I am so thrilled that I am now represented by Maria Whelan from InkWell Management! It’s been seven years of writing seriously and 4.5 years of querying in the making.
How did I get an agent?
The short version:
I queried Maria, I got a full request the next day, then I got an offer a week after I sent the query.
Yep, I got my agent via good ol’ fashioned cold querying. It looks simple on the surface, but I yeeted out 124 queries total and racked up 100 rejections (and that’s just for this book, I’ve had probably 250+ rejections total on all the books I queried).
The long version:
I spent hours writing, revising, reading, and even tweeting while watching 100+ rejections roll in. I asked myself, “What’s the point?” a billion times as I stared at my Scrivener project, deleting and rewriting chapter after chapter, watching the minutes tick by. I felt like I was spinning my tires because I wasn’t signing anything or taking any momentous steps. When I expressed this to my incredible friend, Bethany Hensel, she said…
“You’re just winding back the slingshot, waiting to let go. And when the time is right, you’ll let go, and everything will already be in place.”
She was so right.
(Bethany’s also FULL of great one liners like this, and her writing classes are a GAME CHANGER!! Check her out: https://bethanyhensel.com)
I’ve been preparing to sign with an agent since I started writing seriously in 2016. Because while getting the offer itself is momentous, the little things I did throughout the years are truly what got me where I am right now. Of course, the MOMENT of getting an agent is exciting, but it’s a build-up of the mundane days where I put in the work, feeling like I wasn’t going anywhere.
Let’s rewind to 1993, when I sketched out my very first story using crudely drawn potato people…
No, wait, that’s too far. Let’s go to December 2016 when I took my first college level writing course. It’s when I learned there was a process to being published, and when I started really studying craft, the industry, and how to market myself as an author. Really, it was when I decided I wanted to try to make something out of my writing.
This brings me to the first thing I loaded my slingshot with…
Developing my craft
This is a very tedious and slow step, and I will be doing it to the day I die. Writing craft can always be improved on, of course, and it can’t be rushed. I would never have gotten an agent in 2016 (as much as I would have disagreed back then). I’m a website designer, a graphic designer, and a videographer during my day job. So, I’m all too familiar with working in a creative field and how long it takes to be decent at it.
I wrote three “practice” books throughout the 2010s (mostly during NaNoWriMo), but from 2017-2019 I wrote my first serious novel: AN IMMORTAL’S GUIDE TO BEING CURSED: AND OTHER LIFE LESSONS. It’s an adult contemporary fantasy about five humans who were perfectly, individually crafted by five malevolent gods. They’re pitted against each other, and the last man standing wins the prize for their deity: control over humanity. Well, until the humans get wise to the gods scheme… (it’s such a fun story and I still love the hell out of it).
While drafting, I consumed all the craft tips I could. This meant reading books, taking courses, watching YouTube videos, and following editors on social media. I linked up with some GREAT beta readers to let me know where my writing went wrong and what I was doing right. I also started reading a LOT to find good comp titles for my book.
I started querying my first novel in 2019 and received a wave of rejections (unsurprisingly, my first query was trash). I tweaked and queried and got rejected, then repeated the whole process all over again. I submitted it to RevPit, the editing contest, and was shortlisted. Due to that, I got a zoom call with a professional editor who gave me actionable feedback, and it was back to the revision room. Then, in 2021, that book got an offer from a small press. I about died. Then it got another offer. And another. And, unbelievably, ANOTHER offer. It was a little proof that my writing skill improved (which took five years). Spoiler alert: I didn’t accept any of the offers. But that’ll be a blog post for another time.
Also, while I was querying my first book, I started writing TTYL (the book that got me agented). I had a better baseline of knowledge, so I wrote it a bit faster, but of course I had more to learn (always). I entered it into Pitch Wars (RIP), in September 2021, where three mentors requested more pages. They all turned me down for the contest itself, but one of them gave me a FULL edit letter because she believed in it so much. They all told me “I’m sure you’ll find an agent with this” which left me skeptical, yet hopeful. Back to the revision room (again).
In January 2022, I submitted TTYL to Author Mentor Match (also RIP), and I got in! My mentor was Paris Wynters, and we tore my manuscript apart and put it back together again. The editing process was intense, but it really polished up my manuscript and gave me invaluable insight in how to write a good book. You can read about the whole experience in my three-part series: https://www.byemilyrae.com/my-author-mentor-match-experience-part-1/.
