Agented!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Last night I accepted Suzie Townsend's (Fine Print Lit.) offer of representation. She's sending me actual stuff to read and sign, so I'm taking that as official enough to make a blog post.

Now we dance, yes?



Okay, enough of that. People are watching! (Seriously, the things some people do in public...)

For those of you who are interested, here's the timeline:

4/21


I sent out queries (Stupidly, I might add, as it was right before Easter, but of course I missed that detail.) Those of you who read this blog will probably be surprised to know that it wasn't Premeditated I queried, but Arclight. I decided to go with the one that had series potential first.

4/23


Suzie asked for the full manuscript, which I sent, and I got an email stating that it would probably be 60 days before I heard back because she's got a lot to read. It sounds awful, but that's like a hiccup in publishing years.

4/28

I get an email saying she'd checked out Arclight on a break and she was loving it.

5/14

Suzie, who is officially the awesomest agent alive for giving feedback to someone she didn't even rep, said she had some thoughts on Arclight. She sent me FOUR PAGES!

5/16

Suzie says she's been stuck in the world of Arclight all weekend and asks if she can call me. (This didn't require much thought on my part, but it did look something like this post from Teherah Mafi. Just substitute "call" for "full request".)

5/17

THE CALL!!!!!!!!

Suzie called. I answered. I hopefully did not sound like an idiot.

She offered representation, so I went and emailed all of the other agents who either had fulls, partials or queries. I ended up with an avalanche of requests and a few who backed out because they couldn't read it within a week. (FYI, the week before BEA is not the best time to ask agents to read quickly...)

For the next week, I talked by email with agents and spoke to them on the phone, and in the end... there was no contest. Suzie was the best choice for me. Which leads me to:

5/24

I accepted Suzie's offer of representation! I'm officially agented.

YAY!!!!

So, all in all, not a bad run from query to offer to acceptance. Just a few days over a month.

Now, we dance. Again.



(All right, that's enough. Knock it off so I can go back to revising already!)

43 Chiming In:

Lydia Sharp said...

Wow, CONGRATS!!!

Charity Bradford said...

Yay! Congratulations!

D. U. Okonkwo said...

Brilliant - congratulations! You going to post your winning query? :o)

Noree Cosper said...

Congratulations! I'd like to see the query as well.

Anonymous said...

Congrats, Josin! You're on your way!

Suzie F.
(for some reason I couldn't sign in and I'm showing as Anonymous, but it's me :)

Robyn Lucas said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jen said...

That it fantastic, Josin! I am surprised it wasn't Premeditated after seeing your query over at The Query Shark, but if Arclight packs half the same punch, it'll do great things!

Sarah said...

That is completely awesome. Suzie's a superstar. Here's to a quick sale!

Robyn Lucas said...

Wow! Congratulations Josin! Loved your query.

Monica Mansfield said...

Congrats! Suzie is wonderful. Good luck with revising!

Simon Hay said...

Congratulations! Suzie sounds like an awesome agent!

Lisa Aldin said...

YEAH! Hey - I'm curious. Do you have critique partners? Just wondering because I'm not sure I've heard you mention them?

Anyway - SO EXCITED FOR YOU! Yeah!

storyqueen said...

I think you will be very happy with Suzie. From what I can see on the internet, she is made of awesome!

Shelley

Cherie Reich said...

Congratulations! That's awesome! (Just heard from Charity Bradford about your news.)

Carol Riggs said...

Woohoo! I came over from Charity's site too (have seen ya on Nathan B's site). Major super-duper congrats to ya!!! Not just an agent, but a GREAT agent, from what I've heard. It's so exciting when an agent really loves your stuff. Best wishes for revising!!

Mia Hayson said...

CONGRATS! (I heard from Charity too)

:)

jen said...

Congrats, Josin! I love success stories.

Candace said...

Congrats! I can't wait to hear more about Archlight. I think most of us assumed it was premeditated that you were querying. Maybe some day you'll let us see the query that landed you an agent...

Josin L. McQuein said...

Wow guys, thanks for the response!

Just to answer a couple of questions:

No, I don't have crit partners. I had a couple of people beta the first 50 pages because I wanted to make sure a particular twist wasn't too obvious, and I did have 2 different agents give me feedback on the 1st 3 chapters as part of a contest win, but other than that, I don't let people read my stuff before it's done.

The query for Arclight used to be on here, but I must have taken it down in the post-purge I did earlier in the year. I'll put it up in another post.

The Screaming Guppy said...

Congrats! And so awesome you got done thw qery process in a month! :D I was happy it only took me about 4 1/2 months. Good luck on submission!

Josin L. McQuein said...

Oh! And for the other question - those are vids, they're animated .gif files. I snag them from photobucket.

Amparo Ortiz said...

CONGRATS, Josin!!! This is such an amazing story, and I hope what lies ahead is even better! ((((((hugs)))))))

Anonymous said...

Wa-hooo!!!! Well done.

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Aww, congrats!!!

Katherine Hazen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Katherine said...

Ack, the dangers of having multiple google profiles, lol.

Congrats!

Kayeleen Hamblin said...

Yay! Happy dance!

Angelica R. Jackson said...

I knew it was only a matter of time for you. A short time, apparently! Congratulations!

Terry Towery said...

Suzie! Ha. I KNEW it! Congrats, Josin. Big-time win. :)

Kimberly said...

How awesome - congratulations! That was a quick turn around. I'm so happy for you!

Bonnie @ A Backwards Story said...

Congrats! I'm so excited for you! And it all happened so fast, too! I can't wait to follow you on your journey!

Earlier today, I also listed you as one of the top five upcoming authors with a blog to follow <3

I just couldn't comment until now b/c Blogger was being weird...

Anonymous said...

CONGRATULATIONS!! That is such an awesome and amazing feeling, and it's only the beginning! Best of luck with submissions!

Anita said...

Much congrats! Fine Print rocks, and it sounds like you do, too!

linda said...

Wow, that's awesome! Congrats! :D

Jessica Schley said...

Can I just say a tiny damn that it wasn't Premeditated you queried? Not that it won't get out there and get sold, and not that I didn't also love Arclight when I read your query on AW, but dangit I want to read Premediated Right the eff now, and have been watching your progress with an eye toward, "When the hell can I buy it?" :)

But congratulations. Exciting and inspiring to see all your hard work pay off so handsomely.

Anne Gallagher said...

Congratulations! That's fabulous news!

Sara {Rhapsody and Chaos} said...

Aw congratulations!! New here--I saw Cambria's tweet to you :)

Stephanie Thornton said...

Congratulations! You've got a stellar agent--woohoo!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! I remember you from Nathan Bransford's blog...good luck and best wishes!

CourtneyC said...

Congrats to you, Josin!

I knew it was just a matter of time for you, and wow, what a great agent you snagged. So happy for you!

Can't wait to see you in print. :-)

-Courtney (who wanted you to come to the Texas Writer's League Agents Conf. with me last year)

Cheers!

Michelle said...

Congrats, Josin! Now thw work begins! ;-)

Unknown said...

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! CONGRATS! I'm so happy for you! :D

Sylvia Allen Fisher said...

I think it's awesome that you charted your progress with the agent hunting while you were in the midst of it. I knew it was just a matter of minutes before you'd find someone great. Thanks for all those posts. Congrats, you deserve the best!

Post a Comment