Is it time?

Last year I attended the Maryland Writers' Association annual conference, from Brain to Bookshelf. I am a volunteer for the MWA and as such I am on the conference committee, which means I attend the conference either way. At the conference besides the presenters, we line up agents for the attendees to sign up with and pitch their manuscript to. Well, this past year we had a couple of people with a lot of open slots, so I signed up just to give them something to do.

Boy was that a stupid idea.

I talked to two different agents who both were not looking for what I was selling. It made for a very awkward and embarrassing situation for me. One of the agents was looking for one specific niche genre (which they weren't up front to us about) and the other just didn't cover fantasy (my genre). Either way, I had not planned nor was I going to sit down and talk to an agent about what I just completed.

"Just pitch and see what it's like!" -Amy

"I like to just sit down and pitch to see if I need to do or say anything different in the future. Sort of a trial run." -Donna

"Last year, I went in and pitched an idea to an agent, I hadn't even written it yet, and they loved it! They wanted to be my agent!" -Megan

All of these people are in the MWA with me, and they helped out on the conference, so they would know because they attend/help every year.

Now, for this reason, I thought, "How bad could it be?" Worst case scenario, they tell me no. Which they not only said no, but they also said, "I don't even cover your genre. I'm not sure why they let you sign up with me." Totally defeated me.

Now, there was one agent who I actually had thought about signing up for who was seeking my genre, but her slots were all full. Fortunately for me, I was nudged again by Amy to talk to that agent after their time sitting was done. I timidly walked up to her and explained the situation but that I also really wanted to pitch to her. She let me, and by the time I got to her, I felt less anxious, and had a better idea of what I wanted to say to her. As she listened, she seemed genuinely interested in my manuscript which was absolutely what she said.

I was a little shocked, but she said she was very interested and told me when I finish my editing to send it over to her! I was super excited and rode that high for like a month!

Unfortunately, after nosing around for a developmental editor, I am still at a stalemate with myself. I haven't sent out my manuscript to get edited, but today I decided to reach out to someone for help in that department. Hopefully she will come back with some ideas for me so I can get my manuscript into a complete finished manuscript, worthy of an agent to review.

Do I think that I will actually land an agent with my first manuscript? No. Do I have my hopes up for it? Also no. But I think it is at least worth my time to put it out there to a few and see if they are interested. Once I finish that and none of them want it, I will work on independent publishing as my next avenue.

So, with all that, come back for an update into the world of a new writer and see how things are going!

Words aren't gonna' word themselves onto paper,

Heather