The Official "How I Got My Agent" Post (And A Couple Query Tips)

Hey everyone!

I know this is almost old news by now, but since last week I've been getting messages from people asking me questions about querying and how I ended up signing with my amazing agent. So I figured I'd sit down and write a post about it real quick!

And in case you didn't hear already.... I am now represented by Mandy Hubbard at D4EO Literary!

*Smiles like a crazy person*

Okay, so I started querying in January (kicked off the 1st of the year by sending my first query ever written and then promptly got nauseous.)

YAY WRITERS ANXIETY!

(Said no one, EVER.)

Most of my queries were requested via contests or twitter events so I ended up having about a 50% request rate. I love contests. I participated in Pitch Wars, the Secret Agent contest, #Pitmad (x2) and a few others and loved every one of them.

**(If you're still querying and have any interest in this kind of thing, you should enter. Contests are your friends because even if you were planning to query the agent who makes a request anyway, it might bump you to the top of their to-read list, or at the very least you have a little more confidence in sending your query. Their favorite or request means they already like what your book is about, and sometimes finding the right agent with the right taste is the hardest thing. So let a contest or two point you in the right direction, and see what happens.)**

I first connected with Mandy a little over three months ago. She requested pages of The Blood Train during a #Pitmad event at the end of March, (which was a funny coincidence because she was already  getting a query letter later that week.) I didn't notice her request right away because TweetDeck tried to eat it. But then I happened to go on the Twitter app on my phone and spotted it.

It was a good day.

And an even better one came four days later when that turned into a full request.

When Mandy wrote back after reading all of The Blood Train, I opened her email waiting for the "but." You know the, "I really enjoyed your sample pages, but..." or "This is super creepy, but..." or "You have a lot of talent, but..."

Except this time there was no "but." She called me a "phenomenal writer," and said The Blood Train was spectacular! She even talked about how my book kept her up late, trying to get to the end. I waited for the punchline. She couldn't be talking about me. Only my crazy critique partners say things like that. Not Mandy Hubbard. Not the agent that required three months of gathering courage just to query.

And she wanted to talk about revisions. She had all these ideas, she suggested I watch a movie that she thought might be a possible comp title, and she put lots of exclamation points in her emails. It was fantastic!!

I disagreed with a couple things she wanted me to change and she immediately came back urging me to only do what felt right to me. There wasn't a moment talking to her that I felt uncomfortable or that my questions would be bothersome or annoying. (Which, for me, is really saying something.)

After half a dozen emails, I had a plan in place and dove in. I totally pulled everything apart and pieced it back together again, during what was definitely the most stressful and hellish eight weeks of my life, but it was worth it.

I sent her the new version and the next email I got from her held an offer of representation.

We talked on the phone, I signed, and the rest is... week old history! It was a 4th of July I'll never forget.

And while I don't feel nearly qualified to be giving advice (despite the long paragraph above about contests) but I'm going to do it anyway. Again.

Are you ready? Here it is: Target your queries. Target the heck out of them, and I don't just mean clicking on your genre in QueryTracker and sending to everyone who reps YA, or romance, or thrillers or whatever you've written.

Search through their twitter feeds.

Stalk #mswl.

Google them and look for interviews.

Find their lists of what they rep on their agency or personal websites.

Look at their client list and see the types of novels they've already signed.

Do so much research you almost feel creepy (but don't mention their dog or how cute their kids are in your query letter otherwise you WILL BE CREEPY.)

And yes, I may have learned this a little too late. (Sorry for babbling about your hedgehogs, Pam.)

Know your stuff, and take the time to figure out who has the best chance of loving what you've created, and your querying life will be a lot less stressful.

A 50% request rate might seem really high, and it is, but I also put TONS of work into making sure every single agent I submitted to was looking for creepy young adult horror. Every. Single. One.

Don't query someone in the hopes they might change their mind and you'll be the one to bring them into a new genre, because even if that happens, they won't have any clue how to sell your manuscript properly. They're experts in what they actively represent, so find yourself an expert and send it their way!

One of my most popular rejections was along the lines of "I really enjoyed your premise but I'm looking for horror grounded in the real world." And that was fine, because none of my research ever turned up anything as specific as "YA Horror- Realistic." I just happened to miss the mark on the type of horror they were interested in. And those were a lot easier to swallow than form rejections would have been.

