Recap: The Long & Winding Road is a multi-part essay about my endeavors to get an agent and publish my first novel. Part I discussed writing my first novel and seeking representation, Part II discussed “revision hell.”
By Kelly Thompson
In my experience thus far, I found nothing is truer of publishing than the age-old adage of “hurry up and wait.” And never was it more apt for me than at this stage of my quest for an agent.
After The Girl Who Would Be King was forwarded to my friend’s agent connection, things started happening very quickly. First and foremost, I almost fell off my chair when I realized which agency it was (heretofore referred to as “Top Agency”). Then I did fall off my chair when I learned the agent had asked for my phone number so that we could speak about the book. We spoke on the phone that evening for perhaps twenty minutes. He obviously hadn’t finished reading it, but he was very interested. He asked a lot of wonderful questions both about me and about the book, and it was the single greatest phone call of my life up until that point. Even more amazing was that this had all happened in the span of a few hours. Well, multiple years and a few hours. But who’s counting?! It was incredible.
The next day I got on a plane for a visit home with my family, and because I was already unemployed, I extended the trip so that I could stay and help out while my father was laid up after surgery. Waiting, especially while “on vacation,” was brutal.
Everything up to this point had happened so suddenly, but now I somehow knew I had to settle in for the long wait.
However, about a week into my waiting, I got an email from the agency that had re-requested the full manuscript back in October, which we’ll now call “Dark Horse Agency” (not because they were in any way lesser than “Top Agency”, but because they came out of nowhere). “Dark Horse Agency” was loving the book. They hadn’t finished it yet either, but they wanted to let me know that they were interested and they’d be getting back to me within a few weeks.
Click here to read the rest of this story
