how i got my agent

You all knew this was coming. 

Or maybe you didn’t! Hi, I’m Ann, a newly agented writer, and newly agented writers tend to make blog posts about their journey to getting an agent. I am no exception, and in my eagerness to make more website content and procrastinate packing for college, here’s my story.

Because I know this is extremely long, though, here’s a table of contents.

• How I started writing.

• The writing of my first book, and the beginning of my querying process.

• The writing of my second book (the one that got me an agent).

• Revising my second book (and other miscellaneous things that happened from March to July).

• Querying my second book and how my offer calls went.

• Query stats for both of my books.

how it all began

I could pinpoint about a half dozen moments when I could say this writing thing truly began for me. The nostalgic side of me wants to say it was when I got my first creative fiction assignment in seventh grade English; the realistic side of me would tell you it happened during a walk in the park in May 2020 when I suddenly got the idea for what would become my first completed manuscript. 

And, of course, there are so many moments in between. 

• I was 13, almost 14, when I came up with the character that would become one of the protagonists of the book I got an offer on. 

• Around the same time, I wrote a couple of short stories with one of my friends that will hopefully never see the light of day. 

• I continued to write various short stories on my own, usually inspired by TV shows I’d just watched or books I’d just read.

• I was 17 when I tried to write a book for the first time, and it went through about three incomplete drafts with various different premises.

book 1

I got the idea for my real first book on a random walk in May 2020.

I’d gotten into the habit of going on walks during the pandemic. It helped me not feel so cooped up, and it gave me room to think about things. On this day, I was trying to make a book idea work. It was the one I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago; I was thinking about the characters, how a few of them were sort of based on people I knew in my life.

And then it randomly popped into my head that I hadn’t written anyone like two of my friends in particular. Friends from a politics club.

And then I thought, what if I just wrote a story about a politics club?

As soon as I got back home, I started plotting using the snowflake method. I went from that little line to a full scene-by-scene outline in a spreadsheet over the course of 24 hours, and I immediately started drafting. 

From May to July of 2020, I wrote my first book. It was packed full of feelings about some of my high school experiences, and it was messy and jargon-filled, but it was there. I made some edits throughout the summer and shared it with a few friends, not fully sure what to do with it. I knew about querying because of Alice Oseman’s Tumblr blog—multiple people have asked her about how to get published. But I totally wasn’t ready for that yet. 

And then I found out about Pitch Wars, one of many mentorship programs for authors, and I ended up applying. I even got a full request! But I ultimately didn’t get in (and that was probably for the best, for very big reasons that I don’t have the time to get into). And it was sad, but I brushed myself up and did a big old revision and sent my first queries.

But the same day I sent my first queries for my first book, I got the idea for DEAR WENDY.

book 2

It was the evening of November 30, and I know this because I went back through all my old documents and messages to find it. I was tucked into bed in my little dorm room, ready to fall asleep, and it hit me out of nowhere: aroace girl giving love advice. I don’t really remember anymore how that idea ended up in my brain; maybe it was because I’d recently read Perfect on Paper. But I knew then that that would be my next project.

I’d wanted to write an aroace story for a long time. Mostly because I’m aroace, and I need more books with people like me. My first attempt at a book (the one that I had been writing when I got the idea for my first book) featured an aroace girl. Actually, it was the same girl as who’d eventually be one of the narrators of DEAR WENDY, because as it turns out, she’s a recurring character in my life; I kind of put her in everything until I found the right one for her.

I hastily got out of bed and stumbled to my desk, and I wrote my idea down on a scrap of paper, and then I went back to sleep.

The next day, I texted my friend Katie about the idea, and here’s the full text conversation. You can click the following link to scroll past if you don’t feel like reading through it all, but I would like to give credit where credit is due, and Katie really came up with a lot of the backbone of this book. 

Ann:

last night before falling asleep i had a sudden idea for a book and i need you to tell me if you think it’s a good idea or absolute garbage

Katie:

ok.....

Ann:

the concept is all i’ve got so far but basically: aroace girl gives anonymous love advice (through what medium? i don’t know yet)

hijinks ensue

Katie:

i mean, yes

it’s gonna depend on the “hijinks”

Ann:

i have no ideas beyond that yet

Katie:

and also the dating advice, is it gonna be actual good advice or comedic ya know 

Ann:

oh my god i didn’t even think about comedic advice

Katie:

you know like those columns where it’s like “love advice” and they say things like “omg no dump his ass. all men are snakes and should be left in warm cages with crickets”

Ann:

pfff that would be so funny

wait wait what if one character writes a serious column and another writes a funny column and it’s an enemies to best friends situation

Katie:

anonymously! in the same state school paper! [Narrator’s voice: it would not be in a state school’s newspaper.] so they maybe cross paths outside and think nothing of it, but they vague post about each other too and only know each other on a pseudonym basis!

