How I Got My Agent

This post is long. If you want my stats, you impatient little being, please scroll down to the bottom and you will find them. But since you're here, why not come along for a tale through the query trenches?

I queried for two years and a half, during a pandemic and a huge crisis in publishing, through a landscape that completely changed overnight. Old rules didn't apply anymore. And still don't. Waiting times, batches — everything changed. And yes, now it's changed forever. My journey has not been easy. Although not too long, this is not a unicorn story. Many have spent more time querying than I did. Many talented friends of mine are still trying. Honestly, there is no magic formula to querying and finding an agent — as many say, it’s luck. It’s a game of persistence, of never giving up, of banging your fist on a door that you trust will eventually open.

Since 2009, I've written 11 books. Of course, writing is a craft. It’s usually learned and honed over time, and you're going to need this factor as well when querying. But deep down it boils down to dumb luck. Right time, right agent, right story. I hope you find something in my journey that encourages you to keep pushing forward.

2020 and 2021 - Romeo and Juliet Retelling

In Feb 2020, just before the pandemic hit Spain, I had a story idea for a Romeo and Juliet retelling. It was my pandemic story, the one that kept me sane through lockdowns. I had it ready the next year. And it was beautifully lyrical! And I was in love!

But I was new at querying.

I started sending my first queries in May 2021. I was very proud. The story, up to this day, still shines. It's lyrical and beautiful and offers a very original spin on the Shakespearean play. I queried in batches as I was told by every querying guru out there. The first rejections didn't really sting because I expected them (hey, it's a natural part of the process! And. We. Trust. The. Process!!).

While I was querying, a new story took roots into my mind. A lyrical story about reincarnation, and I still remember the date — on the 24th of April of 2021, it became alive. I started working on it while I continued querying. It's true what they say — always work on the next thing. It helps.

By the beginning of summer, though, I was starting to get worried about my Romeo and Juliet retelling. I had participated in some events and had some agent interest. But all I got was form rejections without really knowing what the issue was.

I got only one request on my retelling, a partial. The agent came back to me and very kindly explained to me that the book began a bit slowly and I didn't let the readers organically experience the story.

Back to the drawing board I went. I stopped querying and drafting my new book and during all summer of 2021 I worked on improving my retelling. I amped up the world building, I made it more beautiful and more intense — ITFS took its final shape. While it used to be just some brushstrokes, now my story had bones and muscles and flesh. In autumn 2021, I went back into the querying trenches and still, the book didn't gather any interest. With a broken heart, by wintertime I had already mentally shelved my retelling and I was sending queries just to feel something as I fully focused on my new book.

2022 - DRT, my dearest love and my biggest heartbreak

And boy, I was in love.

DRT was getting born, mutuals were reaching out on Twitter, asking me to read it; I was writing a very special book, I knew it. The book went out to betas in February 2022 and everyone loved it. I was elated with DRT. It was my baby. It was incredibly personal, it was deliciously dark, beautifully sad, and lyrical. Slowly, I started feeling this was going to be The One.

In April 2022, I began my querying journey by pitching on Moodpitch. I immediately got a full request out of it. I had a good story and this time I had fixed the issues that had plagued my retelling.

I did all the right things! I had interest! Everyone loved the story! It had a hooky premise! No info dumps! No slow beginning! Perfect pacing! The story was magical and beautiful and it was lyrical and my whole soul was in there!

That had to mean that it was going to be the one...right?

Right???

Oh boy... No.

In fact, I've never known a pain as intense as this second time in the querying trenches. I'm posting my stats below, but I had a +170 agent list...and I queried most of them. You can imagine the results and the heartbreak. It was like this time, it was personal (it wasn't - but it felt that way). It was messy and ugly. It was rejected left and right, heartlessly. Form rejections coming at me from every direction, dropping down on me like a rain of knives.

I especially remember the last week of May 2022. I had just quit my job to begin a new one — and in the midst of it I had a roach infestation at home. Needless to say I was already stressed. And querying made it worse. That week nearly broke me. In fact, I think it did. I was nearly about to give up.

That week of terror began with a full rejection on a Saturday night. The reason: too little detail in the past timelines. Well duh, I have to say my book ended up being 140k words, because it is a HUGE story. It featured seven timelines. I shaved it down to 126k when I started querying. That came with huge line edits and sacrifices.

I shook off that full rejection and moved on. But little did I know what was coming. On Tuesday, I had 8 rejections pour into my inbox. By the eighth one, I felt I had been beaten down. I cried for an hour. But the torture wasn't over! On that week, the rejections mounted to 15! Fifteen (15)!!

I felt numb. As if I was floating in space, no oxygen. No life. No nothing. I was nearly dead. This book was MY EVERYTHING. It still is. My whole soul was in there. My heart. My spirit. And it was the one that got rejected most viciously. The one no one is ever happy with. It truly feels like a comment on my own persona. I will never be unbiased or detached with this book, I'm afraid.

