It's an Epidemic!

A few months ago, my local paper ran an article about a group of writers in my area who get together to support one another and commiserate over their rejections. (It wasn't the local RWA chapter, to which I belong.) Several people quoted in the story lamented over how impossible it is for a debut author to get published in New York these days. Agents and editors won't even consider an unpublished writer's work, let alone offer a contract for publication!

But is that really true? That the unpubbed, to quote Rodney Dangerfield, don't get no respect?

I used to think so. I was pretty sure that getting an offer of agent representation or of publication were longshots akin to winning the lottery. Unlike the lottery, that didn't stop me from trying, but I knew the odds were poor.

Yesterday, however, I realized that in the past year, I've seen a lot of my unpublished friends become either agented or sold or both. I mean, a significantly higher percentage than anyone would expect based upon the statistics we all hear all the time (agents reject 99% or more of all submissions that come to them, only one-tenth of one percent of books that come before a NY editor are published, etc.). In fact, these events have been occurring so often lately, it seems like a virtual epidemic.

I still think it's DAMN difficult to get published. I know quite a few authors whose work I think is more than worthy of a six-figure contract who have been rejected repeatedly by agents and editors alike. And yet...it doesn't seem to be to be quite the crapshoot it once did. Authors with lots of skill and talent and more than a little bit of good luck and timing can and do get published. Even if they haven't got a previous publishing credit to their name.

Agents are still looking for new authors whose work they love to represent. Publishers are looking for new blood, new voices. And with diligence and perseverance, new authors do get published.

So, yay for the aspiring and unpubbed. Go forth and submit. And never abandon hope!

YOUR TURN: Do you feel encouraged when an unpublished author sells? Or do you think, "There goes another slot for a debut author; now I'll never get published!"

P.S. A hearty congratulations to Avon FanLit winner and all-around sweetheart, Sara Lindsey, whose three-book deal with NAL/Signet was announced this week, thereby inspiring this post.

Warning Signals

Last Friday night, at my daughter's bridging ceremony from Brownie to Junior Girl Scouts, I met another writer. Unbeknownst to me, the father of one of the other girls in our troop is writing a novel. Naturally, I was thrilled to meet another writer in my "real" life, and we swapped stories about agent and publisher hunting, publicity, and the trials and tribulations of the writing itself. I honestly had a hard time dragging myself away from the discussion because it was so refreshing to talk to someone who "gets it."

It was only after I'd left the party that I got to thinking about the implications of some of the stories he'd told me. He mentioned he'd submitted the work to a few agents and at least one publisher, and now had it with a "book doctor" to fix it. He also told me about a someone he knew who'd sold out his entire first print run, but that this person had spent so much on publicity that he'd made next to nothing on the book. At the time, neither of these points struck me as off, but in retrospect, they seem like warning signals. Warnings that a writer is maybe not talking to the "right" people.

Now, I don't know this for a fact because I haven't talked to him since then. But little alarm bells go off in my head now that I think about some of these things.

The Book Doctor/Professional Editor

In principle, there's nothing wrong with having your manuscript professionally edited. In fact, I'd say it's de rigeur. It's just that, ideally, it should happen after you've received a contract for publication, and it should be free.

Now, if you're paying a professional editor because doing so gives you that extra level of confidence in your work, that's fine. But all too often, writers end up hiring so-called "book doctors" because they've queried a shyster-type agents whose primary business isn't selling books to publishers, but sending business to the other guy. These agents say nice things about your book, but tell you it needs "work" to be marketable and that such-and-such an editor can help you for a smeall fee of X per page.

Of course, just because these agents are hucksters doesn't mean they're not right. Your book may actually need a little more work to fly in the market. But you should be able to get that kind of input for free from other writers by joining a critique group or working one-on-one with individual critique partners. Finding critique partners isn't easy--I have worked with a lot of people over the years, and some of those relationships have panned out long-term and some haven't--but it's well worth the effort. Not only do you get constructive and honest feedback on your own work, but you can learn a ton from critiquing their work in return. I know having great critique partners (including Mavens Lacey, Darcy, and Erica) was absolutely instrumental in my ability to sell a manuscript and land an agent. I just wouldn't be the writer I am today without them.

But pay a professional editor? Nope. That's my publisher's job!

Publicity Eats Up All the Profits

I have to admit, when I heard my writer friend say that it cost so much to promote a book, I kind of raised my eyebrow. I mean, how much does it cost to have a blog? (Answer: $0) How much does it cost to start a Yahoo Group for your newsletter. (Again, $0.) Those are small things, of course, and they aren't the be all and end all of an author's book promotional activities, but my sense is that you don't have to spend a LOT of money to effectively promote a book so long as your publisher is large enough and reputable enough to get shelf presence in bookstores. Oh, sure, everything you do above and beyond that helps, and it may affect your sell-through numbers to some extent, but the reality is that word of mouth (reader to reader) is the SINGLE MOST EFFECTIVE MARKETING TOOL in the world, and alas, you can't buy it!

What struck me as "off" about this particular story, though, was that the print run numbers were very, very small, and that made me think the book was probably self-pubbed or vanity-pubbed. That's a whole different ballgame, obviously.

Needless to say, though, I wonder now whether my friend has been talking to the "wrong sort" of publisher, especially since he mentioned that an editor told him he had to have a marketing plan, complete with a book signing tour, in place before the book was even contracted. Maybe I should be doing this and no one's told me (a very real possibility), but I'm still wary of the notion that it should cost the average author more to promote a book than he/she can earn from it.

Bottom Line

I think it behooves authors to be skeptical any time someone suggests that an outlay of a significant amount of cash will make him/her successful. When the desire to get that first publishing contract is so strong, it's easy to get scammed, and there are all too many people out there who will feed on those aspirations in any way they can.

YOUR TURN: Have you had experiences with agents or editors that set off your warning bells? What happened? Heard any horror stories from friends or other authors?

P.S. My contemporary novella, The Gospel of Love: According to Luke, comes out today from Cobblestone Press.

P.P.S. I'm over at the Naughty and Spice Blog today, talking about how I learned to stop living (and writing) in the past. Thanks to the fabulous Amie Stuart for the invite!

