travis_fortney

well, by my count I sent the novel to seven agents this week. unfortunately the number is likely to be zero next week, as I promised an agent who phoned me that I would givew him first yay or nay over whether the project was (for him) a go. This is the same trap I have fallen into before.

So on valentines day, that was tuesday, I guess, an agent from Curtis Brown, which is a big and all-powerful house in NY, called me on the phone. I had only sent him fifty pages, but he was the most excited and enthusiastic of the agents I have talked to yet. (I say that like I chat with them every day. Not true. I have spoken in person with one other, who I had an ongoing thing for six months with, which ended in November. This other guy was enthusiastic at the beggining, and then for whatever reason the enthusiasm waned and the relationship died slowly. Dan. He never had this new guy’s enthusiasm though. I’ve been having sometimes abreviated email dialogues with several agents for the last month or so.) With Dan I was always so meek, which I often am in other facets of my life as well. It’s not my true nature, and I decided that I would approach the process with more vim this time around. I have, I’ve been a complete bulldog, I’ve got five agents reading the entire manuscript right now, and each of them knows the other four are reading it, and I have been playing them off of eachoter, basically letting them know that the first one who finishes reading, wants to proceed further, and convinces me they can sell the book, is the one I will sign with. This has all developed in the last week, so I feel like I should probably hear something this week or next. These five agents have all basically taken the bait, as I have been baiting them every step of the way. So I feel like the hard part may be over. Something shifted last week, where it occured to me that I was no longer waiting for a rejection, but waiting for that elusive acceptance. Feels like the process is embracing me. Makes sense right? This is the only thing I have really wanted and really worked for for the last eight years.

Tommorow I start querying again. I’m going to try to send out 50 in one day.