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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

He Said/She Said: The Story Continues

(Read the first installment HERE.)


AUTHORESS: I’ll be honest. The name “Josh Getzler” wasn’t on my radar until the illustrious Dan Lazar of Writers House, in declining my invitation to be a Secret Agent, recommended I invite his colleague, Josh Getzler. Which I did. And subsequently received the fastest and most enthusiastic response imaginable. SIX MINUTES after I sent the email.

His opening line? “Sure, I’ll play!” I liked him immediately.

Once the contest had wrapped up, Josh surprised me by asking the following: “BTW—what were your favorites (if you read them all)? Did any of my choices surprise you?” Honestly, I’ve had wonderful experiences with many of my Secret Agents over the last two years, but Josh’s question displayed a level of graciousness and humility that made me smile.

Seriously. An agent asking me what I thought? It was so…human.

His name wasn’t on my List, though. You know how we get ideas in our heads? In mine, Josh was a “nice guy who reps adult mysteries and a bit of YA.” And that was that.

JOSH: So, I met the Divine Ms. A around a year and a half go when she asked me to be one of her Secret Agents and evaluate a bunch of 250-word partials from her readers (and what an amazing, loyal, interested and interesting group you are!). I looked at 36 beginnings, mostly of middle grade or young adult novels, and ended up signing the winner, Elissa Cruz, after reading the rest of her marvelous middle grade mystery.

I kept in occasional touch with Authoress, read the blog, and moved agencies from Writers House to Russell and Volkening a year ago November. You can read Elissa's interview with me, where I give my background (and a bit more info…), HERE.

When I began taking on my own clients in the Spring of 2008, I expected that the vast majority of my work would be in adult crime fiction. All kinds--procedurals, thrillers, cozies, historicals. Didn't matter. I specialized in these when I began at Writers House, but in the end only around half my books are crime fiction. I quickly discovered the appeal of commercial and literary fiction (which I'd worked on at Harcourt), but what I hadn't anticipated was the incredible creativity going on in the world of children's literature. Not just in the more obvious ways--Harry, Twilight, Wimpy Kid. But the real eye-opener came to me when everyone in my Writers House office started to talk about Hunger Games. And also because I began to see that the young adult and middle grade submissions I was getting frequently were more interesting and creative than the different variations on Jack Reacher and the DaVinci Code I was getting on the adult side.

So when I moved over to R and V after three fascinating years at WH, I was ready to expand my list to edgy and creative children's books.

Russell and Volkening has been around for 70 years, and represents such luminaries as Eudora Welty, Nadine Gordimer, George Plimpton, Anne Tyler, and Barbara Tuchman. When I joined, I had to convince the folks there that I was literary enough for them--quite a change from Writers House, where I needed to show I could be commercial! What you might notice about the list above is that many of the authors are either not living or not writing as much as they used to. Part of my job when I joined was to add a bit of vigor to the front list of books. The other agents have supported my aggressiveness in signing new clients, and I have been able to expand both my list and my sales over the course of the past year.

Which brings me to Authoress, and to why I'm writing this post with her. Six months or so ago, I received an email query from someone I didn't know. The first line introduced herself to me as Authoress and said "ok, you've been willing to read manuscripts by my blog readers, how about my own?" (Editor's note: Poetic license. I didn't say it quite like that! :P) It was a dystopian YA novel--right in the wheelhouse of my new list. I was excited and ready to read. And then...I got crazy busy and took a VERY long time to get back to her.

AUTHORESS: Really, it wasn’t THAT bad! I queried Josh in June of last year after I discovered he’d moved to Russell and Volkening. My query was already on the desk of someone at Writers House, so I was happy for the unexpected opportunity to send it to Josh. And he asked for the full the next day.

His request carried quite the caveat, though: He pointed out that he was “wickedly picky” about dystopians.

Um. “Wickedly picky” about the novel that had already garnered a colorful list of reasons-for-rejection? It didn’t bode well. Still, I trusted his response would be personal and detailed regardless of whether it was a “yes” or a “no.” Because that’s the way he is.

Turns out it was a “maybe.”


(to be continued)

38 comments:

  1. and you leave us hanging with a 'maybe'? oh so mean Authoress!

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  2. Aah, another cliffhanger! Looking forward to the next installment...

    P.S. I thought "Turns out it was a 'maybe'" was the perfect line to end on:)

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  3. can't wait for the next installment.

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  4. So so great place to leave us.

    You sure you aren't a suspense novelist?

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  5. aww man! You're killing me, Dragging it out like this!

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  6. =) It wasn't on purpose this time; I promise. We ended up with a lot more to say than I'd anticipated, and I don't like posting mega-huge blog entries.

    So I had to be mean again. ;P

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  7. To be continued?!!! Aaack, I can't wait to hear the end of the story. :)

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  8. Maybe? Maybe?! That was just so... cruel. Terrible. Writer-esque. :P
    Josh sounds like a great agent. Yay for you!
    Can't wait for the next installment... *dies a little inside as I am forced to wait* ;)

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  9. Maybe? What a hook to leave us on! Can't wait for the rest of the story. Love a good cliff hanger.

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  10. I love it--maybe responses are so much better than no's. Can't wait to read the rest! :)

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  11. I can't wait to read more! Thanks for offering your story. :)

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  12. This is fun, hearing from you both. Can't wait to read on!

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  13. Ah! Tease! :P Can't wait to read the rest!!

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  14. Hmm...you did warn us it'll be several installments, but, oh, I didn't think you'd be this mean, maybe.

    Keep it coming:-)

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  15. So suspenseful! Can't wait to hear what happens next!

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  16. Continued?

    Continued?

    I haven't read your YA dystopian, but if your chapter endings are as good as these post endings, it's easy to see why he took you on!

    Dying to hear more!

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  17. Awesome blog! Hanging on every word. Now I've got time to make more popcorn...

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  18. This is great! Thanks for sharing this with us. I'm so excited for you!

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  19. Way to keep hope alive among the masses!! Can't wait to read on...

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  20. Great idea to post this, Authoress. So interesting - looking forward to the next installment. :)

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  21. Oh jeez... Maybe? Now the suspense is killing me. :)

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  22. Yikes - can't wait to see the next steps :)

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  23. Even though I know the story ends with you hooking an agent from the big literary ocean, I can't wait to read more . . . especially after you dangled that "maybe" in front of me. =D

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  24. Oh man, this is GREAT! Loving this story.
    :)

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  25. To be continued? You guys are truly evil.

    I can't wait to read the next post:)

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  26. You kill me with these cliffhangers! :D

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  27. So fun to read this! Can't wait for the next installment :)

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  28. I'm loving this play-by-play by the two of you. Can't wait for more!

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  29. So great for you to share all this with us, Authoress. Makes for a fantastic story, too.

    Alright. I'm ready for the next chapter of your saga... :)

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  30. Ahhh, stop leaving us hanging!! It's a great story though, and really interesting to hear from the agent's point of view too!

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  31. How thrilling! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the tale!

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  32. I'm enjoying this too! But 'maybe' is a lot better than 'Unfortunately...', isn't it?

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  33. This is just so fun to read! I love it. And I'm totally needing to read the rest of the story.

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  34. So cool to overcome the wickedly picky caveat :)

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  35. I don't mind the cliffhanger. It gives me something to look forward to!

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  36. These are so fun to read, but dang, girl, you are good with the cliffhangers. I'm thinking that YA dystopian just might be unputdownable!

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