An Agent Agreed to Read My Entire Manuscript. Now What? 

So, an agent reached out to me and suggested I submit the query for my latest novel One Good Kick, a psychological thriller, to her. I did, and it included the first three chapters, as per her instructions. She liked it enough to want to read the whole manuscript. She told me she wouldn't be able to read it until next month, and I said that was fine. 

Fine. I said it was fine. But you know what? It was more than fine. It was wonderful. Even if she doesn't accept it (but I hope she does), she liked the initial chapters enough to want to read more and, for a writer, that brings me monumental joy. 

Now, I wait. Wait, no. Now, I write. I have started blocking out my next novel, which is super hard as I still have One Good Kick on my mind. But that's okay. Because how fortunate am I to have finished my last novel, pitched it to agents (after writing the excruciatingly impossible synopsis and query letter), received numerous rejections, and found one agent who wanted to read the whole thing.

And I am even more thankful to have found an agent for my novel previous to this latest novel. It's called The Windsome Tree. But it wasn't called that until the moments before publication. It was initially called Without Mercy. But after going through the same grueling process as I am going through with One Good Kick, that book actually made it to publication with a sparkling new title! (My third novel written. My first to make it to publication.) That agent retired, and that is why I had to start the process over again. 

 

So, here I am back at the beginning, drafting out a story that has bones, but they are all disconnected and some are only partial bones, and somehow I have to make an entire skeleton out of it. Then I have to add some meat, a heart, lungs to breath, muscles to carry it through, and, of course, flesh. Then, like Frankenstein's monster, I have to make it come alive. And after that, I need to have others help me to erase the scars, fill in the wrinkles, add new scars, create new wrinkles, run, tumble, get back up, climb mountains, and make people want to read it. And then I get the glorious task of breaking it all down into a 300-word synopsis and a one-page query.

How long will that take? Well, my first two novels took up to two years to write and never made it to the "agent wanting to read it" stage. My third novel took about four years to write, then several more years of querying, rewriting, querying some more, rewriting some more, getting rejected, getting an agent, editing and refining, and another year of pitching to editors at publishing houses.

One Good Kick took about four years to write. I came up with the premise while pitching The Windsome Tree to agents. I began drafting out the plot after I got an agent and she was pitching The Windsome Tree out to editors at publishing houses. And when The Windsome Tree was published, I put One Good Kick aside to hustle my previously published book at readings, fairs, book stores, book and author events, libraries, schools, senior centers, at the grocery store, at my family's holiday dinner tables, to my friends, colleagues, associates, strangers on the street, the waiter at our favorite Italian restaurant... Yup, that's what you have to do. 

Then COVID hit, and the events shut down, fairs canceled (even the Big E shut down), stores closed, I avoided frequent trips to the market, no longer talked to strangers, my family and friends, colleagues and associates already bought my book. (Yes, I sold it to family. Is that bad?)

(My mom and me selling our poetry books at the Big E in 2009

 and then me holding my novel The Windsome Tree, posing with Mark Twain at the 2019 Big E.)

So, it was then I picked back up One Good Kick and began writing. Really writing. I couldn't have done that if I hadn't started it while I was in the waiting room with my other novel. Three years later, it's in the hands of an agent willing to read it.

And now I have the great honor to be able to do this all over again. Ahh, the life of a writer. No, really, it's a pretty awesome life and I am grateful for it.