As many of you know, I recently (and gleefully) signed with my dream agent, Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. God’s hand was in every aspect of this, and I am floored by all the minute details He worked out so that Tamela and I could connect and click.
The process of finding an agent is often nerve-wracking. The author usually sends out a query to the prospective agent (a very formalized version of, “Hey, Awesome Agent! I wrote Splendiferous Manuscript. It looks like it’d be right up your alley, won a couple of contests, and my mom loves it*! Care to take a look?”). If the query piques the agent’s interest, they ask to see some or all of your manuscript. If they love it and believe they can sell it to a publisher, they will offer representation. Usually, they call first, mostly to talk about your project, feel out whether the working relationship will be a good one, and reassure themselves that you’re not totally nuts (at least, not in a bad way). Among authors, this is sometimes known as The Call.
From the moment an author hits ‘send’ on that first query, they start dreaming about The Call. Hoping for it. Drooling with anticipation over it. Jumping out of their skin every time the phone rings, especially if it’s an unfamiliar area code. (Or maybe a familiar one, because they memorized their Dream Agent’s phone number. Ahem. Not that I know anyone who did this. *looks around furtively*).
Although sometimes The Call comes out of the blue and is a total surprise, in some cases (like mine) the agent schedules it beforehand. So when Tamela’s (totally not memorized) number flashed on my caller ID, it was not a surprise…but I still took a moment before I answered to sear that moment into my memory. My Dream Agent was finally calling me. This was it. The Call.
Lots of information is out there dealing with how authors can prepare for The Call, what questions they should ask of the agent, what information to cover, and the like. There’s also a lot of advice on how to inform other agents who may have your query or manuscript that you’ve received an offer, how to handle multiple offers, etc. But what I wasn’t prepared for—and didn’t find a lot of information about—was the utter emotional roller-coaster I went on in the days following The Call.
We’ve all heard about the five stages of grief, and I found after The Call that I went through about five different (more fun) stages as well. So I now present to you, without further ado and with an appropriate amount of fanfare, the five stages of After The Call.
Stage 1: Elation.
I GOT THE CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME AGENT LIKES ME!!!!!!!! Finally, after all the queries and rejections and revisions and research, AWESOME AGENT WANTS TO WORK WITH ME!!!!!! This is the BEST DAY EVER!!!!!!!!!! I have to call EVERYONE I KNOW! No. Wait. I have to SAVOR IT. No. Wait. I have to plan a clever WAY to tell everyone I know. No. Wait…oh, screw it. AWESOME AGENT JUST OFFERED REPRESENTATION!!!!!!!!!
Stage 2: Disbelief.
Awesome Agent. Likes me.
Awesome Agent. Wants to represent…me.
Wait. She does know who I am, right? Did she mean to dial my number? Spendiferous Manuscript…that’s the one she’s in love with? Wait, did she read it? She did, right? She wouldn’t be offering if she didn’t. Did she see the part in Chapter Sixteen where I’m all redundant and ridiculous and go on too long about my hero’s mommy issues? She did? And she still wants to represent me?
Maybe I dreamed The Call. Maybe she didn’t really call me and it’s all in my head. *checks phone log* No, she really did call me.
She’s serious, right? She’s not going to call me back tomorrow and go, ‘LOL, just kidding, I thought you were someone else, I don’t really want to represent you.’ Right? Right????
Stage 3: Second Guessing
Awesome Agent wants to represent me!!!! But but but but a couple of other Awesome Agents also have my manuscript. What if one of them offers? I mean, that’d be great and all, but what do I do then? How do I decide? What if I pick the wrong Awesome Agent?
Or what if they don’t offer? What if Awesome Agent is the only one who offers? That means she’s The One, right? By default, she’s The One. Of course she is. But what if she somehow isn’t? Will I know?
What if I screw it up somehow? What if I take too long to get back to Awesome Agent and she changes her mind? What if I inadvertently offend her somehow? What if she decides she doesn’t actually want to take me on? What if I really do get that ‘LOL, just kidding’ call or email?
Stage 4: Panic
Holy falafel, I’m really gonna do this.
I’m really gonna sign an agreement with Awesome Agent.
And she is going to have my book. My book. My baby. And I barely know her. I mean, yeah, we clicked on the phone, but that was just one call and my head was in the clouds and I barely even registered the first half of the conversation because I WAS TALKING TO AWESOME AGENT, but now I’m going to put my baby in this person’s hands, and she’s going to show it to publishers and maybe get me a contract and possibly even a career and AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I’m not sure I’m ready for this.
Stage 5: Readiness
Okay. I’m ready. I’m at peace. I’ve prayed about it, thought about it, and slept on it. She really is The One, and I’m really going to do this. I’m going to call her back and share the good news, I’m going to scribble my name on that agency agreement, I’m going to post the pic to Facebook I’m going to celebrate with all my loved ones…
And then I’m going to get to work. Because Awesome Agent and I…we’re a team now. She loves my book. She believes in my book.
And together, we are going to get it out into the world.
So these are the stages I went through when Tamela called me. You may not go through all of these. Or any of these. Your five stages may look different from mine. Or you might have more than five. Or fewer. If there’s anything I’ve learned from this process, it’s that the process looks slightly different for everyone…and that it’s all normal.
Normal for writers, anyway.
For those of you who may have queries or manuscripts out with agents and are anxiously awaiting The Call, know that I’m praying for you! I pray you’ll have peace in knowing that God has your career completely under His control, and He will guide you to just the right person at just the right time.
For those of you who have received The Call, I would love to hear your story! Did you go through any of these stages? All of them? None of them? Let me know in the comments!
*Note to people who are querying: Don’t actually tell the agent your mom loves the book.