Signed With Literary Agent Today!

When I first published 13 months ago I was very upset with New York. I had just queried 37 agents one snowy afternoon about my new novel, The Defendants. Not one of them responded. So I looked around and stumbled across KDP. At last, I thought, no one could stand in my way of getting published. But I was still angry at NY. Not really, but I didn't understand the numbers then: how many unsolicited mss they get and must deal with. I was one fish out of many that day, I'm sure. Still, hard not to take personally.

Over the next year I wrote and published six more books in the series. They've all gotten good reviews and they've all gotten some not-so-good reviews. In that year I sold over 41,000 books and gave away 177,000, thanks to Bookbub.

But I wanted more: I wanted to see how far I could actually go with my books. I’m one of these people who likes to try stuff, stir things up, see what happens.

So I queried again. But this time, to only one agent, Dystel and Goderich. Jane Dystel of Dystel and Goderich asked for a chapter, read it, and said she'd be glad to represent me.

Done deal, I signed. (Keeping in mind I'm a lawyer and I knew a little bit about contracts, which the agent was only too happy to change around until I was cool with it. Which was a relief.)

The agency rep is for a new series, none of which is written except for that first chapter of the first book, the one I sent Jane. It does not cover my existing or hereafter Thaddeus Murfee series, the books that pay the rent.

Which is kind of cool, because someone has actually accepted me on the basis of yet-unwritten work. I like that vote of confidence.

We'll see where this goes. But the cool thing is, I'm in again. I'm writing with renewed interest and energy. As soon as I put down 35K more words on Thaddeus 8, I can start the new series. It's a spinoff, one of the characters from the Thaddeus books that many readers have said they'd like to see more. A woman. An Iraq war veteran and a paralegal. Tough as nails, ready to take on a new assignment. I know this woman already. But now I'm going to get to know her a lot better.