I reached out to a friend for a tarot reading because I wasn't sure what the issue was. My betas didn't find a reason for all these rejections, either. I asked them to tell me the truth because at that point I was totally paranoid they might've been coddling me with fake praise. I felt we were collectively broken about that book. Nobody had reasons. Nobody had answers. Not even the tarot cards.

Wondering if it was the 126k words, I paused writing my new book (always work on the next thing) and did more line edits and cut one of the timelines, lowering the word count from 126k to 108k. It didn't take me too long either! I was happy to have a brand-new query letter, too!

With renewed hope, I went back to the query trenches and fully focused on my next book.

2023 - 1915wip, the book I didn't see coming until it was in front of me

Autumn rolled in, I began a new job (yes, another one), I got a crush on a guy after a long while, and things were looking up. Except for the querying trenches.

My inbox went radio silent for months. And slowly but surely and with my heart broken in a tiny million pieces, by late November I had already given up on DRT getting me an agent. I wasn't actively querying anymore. I had outstanding queries but I was sure I would get ghosted, like it happened with my Romeo and Juliet retelling.

But the querying gods are incredibly whimsical... As 2023 rolled in, DRT got four full requests out of the blue.

The thing about this is that when you move on from one project, you detach. You simply don't care anymore. Whether it's good news or bad news. I sent the fulls, but didn't get my hopes up. I just...couldn't? I was broken, remember. Numb. Anyway, who cared? I went on vacation and focused on preparing 1915wip for betas and the query trenches.

When you write 11 books like me (so far), you realize there are books and there are books. Some pour out of you, some are like ripping your nails. Some hurt more than others, some are easy. Some are harder to love, and you don’t quite fall in love right away, and some you just go head over heels with that first sentence.

I wrote and edited 1915wip between April and December 2022. Since I was heartbroken over DRT dying in the querying trenches, I shunned 1915wip a bit, and I didn’t realize what that new book had done for me until January 2023.

I discovered I had renewed hope. After all, my new book had saved me from being completely obliterated in the querying process. It had filled me with joy. I re-read it and I smiled. I loved my new characters. It was lighthearted, fun, the characters felt alive. I had been so unfair to this little story, but it showed me I still had many words locked inside of me. And I started being so very proud of my book.

I wanted to adoringly tuck it in my hands and never let go of it.

But the story went out to betas. Since I was too sensitive and broken, I asked them to of course give me their most honest opinion but also to hype this book as much as they could. In short, I asked for honest critique but at the same time for a positivity pass.

And... they all made me cry, in the best way. Of course, they spotted areas to improve, but their reactions to my book were...amazing. One of my betas told me how much I had grown in a short amount of time. The replies to this book were more sober than those with DRT but they were highly professional and they boosted my confidence. Deep inside, I knew I had leveled up somehow. I knew this book was an author's book, not a writer's. And believe me, there is a difference.

Moodpitch 2023 rolled in by April and I began a new querying journey. And this time... It felt different. I had seven full requests out of the blue. Some of them based on the pitch alone. I was in disbelief and nearly giggling with joy! Seven full requests?? And a partial??? I was afraid to pinch myself.

Of course, I had to wake up from that dream. Because the trenches are never really gentle. I was pretty confident in my story, though. So I kept pushing forward. I didn't write the next thing right away, because life kept me busy anyway. Work was being shitty to me and I was also traveling. Querying became dull by summertime. Publishing slows down in summer.

In 2023 overall, querying was especially slow. I didn't query in batches. This time, it was every man to himself. I went goblin mode. I got a rejection? I sent five more queries out. They weren't going to read my query in a long while anyway, so I was just securing spots in their slush pile. This time rejections didn't hit me that hard, not even the full passes. I noticed that the passes were all "not a good fit," which doesn't let on much but they're also definitely a good sign - all personal taste. I kept a tunnel vision.

My personal life took a hit when I was fired from my job that September. I also realized that my agent list was dwindling and I only had two outstanding fulls.

I was desperate, so naturally my coping mechanism was to throw all my hats in the ring. I put queries out for my current book, plus my two backlist books. This is not advised by any means, but hey, I was on reckless dingus mode. I needed to feel the adrenaline in my veins.

A trip to Paris convinced me to not give up. I sent some more queries, and the April partial I had out turned into a full 140 days later. In order to try to focus a bit, I started drafting another book, which brought me so much joy with every single word I typed down.

I was suddenly happy again.

Late 2023 - Welcome to My Agented Era

It was early October. I was lying in my bed, about to fall asleep and scrolling down a bit more, when I saw Christine Goss' tweet with her MSWL. I clicked on it out of habit (what writer would waste the chance to snoop on a new MSWL?) and my heart leapt.

Reader, she was PERFECT for me. Everything I wrote, she repped.