Ann:

oh my GOD yes

Katie:

why am i a genius

Ann:

except it can’t be a state school i don’t know how to write that

Katie:

i should be in the acknowledgments for literally feeding u a genius idea

JUST TALK TO [our friend who goes to the University of Illinois] OR SOMETHING

Ann:

it’s got to be a liberal arts school or a public high school and somehow they don’t realize

Katie:

it has to be a big school

absolutely not everyone would know in a high school

Ann:

KATIE I TRIED TO WRITE A BOOK SET AT STANFORD AND I KNOW LIKE THREE PEOPLE THERE AND IT STILL DIDN’T WORK OUT [note from Ann: I think I skipped over the part where I was trying to write another story from like October to November that also didn’t work out. That happened! It was not great.] 

Katie:

it doesn’t have to be specific like that

Ann:

i don’t know i think it could happen at wellesley

Katie:

just spend a couple hours on like UMich’s reddit and ask [our friend who goes to UMich] what popular places to hang out are

don’t make the college the important thing

Ann:

yeah no i won’t [Narrator’s voice: she would.]

Katie:

just like “she was sitting in this specific cafe”

so that people can be like oh right sure

u have to do a Little research for books sometimes ann!!

Ann:

if we’re underclassmen, especially underclassmen who live in different neighborhoods, there’s a very high chance we don’t know each other

it’s not as close-knit as i make it sound

okay wait setting doesn’t even matter as much as plot in the early stages of planning i don’t need to think about this lmao

i think yes we can have two anonymous columns (or anonymous instagram accounts??? we’ve got a lot of those here lmao) that are both widely known around campus

Katie:

we do not have anonymous instagram accounts??? also i’m sure it’s not super close knit, but in a smaller school i feel like u would know who the anonymous authors are especially if there were two with an insta war

friends would know. friends or friends. it wouldn’t be that big of a community

Ann:

the person who runs the serious advice column is constantly pissed at the person with the funny one because they’re more popular but spend far less effort

Katie:

oh for Sure

Ann:

okay wait the inciting Incident of this book could easily be the creation of this funny account

serious person is like “who the hell are you and why are you making a mockery of my very important and helpful advice”

Katie:

mmmm idk

i don’t think it’s a mock account tho

Ann:

that’s the point, it isn’t

Katie:

unless u want that

Ann:

but they Think it is

Katie:

but why do they think that [Ann’s note: you’ll see, lol]

Ann:

hm okay fair enough

Katie:

worry about that later. what other things would happen?

Ann:

oh god i don’t know uh

probably some requisite friend drama caused when their identity is revealed 

Katie:

omg wait is one of the characters still gonna be aroace i immediately forgot to consider that

Ann:

this would be hilarious as enemies to lovers but i also want to write an aroace main character

Katie:

okay yes 100% great

i think they should write the funny column

Ann:

or how about let’s make them both aroace just for kicks

Katie:

okay but the motivation for the serious account is gonna be VERY different

cuz like, aroace with a funny love account, yeah that’s like expected

why does the other person have a serious account

Ann:

i don’t know i think i’d like to give love advice because i want my friends to be happy and i can see relationships more objectively

one of the points of conflict might be that people give that person flack for giving all this advice despite their lack of relationship experience

Katie:

okay so

- friend has relationship drama

- oc gives remarkably good advice

- friend says “holy shit make an advice account”

- oc laughs it off, but then mentions it on a private account and gets surprising support and decides to make a whole anon account giving honest but serious advice that works like Magic

- all of this would happen before the book actually starts

THEN

- second character is TIRED OF THEIR FRIEND’S SHIT and also completely separately makes an account and it’s super funny romance advice, kinda cynical, but people get good laughs out of it plus there can be some gems

Ann:

oh my GOD okay that’s a lot i like this a LOT

Katie:

ok in my scenario i don’t think any of the serious one’s followers would give flack

like i think they would be like “ur aroace. bro HOW ARE YOU SO GOOD AT THIS”

like i want it to come natural to them like okay maybe i’ve been watching too many tv shows

okay that’s a flood of ideas hahaha 

Ann:

i love you

Katie:

no concrete events yet but hehehe of course ann!!!

Ann:

this is so exciting

Katie:

HAHAHA let’s not get too ahead of ourselves but yes this is kinda fun :D

Ann:

i can’t plot this out right now but this will absolutely be something for me to work on over winter break

Now, obviously, I did not do a lot of the things that I said I would. I definitely didn’t wait until winter break to start outlining. In fact, I worked on the outline through the first couple weeks of December. Shoutout to the snowflake method for getting me from conception to full scene-by-scene outline in such a small amount of time.

I started drafting later that month. It helped when I had to shut myself up in a hotel for a week after coming into contact with a friend who tested positive for COVID; I had nothing to do but write. 

I finished that ugly little draft pretty quickly, but it kind of stopped halfway through where the plot goes now, it was super under-written (about 30,000 words), and it obviously needed a lot of work. I don’t even call it my first draft; it was more like a zero draft. 

