How I got my literary agent. Finally!

I finally get to draft this post! I’ve been reading these for years and always hoped I’d get to write one some day and that day is today. I want to take a moment to celebrate this because it’s so hard to get this milestone for most authors and I’m trying to be better about cherishing every accomplishment (big and small). Skål! (that means cheers in Norse)

A note before I start – I’ve included my query letters and query stats at the bottom of the post if that is what you are searching for. But for those who want to avoid them, feel free skip. Personally, I love seeing them because they give me hope, but I know they aren’t helpful to everyone.

Now, on to the good stuff…

I started writing when I was a child…just kidding. I will not bore everyone with my entire story because there are so many of us who started writing at an early age. Let’s just say I dabbled here and there until college, where I committed to an English degree with a focus on screenwriting. 

Fast forward some years later, after many different jobs and NOT writing, I discovered that I was in a stable place in my career and life to pick it up again and get serious. So, I did. That was back in the fall of 2018, right before NaNoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month). I joined a friend in her writing group (hi Lisa, Francelia, & Heather!), and we committed to doing the challenge for the first time. I must say, I was OBSSESSED. I burned through my very first novel and I didn’t stop there. I wrote the second and third novels in that series all in about a year’s time. 

Looking back, I can’t believe I actually wrote that fast while I was also teaching myself how to write books. Also, I know the general advice is not to write an entire trilogy right out the gate if you are trying to become traditionally published, but writing those books helped me grow my craft and I have zero regrets. I may even dust them off one day and see what they could be. 

During that time, I joined the writing community on Twitter (X), binged a bunch of industry podcasts, and joined every contest and pitch event I could (RIP Pitch Wars). I got a couple of fantastic critique partners and honed my craft over several years. I entered 2022 with 5 books under my belt and my sixth one in progress, which I fast drafted during NaNo (again). Sensing a pattern here?

That book was my first adult novel and one that I took on more as an indulgence. 2022 was a rough querying year for me and on a personal level. I was going through some stuff and the rejections stung that much more. Even more so because that book performed really well in pitch contests and got a lot of of attention, but didn’t seem to take off in the trenches as much I  hoped. I received A LOT of heart-breaking rejections. After that, I wanted to challenge myself to write something that pushed my craft abilities, allowed me to explore darker themes, and gave me the opportunity to play around with the spice level in my romance. Something just for me. That book was Blót/Her Dark Heart.

In the meantime, I was accepted in WriteHive’s #HiveMentor program with my YA King Arthur retelling book and formed a wonderful community through that program (hi #writerbees!). A few months in, Revise & Resubmit #RevPit was coming up and I debated entering my adult book. 

I had every reason NOT to enter. First, it wasn’t finished. I only had 50k of a book written that should have been between 75-100k for an adult fantasy. Second, I was still struggling with the POV of the main character and questioning if the entire thing was working. I am so grateful to the WriteHive group because they encouraged me to finish the book and enter RevPit and were supportive the entire time. What a wonderful group of writers. To my surprise (but nobody else’s because apparently, I come across as a goal-driven person—ha! I totally am), I completed the manuscript just in time for the deadline in March with only one round of polishing edits. Like… I literally was still drafting some of the end scenes the night before the contest opened. It was bananas!

And to my surprise (again), my manuscript was chosen by the incredible Maria Tureaud. I have another blog post that talks about that experience here if you are interested. I can talk all day about how amazing working with Maria was (and still is). Her brilliant editing eye and support really helped me through the program and shaped the book into its final form. There is not enough thanks in the world to to give her for the time she dedicates to the writing community so I’ll just link to her website instead. If you need an editor or you want to buy her book, check it it out!

This time, I entered the query trenches with confidence, armed with a super polished manuscript reviewed by an editor and my lovely critique partners. I even received a few requests during the showcase. But then silence. Crickets. I mean it was BRUTAL. I saw many of my peers getting interest early on. Meanwhile, I only seemed to receive rejections if anything at all. I spent a lot of time sitting in agent maybe piles, and those were almost worse than fast rejections because you hold on to hope that entire time. 

Six months later, I still had many queries out in the world, along with some hopeful full requests, but with the holidays around the corner, I knew I wouldn’t be hearing much until the new year.

That was until I posted a lamenting post on Twitter (X) about how I missed my Freaky Friday Viking girls (my 2022 querying book). I’m not sure why I posted that aside from my genuine yearning to spend time with them again. Your characters become friends and you miss them. My heart was aching badly for that story in that moment.

To my shock and delight, an agent commented on that post:

That book was so special to me and still is, so to have an agent show interest in it, meant the world. After researching the agent, I was convinced she would be a good fit for not only this book but also my RevPit book, Blót. And I told her so when I queried The Viking Compass book. And again, to my utter shock and delight, she requested BOTH full manuscripts.

Weeks went by and the holidays came and went. I got one hint that she was enjoying the reads which I haven’t actually verified if this was about my books or not, but a girl can dream (hi, Bethany!)

And that dream stuck with me for a couple more weeks until…

I got THE email from Bethany asking for a call. I shrieked in the confines of my home office and then went promptly downstairs to tell my husband. When I said it out loud, I cried, which I did not expect but wasn’t entirely surprising. This journey is not always easy, and we work so hard to build our stories and sacrifice so much of our spare time, especially if you are like me holding down a day job and trying to take care of yourself and spend time with family and friends. It’s a lot to manage, and the validation isn’t always there to confirm it will all be worth it. 

So ya, I cried. And I wasn’t even certain she was going to offer because the email didn’t say, but regardless, it was another milestone and I felt it deeply.

But of course, she DID offer, and we had a wonderful call. I was impressed with her answers to all my questions and so very flattered that she read both my books and loved them. After speaking with her clients as references, who said such nice things about her, I couldn’t NOT sign with her. And here we are. 

Now, I will say that I made a lot of really promising connections with agents while querying this book. Many of them reached out personally to congratulate me on getting my agent. Sometimes you can just feel when you are getting close. If it wasn’t going to be this book, I was confident it would be the next. So, I would say to those still in the querying trenches – hold fast, keep writing, and celebrate each milestone because it truly does bring you one step closer to achieving your goals. 

I know the journey ahead will still have challenges (hello submission trenches), but it feels good to have a creative business partner in my corner now and I’m so excited to get started!