The Con Agent

This weekend I went to a local con - ConCarolinas (for a recap, see JP's post here). It was awesome -- totally tons of fun and my first SFF con! Of course, because I didn't even hear about the con until the Monday before and therefore couldn't pre-register, I went rather stealth :)

But here's the thing, over the course of the day I attended, I heard a few authors give advice that kinda made me squirm. And it made me want to blog about it because I felt like some of this advice was perpetuating some myths about agents and getting an agent. Of course, rule number one that I must highlight is that there are often no hard and fast rules. Everyone has their own approach and you have to figure it out for yourself. Even so... here are my thoughts on some oft perpetuated myths (spread out over a few posts...).

One thing that really stuck out to me: a few people (and some of them well published authors) said that the best was to get an agent was to go to cons. Now, while I agree that you can make some great connections at conventions, if you're only going so you can attend a pitch session and stalk some agents at the bar, you're wasting your money. Here's the thing, you can be the most fun person ever, you and the agent you meet can go get manis and pedis, you can spend all night sharing embarassing stories and margaritas, but if your book isn't any good, none of that matters. Sure, knowing the agent might get a little more attention, but you still have to deliver the goods.

Agents are generally on the lookout for books they can sell -- they want to fall in love when they open their slush. You don't have to go to cons and meet agents in person in order to have them fall in love with your work. Trust me, I've met plenty of agents at cons and none of them ended up offering me representation for my book (in fact, one of my queries didn't make it past the slush reader for an agent I'd met several times). All the offers I got were from the good old fashioned slush pile. Yes, agents do read queries and they request pages and they make offers without having ever met you!

Don't get me wrong, cons are great things. It's a super fun way to meet other like-minded people and to be surrounded with the buzz of it all. Meeting agents is part of that buzz and it's part of the business. But it shouldn't be the only reason you go. Save the money from plane tickets and hotels instead and invest them in stamps :)

More myths to come next week (unless, you know, I forget or get distracted :)

So tell me what you think -- is the best way to get an agent to go to a con?

Publishing Moves at Geological Speeds...

...except when it doesn't!

This past week has been quite the whirlwind for me as my writing career has taken a giant leap forward in the span, literally, of days. I'm still pinching myself, not quite able to believe I didn't accidentally wake up in someone else's life.

So, to tell the story from "the beginning" (and no, I don't mean the "I was born in a small town..." sort of beginning), in early February, I sent queries to a couple of agents and John Scognamiglio, Editor-in-Chief at Kensington Books, pitching Wickedly Ever After. Within hours, I had a response back from one agent requesting a partial and one from John, requesting that I send the full.

I printed the manuscript and gave it to my husband to mail out from his office the very next day. I figured it would be easier for him to use his company's meter to figure and print the postage than for me to go to the post office. I later discovered that, though he did eventually send it out, he let it sit on his desk for at least ten days before he actually bothered to post it. Remarkably, he is still alive :).

At the end of February, I received an email from John, asking whether the two related novellas I mentioned in my query letter were completed or, if not, available in outline form. I shot back with outlines the following Monday afternoon and posted a rather excited comment on my blog that I might have some big news soon.

And then I waited. And waited. And waited. THIRTY WHOLE DAYS!

Yeah, I know you're laughing. But seriously, that first nibble of interest, which came so quickly--and seemed even quicker once I knew that rather than having had the manuscript for a couple of weeks, John had had it only a few days--had me hoping I'd hear something, one way or the other, within a very short period of time. And it was short, as it turned out. It just didn't seem that way at the time! (Does it ever?)

"The call" came last Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. Now, for those who don't know, I live on the left coast, which means the last call I was expecting to get at that time was one from an editor in New York City. My son answered the phone and hollered for me, and I made my way down to take it (in my bathrobe) expecting it was someone from my office or a client. When the person at the other end announced, "This is John Scognamiglio at Kensington Books," well, I think you can pretty well imagine my reaction. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest because I knew, even before he said another word, that I was about to get an offer of publication.

John rattled off the details of the offer, but I have to admit that I barely heard them. All I could think of was that I had an offer from a major New York publisher for a single author anthology. That my dreams were coming true. Words really cannot adequately describe how amazing and surreal that moment was.

When John finished telling me the details of the offer, I was still coherent enough to explain that I was searching for an agent and that I'd be in touch with him once I'd selected someone to represent me. I had the manuscript with one agent already, and I let her know I had an offer right away. She said she'd read it over the weekend. In the meanwhile, I contacted four other agents who were on my A-list and received four additional requests for the manuscript.

And then things REALLY got interesting. By Friday afternoon, I had two offers of representation. By Monday evening, I had five. I was floored. And it was a tremendously difficult decision, because I felt a real rapport with every one of them. At no time did I feel that any of them was in it "just for this deal." All of them seemed genuinely interested in helping me build my career and representing me for the long haul. Their faith and belief in me and my work blew me away.

In the end, I chose Kevan Lyon at the Dijkstra Agency (they don't have a website, so I can't link you up, but I'm told they're working on getting one) as my agent. She's been a literary agent for a relatively short period of time, but has been in the publishing industry in one way or another for something like twenty years. And the agency itself has an amazing reputation, with a client list that includes Amy Tan, Lisa See, and Chalmers Johnson, to name a few. I know I'm in good hands.

Even though I'm incredibly pleased with my choice, it was tough to write those rejection letters to the other agents. I honestly don't believe I could have gone wrong, whoever I chose. (And I tip my cap to all those agents and editors who have to write rejection letters on a daily basis. It is no easy task, and I look at my rejection letters with a whole new eye now that I've written a few myself!)

This post has already gone on quite long enough, so I'll close by saying how much I appreciate the friendship, support, and encouragement of all the friends I've made in these past few years of writing, but most especially Maven Lacey. We've told the story of how the Mavens got together, but Lacey was the first person who really worked with me and convinced me I could do this writing thing. Without her, I'd never have kept going, never have met the other Mavens, never have stepped fully onto the path that led me here. There have been lots of other people along the way who've made a difference, and I plan to publicly thank each and every one of them over the course of the next few weeks.

But in the meantime, Lacey, this one's for you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You'll always be a rockstar in my world.

An Agent Call Story - Mine!

Happy Wednesday MavenLand! I'm thrilled to share that as of last week, I am newly agented! Barbara Collins Rosenberg of The Rosenberg Group is representing Glorious and currently looking at Her Wicked Ways, which I just finished last weekend (double squee!). I met Barbara at the Moonlight and Magnolias Conference in Atlanta, a conference I only attended after I finaled in the Maggie contest. Wow, am I glad I did!

So what words of wisdom can I offer? Uh, probably nothing you haven't heard before, but it's always good to hear it again especially when I'm standing here telling you it can happen! It happened to me!

