Guess Who Got an Agent??

Sure, it took a lot of time.

Sure, it took a lot of work.

And sure, it took a lot of patience.  But guess what?

I GOT AN AGENT!!!

I cannot even BEGIN to tell you the excitement and joy that I am feeling over this!  I mean, I had pretty much given up on the idea of having an agent.  Plus, after doing pretty well with the indie publishing thing, I was actually OKAY with not having an agent.

But now that I HAVE an agent?  I feel like I have arrived.  Like I am a REAL author.  I mean, someone who does this for a living, who has an amazing reputation and KNOWS what sells in the literary world, actually has faith in one of MY books!  How cool is that?  I have a contract with The Seymour Agency and I cannot be more pleased!

The book I had submitted to her was actually a top five finalist in Harlequin Desire's Editor's Pitch Challenge back in 2011.  It was one of the the MOST nerve wracking events of my life!  In the end, Harlequin passed on it and really, at the time, it was probably for the best.  But now?  To have an agent behind it to help with the submission process?  I am breathing a sigh of relief!

I have no idea how long the process will take;  I have no idea how it will all play out.  All I do know is that WOO-HOO!  I have an agent!!!

Here's the blurb for the book entitled "In the Eye of the Storm":

The storm wasn’t only raging outside…

Forced to pick up her demanding boss at two a.m. in the midst of a storm, Holly Abrams quit her job.  Not one to deal with being inconvenienced, Stephen Ballinger refuses to accept.  Forced to be alone together at Stephen’s home to ride out a tropical storm, their relationship turns from a working one to a passionate one.  Holly has always wanted her sexy boss and the weekend is better than all of her fantasies.  Stephen would do anything to make her stay, but is he using seduction to keep his world organized or is this hard-working CEO ready to put some serious work in to a relationship?

EEK!!!  I even had a plan to self-publish this one and this was the draft of the cover that now I cannot even find!  I guess it doesn't matter because I'm sure that they'll want to change it depending on what publisher we sell to.  And you know what?  I am PERFECTLY okay with that!

So be watching here for news on when this all happens!!  Pretty darn exciting!!! 

Wanted: One Literary Agent

How's this for an ad?

Wanted:  One Literary Agent.  Must be encouraging, supportive and committed to project.  Must have good connections, be licensed and be open minded to submitting one little Christmas novella to the Hallmark Channel.

What do you think?  Too specific? 

Here's the thing.  I have lost count of the number of people who have read "The Christmas Cottage" and have said that it should be a Hallmark Channel movie.  I'm not going to lie to you, I kind of agree.  And how cool would that be??  The thing is, Hallmark doesn't accept unsolicited books and whatnot; you have to have a licensed literary agent do it.

I'm working with an agent right now on a full-length novel.  You remember, she's the one who doesn't seem to remember me.  Ever.  Not a lot of confidence in her right now.  I was hoping to hear from her by now; the book is up for a final read (like a month ago) and my plan was that when she approached me and said that she'd like to represent me and the book, then I would present her with "The Christmas Cottage" and my plan for submitting it to Hallmark.

So far she's not falling in line with my plans.  

It's hard to research a literary agent.  Authors are very secretive.  They do not tell you who their agents are or how they got them.  I've done a lot of research over the years and submitting and querying is exhausting.  Plus, there's the whole "I hate writing query letters" thing.  Can't I just be creative?  Can't I just write books and have them chase after me?

That last part could have been a possibility if my rankings had stayed higher for longer.  Don't get me wrong, being in the top twenty in women's fiction on Amazon is still amazing and more than I ever could have hoped for.  I never got in to the top 100 in Kindle sales.  That would have been great.  My goal of 10,000 Kindle sales by New Year's looks like a very real possibility but  I don't know if that number is significant to anyone but me.  

I bet an agent would know that.

So if any of you knows a licensed literary agent that would be interested in helping me get "The Christmas Cottage" submitted to the Hallmark Channel, I'd love to hear from you! 

So I got one of the greatest compliments quite possibly of my life.  It was one of those moments where you think, "I've waited my whole life for this" and it's just as wonderful as you always hoped it would be.

My father told me he was proud of me.

I know, I know...sooo cliched.  Here I am, age 44, and still seeking my father's approval.

WELL I GOT IT!

He actually READ "The Christmas Cottage" and he doesn't really read!  He's a TV kind of guy and he actually read my book!  How do I know?  Because there is a behind the scenes, secondary character in the book that is only mentioned twice and he asked me today "What's with the best man??  Why did she need to stay away from him?? Is there more to that story or did you put that in there to torture me???"  

That made me giggle.  

See?  That would make a GREAT story to entice a literary agent in to representing me, right???