A Quick Rewind of 2015 (Or, My Journey to Finally Landing an Agent!)

I meant to start blogging here ages ago, but life has prevented me from doing so until now. Freelancing full-time was an absolute disaster and ended up sucking all the creative life out of me, so I didn't get to work on much for a while. But then in late summer 2013, I had an idea for a novel that just destroyed me, so I started writing it bit by bit as time and my sanity allowed, working on the logistics, exploring the various emotional, physical, psychological and mental levels that would be involved.

Time passed, and then my wife (she is the best) suggested I stop taking on new freelance work for all of August 2014 and just devote as much of my time as possible to writing the novel. I did, and I cranked out almost 50,000 words in that month. It was like my personal NaNoWriMo. It was the best! I completed the first draft of the novel by the end of the year.

Then 2015 came. I did my first deep edit/revision, and then sent it off to a handful of beta readers to see what worked, what didn't, etc. It helped me see some ways I could improve it, so I started doing that. I edited, revised, added, slashed, tightened, and by the summer I felt I was nearly ready to start querying agents, But then I stumbled upon something that changed my writing life forever.

One day in early July, while I was stalking agents on Twitter, I saw that a few of them were hashtagging about #PitMad. I had no idea what it was, so I did some sleuthing and found out about the awesoem Brenda Drake and the different contest she runs in an effort to help writers who are looking for agents. And then I saw the two words that would change everything:

PITCH WARS

A two-month contest wherein all finalists would be paired with a mentor (often a published, or agented writer, or at the very least, someone with significant experience as a writer, editor, or something in some way related to the publishing world), work hardcore on making their novels as awesome as possible, and then coming up with a 50-word pitch and a 250-word sample which would be put on display for a few dozen agents to see, this was something I had to enter. And I am thrilled I did because I was selected as a finalist at the start of September!

My mentor, Holly Faur, was completely on the same page as me throughout the entire process, and she gave me so many good tips for tightening and strengthening my novel. It was loads of hard work, which I expected, and I ran myself into the ground during this time, but it all paid off when the agent round came around. Six agents requested either part or all of my novel, and I ended up signing with Laura Crockett from TriadaUS!

The novel is currently called A SILENCE WORTH BREAKING, and it fits squarely into the contemporary Women's fiction genre. It centers around a woman who finds out she has ten thousand words left to speak before she dies, and then explores how she chooses to live her life in response to this news. If you want to see the official pitch and first 250 words that got Laura's attention, here you are:

http://www.brenda-drake.com/2015/11/p...

So where am I at right now? Whiel Laura reads through my work again to give me some tips prior to us taking the book out on submission, I'm hard at work on my next novel, while trying not to check my inbox for Laura's edit email every five seconds.

2015 was a thrilling year--I found a full-time job in publishing, finally found an agent, and felt healthier than I had in a while--and I have hope that 2016 will be equally so. If you are an unsigned writer looking for an agent, I can't say enough good things about Brenda Drake and Pitch Wars. You have to do it this year when it comes around again. Seriously. The writing community you'll insert yourself into simply by submitting (1,600 of us submitted last year and 125 finalists were chosen) is worth it alone, but if you get selected, you'll have a great experience. Even if you don't find an agent directly from the Agent Round, you are almost certain to have a book that is absolutely ready to query other agents with, so you have nothing to lose. If you think your book is ready come ready July or August, hang tight and enter Pitch Wars...it might just change your life.