First, write, write, write. The first year I "seriously" wrote, it turns out I wasn't that serious. Meaning, a month would go by where I'd barely write. Now if a day goes by and I don't do something writing-related it's like I forgot to sleep or eat or go to the bathroom. I have to do it.

Read. Read craft books, research books, books in your genre, books out of your genre. Just read. Reading makes good writing. I promise.

Talk to and if possible, hang out with other writers. There's nothing like the energy you get from spending time with other writers, whether at an RWA meeting, a workshop, or just having coffee. Or heck, even here at the blog or any other virtual meeting place.

Write the best book you can. Once you catch the agent's attention you have to deliver. No, it won't be for everyone, but you're looking for that Love Connection. And your best bet for that connection is to make sure your materials match what you promised in your query or pitch.

Query, query, query, and/or pitch, pitch, pitch. I'm not going to talk about querying because this post can only be so long, but let's talk pitching for a sec. If you can get to a conference, pitch as many people as you can. This is not shameless self-promotion, it's sharing your project, which is soooo exciting, with as many people as you can. My first conference was RWA National in Dallas last summer and people would ask about my book. I totally stumbled all over myself. Pitching forced me to talk about it, and the more I talked about my book, the easier pitching became. I did much better talking about my project in Atlanta in September and even better in Seattle in October. If you've never been to a local conference I can't recommend highly enough that you go. Honestly, I'd spend my money on that instead of National this year, but that's just my opinion. Both Moonlight and Magnolias and Emerald City are fabulous, but there are many, many others and likely not too far away. Heck, I flew across the country from Portland to Atlanta and found an agent! What are you waiting for?

So what's next? I'm working on some changes to Glorious (best book possible, MaveFaves!) and doing a second pass on Her Wicked Ways. I will, of course, keep you posted when we start making the publisher rounds. Thank you everyone for your support. "Seeing" you here every day keeps me inspired, which keeps me writing!

Your turn: Do you like to pitch? Why or why not? Any tips to share?

Tip City: Agent Hunting

Happy Wednesday Mavenfaves! (Had to try it out. Does it work? Does it?) Once again, I have to give a big shout-out to B.E. Sanderson and the Roar for Powerful Words Award. I'm getting more specific with tips today and want to talk about The Great Agent Hunt.

Tip #1: Research!
There are many ways to conduct research about agents. Do all of the following. Do part of the following. Just, whatever you do, don't do none of the following.

1) Go to agentquery.com. Look up agents by genre and make a list. Some you will probably have heard of, others not. Do not just query the ones you've heard of. If the agent or agency has a website, visit it and read everything you can. If the agent or agency has a blog, visit it and read everything you can (I'm not saying you have to read years worth of posts, but at least go back a couple months and skim if you can).

2) Subscribe to Publisher's Marketplace. I can't recommend this highly enough if you're looking for an agent or are agented (or are a pubbed author for that matter). There is no better place to get industry information and find out what's selling right now and who's selling/buying it.

3) Ask other writers. I sent a note out to my RWA chapter when I began querying and asked who people recommend querying with historical romance. I got a tidy list, some of whom were already on my list and others who were not.

4) Compile your research. I built a spreadsheet with each agent, how they accept queries, and their contact information. This spreadsheet has been invaluable as I track responses. And most agents really do respond in their projected timeframe!

Basically, the more information you have about an agent or agency the better you will be able to query them. And I think the time you take to research and educate yourself will absolutely show.

Tip #2: Collect Your Rejections with Pride
I was very excited to get to the querying stage with my writing. It's like getting a promotion. You're ready for the next level! Once I started querying, I was thrilled to get my first, believe it or not, rejection. Every writer has them. Every writer has lots of them. I'm a writer and so I wanted a rejection! Well, I've accumulated a few (and some of them are very, very nice, I'd like to add). If you don't get an offer of representation, a lovely rejection is the next best thing.

Be sure to keep all of them, from the fabulously personal to the form. (You gotta love preprinted cards that apologize for their "formness." Sort of like saying, "Sorry, but I have to punch you in the gut." And then punching you in the gut.)

Tip #3: Know What You Want and Be Persistent
Okay, this is kind of two tips, but I'm going to say they go together. I'm sure you have a dream agent or two, but the likelihood of matching with them isn't all that high. Just remember that it's all about mutual selection. You have to know what you want in an agent. That knowledge will help you in your search, especially when you get an offer of representation. If your dream agent doesn't offer representation, don't despair! You want an agent who wants you and your book as much as you want them. And since we usually don't already know the agents we query, it's the beginning of a sometimes slow but always important dance. From query to request to discussion to representation, it's a time and energy consuming activity, but also quite necessary if you want an agent.

Just remember to keep your chin up. No. Matter. What. It just takes one person to fall in love with your book. It may sound like a needle in a haystack - and it kind of is - but it'll happen. It'll happen.

Bonus Tip: Attend a Regional Conference
My first writing conference was RWA National. I was fortunate to have an agent pitch and then picked up an editor and a second agent pitch while there. Excellent, excellent experience. I like pitching and not just because of the opportunity to meet an agent or editor face to face. It's a great way to gain confidence about your book and get personal contact regarding one of the most consuming things of your life: the book you've agonized writing for however long.

Since the National conference, I've attended two regional conferences and the experience was even more valuable. It's so much easier at a smaller venue to walk up to an agent or editor and talk to them about your book, about the industry, about football if you prefer. That raised my confidence even more and I think made the excercise of querying easier. Sort of like putting a face on the process, which can seem so one-sided. So, if you have an opportunity to go to a regional conference - go, go, go!

Other Writing Blogs
This might be cheating, but I have to recommend the individual Maven blogs (can't call this shameless promotion because I don't have one!). I have collected many nuggets of wisdom and lots of laughs from all of them. If you haven't visited them there, what are you waiting for? The links are on the right side bar.

Now I have to shamefully admit that I don't visit as many blogs as I like and comment even less (lurkerdom suits me, what can I say?). I do love my friend India Carolina's blog, so go read it!

YOUR TURN: Have any agent tips to share? Did you vote for us over at the Preditors & Editors' Readers Choice poll? (See, I can be as shameless as the rest!)

P.S. to Mom and "Dad": Happy 20th Anniversary!

One opinion in a highly subjective business

As y'all know, I was out of town last week on vacation (it was unbelizable!! -- seriously, did you expect me not to use such a fab pun?) When I got back I had two fun bits of mail waiting for me. The first was a form rejection from a literary agency I'd queried 5 months ago. The last line echoes what so many form rejections say -- this is a subjective business, another agent may feel differently, and keep trying.

