Today I had an agent request my full manuscript from my YA novel, Bugs. Since the beginning of the summer, I have been submitting Bugs to every Agent and publisher I could find.
The writer’s journey, like any journey, consists of little steps. Write every day. Edit your book when you’re done. Submit to readers. If positive feedback, send away for professional editing. Then send it out, over and over and over … At the same time, go back and work on the other steps.
An agent expressing interest isn’t the same as an agent taking me on as a client. But it is a step toward that.
Being a client of a successful agent is one of the biggest stepping stones to writing stardom. An agent is the writers advocate. He knows where to shop your story, where it is marketable, who would be interested, how to look out for your financial interests.
So I am hopeful. But if the agent reads my book and sneers, if he returns the manuscript with stale vomit on the cover, if he threatens to quit the profession if I ever contact him again, well, it’s just another step in the process.
And I will go back to writing, and editing, and submitting.
In chemistry class they told us that water was the universal solvent. I forgot much of my chemistry right after I took the exam. Persistence may not dissolve organic solids and dilute alkaline chemicals. But it is what makes a successful writer.
Jim Miner Author 