Baker's Dozen Success: From Auction to Sale!

Here's a breathtakingly exciting success story for you (our third success from the 2011 Baker's Dozen!), told in the author's own words:



In 2010, I wrote and revised a story about a feisty time travel student who finds out that her future self has been into some serious space-time shenanigans in the distant past. With a boy. A cute boy.


I queried a few agents at the beginning of 2011 and was promptly form-rejected by all of them. For good reason. The query was terrible, and the story needed help as well. One of the agents that rejected me was Victoria Marini. Which made me very sad. But we'll get back to that later. 


I went to a wonderful workshop in the spring and received some amazing editorial feedback that got me on the right track. It meant a total rewrite--not revisions, a rewrite--but I knew it was necessary. By November, I was ready to query again, and this time? Requests. And an encouraging number of them, at that.


When the Baker's Dozen announcement went up, my crit partners sent me the link and told me to enter. I hemmed. I hawed. I caved and entered in the last entry window.


I am so thankful I did.


It opened at 20 pages, and in the amount of time it took me to e-mail my friends that I'd gotten a bid, it had gone up to a full. I eventually ended up having four agents request the full from the Auction. Victoria Marini was one of them.


Eventually, four agents tossed their hats in the ring, and again Victoria was one of them. After chatting with her on the phone, I loved her ideas for revision. And, oh my goodness, I wish I could bottle and sell her energy and enthusiasm. I thought we'd work really well together, and I signed with her. My instincts were right.


From Publisher's Marketplace:


Karen Akins's LOOP, in which a time traveler accidentally brings a boy from the past into the 23rd century, only to discover he's already in love with her future self and is keeping his own set of secrets, pitched as HEIST SOCIETY meets BACK TO THE FUTURE, to Terra Layton at St. Martin's, in a two-book deal, by Victoria Marini at Gelfman Schneider (world).


SQUEEEEE!!!!


The extra fun part? Terra actually did a little spying during the Baker's Dozen Auction, and she wrote down LOOP as one that she thought sounded great. She found the post-it note the other day. Sigh. It was meant to be. 


Karen Akins