And they're totally right because you know what the second letter was? My first advance check from my agent. Ironically, a similar thing happened when I sold my book. I floated home from work with stars in my eyes and Publishers Marketplace announcements swirling in my head to find a form rejection letter waiting for me.

I have to say, these were the two best rejections ever. Because they were both a flat out (yet polite) "No!" from very respected agents (who I really thought would love my project). And yet, clearly their opinions differed from other agents and other editors because, well, my book sold :)

When I first started querying, I used to read that line "this is a subjective business" on so many form rejections and think "sure it is, but that doesn't mean you're not supposed to love my work!" And yet, I can't think of a single writer who didn't get a form rejection on a project that went on to sell (yes, I know they're out there, but my mind is tired tonight).

The authors at Fangs, Fur & Fey have been posting about their paths to publications (mostly from the slush pile) and it's fascinating reading. So many form rejections, so much dedication and perseverance.

I know how easy it is to get a form letter and think "the agent hated it, I stink, I'll never make it." But I'm here to tell you that one agent's form rejection is another agent's sale. At least, that was the case with me :) It really is a subjective business.

What Do You Mean, You Like It?!?

The Manuscript Mavens are thrilled to welcome today's Guest Maven, CARRIE RYAN.

Before I get on to the meat of the post, I have a confession to make: I just signed with an agent. Like, this week. As in, I just sent the signed contracts out on Thursday and verbally accepted the offer on Tuesday. I'm now represented by Jim McCarthy at Dystel & Goderich (Erica and I are now agency sistahs!). And it's true, for a while after you sign with an agent, you really can't say it enough: "I'm represented by... you'll have to run that past my agent... did you know I was agented?"

But that's not what this post is about. Not really. It's about what you do after you get the call, and what happens if you get more than one call. For me the call came on Monday. It was a message on my answering machine from Jim and my boyfriend told me later that he pressed play while I was out of the room because he wanted to screen the calls in case it was a telemarketer or my mom so I wouldn't get my hopes up when I saw the light blinking. But it was Jim, just asking me to call him. I'd queried him 3 weeks before, sent the first 100 pages the week before and the full the Thursday before. My boyfriend started throwing me in the air in excitement but I told him that I'd heard stories of agents calling to personally reject authors and not to get his hopes up.

And so he fed the dog while I walked around letting out little yips of terror/excitement. Then I thought to check my email and there it was: the offer of representation. I was shocked, my boyfriend over the top excited. He took me to dinner, we popped champagne, and then we got down to business.

First, we talked about what to do about the other agents I'd queried. Some of them had requested partials and some fulls. For everyone who'd requested material I decided to email and let them know that I'd gotten an offer of representation and ask whether they'd be interested in reading the manuscript and getting back to me in a week. Second, we made a list of questions to ask the agent. I got a lot of the questions from websites, by googling, and reading agent blogs. Then I added my own questions. I wanted to know what their expectations for the book was, if they were involved in editing the submission, if they'd be involved in career planning and helping me with ideas for my next book. And I also asked whether they'd be there if and when I struggled with the next book because I felt like this one came out of the blue. Third, we jotted down thoughts about what I would be like as a client (being very honest): would I be needy? Would I want a lot of involvement in my career planning? Would I be the type to email or call incessantly? Would I want a friend, a partner, someone to put me in my place? I figured that if I knew what I would be like as a client, I would be better able to figure out who would work best for me as an agent.

Then came the scary part: actually calling the agent and emailing the other agents to ask if they could rush to get back to me. The first I put off for much of the day. After all, I had just started a new job and all of this came during my first full week, the time when I had to really prove myself! Everything I'd learned about agents was not to rush them, and so I had to really force myself to write these emails asking them to get back to me. And you know what? By the end of the day, each one of them wrote me back thanking me for getting in touch with them and telling me they'd get back to me shortly.

Then came the phone call to the agent who'd offered representation. My heart was pounding so loud I couldn't hear myself think. I called him, I let him tell me about how much he loved my book, and then I tried to ask the questions on my list but I just felt pushy and strange. He asked me how I came up with the idea for my book and I totally babbled, completely forgetting to tell him the most important aspects of how I'd come up with the idea. I remembered half-way through the conversation to take notes, and even those notes were scrambled! But I got off the phone knowing that he got my book, he loved my book, and he wanted to represent me. I was sold!

But I waited. Within two days I had two more offers of representation and one rejection that started with "I couldn't put this down— the story is completely compelling, and [your protagonist] so fully drawn. I love the storyline and the myths you have created here." Yes, that was a rejection! On Thursday I had two more phone calls with agents and I tried to take better notes, to be more forceful with my questions, but in the end I was just overwhelmed. These agents were telling me what I most wanted to hear: they loved it! They wanted to send it out that day! This would be big!

And I wanted to throw up! How awful does that sound?! How many of us spend hours and hours scouring blogs, forums, articles, workshops to learn how to query, to learn what's hot in the market, to learn an agent's preferences so we can personalize our letters? I've spent so much time learning how to get an agent, that I had absolutely no idea what to do once the agent wanted me! Other than drink a lot of champagne :)

So what do you do when an agent likes your manuscript? You celebrate :) You make endless lists and try to convince your family that this is big. And then you get down to business. You google the heck out of the agent. You ask questions about the agent on your forums. You ask your writer friends if they know anything. You look up the agent on Absolute Write, Backspace, Verla Kay. If they let you, you talk to the agent's authors. And you start to realize that half the stuff out there you can't trust and that most of the rest is rumors! You realize that there are amazing mentors out there, people who have been in the business and know how it works and are more than willing to share that expertise.

But ultimately you realize that the decision is in your hands and that you have to make the decision that works best for you. And you have to make this decision without all the relevant information. Because no one can tell you how it's going to work out. You have to realize that every agent has his or her strengths and weaknesses and you have to figure out what's most important to you.

I would have given anything in the world for someone to tell me "You're making the right decision," but in the end, there's no wrong decision. Once you find someone who loves your book, who wants to work with you, and who's a reputable agent -- everything else falls away. Whether you get one offer or more, what's important is that you can see yourself with that potential agent for the long run.

Would I do anything differently looking back on everything? I'd sit down after every agent call and write myself an email -- I'd write about how I felt having talked to that agent, what we talked about, and what were the pros and cons. I have such a terrible memory that even 20 minutes later I had a hard time remembering what I'd talked about with each agent and how it made me feel. I'd call the agents I'd queried but not heard back from (if I was legitimately interested in hearing from them). I did end up calling them, and either they weren't interested in the book or in rushing and I was glad that I'd put those queries to rest.

