My first novel has an agent!

About two weeks ago, an agent responded positively to one of my queries and asked for a full manuscript.

Last night at midnight, she E-Mailed me to say that she read the manuscript in one sitting, and has offered to represent it.

After three long years of rejection slips, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Columbine has finally found someone willing to take a chance on it. I couldn't be more thrilled.

Great to hear good news!

Good luck

Keep us informed

And what a grim title! Color me intrigued...

It's a dark comedy about four (then five) boys planning a Columbine-style school shooting, and all the insane things that happen to them in the process.

And probably the hardest one. Congratulations, too, on your perseverance. Three years is a long time, and it's often to hard to keep on trying.

Can you tell us who the agent is, or would you rather not?

I just signed the contract, and am waiting to get her copy back. Once it's legal, we'll take it from there.

I doubt she'd be announcing it too much, since I'm not a very famous author and worthy of a press release. :)

I hadn't thought that you wouldn't yet have had time to do the contract work.

I've been trying to get an agent for a year with my latest novel, so I know how tough it is and how hard it is to keep going. Two agents have had the complete ms. for many months now. I watch e-mail obsessively.

If they've had it that long, they're not going to do anything with it. You don't want an agent who treats you so dismissively, anyway. Call them and ask them to return the mss.

I've always believed that it's harder to get an agent than it is for the agent to sell the story.

There are so many shady folks out there, masquerading as "agents," one must be very careful. Above all, hold onto your self-respect and do not allow yourself to be treated this badly. A good agent reads a new submission quickly, because, after all, if it's good, it's money in the agent's pocket, too.

Well known and well established. They're also both known to be slow at the moment, one of them very slow.

then that's all that matters. In no way did I impugn their respectability. A lot of good agents treat clients very badly and that's why there are no written contracts and why we authors end up moving from one agent to another. Oh, the stories I could tell you!

In any event, best of luck to you.

:toast:

And in the past, I switched agents and then finally dumped the last one because of nonresponsiveness or worse.

I've been planning to see if anything happens in the first half of January. If not, it'll be time for some "what's up?" e-mails, and possibly some new query letters.

Let me get this straight:

The agent emailed you at midnight on New Year's Eve and offered to represent you, and now, less than 24 hours later, you've signed a contract?

My agent is basking in the sun on St. Bart's. If I got an email from her at midnight on New Year's Eve, I'd know she was drunk and probably in jail.

I've been in the business for a few years, and contracts aren't typical. Agent relationships are of the handshake variety, since personal performance is veritably impossible to enforce. You might want to get that contract back and have a literary attorney take a look at it, since you might have signed away rights you don't even know you had.

Whatever happens, I wish you good luck. Just be careful.

in a new year: with an agent wanting to represent your book!

that is wonderful.

Lucky bastard :P