STATUS: Another offer came in today for a different project. Three offers for three different projects in a span of two days. Law of Attraction in action. Love that. Puts me in a good mood! And then like icing on the cake, the blog Ypulse asks “what’s your Judy Blume Moment?” and the author shares hers. How fun is that?
What’s playing on the iPod right now? I HAVE CONFIDENCE by Julie Andrews
Confession time. As a pre-tween, I totally used to enact the whole SOUND OF MUSIC musical in my basement. Of course I played Maria. That might be one of my Judy Blume moments.
Someone asked me a question that totally made me think about this topic. They asked if editors agree to read everything an agent pitches to them. Great question I thought and good blog topic.
The answer is: mostly.
Don’t you love how cryptic I am? So let me explain with some examples.
1. Two weeks ago I emailed an editor who is a good friend of mine about a project. She ended up declining to look at it because she knew that she would personally love the novel but that it wasn’t the type of project her house was currently buying and why torment herself? She decline but in doing so, I learned a valuable fact about what that imprint is currently looking for.
2. Agents don’t know every editor on the planet so when we have a project that might work for someone who is new to us, we call. I did this a couple of weeks ago too. This editor was lovely but swamped. He did think the project was perfect for a colleague so asked if I minded if he forwarded the project on to the other editor. Of course not, I said, and the other editor was really enthusiastic to get the submission. This editor was fairly new to me as well so I rang up so we could chat and connect. Win-win all around.
See what I mean?
And here’s another fun tidbit. I have a couple of editorial directors who have asked me to send them any young adult project I’ve got. They don’t care what it is. They like what I’m doing at my agency and they want to see it; they’ll pass it on to the perfect editor at the line if that needs to happen. They just want to ensure that they don’t get left out on a possible project that might be a little different from what they “normally” take on.
To have editorial directors “waiting” on anything good you’re repping must be such an advantage.
But I guess *you* have to like the novel first, right?
Pick me! Pick me! Congrats on your successes this week.
Aren’t they all “lovely but swamped”? I’ve never yet met an editor who’s other than swamped.
Maybe they’re only swamped where MY stuff is concerned?
Ya think?
T2
Oh, that’s great news about the enthusiasm for YA’s. It makes the idea of pitching mine feel a little less intimidating than an unsedated root canal. 🙂