Most of all, I'd spend more time realizing that I'd hit a major milestone. This was my third completed manuscript, one I wrote because I loved it even though I thought it would bomb in the marketplace (seriously -- at 20k I wasn't even sure I should bother writing more). This was the manuscript I'm most proud of, the one I really really revised. This manuscript has a place in my heart. It's strange to realize that I may never write another query letter, but also hard to realize that there are still rejections in my future once we start submitting to editors.

But I'm not going to worry about that now. Because I think my boyfriend has a bottle of champagne waiting for me. Remember to pat yourself on the back for every query you send out -- every query is something to celebrate because you're proving to yourself that this is real, that you're going for it. And my motto has always been: if you don't quit, you *will* make it.

Happy querying!

YOUR TURN: If you have an agent, let us know what you did/said when you got the call/email. If you are pre-agented, are you making a list and checking it twice? What sorts of questions will you ask someone who offers representation? Anything specific that would/wouldn't be a deal-breaker for you?

What Do You Mean, You Don't Like It? It's FABULOUS!

Dear Author,

I wish I could give you encouraging words regarding your chances of ever receiving representation from Delightful Agents Are Us. However, despite your thorough research and perfect targeting of Exactly the Right Agent For You, your project is simply not right for us and never, ever will be. Please lose our address and never call or write again.

And be very, very glad this is not a form letter. You were so incredibly wrong for us, we decided to take the time out and personally reject you. You may not be so lucky in the future.

Think this letter is complete fiction? Think again! The only thing delightful about Delightful Agents turned out to be the amount of time I spent howling with laughter over their Please, for the love of GOD never submit anything like this to us again tone.

Yeah, so I exaggerated a bit. Not much, though. I wish I could share the real deal. Despite the stabbing pain this letter caused when I first read it, though, the truth is, they had the right of it. It really turned out to be a letter to treasure. When you spend the following eight weeks praying you never see another form letter stuffed into yet another self-addressed stamped envelope you never wanted to see again when you sent it out in the first place (pause to breathe), you start falling in love with the ones that at least gave you a hint of why you were rejected at all.

It will probably happen to you.

My advice? Laugh. Cry. Rant. Rave. Call your mother or your girlfriend or your CP and pick apart every single word until you're sure the agent (or intern!) meant to slice you down to your manicured little author toes and serve you up on a platter to that nasty, barky dog your neighbor makes sure to leave outside at three a.m. And then get a really big margarita and drown yourself in it.

Or don't. Whatever works for you, so long as the third thing you do is print out the next submission packet and send it on its merry way. Because I'm pretty sure, and don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure the only way for you to get your manuscript published is to actually send it out. To my knowledge, even the e-publishers don't hack into your laptop and suck all the manuscripty goodness out to be published on their sites. You have to actually get your manuscript out of your computer and into the hands of capable people before anything approaching Instant Fame can befall you.

Unless you *like* to torture yourself, wondering if you'll ever, ever be discovered. It's not my crazy brain suffering. Knock yourself out.

I showed you mine, now you show me yours! Post an exaggeration of your worst rejection letter, or tell us imaginary one the one that strikes fear into your heaving bosom. Then come back tomorrow, when a special guest shares what happens when they actually *like* your manuscript.

Craziness.

The Great Agent Hunt!

Where to begin? Can you download a list of agents, how to query each one (they all want different things, which blew Mr. Burke away), as well as a complete dossier about them? Um, sadly, no. Absent the easy ticket, I sat down before RWA National this summer and started working on a spreadsheet to track my queries. I set it up with agency name, agent name (sometimes the agent and agency are the same thing, but often they are not and it's imperative to track which agent you are querying at a large agency), address (email and snail), type of query (email or snail, letter only, letter + synopsis, letter + first 10 pages, letter + first chapter, etc.), and the date I sent the query. I also created columns for whether I got a request, when I responded, and whether I followed up. Oh, and a column for any notes (for example, I noted "RWA Natl" for the agents I pitched in Dallas).

Armed with a nifty location for my data, I stared at the blank screen and thought, now what? After a couple of years of writing and hanging around other writers, I had some ideas about agents I was interested in querying and so I started with them. Then I went to agentquery.com where you can search agents by genre and find out almost everything you need to know to fill in your little spreadsheet. So, was I ready to send yet? No.

If the agent/agency had a website, I visited their website. If the agent/agency had a blog, I visited their blog. I did as much research as possible to determine which agents I wanted to query and how best to query them. I admit to being a little stymied when I got to large agencies. Who to choose? I'd been told by numerous people that, whenever possible, you should pick a particular agent and target them for your query. Makes sense, but how to choose? They all seem so nice in their 200-word bio!

Then I realized that this process really is a courtship. (See Maven Lacey's awesome post on how finding an agent is like dating.) We make the first move when we send the query. If they like what they see, they ask to see more. If we like what we see (how excited were they when they asked for more?), we send more. And so on. At any time along the courtship, one or both of us might decide the other is not "the one." I've never shied away from making the first move (ask Mr. Burke), so I did my best to choose agents that were appealing for whatever reason (books they liked, websites they liked, any neat-o personal information I clicked with, etc.).

Finally, I asked my RWA chapter loop if they had any suggestions for people looking for sexy historicals. Our chapter president came back to me with a fantastic list (she rocks!), which I inserted into my spreadsheet (some were agents I'd found, but some were not - double yay!). Now, I had a list of forty some agents. Wow! That's a lot of query letter writing!

You may ask, "Aren't you sending the same query letter to each?" Basically, yes, but I tweak each one for each agent. While I'm not looking for a new BFF, I would like to connect with an agent on some level and I'm probably not going to do that with a form letter. So, even if I had very little distinctive information on a particular agent, I changed something about the letter to make it unique.

How'd I do? The jury's still out, but I only sent my first round of letters about three weeks ago. I'll be sending another round this week. I'm doing them in batches because let me tell you, querying is time consuming! Lots of printing, stamping, addressing, individualizing (the letter). But so worth it. And I say that without having gotten a request (yet!) from a query. Even without a request, there is something about putting your work out into the big bad world. It's that next step on the road to publication and that, by itself, is a success.

Are you querying? If not, are you getting ready? How did you prepare? Dish your secrets!

When Do You Need an Agent?