So, yeah. Those are my two little slices of advice: contests, and TARGET TARGET TARGET.

Thanks for wading through all the babble of my "real quick" post. My long windedness has won out again. Haha!

Toodles!
Megan

         Stats:

4 months of active querying before R&R
16 query letters
5 contests

Moving on to Something New

Hello everyone! I hope you've kept warm during this horrible, never-ending winter. (And if you're lucky enough to be from somewhere warm all year round, I hate you a little bit.) (Just kidding.) (Sort of.)

This winter in Montana has been brutal. I'm talking -20 on a regular basis kind of brutal. It got so cold that we had to pull our car halfway out of the garage to let it warm up because the cold made a barrier at the opening of the garage and wouldn't let the exhaust out!

But one good thing that came out of this horrific weather was the productivity. I started querying in January, went through a whole overhaul of revisions in the last month and a half and now I'm writing something new while The Blood Train is stuck in query-land again.

And there are few things I love more than dreaming up new things to put into a new book. I get so into it. I make maps, I create new playlists, I sketch characters (though, not very well, mind you.) I think up wild plot twists and scribble them on post-its that hang ALL over my house. It's a mess, and it's chaotic, and a little bit confusing, but I LOVE IT.

I love the freshness of a new book. I've learned so much about editing with The Blood Train. Mainly, that I don't like editing. I'll do it for hours and days and months to make my books what they need to be, but when push comes to shove I'd rather be drafting new things than editing.

Anything can happen in a new book. My characters aren't so full of baggage and plot problems, they're fresh and uncertain, and do unexpected things. I love getting to know them and their feelings, and fleshing them out. It's so much fun, and I enjoy every single second of it.


What about you? What's your favorite part of the writing process?

Announcing.... CP Matchmaker!!

Hello everybody!

What is CP Matchmaker, you ask?

CP Matchmaker is my way of paying it forward. I myself have been extremely lucky in landing the most amazing critique group. The ladies I work with are smart, and kind, and thoughtful and they've taught me a lot about the way I write and the kind of writer I want to be.

But not everyone has this. And that's something that eats away at me.

Because everyone should have a team like I do. Everyone should know exactly where to go and what to do to find someone who is going to be honest and helpful.

So, I thought, "Why isn't there a Twitter pitch party for finding CP's?"

AND CP MATCHMAKER WAS BORN!

(Dramatic, no?)

Ok, so here's what's up:

(I'm going grade school party invite for this one)

What: A chance to pitch your book to a bunch of like minded writers

Where: Twitter, of course!

When: January 20th from 10am-10pm EST

Why: Because it's going to be so much fun!

But you're going to need a few things first.

1. A twitter pitch (140 characters or less to include the #CPMatch hashtag)

2. A blog button, should you choose to spread the word and get more people involved. (See below)

3. And a few labels:

For the purpose of easy identification, please include (abbreviated for your convenience) a little about your critiquing style.

(Note: These are for how you critique others work, not what you need for your own.)

Do you get straight to the point- STTP

Fan of the compliment sandwich- CS

Are you brutally honest- BH 

How about a good copyeditor- GCE

Or are you more of an attention to detail type: ATD 

Maybe a critique partner beginner: CPB

Plot hole hunter: PHH
Do you give great big picture notes: BP

Are you a few of these things? Go ahead and list as many as will fit in your pitch.

Need an example of a #CPMatch pitch?

Trapped among bleeding walls, psychotic passengers, and manifested fears,

can Olivia escape with her life? YA #CPMatch CS ATD

And come the 20th, simply search through the feed. If something looks interesting, DM the person and get to know each other a little better. See what you have to offer each other.

And I can't stress this enough: SWAP A SAMPLE CHAPTER

You'll never know if you really mesh well unless you see some feedback first hand.

DISCLAIMER: CP Matchmaker is a baby. Not just a baby, a wrinkly, screaming newborn. If there's something you're unclear about, email me, and I'll try to answer your questions. Have a few extra label ideas? Lemme have em! I am totally up for any suggestions here. I want this thing to be helpful to as many people as possible.

And on that note. SPREAD THE WORD. Please. Pretty please, with sugar on top and ice-cream in the middle.

