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| Katherine Reay |
You may have been told that
it’s important to sign with a literary agent. But what do you do? Where do you go to find the right one? Today, author Katherine Reay shares her personal
experience. Her
story is another example of how God has an individual plan for each writer’s
journey. ~ Dawn
Acquiring
an Agent
When thinking about encouragement, I stumbled upon what most
of us find or found discouraging: Acquiring one’s first agent. I queried many
agents and received 38 rejection letters. Another author once praised my
tenacity – that’s one word for it. But the reality is that, after you’ve put in
all the work, it’s discouraging – and even upsetting – when you feel like you
can’t get a foot in the door that
fills your thoughts and dreams.
So that’s where we begin…. The process can be heartbreaking.
Yet I do feel that if we are called by God to write – and we must be or we
wouldn’t set ourselves up for such pain – then we write. And we trust. We trust that, in some way and
in some form, He will use our words and our obedience for Him.
My story is one I share because I can’t boast about it or
take credit for it. God showed up, powerfully and with a sense of humor. The
story is the encouragement…
In the summer of 2012, an editor I had met at a conference
expressed interest in Dear Mr. Knightley.
She sent a contract for a simple, brief offering – and yet it was 40 pages long
and intimidating, especially without an agent to help translate. I was
overwhelmed and discouraged. Within the hour of the contract’s arrival in my
inbox, a newsletter from a writers’ group also arrived. I reluctantly opened it when I really wanted
to skip the newsletter and stop writing, forever. But upon opening the email, I
found my picture, randomly chosen from a 2010 conference, staring back at me
from the titled article “Why You Need An Agent.” Oh my…
I immediately wrote the head of the group and begged him to
reply – after all, he’d used my picture. He graciously wrote back stating that
I should not sign any contract without an agent.
Unwilling to return to my rejection pile, I searched my
shelves and pulled down favorite books. Out of ten I respected, one agent’s
name came up three times in the acknowledgments. I went to the agency website
and found his picture. I read nothing because in that moment I heard loud and
clear “That’s your agent.”
I then questioned – as I am wont to do. “Seriously, God? One shot. That’s all I’ve
got in me. This is the guy?”
Peace said “Yes.”
I called him. (Who does that?)
After leaving a frenetic three-minute message, I read the
agency guidelines. It required one to be published to submit; it represented
household names; it only received mailed queries from recommended authors.
Dismayed, I realized that I’d already broken every rule.
Yet three hours later, he called me back.
I was so stunned I could answer few of his questions
succinctly. At the end, he said “I am not taking you on, but I will read the
manuscript and the contract and I’ll get back to you on Monday.” This was a
Thursday.
He didn’t call Monday and I thought I’d blown it, but he
emailed the next day with “I’ll call Thursday. Hold tight.”
On Thursday, his opening line was “Where have you been?” I
replied, “I’ve always been here.” He then said, “I don’t need new clients. I
have a very stable clientele. I take on one to two each year at most… but I
want to work with you.”
Two weeks and a forty-page proposal later, we met in Dallas
at the 2012 ACFW Conference and pitched Dear
Mr. Knightley to anyone and everyone who would listen. And now… You can buy the book.
This is a “success” story because God pulled the pieces
together. I did not. I was discouraged, frustrated and close to giving up. And
it isn’t a usual story – technically I broke a healthy number of industry
rules. But that’s my point. The journey to publication is as unique as the
stories we write and we write those to stories to connect with and share a big
God – and with Him all things are possible.
So keep writing, keep editing, keep seeking, keep searching
and… keep trusting.
Thank you for reading. And please tell me your thoughts… You
can reach me on Twitter @katherine_reay, on Facebook at /katherinereaybooks or
on my website www.katherinereay.com.
I would love to hear from you.
Tweetables:
We trust that He
will use our words and our obedience for Him. Click to tweet.
God showed up,
powerfully and with a sense of humor. Click to tweet.
The journey to
publication is as unique as the stories we write. Click to tweet.
Author Katherine
Reay shares how God provided an agent.
Click to tweet.
Growing
up in the foster care system, Samantha Moore found her best friends in the
works of Austen, Dickens, and the Bronte sisters. The problem is that she now
relates to others more comfortably as Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Eyre than as
herself. While pursuing a graduate journalism degree at Northwestern
University, Sam struggles to find her own voice and lay down those safe hiding
places. And soon she begins to write her own story – by giving it to a complete
stranger.
Katherine Reay
is a wife, mother, runner, and avid chocolate consumer. She has enjoyed a
life-long affair with the works of Jane Austen and her contemporaries and, at
the encouragement of her family, recently began an affair with food – cooking
that is – and this new passion has strongly influenced her next novel, Lizzy and Jane, which will release in
October 2014.
After living all across the country and a few stops in
Europe, Katherine and her family live in Seattle, WA. You can also find
Katherine at www.katherinereay.com and
lurking somewhere within the pages of her first novel, Dear Mr. Knightley.