After taking a whole year (yes, another YEAR!) editing TTYL with Paris, I sent it out to three trusted beta readers (‘trusted’ is the key word here, bad betas can confuse you and slow you down). One beta even told me my book wasn’t a sci-fi, but a technothriller. She was totally right, and that little suggestion helped me find the right agents to query. Finally, I was ready for the query trenches. I started heavily querying TTYL in January 2023, only querying agents I would be happy to sign with if they offered. I participated in pitch events to get TTYL in front of as many industry professionals possible, and I even went to a conference and pitched to agents in person (which didn’t lead me to my agent, in the end). By “heavily querying” I mean I sent my MS out to 124 agents. That is SO MANY QUERIES. I was also getting full requests, so I knew something was working. So, when I got a rejection, I sent out two more. I didn’t quit until I got that offer email—but more on that later.
But, as I mentioned, it wasn’t solely craft that got me my agent. Which brings me to the next thing I loaded into my slingshot:
Making connections and building an audience
Connections are SO important, for multiple reasons. As someone who owns a marketing company for her day job, I know the importance of getting in front of the right people. Not only because people see what you’re doing, but because you can find out what else is going on in the industry around you. Along with the completely selfish reason of making friends you can relate to.
I started social media accounts specifically for my writing persona. I created a website and started a blog. When I started, did anyone read any blogs or posts I wrote? No, of course not. That’s why it felt like I was spinning my tires. Why write a tweet that gets zero likes or write a blog no one reads? Well, because you have to start somewhere.
Now, was having a social media presence the reason I got agented? No, not directly. No agents saw my posts, reached out to me, and offered me representation. But I can confidently say that without making connections I wouldn’t have an agent right now—and I made all my connections through social media.
- Because of Twitter and Instagram, I found beta readers who support me and helped me make my books better.
- I found out about pitch contests, which built up hype around my books and made me realize my premise wasn’t total trash. It also got a like from an editor (another little addition to my sling shot, query letter, and now list of editors to sub to).
- I discovered mentorship contests, which connected me to industry professionals who gave my book more attention than I could have dreamed of.
So, while I was scrolling through Twitter, thinking I was “spinning my tires”, reading tweets from random writers, I was setting myself up for success. And making GREAT friends in the process, which is a win in itself! Yes, that’s cheesy, but I met FOUR social media writing friends in person. Connections really are the best part.
Now, the next thing I put in my slingshot…
Loading up my portfolio and preparing for my end goal
This step is more of a “future” step with how it’ll help my overall career and didn’t play a huge role in getting an agent specifically, but it adds to my slingshot (I guess I’m sticking with this violent analogy).
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks.” This was my strategy for querying. My first book wasn’t working out, so I wrote a second. While I was querying my second, I was writing a third. If I didn’t get an agent for TTYL, I have a third book to query. But now, I have three books that my agent can try to sell, finished and ready to go.
But I can’t say how many times I thought, “Why am I even writing this? I don’t have an agent, it’s a waste of my time.” So, again, I spent mundane days typing away at my computer… but really, I was adding something to my portfolio that will come in handy later.
On the marketing side of things…
- I created a website, even when I didn’t have any books to put on it. But now it exists, and it’s so much easier to add blog posts and updates. Agents even mentioned that they’ve been to my website and were interested in the books I listed on it.
- I also created an LLC with its own bank account, even though I don’t have money from book sales going into it. But now I have a bit of money saved up to market TTYL if the time comes.
All these things, developing my craft, making connections, prepping to market myself, all felt POINTLESS when I didn’t have any hope of making a sale. But it’s an example of me pulling back the slingshot, ready to let everything fly into place. You could also think of it as building a foundation. Or growing a rolling snowball. In a nutshell, it wasn’t that single query I sent out that got me an agent, it was an accumulation of the daily, mundane things.
Those mundane tasks are ultimately how I got my agent.
The detailed ‘How I Got My Agent’ story:
As I mentioned I sent out over 100 queries (and obsessively stalked them via QueryTracker). Most were form rejections. Some were ghosted, others I sat in their maybe piles and actually got a “close but no thanks” rejection. I also got some fulls.
I had hope in this story. It almost got into Pitch Wars. It got into AMM. It got positive rejections. I took that, along with the knowledge that it is difficult to get agented right now, and decided my story was GOOD, damn it. It just needed to find the right agent.