Tweet about it. Blog about it. Tell your neighbor.

I can only help match the people who attend.

So again, please. Help me to help other writers find their CP soul mates like I have.

And, if you are so inclined to blog, I've made a few blog buttons for you!

I really hope all of you will attend. I'm so excited to get this thing off the ground. 

I'll see you January 20th!

(You do not have to follow me here on the blog, or on Twitter. That is not at all a requirement to participate.)

Toodles!

Having The Confidence

I've blogged before about how frustrating it is to write, and write, and write and never see it go anywhere. About how my drafts kept stalling out halfway through, and Shiny New Idea Syndrome took over and pulled me in another direction.

This isn't going to be about that. Because I've kicked Shiny New Idea Syndrome in the bottom.

My manuscript is done. It's polished. It's in the hands of some final beta readers and I'm itching with a mixture of impatience and worry at the thought of querying. I have everything an agent could ask for: query, synopsis, etc. Everything is done, and all that's left is getting things back from my beta reads and actually querying.

That's where needing the confidence comes in. I'm genuinely terrified every time I share my work, even with my trusted group of CP's (who are the single best group of ladies on the planet, and definitely shouldn't be nerve inducing.) And I'm nine or ten times more terrified to share it with actual industry professionals. I don't know if it's a lack of confidence in myself, or my book, or my ability to make it through this without going COMPLETELY GREY. But it sucks. It sucks worrying that what you've written isn't good enough to impress the way it must in order to get published.

So this week, and next, I'm working on my confidence. And my New Years resolution will be to keep working, and becoming the strongest writer that I can possibly be. This is my dream. I just need the confidence to make it happen.

Happy Holidays everyone. <3 p="">

Megan

Want To Hear About My Week? DO YOU?

Well ok, since you asked… :-)

In my last post I talked about obsessively refreshing everything Pitch Wars related. Counting down the days to December 11th was getting really, really stressful. (By the way, I have NO IDEA how I'm going to query without going completely grey. AT 24!)

So on Tuesday I decided to stop looking at Twitter and stop checking my email. It was the day before the reveal and I was tired of my stomach being in five thousand knots. And I didn't actually change my mind a few minutes later! Which is strange, because my willpower is basically nonexistent.

ANNYWAY, I sat online, chatting with my CP's most of the morning, and they were all:

"I've been checking #Pitchwars every few minutes, and I didn't even enter. I don't know how you're not looking at it."

I made a smiley face and kept editing.

"Megan, are you excited? It's tomorrow!"

Another smiley face. And kept editing. (At this point I thought I was being pretty cool. I entered the contest and my CP's were freaking about it more than I was! Score!)

Then, "Megan, something is happening on Twitter."

I chewed on my lip.

"WHAT?!?!? They're talking about a reveal, Megan! Are they going to announce the winners a day early?"

Surely not, right? I mean, why would they do that? Why would Brenda Drake, in all her awesomeness, suddenly decide to put us all out of our misery?

"They're saying something is going to happen in 5-10 minutes!!!"

I closed out of EVERYTHING and opened Twitter. Sure enough dozens of mentors were tweeting about SOMETHING happening in a few minutes. There was talk of the "surprise" being delayed, and I paced back and forth nervously refreshing every few seconds.

And, all in all, I still thought I was being pretty cool about it. I mean, I hadn't reduced to a crumble of Megan in the corner of my living room, rocking back and forth like a crazy person.

That was a bonus right?

Then Twitter exploded with links to Brenda Drake's newest blog post. This one. The one revealing all the mentor picks. And as I scrolled and scrolled, looking for the four I submitted to, my heart raced, my palms sweat all over the keyboard, and my feet danced around like a toddler avoiding the bathroom.

And there it was. 1st alternate to Megan Whitmer! Who is lovely, and helpful, and quite possibly the nicest person ever!

Right about then, when I saw my name in that 1st alternate slot, I lost my cool.

It was a little something like this:

Minion kind of happiness, mixed with an extremely embarrassing happy dance, that THANKFULLY nobody could see. From what I hear there were 2700 Pitch Wars submissions, and based on feedback from the other mentors I submitted to, I made it to the top 10 with 3 out of 4. Something I never, ever expected to be able to do.

