Getting a literary agent is very...much a business matter. I think the querying process is superficially professional but so obviously personal and intensive that taking a step back to a portion of the publishing process that is purely business and professional is slightly surreal.
Or maybe that's just the shock of having someone interested in my work still hitting me in waves.
My CALL was yesterday, and the agent I spoke with was great. She is new but has publishing experience and contacts. She also seems like someone who is easy to work with and passionate. She LOVEDDD my book.
It's really hard to process another person's enthusiasm for my work. I love my books. They are part of me or an expression of me. I love my characters, so I can't help but love the world and stories that surround them. But I don't see in my stories what other people see in them. I see what I see.
I've done my due diligence and sent out my Offer of Representation notifications. Found out one agent somehow never received my query in the first place. I've given everyone seven business days to respond and then, if no new variables are added into this equation, I'll be signing with the agent I spoke to yesterday.
I AM SO EXCITED!
I'm excited to work on book two in this series. The idea has shifted so much--mostly in minor ways--lately that I no longer have a crystal clear vision of the series. I'm not sure what it will become and, uncharacteristically, that is unsettling to me. Normally, I love it when I don't know where a story is going. That means the story will stay interesting to me and that whatever it becomes, the result likely won't be something that I forced onto the characters. It will be something fairly organic.
But the prospect of getting published and of having my published book well-received is creating pressure that I didn't previously have. What if the second book isn't as good as the first?
LOL. That seems unlikely. Not to be arrogant, but I think this is the moment when we writers psych ourselves out. We probably become too introspective or seek too much feedback, trying to craft a story to please the audience. If we stay in the story, in the vein we began in, how can the second book not also be good? I think we should have more confidence in our stories and internalize less of the external realities of publishing. Your stories will be good. Just keep writing for the same reasons you wrote in the first place. That motivation will keep your quality high. (Yes, I had a moment of clarity between this paragraph and the preceding one. That's where my LOL came from.)
Soon I will have news and life will shift in ways I've been praying for but can't fully imagine. This is so exciting!
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