So, that’s why I kept querying, even when I got to that ‘100’ number. That’s when I realized I needed to take those ‘mundane’ things I did and put them in my query letter.
- Thanks to spending a day reading on my couch, I could put relatable comp titles in my query.
- Thanks to joining social media and learning about pitch events, I could put editor interest in my query letter.
- Thanks to developing my craft, I was able to get into AMM and put that into my query letter.
- Thanks to writing contests I entered, I put in every time my manuscripts were shortlisted.
- Also, once I got 10 requests for TTYL, I started putting that into my query letter.
Those little things I did built up like a snowball until they got big enough to be impressive—and worthy to put in a query letter. As soon as I beefed up my query, even more requests started to roll in.
I found Maria herself by using Query Tracker’s “Find Agents with Similar Tastes” feature. I would go to agent’s profiles who requested the full, find an agent with similar taste, and then query them. So, thank you Query Tracker!
I sent my query to Maria on a Tuesday. She enthusiastically requested it on a Wednesday, stating she was currently reading a comp, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, I had in my query. We had a conversation about how much we loved that book in that same email chain. On Friday, she emailed me to say she was in the middle of my story and loving it and would get back to me soon—and then I nearly died.
On Tuesday, she wanted to schedule a call.
For the next two weeks, I refreshed my inbox waiting for her email saying “Hahahah, I was just kidding!!” But it never came. I nudged some other agents to do my due diligence and got a few more full requests, some rejections, but I mostly got ghosted. I even got ghosted on the fulls that were requested AFTER I notified them of my offer. However, most agents passed due to lack of time, and SO MANY AGENTS were on vacation during those two weeks (August isn’t the best time to nudge, haha!).
But Maria’s enthusiasm on the call made me excited to work with her and accept her offer. She understood the story I was trying to tell and was as passionate about TTYL as I was.
I absolutely cannot wait for this next step in my career and continue to build up everything I do for the future. I’ll try to not put myself down for spinning my tires, because I really believe that the small, mundane days are the most important to help you get to the big, exciting moments.
For those interested, here is the query letter that caught Maria’s attention:
Maria Whelan,
TTYL is a 90,000-word adult thriller with light speculative elements in the vein of Black Mirror. It features the virtual reality technology of Deep Dive by Ron Walters and themes of grief similar to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. It has received interest from Leah Mol, an editor from MIRA Books, who stated she would love to see TTYL once I have an agent.
Ashley and her sister, Brianna, were an inseparable gaming duo: always player one and player two. As kids, they had grand plans to create video games together, but it all crashed down when Brianna died. Now, twenty years later, Ashley’s life is stuck on a loading screen.
The closest Ashley gets to her dreams is fixing retro video game systems. That is, until she finds an old virtual reality console coded by her tech-genius sister. But it’s not a typical system, it houses a lifelike, fully immersive world—a ‘90s wonderland where her sister’s avatar resides with her real-life memories and personality intact. In this artificial paradise, Ashley can rebuild the life she always imagined, pixel by pixel.
But it’s game over when a hacker threatens Ashley for the advanced tech. Her nostalgic utopia becomes her personal hell as he infiltrates the system, altering Ashley’s mind, stealing personal information, and blurring the lines between reality and the virtual world. When Ashley finds that he’ll do the same to others when he mass produces the tech, she realizes the only way to stop him is to delete the code. In other words, destroy her dreams and lose her sister—again.
TTYL was chosen for mentorship in the Author-Mentor Match program and has been revised under the guidance of a published author. It was also shortlisted in the Pitch Wars mentorship contest in 2021 and has been requested by fourteen agents. Another one of my manuscripts is shortlisted for publication by Gollancz. As a 1990s gamer girl at heart and someone who codes professionally, I’ve pulled inspiration from my own life to write this manuscript. My professional writing experience includes journalism, scriptwriting, and copywriting for over one-hundred websites and a variety of marketing materials. I am currently the proprietor of a marketing firm which produces brand strategies, websites, print materials, and videos.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Emily Rae
BONUS CONTENT. I wanted to dress nice and take a great photo the moment I signed the contract, but I got the email right as I was leaving for my stand up paddle board yoga class. When I got home, I didn’t want to wait. So, here’s a photo of me right after I signed, in all my post-yoga glory:
