Nicola Vincent-Abnett

Nicola Vincent-Abnett
"Savant" for Solaris, Wild's End, Further Associates of Sherlock Holms, more Wild's End

Thursday 23 February 2012

Turned Out Nice Again


Some days are just so nice, aren’t they?

Yesterday morning, I was asking the husband when it might be OK to get in touch with Mslexia about the agent they had offered me an introduction to when, lo and behold, an e-mail dropped into my in-box.
I’m going to give a little advice here on patience and professionalism. It goes something like this: WAIT. If someone says they are going to do something they will do it. If someone has said they will do you a favour, they will do it. If an agent’s website says someone will get back to you in four to six weeks, they will do it. If you phone on the first day of the fifth week, they might very well stop and decide they’re not going to do the thing they said they would do, after all. Everybody in the publishing industry seems to be busy. That’s a good thing, because they’re all working to get people’s books out and get them seen, and, one day, you might be one of those people.
When the lovely people at Mslexia e-mailed to tell me that “Naming Names” was one of the last three books on the table, and that they were able to make an introduction to an agent, I was thrilled. I replied with a simple thank you note, and I waited. It took them only a week to answer. They e-mailed for my phone number, and, just as I was warning the husband that if the phone rang it might be for me, the phone did, in fact, ring, and it was Debbie from the Mslexia office.
What a very nice woman.
There followed a little to-ing and fro-ing, but, by the end of the day, I had several new pieces of information, and I had sent a submissions packet directly to an enthusiastic agent!
I have opened a door, and I didn’t even need to take a battering ram to it.
It is days like this that fill me with confidence. 
It might well turn out that this particular agent doesn’t feel this book is right for her. She might want to see re-writes, and we might go through any number of processes before she decides not to represent me.
For now, though, someone’s reading my book, and that is why I wrote it... to be read.

4 comments:

  1. Yayz. Congrats! And have a *HUG* while I'm about it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am SO very excited for you! And, I admit, for myself. Since I've been waiting ages for someone to wake up and see how brilliant this book is. Then it'll be published and on the shelves in my living room!

    ReplyDelete