I thought about querying her in the morning but I said you know what no. I was tingling with excitement to query Christine, so I queried her on my phone. I even tweeted about it. Googly eye emoji moment, she actually liked that tweet. Typo included.

A day and a half later, I woke up to her full request. I sent it and focused on my new book. But as days went by, I grew more and more restless. I felt something stirring behind the scenes, I felt that something was about to change, and not knowing when was driving me insane.

On the afternoon of October 25, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I picked a paperback, my leather backpack, and walked out of my apartment, unaware that when I would come back home, I’d be a writer with an offer of representation.

I went to downtown Madrid on a bus and sat down at my preferred cafeteria with the paperback, an iced latte, and a blueberry muffin. Early autumn evening, the cafeteria was busy so I was sitting among many chatty people, it was noisy, so I didn’t feel like reading. I was scrolling Twitter. I was furiously typing a tweet when at the top of my screen I saw the email icon pop up with a new message. It was Christine. I clenched my teeth because I feared it was a rejection. I decided to peek at the preview and spotted words like “was lost,” and the like, so I thought it was a pass. I sighed and opened the email, because better to rip off the band aid right away.

My eyes browsed for “unfortunately” but the word was nowhere. Instead, they landed on the words “discuss more about Alix and Cameron.”

The gasp I gasped.

I read the entire email and started laughing maniacally in the middle of the cafeteria with welling tears in my eyes.

I HAD AN OFFER OF REPRESENTATION.

With 1915wip. That book that was a bit hard to love because my heart was somewhere else. That book that was lighthearted and something unlike I had written so far.

Up to this day, I still feel a bit guilty that this book has given me so much and I gave it so little in the beginning. Still, I loved it before I could see what it would do for me, so I’d like to think I made up for any past detachment.

The email didn’t mention it was an offer, so I kept my feet on the ground too, afraid it would be an R&R, a revise and resubmit.

The next day, I hopped on a call with Christine. We immediately vibed. I loved her right away. And she offered me representation.

While I was talking with her, I got a full request. Then, I went on to notifying all the agents with whom I had outstanding fulls and queries out.

Those two weeks were the longest of my life. I couldn’t focus on anything else. My inbox became the center of my universe (don’t be like me there). At the end of the second week, I was ready to say yes to Christine.

I officially signed with her on November 8, 2023.

Stats

As you can see, the journey was long and winding. I still feel my other two books, DRT and Romeo and Juliet, deserve their time. I still believe they’re amazing. My agent has gone through the two of them and she loves them, but for now we’re focusing on other projects because publishing is publishing and it's a business.

Hopefully, my journey inspires yours.

These are my stats for 1915wip:

My overall querying stats:

2018 – Chicklit book – 20 queries

2021 – Romeo and Juliet retelling – 75 queries

2022 – DRT – +175 queries

2023 – 1915wip – 93 queries

Total: 362 rejections

The query that got me my agent

Dear Christine,

BEAUTIFUL GILDED LIES is set in 1915 NYC and on the Lusitania. This YA romantic Adventure novel clocks in at 80k words and it features mystery, light humor, fake dating/betrothal, and a snappy protagonist and a sunshiny love interest who love to banter. With a historical-yet-accessible voice, it's perfect for fans of The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Cindy Anstey's Love, Lies and Spies, and Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor.

Plucky seventeen-year-old Alexandra Benson is desperate. Recently orphaned, her uncle has come to drag her from the remnants of the only life she's ever known and on to boring countryside England at the dawn of the Great War. Unacceptable. If her loss wasn't enough, she's also mourning her father's treason—as avowed in his testament, she must marry if she wants to inherit. Otherwise, her uncle will manage her fortune at the turn of her eighteenth birthday. But she has a plan. Find a con artist and convince him to play the part of her fake fiancé for a large sum in exchange.

Enter Cameron. A young teacher, he has the wits for the part. Of course, it doesn't hurt that he's also extremely handsome and has a knack for the forbidden. Alexandra convinces Cameron to get on board with her scheme. Together, they set about fooling Manhattan's polite society and her family. But Alexandra's world is rattled when she sneaks with Cameron into her parents' old townhouse and finds a photograph of the real testament, which doesn't include the marriage clause, and a note that simply says that her uncle is lying.

Battling her growing feelings for her fake fiancé and afraid of the secrets her uncle harbors, Alexandra begrudgingly sets off for England with Cameron and her family aboard the RMS Lusitania. On the ship, she learns her uncle keeps German intelligence documents. As Alexandra's suspicions grow that her uncle's true designs might not be on her fortune alone, she must find the real testament and uncover if her family's secrets are involved in the sinister world of international espionage—before those secrets kill her and Cameron.

During #MoodPitch, [REDACTED], assistant editor at [REDACTED], showed interest. My full manuscript is at the moment with several agents. I'm a KYC analyst by day, a writer by night, and on occasion, I also sing and act.

Thank you for your consideration,

Rebecca A. Carter