Yesterday, Erica talked a little about what agents do and don't do. Today, I want to talk about when (or whether) you need an agent.

Now, here's where I dispel a myth that I certainly held dear for a long time. I always believed that the first step to getting published was to get an agent. And that virtually nobody on the planet ever got published without first having an agent.

So imagine my surprise when I went to a meeting of the San Diego RWA chapter several months ago and discovered that the majority of the published authors in the room were unagented. And not for lack of trying.

What? How could this be? I was dumbfounded.

It turns out that most of those authors were published by smaller, niche presses or epublishers. And those publishers, it turns out, just don't generate the kinds of sales that justify advances sufficient enough to be worth an agent's while.

As one of these authors told me, it costs the agent just as much to sell your book to a small press for a $1,000 advance as to sell it to an NYC publisher for a $20,000 advance. This means that even if the agent thinks your book is fabulous and exactly the sort of thing she'd love to read, if she doesn't think there's a market for it at one of the larger publishing houses, she's probably going to pass on it. Even if she's pretty sure she can sell it to a particular small press, 15% of your $1,000 advance plus another few hundred in royalties just isn't enough to justify the amount of time of and effort she's going to expend.

Since I already knew this when I started submitting Carnally Ever After to various epresses, I didn't even bother to try to find an agent for that piece. There's no advance at all for such a small ebook and the royalties add up to relatively low amounts. (I just got my first royalty statement from Cobblestone Press, and while I'm very pleased, 15% of it would hardly be much of a reward for an agent!) Moreover, realistically, there were few places I could have sold it that would have netted a significant enough payout to interest an agent.

But let's say you're shopping a project that you really want to sell to a big publishing house. If you're not willing to drop down to the next level and choose a small press instead, do you need an agent?

In two words, hells yeah!

See, in addition to selling your book by getting it in front of the right editors, your agent protects your interests as an author. More than once at the RWA National in conference, I heard editors say that if they like your work, they will gladly purchase it whether you have an agent or not. (There are many houses, including Avon and Kensington, that take unagented submissions, so it's not like you must have an agent to get in the door.) But if you don't have an agent (or you have a bad agent), they are also more than happy to take advantage of that and beat you down on the terms of your contract.

So, suppose the fabulous thing happens and, after months of shopping for an agent without success, an editor at a major house offers you a contract. What do you do then? Well, what you do is start querying agents all over again. You may already have an offer, but you still need an agent to look out for you. She understands all that legal-beagle stuff in the contract and that alone is worth the 15% you'll pay her, even if she turned up her nose at you six weeks ago. Just make sure the one you pick is reputable and well-respected, or you might just as well be unagented.

But what if you submit your book to every agent editor in creation and none of them wants to represent you? You still have the option of trying the smaller presses and epublishers. And your book may be perfect for one of those markets.

Just be careful! If at all possible, review the contract with an attorney to make sure there aren't any clinkers in it (like you have to pay the editor and cover artist out of pocket if your book doesn't sell a certain number of copies or some such). And don't sign on the dotted line until you're sure it's in your best interests.

YOUR TURN: What do you think is the most important thing an agent can do for you? Sell you or protect your interests? Or both?

Who's to Blame? Surviving Rejection When it Really Matters

I'm done with my book. I love it and fully believe there is someone out there who will love it, too. The rest of it should be easy, right?

1. Pore through my RWRs, websites, friends' experiences, favorite author acknowledgements, etc and find agents to submit to
2. Collect them into a spreadsheet for tracking purposes
3. Type up personalized, targeted query letters to my top agents
4. Assemble the query letters into envelopes or emails
5. Send them out
6. Wait for worldwide fame to find me

Ok, maybe not precisely easy.

Certainly, sending my little manuscript into the big, bad world is a huge deal, especially to me. (As opposed to you, who may not care if I actually get off my couch this weekend and do some work.) But what happens after that?

I know, I know. I work on something else. *But, guys...* What if the agents hate my stuff? What if I start getting rejection letters that say things like, "Dear Author, You will never be published this side of the Apocalypse. Please burn all your existing manuscripts and throw yourself on the knife Erica was talking about Monday."

Won't it ruin my mojo?

The short answer is yes, of course it will sting. I don't wake up every morning hoping today's the day I'll be rejected. There's that cute little salesman saying that "Every rejection is one step closer to a sale," but... psh! Whatever!

The long answer is that I shouldn't let it get me down. A rejection, whether it's for a query or a partial or, God forbid, the full manuscript, is just one person's opinion. Each of us has to find the one or three people who 'get' what we're doing, and that's not usually going to happen right out of the gate. B.E. Sanderson once compared finding an agent to dating. Well, I will compare the entire writing process to dating.

It's a wonderful, magical world of Suck.

You meet a guy. He seems into you. You're feeling into him. He starts rambling on about all the cool things going on this weekend. You smile and say, "Wow, that sounds fun." He seems to take that as encouragement to talk about more fun things. (We're to the part where the agent requests the full manuscript, if you can't keep up ;-) You go, "Definitely invite me to things like that. Sounds like a good time." He smiles a heart-stopping, hazel-eyed smile and talks about more fun things. (This is the part where the agent starts writing you glowing emails at every chapter break but has yet to offer representation.)

So then you walk away, feeling pretty sure that even if he's busy this weekend, next weekend he'll invite you out for a rousing good time. But when you see him again on Wednesday, he just starts talking about the fun stuff going on this weekend. You begin to wonder if he thinks you're too stupid to find fun things to do yourself, or if he reads the Entertainment section of the paper in lieu of Sports. Maybe the only small talk he has is about Things I'm Not Going to Invite You To Do, But Boy, Don't They Sure Sound Fun?

(I have no idea where this part fits into my analogy.)

SO THEN you finally hand him your number and say "Call me if you actually want to do one of those things." (This is when the agent finishes your manuscript, sighs contentedly, and writes you an email that says, "Hey, Lacey, now THAT'S a story!")

Only, he never calls. (She never emails you again.) Either way, you feel unwanted, unloved, and like you were this close but now you have to begin all over again, starting with finding another agent just as hot.

You know what I mean.

And even if you do make that connection, sell your manuscript and become a NYT Bestselling Author, there's nothing to say you and your agent won't get divorced 15 years down the road. Nothing--nothing--in this world is guaranteed. We have to accept things won't always go our way. And we have to move on.

So what's your mode of getting up and on with it? Chocolate? 20-minute pity party/rant fest? Call up your girlfriends and talk about what an indecisive dork he is? Wonder if it's something you did, something you could do better, and have a very, very hard time NOT running off to fix "yourself" before you start shopping again?

