

There is a membership, that gives it's premium members additional, more in-depth reports and other benefits. I haven't used it, but I've heard lots of people say it's totally worth the $35 a month.

My only regret with querytracker is that I didn't find it sooner!