The Great Agent Hunt

(A tip o' the hat to Joely, who always calls it The Great Agent Hunt .)

I've been meaning to write a post about trying to get an agent for like six months. Here's the short version of the story:

I finished the book forever-amen in August. Between September and November I sent out 10 queries, including two that were requested via the #PitMad twitter pitch contest. The quick and dirty stats:

7 rejections, either form e-mails or silence after the no-response-means-no deadline.
1 non-response from someone who claims to respond to all queries.
1 rejection that seemed to be genuinely personalized and was encouraging.
1 request for more pages, followed by a rejection.

I wasn't crushed or anything-- I've read too many threads on Absolute Write to feel like 10 rejections is a lot, or even a cause for concern. Writers get a whole lot of no's for every yes. But it's still deflating when your fantasy that maybe this will wind up being the one part of the process that's effortless for you is dashed.

With all the craziness this winter, subbing The Owl Bearer was honestly the last thing on my mind. Then I got happily absorbed in Mender, and TOB kinda wound up suffering ex-boyfriend-book syndrome.

(I once read an interview with Amy Tan in which she said that having to tour to promote a novel you wrote a while ago while you're in the middle of writing a new novel is like being in a new relationship, madly in love, and being forced to dissect your relationship with your ex-boyfriend for hours every day.)

Anyway, long story short, I haven't sent out any queries for like six months and I've been starting to have the same cringing guilty-avoidant feeling about it that I do about any book I've neglected too long, so last night I sat down and banged out ten more e-queries. And I'm going to do #PitMad again in June. And then I'll send out ten more queries, and ten more, until I either land an agent or come to the end of the line for this particular book. But by then, Mender might done...