Do you accept the "It's not me; it's him!" thing or do you start rationalizing? Maybe the agent has too many clients (the guy has a girlfriend). Maybe the agent is checking around with her peers to find someone who isn't as busy or loves your genre more than she does (maybe he's indecisive). Maybe the agent hasn't had time to write you back (he's busy). Maybe the agent is afraid to find out you already have 5 other agents vying for your attention (he's shy). Maybe the agent is afraid they can't shop what you have (maybe he's gay). Maybe the agent totally doesn't get you at all (translation: nothing short of throwing yourself naked into his arms is going to clue this guy into the fact that you're into him).

Me, bitter? Nah :-)

It Rose From The Slush

And by "it", I mean "me".

In case you missed the news on my blog, I am pleased to announce that I now have agent representation! Yay!

Very soon, the sexy tooth fairy book I never shut up about will be making the publisher rounds in NYC, courtesy of Lauren Abramo from the Dystel & Goderich Literary Agency.

OMG! OMG! I can't believe it!

Wait--yes I can, because I worked for this! There was no magic handshake. And I am willing to share the secret formula that got me this far.

STEP 1: Take Writing Seriously

When I decided to change my mindset from "writing is a hobby" to "writing is a career", I did several things. First, I made up a rule that said "No more abandoning unfinished stories". If I were a painter, would I get very far with half-finished paintings? Unlikely. Second, I joined Romance Writers of America and my local chapter, Tampa Area Romance Authors and became an active member of both.

STEP 2: Improve Thyself

Now that I was finishing what I started and learning all about the stuff I didn't even realize I didn't know, I discovered I had a long way to go. So, I went to conferences, attended workshops, read books on craft, did online courses, surfed internet articles, and hunted down brutally honest critique partners. I tried at least half the advice I got, and kept what worked and tossed what didn't.

STEP 3: Write

I wrote like crazy. Between fall of 2005 when I first decided to pursue writing as a career and spring of 2007, I wrote four complete novels. I also did a lot of reading and did a lot of critiquing, both of which helped immensely. Time spent analyzing other stories--published or not--is time well spent. But time spent writing is the best of all. You can't be a writer if you don't write!

STEP 4: Write Something Good

I can admit it--my first stuff wasn't so good. Nor did it completely suck. Eventually I began finalling in contests and getting "positive" (ie "send us something else") rejection letters from material requested at writers conferences. But confining yourself to conference pitches is extremely limiting, which brings us to:

STEP 5: Craft A Good Query Letter

I mean, a real good one. And then send it out. Not to just anyone! Do your research. Pick reputable agencies with agents you respect, who represent your genre and love to read your type of story. I actually had a very short A List--less than a dozen names. Your mileage may vary. But it's best for everyone involved if you only query someone whom you'd want to represent your work.

STEP 6: Be Ready to Send the Material

How many times do agents request stuff that never ends up crossing their desks? Do not be that person if you really want to get to the next stage! I sent Lauren part of Trevor & the Tooth Fairy. A couple weeks went by. She asked for the full. I shipped it out Priority Mail that very afternoon.

STEP 7: Make A Good Decision

Trevor & the Tooth Fairy was actually out with four different agents, all of whom were reputable, from well-respected agencies, who had recent sales and multiple clients, and who were at the top of my A List. Some had spoken to me several times about the project over the past few months. The number one thing that made Lauren stand out to me was her enthusiasm for the project. She loves TATTF! How can I not love someone who loves TATTF! *g. Seriously, though, that enthusiasm will shine through. Who would you rather represent you--someone who thinks your work is okay, or someone who thinks your story is tops?

STEP 8: Let the Agent Do Her Job

This is the easiest and hardest step. The excruciating hurry-up-and-wait game we writers face does not stop just because you've signed an agent contract. But remember, your agent is in the same boat! She is gunning for you at all the publishing houses, but she's also got to back off and give them a chance to read your brilliant masterpiece. This is a slow-moving industry. Might as well make peace with that up front.

So, does all this mean I'm on my merry way to being the next Danielle Steele meets J.K. Rowling? Uh, no.

Agent representation isn't a guarantee of publication. Actually, pretty much nothing is--I've known people with publisher contracts and advance money in hand whose book never made it to the shelf due to lines/houses closing or editors leaving, etc.

But it is one step closer, and it's a step I'm very, very, very excited about.

Okay, I've held it in for the whole entire post...

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do Titles Really Matter?

If you've been over to my blog any time during the last week, you'll know that I've been running a contest to retitle my first book before I start querying the bejesus out of it. The contest has, however, sparked a running debate amongst the Mavens as to whether the title of your book really makes a difference. After all, the argument goes, it's a rare book that makes it all the way to publication with the title the author originally chose. (Several of Lisa Kleypas's wallflower books were retitled prior to publication, so even NYT bestselling authors aren't immune to this phenomenon.)

Given this fact, why do I think it matters whether my books is titled Living in Sin (the original tile), A Scandalous Liaison (the current title), or something as yet to be determined (though there is a pretty clear front-runner)? It's not like what I pick is likely to stick, right?

Well, in a nutshell, the reason I decided it's important is because Leah Hultenshmidt (of Dorchester) and Elaine Spencer (of the knight Agency) convinced me. When you pitch your book to someone who's sitting right in front of you and her face falls a little bit when you say the title, you know it's probably not going to have a better effect on someone who's reading your query letter. When you're pitching your book to someone and you don't have the advantage of your own excited, pleading little face to help you, you definitely need a title (as well as a premise and hook) that make the agent/editor sit up and take notice. You need a title that says, "Read me! You must know more about me because I am special. I am unique!"

You also want a title that gives some the person reading your letter some idea of your book's genre (i.e., contemporary, paranormal, historical) and its tone (funny, sexy, dark). The more elements of your story you can hit on in those 1 to perhaps 8 words, the better.

