Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Time For Another SUCCESS STORY!

It's been a little while, but we've got another success to celebrate.  Perfect timing, after the hullabaloo of Baker's Dozen submissions.

Disclaimer:  This one's a bit unorthodox.  I'm not advocating this author's "rule breaking;" I'm simply celebrating her ultimate success.  Because--well, yay!

Here it is, in the author's own words, and with her permission:

Hi Authoress,


I wanted to thank you so much for your time and dedication to keep your Secret Agent contests running. I have an indirect success story to share with you. I entered the January 2011 Secret Agent contest with Mary Kole judging. I didn't win, but a "lurking agent" (Weronika Janzuk) spotted my story, THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER, and asked to see the manuscript. Well, I was thrilled, except for a small problem...the manuscript was just a very rough first draft and not ready for submission. I KNOW this is breaking the rules, so I'll just be up front about that and beg forgiveness :) But by June, when it was ready, I sent it to Weronika as well as several more agents. About a week later, I had signed with my wonderful agent, Josh Adams of Adams Literary. And a few weeks after that, we had a three-book deal from Balzer+Bray/HaperCollins!


Participating in your contest and having a lurking agent take an interest in my work gave me the confidence to eventually submit. And the feedback from Mary Kole and the other contest participants was invaluable. I took all their advice into consideration and rewrote a much stronger first page, and novel as a whole. THANK YOU for giving me this opportunity!


Best,
Megan Shepherd

10 comments:

  1. Wow, what a deal to land! Congratulations!

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  2. Congratulations, Megan! Thanks for sharing your story. Best wishes, and I'll look for your books soon!

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  3. Congrats! I'm glad your rule-breaking wasn't the end of the story. : ) Good luck with your release.

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  4. Dreams do come true. Take THAT naysayers of the world. Congratulations, Megan.

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  5. Yeah, it's okay to ignore the rules everyone else is following (suckers ... as long as YOU end up a winner.

    And before y'all ream me out, I'm already published and don't enter SA contests. I'm just sayin'.

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  6. I'm sure Megan's writing is what ultimately earned her success, so congrats to her on that. But I'm wondering if there will now be a slew of rough drafts being entered in SA contests. Because, you know, she did it, and got both an agent and a book deal.

    What will stop those rough drafts from taking slots that are meant for those who believe the rules actually apply to them?

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  7. Hi Megan Shepherd!!!! Still hard for me to believe that you ever worried about querying that awesome book. (lucky me took a writing class with Megan, and got to help *cough, cough* critique it (yeah, right).

    But hoorah!

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  8. Kudoes to Megan, and it all turned out well, but I do wonder what would have happened had she won that Secret Agent contest and would have had to tell the agent she didn't have a manuscript ready - it would have reflected badly on her, Authoress, and the contest (agents believe they're viewing a finished work, and you're sort of wasting their time if it's not).

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  9. Yes, Sara, and that's why I am so firm about folks submitting finished, polished manuscripts. In the end, if an author were caught unprepared, I don't think it would reflect badly on the blog as much as it would reflect badly on the author. I'm fairly certain the agents realize there is no way that I can personally verify whether or not a submission is from a completed novel.

    Though, mind-reading WOULD be a cool ability. ;)

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