Thank you for inviting me, Michelle. I am honored to be able to share how I found my amazing agent, Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
I happened to be on Joyce Alton’s YESTERNIGHT’S VOYAGE blog in which she listed a new agent who represented young adult. I clicked the link and presto, I was at LOVE YA blog reading Monica’s interview with Kathleen.
Kathleen said,” Topics of particular interest to me include reincarnation, the occult, the supernatural (not in a zombie or vampire context, more psychic, or witchy, or fey), ghosts (a scary ghost story? yes, please), and psychology.” She also disclosed that her guilty pleasures are Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl.
Hot diggidy dog! Her interests covered the various plots of all five of my manuscripts.
I was so excited. I immediately queried her and received a full request for the manuscript half an hour later. That night we emailed back and forth, and learned we had common interests in books and movies. It felt surreal. I didn’t want to get my hopes up because I’d faced rejection in past. But I liked Kathleen so much (insert whine to the heavens).
I thought, “This is a person I would like to work with forever.” And isn’t that what we all want in an agent? A partner. A friend.
By the next morning, I was losing my ever-lovin’ mind. To distract myself from refreshing my inbox every two minutes, I went on a ten mile mountain bike ride. THE CALL came while I was in the middle of the woods. I almost crashed my bike into a tree trying to dig my phone out of my tight bike shorts.
All poor Kathleen heard was screams, and finally, when I actually heard her say how much she loved Juju’s Child, and her offer of representation, she had to listen to more screams. Although, when I think back to that moment, I like to pretend I was dignified. In actuality, my brain totally shut down.
The list I had made of “things to ask if an agent offers representation” was at home while I still huddled in blissful euphoria beneath the tree that had almost decapitated me.
When I returned home, I gave Kathleen a call. We had a lengthy discussion about revisions and our ideas for improving upon the existing story after I returned home. Her revision suggestions and mine meshed. I notified the other agents who were considering the manuscript and those that I had queried, and informed them I would be making my decision in a week.
It was kind of predestined thing. Kathleen was meant to be my agent. The reason it took so long for me to find her was she wasn’t representing YA when I first started my agent search. Thank goodness, I found her because I can’t imagine being with any other agent. Not that there aren’t a whole lot of awesome agents out there, but because I feel like I’m going through this process with a friend.
Whoa, when did this all happen?! I totally missed Angie's good news! Congrats Angie!!!! wooohoooo! I'm so glad that tree did NOT decapitate you :-)
ReplyDeleteI love this story every time I hear it. I can just picture Angie smashing into a tree and blitzing out from pain and excitment simultaneously!
ReplyDeleteAngie, if you happen to see this, how's the relationship with your agent still going? About how often do you communicate?
Thanks, Terri.
ReplyDeleteHey Joyce, I guess we email fairly often.
Angie,
ReplyDeleteSo happy for you! If it wasn't for us getting agents around the same time, I never would've met you ((HUGS)). It sounds like you and Kathleen have the ideal client/agent relationship. And your story of getting the call while on a bike ride cracks me up...
Rebekah, I know, it still trips me out at how we met. I'm so happy we did, because you have become a wonderful friend. I'm pretty shy in my daily life, but you and the other amazing people I have met online have been so supportive. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for coming to my blog, Angie. Five comments! This post has blown my blog into a new category.
ReplyDeleteThank you for inviting me over! I had a lot of fun.
ReplyDelete