So, what makes a title that does that? Well, if I knew the answer to that question with absolute certainty, I'd already have found the right title for my book a long time ago. But I will say that there do seem to be a few trends in titling right now that you can use to your advantage:

1. Titles that play on familiar phrases are very popular right now. In the workshop I attended, Leah mentioned Bethany True's Remember the Alimony and Stephanie Rowe's He Loves Me, He Loves Me Hot as two great examples of this. (I immediately thought of several great titles for books I'll never write including Cash and Marry, Death and Hexes, and Don't Mess with Hexes. Anyone out there who has a great idea to go with any of those, feel free to steal 'em.)
2. Conversely, you should avoid using a familiar phrase (e.g., a cliche) without twisting it in some clever way. A cliched title is a red light to the agent/editor that the story and writing may be ridden with cliches as well. If you write a fabulous hook/premise that shows how the cliched title is twisted in your story, then you may get away with it.
3. Longish titles and the name of the protagonist appearing in the title are currently in vogue. Think Julia Quinn's The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever (2007 RITA winner!) or Samantha James's The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell or (ahem) any of the Harry Potter books. So don't be afraid to use a longer title and/or a name if it works for your story. (Lacey is hitting the market at exactly the right time with If You Asked the Devil to Dance. It's on the long side and is also unique. That gets attention.)
4. One word titles are also seem to be popular. Rachel Vincent's Stray and Megan Hart's Dirty are a couple of recent examples of this phenomenon. If you can capture your story's essence in a single word, don't be afraid to do so.
5. Above all, dare to be different! Not so different that no one reading your title would have the slightest idea what your story is about (Erica suggested Sex, Lies, and Algonquian Ecostructure as an alternative title for Trevor and the Tooth Fairy, but somehow, I doubt that'll happen :->), but different enought to stand out from the pack.

YOUR TURN: Do you feel that the title(s) you've chosen your book(s) are the right ones? Is there a book title you particularly love or particularly hate? Do you think I'm all wet when I say it matters? Tell all! (Oh, and go vote for your favorite title for my book on my blog if you feel like registering your opinion.)

Pitching Details -- To Be Avoided Whenever Possible

Erica is so freaking awesome, but in case you somehow missed the news...SHE FINALED THREE TIMES IN THE TARA CONTEST! And her cp, Kelly, finaled, too. I don't know about you, but I'm impressed beyond belief. Triple-wow!

So last night I met up with a few of my chapter gals to go see Shannon Hale sign Austenland. After the signing, which was hilarious for a lot of reasons I'm not going into right now, I went out with one of them for drinks. Which was very cool, since it was a Wednesday and I had to stay up way past my bedtime to do it. Of course, it's not hard to stay up past my bedtime. I have to be at work at 6am. Speaking of which, I'm late.

Anyway, she's very new to this whole thing and y'all know how much I lurve to share my opinion. HA-ha! Captive audience! World domination ensues...

Imagine my surprise when I returned home to see Erica's just posted a really fantastic pitching blog. It wasn't there when I left, I swear! /smacks forehead

But that's ok. Even though I saw a new, clean pitch drafted by Darcy in response to Erica's blog -- which means Erica somehow managed to make her point in under the 3 hours it took me to -- I looked through didn't see the same level of detail I'd used over drinks. Probably because Erica has a life. And no mango margarita :-)

So here's what I think is important (and it definitely goes WITH what Erica said) (Btw, Erica, what's a GMC-D hook? I know a GMC hook is what I'm describing here -- Goal, Motivation, and Conflict, but what is D? A typo? Quoting an email thread from a long time ago).

You need to find the core of your story and then you need to find a way to stick to it while you're pitching. Here's why: the agent or editor is going to interrupt your every next sentence to ask for clarification on a point. That's fine -- it's what they do, right? But at the same time, you're still responsible for delivering the story hook to them. If they get sidetracked on how your Shawano heroine got to England and you never manage to get to the reason why she's a great foil for the hero, you look like you have a very implausible character in a manuscript with no plot and a heap of backstory.

As I suggested to my new little friend (insert diabolical accent here), if the editor (or agent) tries to start asking questions that YOU KNOW have no real bearing on the story you're trying to tell, find a way to answer the question in a way that brings the conversation back around to the point. Example (yes, I'm quoting myself; bite me):

"My heroine is brazen, wild, and actually pretty violent. As a Shawano warrior, violence is all she's known. She needs the hero to--"

Editor interrupts. "What did you say?"

"Uh, I said she's Shawano. Like the Indians. Er, Native Americans, but of course they were called Indians in 1814."

"Why is the heroine a Shawano warrior? I totally don't get that. How'd she get to England?"

"Oh! Of course! Well, let me explain..."

So here's where it gets tricky. The editor or agent will interrupt you a LOT. You think they're either interested in your story or trying to find giant plotholes and you start to get nervous, so you start to blather trying to answer everything (in the meantime, you feel like you sound totally stupid and your confidence starts to plummet). GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF! You're treading in dangerous water. If you don't ever make it back to why the hero and heroine can't be together, then you may use up 10 minutes bumbling on about your really complicated plot and never make your point. Then she'll close with, "Well, that sounds very fascinating and well-researched, but I can't see what's going to sustain the novel for the 100K words you were talking about. Plus I'm really confused."

Doh!

Don't panic if this starts happening. Just try and make the conversation come back to the conflict. So above, I might say, "Well, the heroine's father made some pretty debatable choices when he was her age, and she's been raised very differently than most of your RS-H heroines. Basically, this is what makes her a great foil for the hero. He'd like to overcome his very undeserved, very dark reputation so he can have a normal life. But the heroine is all about danger and darkness. 'Normal,' in her world, means surviving to see the next day, and she has no interest in changing this. She thinks that would make her weak. They're drawn to each other, but they have completely different values and a lot to learn about balance before they can be together."

So to summarize:

a) DO practice talking about your story in English
b) DO be prepared to be interrupted every 5th word
c) DO ask if the story sounds right for her
d) DO act like you LOVE your story as much as is humanly possible without coming off false

See all the hms and uhs and wells I put in my example? It's OK to talk like that! Just keep smiling. Say "Good question" if you need a minute to think. DON'T FREAK OUT. You'll only have 3-5 if it's a group session and 10 if it's just you. That may seem like forever at the time, but it can be easy to be sidetracked and use it up on nothing in particular. You will want to ask HER questions, so don't let the time get away from you. It may seem like the more time you spend talking about your ms, the better, but in truth she won't remember anything you say. YOU, however? She'll remember YOU. Sell yourself, not your ms. Be a good listener. And for goodness sakes, act interested in your own story! (Side note: When I did my pitch session in Atlanta, the lady goes, "Oh, you do voices, too?" Well, it wasn't on purpose, but I was nervous. When I'm nervous I let my mouth run. Benefit? She loved voices.)

Anyone else have some great pitching advice? (Yes, I'm calling our advice great. Hey, that's part of self-promotion!) Horror pitching stories? Great experiences?