We’re in the middle of the year and 2016 has been one of competing emotions. We’ve lost musicians, artists, and heroes so that tugs at my heart strings. We’re still having to deal with the trauma of a mass shooting and my sympathy goes out to those families in Orlando. I also still very much miss my father who passed away in August 2014.

But there has also been some great things that have happened this year. Especially for my writer friends — publisher deals, agent matches, and book birthdays. Recently some good things have happened to me and I wanted to share that journey with you.

As many of you already know in late March I had major surgery and I was out on medical leave. In early February, I had heard about the #DVpit Twitter pitch contest, hosted by agent Beth Phelan. The event would focus on marginalized writers and the need for more diverse voices. For this event you would tweet a pitch of your book and if an agent favorited it, then it was an invitation to send a query.

At that particular time, I was still revising a YA manuscript and I knew that it wouldn’t be ready, but I had been thinking about revisiting a middle-grade project. I had just finished a swap with a good writer friend who told me the manuscript still had some fight and magic in it. So I figured if I felt like it, I could possibly revise while my body healed.

I had many near misses with this manuscript and I had put it away for a long time. When I took it back out, the overwhelming feelings of doubt came flooding back: How am I gonna make this better? How am I gonna fix this? Maybe I should just let this one go?

After my successful surgery and a few weeks into healing, I started revising. I fell in love with my characters once again and I actually started to believe what my writer friend had told me back in January: This book did have some fight and magic in it.

With the contest looming closer, I searched Twitter for successful pitches from past contests — anything with more than 10 favorites. I deconstructed them to figure out what made them work. Ya’ll, it’s hard enough to write a query letter that conveys what your story encompasses — but for a Twitter pitch, there is only 140 characters so to create one is almost like an art form.

I decided to use a mix of comparisons so that at a glance, an agent could see the heart of the book I was pitching. I decided on a well-known book series and a current TV sitcom — comps both easily recognizable to most people. Since my book is a ghost story with humor centering around an African-American family, this is the pitch I came up with:

BLACK-ISH + GOOSEBUMPS: Sarah & friends must use spunk and snoop skills to solve ghost mystery in Southern small town. #DVpit #MG #ownvoices

On the day of the #DVpit event, I was SO nervous but I put myself out there and to my amazement, I got over 45 agent favorites and I was also boosted by several editors. It was an overwhelming feeling and to be honest also kind of stressful.

I did my research and then only sent out queries to agents that I felt were a good fit not only for my middle-grade but for my other YA manuscripts and other projects I could write in the future. It was a crazy whirlwind. I got agent requests to read the full manuscript as well as several agent offers — but ultimately I went with the agent that I felt was the best for me.

A surreal experience to say the least!

It proves that ANYTHING can happen. For me, it was a mixture of timing, luck, and preparation. I had a completed manuscript, a polished query letter, and even a synopsis (bless my heart). I truly believe that having a manuscript ready to the best of my ability was the key. The query trenches can be very subjective and you will always get rejections but at the end of the day all you need is one YES.

I’ve always said that writing is what I love the most. It’s always what saves me when everything goes to hell and there is nothing else left. Even when I had to leave my words and characters on the sidelines when my life didn’t have any space, the writing was always there waiting for me. I never gave up. Now I can’t wait to see where this writing journey takes me next.

So thanks so much for letting me share my journey about getting my agent. :)

For those of you still on your agent journey: Keep striving. Keep writing. Keep revising. Most of all, don’t give up. Don’t throw away your shot. Your writing is important and you’re the only one in the Universe who can tell your story. And remember your story is just as important as all the others and also deserves to be heard. Best of luck to you in your writing. You got this.