this woman’s work

The opportunity I’m talking about was that a very nice agent approached me after talking to one of my old editors asking if I had any book ideas in the works. I replied with, “Boy do I!” Then we emailed and the one he’s interested in seeing a proposal on isn’t the one I thought it would be and it kinda freaked me out.

Now this is really really great news but it’s close to getting a book like getting approval from an agency who says they will work with you on adoption is close to getting a baby. Actually it’s less close. Because now I have this very nice “in” but I still have to write the proposal and hope he’s still interested in the project. Then if he is, I have to hope he can sell it. Then if he does, I have to hope I can actually write it per the publisher’s request. Then if I do, I have to hope that it sells. All very scary and overwhelming.

This isn’t the first time I’ve caught the interest of an agent, (she types modestly because of what comes next, which will make it clear this is not bragging). Many, many moons ago (when Noah was about three or four) another editor-friend allowed me to use her name to get an “in” with her agent. I sent my proposal and the agent said she was now my agent. Even though she was a hotshot in a New York office with a great track record who got my friend a tidy advance for her first book, she never sent me a contract or communicated with me in any way except email. Being a newbie, I was just so happy to have an agent that I believed her when she’d answer my occasional emails with, “I’m shopping it around!” Now that I know better, I doubt she was doing that at all. She was about to leave her agency and start off on her own and I think she was just holding on to me until she moved on so she could start fresh with her own stable of authors. She sent a mass email when she opened her new offices, I didn’t respond and I never heard from her again.

I’m saying this to say that I am not an agent virgin and so am not hopping up and down as much as I might otherwise. Also, I know that he’s got a list of writers he’s contacting and I know that because he contacted another writer friend a month or so ago.

Still, it’s very very cool. I’d like to work on the proposal and if he passes, I’ll try to sell it elsewhere. I just don’t quite know how I’ll make time to do it. Then again, it’s not like I’ll have to write hard forever; I just have to write hard until the proposal is done. By the time I sell it (if I sell it) and have to write the book, Madison will be older and hopefully easier. (Remember we’re looking with great hope towards three.)

The best lessons in all of this are these:
1. The book he’s interested in is also the type of book I most want to write; the other two ideas I shopped to him were more about sales.
2. If he’s interested, other people will be interested. That means if he passes, I can try again with someone else.
3. Becca knows me pretty damn well. (She coached me, kicked me and basically got me through my up/down excitement.)

I was a little high about all of this today (it was the first email I read this morning and was SO much nicer than the first email I read yesterday) but now I’m tired and feeling more sane. I decided to write about it here because I want to enjoy the glow-y feeling. Nothing may come of it but at least right this minute, it’s making me pretty happy.

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