Law Students

agent quest: one last update

By Andrea

My quest last year to find a home for my collection of short stories ended sort of anticlimactically. I sent a bunch of queries, got some very decent responses that ultimately didn't go anywhere, and stopped doing it, turning my attention to my pregnancy and job search. All that also derailed my first attempt to write a novel. But publishing is such a slow business sometimes that stuff kept trickling in and reminding me of my First Era of Being a Writer. Just this last month, I got a) a rejection from one last small press contest, and b) a copy of one last literary magazine that published one of my stories.

Today I got an email from one last literary agent, who'd I'd forgotten had asked for a full manuscript but never responded to it. She apologized and said, putting a big smile on my face, that she suspected I had already found representation. No, but a cool thing to say. Then she said she loved reading my stories, the characters were strong and the writing well-crafted, but she was on the fence because of the usual problems selling story collections and the problem of low Bookscan numbers for a first book making it hard to sell a second. But if I didn't have an agent and wanted to talk about a novel, please contact her.

These days I'm a mom, a soon-to-be immigration lawyer, and a wife before a writer. But it was pretty great to remember that I still am one. I still have stories to tell (and being those things only guarantees more.) I'll be back.

Full post as published by Peanut Butter Burrito on February 07, 2008 (boomark / email).