The rest of my week paled in comparison to Tuesday, even though I got another 30 or so Twitter followers including a few that made me crazy-smile. The validation that what I'm doing and what I'm creating my actually go somewhere, and isn't a huge waste of my time, is so priceless I can't even describe it. And I wish that for anyone who hasn't felt that yet, as well as high five everyone who has. 

It's the best feeling in the world.

Megan.

Pitch Wars!!

Ok, so I wasn't going to blog about this. Not because I didn't want to, but I didn't think I'd have the time! I'm currently in my hotel room outside of Disneyland, and this week has been as fun as it has been exhausting. We don't head back until Saturday, and it's a two day drive. Blurg.

BUT, I entered Pitch Wars on Monday, and have been obsessively refreshing my email and Twitter feed every few minutes while I wait in those huge lines for the roller coasters. (I love me some Space Mountain.)

And surprisingly, I'm not being as neurotic about it as I thought. Am I stalking the four mentors on Twitter to see if any of their vague tweets apply to me? Yes, yes I am. Do I refresh my email 100 times a day? Of course. Downing antacids like jellybeans? You betcha!

But I'm relatively calm otherwise. I even forget there's people with my chapters sometimes, maybe even for a whole hour, before I scramble for my phone again and refresh everything. ;-)

I know. I'm a bit of a mess. I like it that way though. Makes life interesting.

Did you enter Pitch Wars? Get any requests? TELL ME, I want to know!

Megan.

Pitch Wars and the SUCKY-NESS OF QUERIES

Hello all!

So a friend of mine suggested I try participating in Pitch Wars this year. So I checked out the site, and looked through all the mentors, and then realized the submission day (December 2nd) I'd be in Disneyland.

Of course, this resulted in a crazy, rush-to-get-everything-ready sort of frenzy that I'm still in the middle of. It is ridiculously difficult to chase around two children, write enough words for Nano, critique for my group, AND write my first ever query letter. That's right. I've never written a query before.

And you know what? IT SUCKS. I listened for so long about people "diving into the query trenches" and "drowning in query hell" and I shuddered and thought "Man, I hope it's not that hard for me."

Ah the naiveté of youth. It is hard. It's very hard. It's so hard I want to rip all my hair out and light it on fire. (Okay, BIG exaggeration there, but you get my point.)

And it's scary. To know you're summing everything you love about the thousands and thousands of words that make up your novel into two tiny paragraphs? It sucks! A LOT. And anyone who tells you otherwise is crazy.

Crazy eyed Nicholas Cage kind of nutballs

So after four days of panic, I think I have a somewhat workable query. Though, it's so not what I want it to be, and I don't know it that's possible. In fact, I know it's not. Because I want it to be perfect, and there's no such thing as a perfect query, much like there's no such thing as a perfect book.

And if anyone is interested, this is what I came up with:

Seventeen-year-old Olivia has one goal: to get her overstressed mother through the station before the train to Charlotte leaves without her. But when she’s inexplicably drawn to the back corner of the terminal and her feet move toward the farthest train without her permission, she panics. An invisible force rips her thorough the crowds and yanks her inside, where the walls bleed, floors vanish, and passengers’ worst fears manifest to the soundtrack of bloodcurdling screams. A place no one has escaped in more than a hundred years. 

After narrowly fending off a psychotic old woman with an oozing, bloody scalp, Olivia is swept into the care of the other passengers. While most are warm and friendly, Richard, their handsome leader, greets her with nothing but disdain, insisting that once you enter the Blood Train there's no escape. Olivia must adapt or die, in a place where her wit and right hook aren’t always enough to keep her safe. 

It soon becomes clear the others won’t risk their lives to find an exit they don’t believe exists, leaving Olivia to figure it out on her own. But her mission is quickly complicated by stolen, guilt-ridden kisses with Richard, and attempts on her life. Someone wants her dead and will go to great lengths to see that she doesn’t figure out the secrets of the train. With only Richard at her side, she prepares to make a run for it, when an explosion sends everyone running for their lives. To save herself and those she’s grown to love, Olivia has to conquer everything—including her own heart.

What do you guys think? Not terrible, maybe. And it's only my… fifteenth draft. Ugh. Kill me now.

Do you have query trench horror stories? Are you participating in Pitch Wars? Tell me, tell me!

Toodles!

Megan.