Another Baker's Dozen Success Story

Here's another DIRECT SUCCESS STORY from our 2011 Baker's Dozen Agent Auction, in the author's words.  Read and enjoy!

Hi Authoress,

I wanted to let you know of some exciting agent news. My novel was in the December Baker’s Dozen contest, and I was one of the fortunate contestants who had my pitch, #58, bid up to a full (I don’t think I have ever refreshed my screen so many times!). The agent who “won” my book was Tamar Rydzinski, and I immediately sent her the manuscript. She got back to me in less than a week, saying that she really liked the book, but there were some revisions she thought needed to be made. She concluded the email by saying that if I made the changes, she would be happy to take another look.

Most of her suggested changes were fairly easy for me to make, but there was one that stopped me in my tracks. Not because I didn’t agree with it – but because I didn’t know how to fix it. I would open the file and just stare at the screen, then close it without having changed a word. Obviously, this was super frustrating; and when you add in working full time and finishing the last semester of my degree, it was clear I needed a break. So I turned my back on it for a couple of months.

Then one day in May, I was shampooing my hair in the shower, and the solution came to me. I immediately set to work and it didn’t take me long to get all changes made. My readers made a few suggestions, and by July, it was ready to go. I sent an email to Tamar telling her what I had done and asking if she would like to take another look. She quickly responded saying that she would.

On August 14, I woke up to a missed call from NYC... and a voicemail from Tamar. After I finally calmed down enough to be comprehensible, I called her back. She talked a bit about the few small changes she thought needed to be made, and then offered to represent me. A week later, I accepted.

Authoress, I would like to thank you personally for being instrumental in getting me to this point in my writing career. The world of querying can be difficult and frustrating, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that your contests resulted in more agents reading both this book and my prior manuscripts than querying ever did. You provide an amazing service to the writing community, and your blog attracts the most wonderful and supportive individuals.

Thank you so much for all the work you do.

Danielle Jensen