So then, over the course of winter break and the first couple weeks of second semester, I wrote my real first draft. I changed the tense from past to present. I added an entire third act. I wrote the final words of the book on a FaceTime writing sprint with my friend Famke, I think sometime in March. 

And after that, I went through several rounds of beta readers, and in between each of them, I fixed up plot holes and tightened up long scenes and made this book as good as I could get it. 

things are getting complicated

I realize now that the timeline of this post is a little fuzzy. This entire time, I was still querying my first book. I participated in a few pitch events and got a smattering of likes. I applied for several mentorships (I even got a runner-up spot in RevPit). Most importantly, I made friends and critique partners.

(I’m really glossing over it all because I don’t have that kind of time and this blog is already approaching 1,000 words, but my first book was really my main focus until this summer.)

My new friends helped me a lot with my first book, but even more so, they helped with DEAR WENDY. This time, I was doing this with a supportive network instead of on my own, and it really showed. I was having actual writers beta reading for me instead of my school friends who just read casually sometimes. I was getting querying experience and learning about which agents fit me the best. And I was learning about so many other people’s amazing stories along the way.

After my second or third major revision, depending on how you’re counting it, I started talking a lot more about DEAR WENDY on social media. I stumbled into having a significant TikTok following this year, and one of my videos about it went a little viral. (A really great agent even commented on it letting me know they wanted to see more, and though they eventually passed, I am still thrilled that this happened.) It was beyond exciting. 

And in August, after one final round of beta readers and one final pass through, I was ready to query DEAR WENDY. To put the timeline into perspective some more, I still had some fulls out with my first book since I’d been sending out about a dozen queries a month all year. 

That being said, I kind of shelved my first book, at least in my mind, even if I wasn’t withdrawing my last queries. Something in me told me that DEAR WENDY would be the one.

okay this is how i really got my agent (aka querying)

I sent out my first test batch of DEAR WENDY queries little by little throughout the course of about half a week. Literally on the first day, I got a full request. A few days later, that agent emailed me to say they were liking my book so far and would have more soon, which was really scary but also super exciting.

And four days after I sent that first query, I got an email in my inbox. That agent who requested on the first day wanted to set up a call. 

I did not scream. In fact, I probably had the least reactive reaction that you could imagine upon seeing this email. I’d just come back home from a road trip, and I was very tired, so unfortunately, the only screaming I did was in my head. What I did do was text the news to every single one of my writer friends and a number of my non-writer friends so they could scream on my behalf. 

We scheduled a call for Tuesday, so I had three days to wait nervously and send out my last queries. At this point, I was really just throwing in all the people that I thought I should probably submit to while I had the chance; there were multiple instances of “oh, I need to submit to someone at this agency” going on in my head. 

I had a call with this first agent, and it was fantastic, and I immediately sent out nudges to all the agents I’d just queried. The full requests came flooding in. 

A couple days after, I got an email from an agent, and again, was just here to say they were liking my book so far and would get back to me soon! Sirens went off in my head; this had happened once, and I’d gotten an offer, so maybe this would be too. 

I ended up getting another offer the next Monday from someone who, unlike the others, had shown no sign that they were particularly loving my book until the offer email came! A huge surprise! The following day, I hopped on another fantastic call and immediately started to worry about who I was going to pick; I chatted with friends, thinking about pros and cons, trying not to think too hard in case another offer ame. 

That Friday, I got a third email to set up a call, from that agent I mentioned two paragraphs before. I was really down to the wire with this one; I’d given agents a deadline of Monday to finish reading my book, so we ended up having our call on Sunday evening. And, of course, it was fantastic.

So now I was left with the utterly incredible and also terrifying situation of having to pick between three amazing offers. I looked through agency contracts, asked last-minute questions, talked to current clients of these agents, called my friends trying to weigh the pros and cons of each. I was really stuck. All of these agents are total rock stars, but for a lot of different reasons. 

I won’t really go into how I made the decision in this blog post—picking your agent is both a very personal decision and still a business decision, and everyone has different priorities in what they want from an agent. Some people want to go on submission as soon as possible, and others want to take their book apart in revisions first. Some people want an agent who’ll also be their friend, and some want a purely professional relationship. Some care very much about having an agent with years and years of experience, while others prefer someone newer who’ll grow with them. 

For me, the best person was the third agent who offered to me: Jennifer March Soloway at Andrea Brown Literary. At the end of the day, she was the person I absolutely couldn’t bring myself to say no to, and I’m thrilled to be working with her on DEAR WENDY (and future projects—maybe even that first book I shelved). 

stats because this is what i’m sure many of you are really here for

Book 1:

78 queries sent

9 partial requests

14 full requests

0 offers of rep

Book 2:

34 queries sent

1 partial request

19 full requests

3 offers of rep