Surviving The Call: Prepare for the Possible
This is a sequel to my post from April on querying and the links that helped me through that process.
I'm the one in the crowd who is loaded like MacGyver. My purse is a bag of holding when it comes to disaster needs: ibuprofen, bandages, disinfectant, tissues. I'm OCD. I take comfort in being ready. Therefore, it only made sense that when it came time to start querying Normal, I was ready in case the best scenario came to pass. Not that I believed I would get an agent easily. I'm also a pessimist; I told myself that I would give myself the year of 2011 to query Normal, and after that I would move on to my next project.
I may be a pessimist, but I'm a prepared one. Every day of my querying process, I had a sheet of paper above my computer. The entire page featured questions for an agent, if that call ever came.
You have to believe it can happen, even against miniscule odds, even if you're more likely to be hit by lightning. Because yeah, it can happen. The lightning, or The Call.
It ended up that Rebecca emailed me to set up a time and date for The Call, therefore granting me time to prepare custom questions for her and run around the house screaming for a few days. However, when I had a second offer, I was flabbergasted and caught off guard. That's when I used the sheet I had printed out two months before.
Here are some of the links I relied on:
Rachelle Gardner discusses What to Ask an Agent. Mind you, don't ask all of those! Pick and choose what you need to know. The agent will probably bring up the major points on their own.
The Query Shark discusses offer etiquette and when things are really misconstrued.
The ever handy Guide to Literary Agents blog brings up 10 questions to ask before you sign.
AgentQuery asks agents what they expect in that first call.
Janet Reid (again) with great questions and explanations about terms that will come up in The Call.
BookEnds talks about what to do when you have an offer. This is a recent post, and I wish it had existed several months ago!
Then there's the issue of what to do after you have an offer, and contacting other agents with your material.
Dream, and be prepared for when those dreams come true!
I'm the one in the crowd who is loaded like MacGyver. My purse is a bag of holding when it comes to disaster needs: ibuprofen, bandages, disinfectant, tissues. I'm OCD. I take comfort in being ready. Therefore, it only made sense that when it came time to start querying Normal, I was ready in case the best scenario came to pass. Not that I believed I would get an agent easily. I'm also a pessimist; I told myself that I would give myself the year of 2011 to query Normal, and after that I would move on to my next project.
I may be a pessimist, but I'm a prepared one. Every day of my querying process, I had a sheet of paper above my computer. The entire page featured questions for an agent, if that call ever came.
You have to believe it can happen, even against miniscule odds, even if you're more likely to be hit by lightning. Because yeah, it can happen. The lightning, or The Call.
It ended up that Rebecca emailed me to set up a time and date for The Call, therefore granting me time to prepare custom questions for her and run around the house screaming for a few days. However, when I had a second offer, I was flabbergasted and caught off guard. That's when I used the sheet I had printed out two months before.
Here are some of the links I relied on:
Rachelle Gardner discusses What to Ask an Agent. Mind you, don't ask all of those! Pick and choose what you need to know. The agent will probably bring up the major points on their own.
The Query Shark discusses offer etiquette and when things are really misconstrued.
The ever handy Guide to Literary Agents blog brings up 10 questions to ask before you sign.
AgentQuery asks agents what they expect in that first call.
Janet Reid (again) with great questions and explanations about terms that will come up in The Call.
BookEnds talks about what to do when you have an offer. This is a recent post, and I wish it had existed several months ago!
Then there's the issue of what to do after you have an offer, and contacting other agents with your material.
Dream, and be prepared for when those dreams come true!