Agented!

I have champagne-worthy news! I have an agent. I am now officially represented by Steven Chudney, and I couldn’t be happier.

It’s been journey to this point; one I’m glad I took. I began writing this manuscript seven years ago. I was already a writer, but a business writer. I was also an avid reader. But when my boys began reading novels, something clicked inside me. I read the books they were reading, and fell in love with middle grade.

I joined SCBWI and found my wonderful critique group. I dug into the process of novel writing, taking classes, going to conferences, and reading, reading, reading.

In 2007, I sent my MG out into the world and got a bunch of “good” rejections—a decent share of partial and full requests, even a trip to an editorial meeting at a major publisher. But I couldn’t figure out what was missing. What it was that made agents and editors ultimately say no.

So I gave my manuscript a time out—some drawer time for a year or so—and continued working on a second novel.

When I finally took my MG out of the drawer (or out of its Word file, really), I could see flaws that had been invisible the year before. I revised, ran it through my critique group again (and bless ‘em, they never said—again????), revised again, and last July, after carefully researching agents, sent off some targeted queries.

Two months and one revision later, my drawer time paid off. I now wait while Steven takes another read. When he deems it ready, out to publishers it goes.

I have to say, this feels really good. But what will feel even better, is getting a phone call and hearing, “I sold it.”

Photo: Ian Britton