The Author/Agent Conversations: On that Elusive Chemistry with an Agent

Camp NaNoWriMo 2014 has officially launched! Whether you’re writing a new novel, tackling a screenplay, or finishing an existing piece of work, Camp is a writing free-for-all. For those of you still on your publishing journey,  author Virginia Boecker and literary agent Kathleen Ortiz show us what to look for in a great author-agent relationship:

Virginia Boecker (Author, The Witch Hunter): I began writing my novel a couple of years ago, and it began as dare to myself: “Could I write a novel—and finish it?” Turns out I could. But to get that “finished” novel to a point where it was ready to query an agent meant revision—and lots of it. Two more drafts (the first one starting from scratch), notes from beta readers, and many more months editing, to be exact.

Two years later, once my readers said to me: “I don’t think there’s anything else we can help you with,” I knew it was time to go.

Eight weeks, 17 queries, and 10 bitten fingernails later, I signed with my fantastic agent, Kathleen Ortiz, and here’s the story of how that happened.

Kathleen Ortiz (Agent at New Leaf Literary): I was teaching a Writers Digest webinar on how to query agents and Virginia was one of the participants. 

Virginia: I had just started querying, and part of my process was to learn as much as I could about agents before querying them. Kathleen was top of my list: she seemed lovely, smart, editorial… and I also liked the fact that she was the Director of Subsidiary Rights. So when I saw she was doing a webinar, I jumped. 

Kathleen: All participants got a query critique and when I read her query, I was legit stunned. It was flawless. And my immediate reaction was “I. Must. Read. This.” So I requested the full manuscript, fell in love, emailed her and everything clicked into place after that!

I don’t think authors realize that sometimes agents get nervous, too. Think about it: you know the statistics on how often an agent signs someone. So you know when we offer rep it’s because we really want it. So I read The Witch Hunter pretty quickly: within a week. I emailed Virginia to see if we could set up a call and luckily she didn’t make me wait—we set up a call for the next day.

I remember she seemed so down to earth and easy to talk to (she still is!). I discussed my love of the manuscript, and my thoughts on how we could work together to get it to the next level. Luckily Virginia’s vision was exactly what I had in mind. And she didn’t make me wait too long to find out if she was accepting my offer. I emailed all my colleagues—everyone was working from home because of the hurricane but I’m pretty sure you could hear collective cheers across Manhattan.

Virginia: I was so nervous. But Kathleen was so nice and if she was nervous, I couldn’t tell. She told me what she liked about my book and her ideas for making revisions. I loved all her suggestions and was thrilled when she offered representation.

I wanted to accept right then and there, but I had the full manuscripts out with several other agents and I wanted to be professional and close that loop. That said, I was afraid if I hung up the phone without saying ‘yes’, she would come to her senses and change her mind.

But I called her back on Monday and accepted her offer. And then I drank champagne!  (Truth.)

We re-did the beginning: I began with a prologue-ish scene that happened 18 months prior to present day. We also changed the ending.

What’s great about the changes we made prior to sub is that during the editorial process with Pam Gruber, my now-editor at Little, Brown, we didn’t touch the new areas. Pam loved them, I loved them, and Kathleen saw from the beginning how they could be made better and was patient enough to work with me over a period of months to get them there. Smart, editorial agents are the best.

Kathleen: Virginia puts up with my jokes and random emails and is just a really awesome person to work with. She asks all the right questions, is consistently wanting to improve her craft and is zero drama. Seriously a complete joy to work with (I say this in a non-high-school-teacher-report-card-way, I swear).

Virginia: I feel so lucky. Signing with an agent is a strange thing—it’s based on one phone call and a bunch of internet stalking. But I feel like I hit the jackpot with Kathleen. She is always available to answer my questions, always patient, and above all, understands what’s it’s like to be new at all of this.This is especially important during submission when tensions are high. I repeat, tensions are high. 

Virginia Boecker lives with her husband and two small children in the Bay Area, CA and is a full-time writer. In her spare time she likes to run, read, and globe-hop wherever and whenever possible. Her debut, The Witch Hunter, a YA historical fantasy, is out from Little, Brown in Spring 2015.

Kathleen Ortiz is the Director of Subsidiary rights, overseeing audio, translation and digital rights, and a Literary Agent for New Leaf Literary & Media. She is always looking for new, talented animator/illustrators and/or authors. Clients include The Simpsons character artist Liz Climo, Nickelodeon animator Sarah Marino, Amazon bestselling author Sarah Fine, and the wonderfully talented Virginia Boecker.