Today we have the AMAZING Georgia McBride here for a guest post. Georgia is a speculative fiction writer and freelance editor. She is founder of #YALITCHAT on twitter and its associated non-profit YALITCHAT.ORG. Find her. Follow her. You'll be glad you did!
The Terror Within: A Hypothetical Look at Changing Agents
PART I
by Georgia McBride
You’ve done it! You’ve finished your query, polished and sent it to several hundred of your favorite agents. You can’t sleep, you barely eat and you lie awake at night wondering if you remembered to sign the email, include your phone number and add page numbers to the manuscript. While waiting you decide on a subscription to Publishers Marketplace and Publishers Weekly with the goal of cyber-stalking the agents. You need to see what they’ve sold, for how much and note any new clients they may have signed since you subbed. Obsession forces you into checking email every other minute, even though your smart phone is set to check for email every five minutes.
Friends and family hardly recognize you. You’ve become distant, spending most of your time on the Blue Boards, YALITCHAT groups and Absolute Write. You know those people will give it to you straight. They are of course, your peeps.
And then, it happens. The moment you’ve been waiting for, actually happens. Only, it happens at the completely wrong time—in the middle of little Johnny’s soccer game or cutie pie Mila’s dance recital. You want to read the email, to read it again, to memorize it. You want to send it to your friends or post it online for expert analysis of content and context. You’re in a raw panic and can concentrate on nothing until you put Johnny and Mila down, and then go READ YOUR EMAIL. After all, this is what you’ve been waiting for. Duh.
The email is great. Cryptic, awesome and scary. It puts the ball squarely in your court. Awesome Agent wants to TALK to You. Like, a real-live conversation. Not on twitter during #askagent but IRL! And as quickly as the elation came, it fades, leaving room for terror to settle in. What will you say? How will manage to articulate like a person of above average intelligence? What if you don’t hit it off? Maybe she has me mixed up with someone else? Oh Lord. Glee is on then!
You consider jumping from the second story window. Why not? It’s a dream right? You can’t break your legs in a dream. Can you? Then you consider calling your BFF in Florida who totally gets you, except she’s not a writer and will not understand why you are so panicked about getting something you wanted. Then you realize she doesn’t know you at all. The writer you is a completely insecure, irrational crazy creative person. You promise to never let her see you this way and hug Renesme the cat for comfort.
The daze lifts and it’s time to talk to your would-be new agent. She is everything you dreamed of, and more. Angels sing in the background as she describes how your manuscript moved her. The sound takes you to a vision of your very first books-signing. The line is out the door and snaked around the corner. Of course it is. You are a New York Times bestseller. Have been for weeks. No. Months. But no! You forgot your Sharpie and the panic brings you back to the conversation with Awesome Agent. She’s silent. You’ve not been paying attention and she
This Wednesday at 9pm EST, I will be talking on #YAlitchat (on Twitter) with the wonderful authors Ellen Hopkins @EllenHopkinsYA (author of Crank, Glass, etc) and Laurie Halse Anderson @asklaurie (author of Speak, Wintergirls, etc) about controversy and banned YA books. I hope you’ll join us in the conversation!
To join in a Twitter chat, one of the easiest ways is to go to TweetChat.com, log in with Twitter, and then type the hashtag “YAlitchat” into the search box at the top (and then click on “go”). From there, you’ll be able to see the entire conversation and join in any time. Your tweets will automatically have the hashtag added at the end of them, so others following the chat see what you say.
Hope to see you there.
***NOTE: Please excuse the horrible formatting in this post. Blogger wants to bunch my text into one block. It's being stubborn today.***
YA Lit Chat is hosted by YA writer,
Georgia McBride. You can catch the live #yalitchat on twitter, Wednesday night at 9pm EST or anytime on the web at
http://yalitchat.ning.com/.
Last night, we talked about sex. Also word count(40-60k is average for YA) and slang, but mostly the sex. A taboo topic that seems to be becoming the norm in teen fiction.
Does your book need to have nookie to sell?
Heck no! In fact, it may even lessen your chances at a sale if done in bad taste.
Sex is a part of teen life. Not all teens, of course, but if we're being real we know they're doing it. As writers, we want to incorporate every part of teen life into our books. We want the stories we spin to be as real to them as their own lives.
Everything is bigger, more important, felt deeper when you're a teen. One of the most important, most monumental experiences for a teen, is the first time they have sex. That doesn't mean that the sex in your book has to have monumental consequences. It could change the relationship, it could change the character's outlook on things. Or, she could end up pregnant, or with a heady case of the clap. Your choice. Point is, it doesn't have to end badly, because it doesn't always in real life. The last thing you want to do is try to teach a lesson with your writing. If you don't agree with sex in YA, don't write it. Simple as that.
If you do decide to write sex in to your story, do it tastefully. Explicit sex is a big no-no in YA. Besides, you'd probably feel icky writing it. Lit agent, Elana Roth had this to say last night:
@: I think people use explicit sex b/c they dont know how to really depict the emotional arc behind it. Its cheap.
Don't write sex for the sake of writing it. If it feels forced to you, you don't need/want it in there. Often a first kiss can be even more sensual than sex. I'm going to post a first kiss scene from one of my works. It isn't finalized (is it ever?), but I hope you'll get a taste of what I mean with a first kiss. This scene comes after a few almost kisses, and lots and lots of sexual tension. This kiss deepens the relationship between the MC and Drystan.
The rain trickled from his nose and eye lashes onto his face leaving behind glistening trails like rilles on the surface of the moon. He took my chin in his hand and I had to fight to keep myself from getting lost in those electric blue pools. He was terrifying and beautiful and I couldn’t look away. My cheeks flushed hot as he moved his face closer to mine. His cool, sweet
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Thanks for sharing this Georgia. It's a scary situation some of us have to go through. It's good to know it could happen.
Thanks also for the giveaway. I checked out Georgia's blog.
Great post, Georgia! Can't wait to read part 2.
Unfortunately, I keep hearing about more and more stories like this. Looking forward to part 2.
Very real portrayal of an unfortunate (and unfortunately common) situation. Looking forward to reading part 2!
I have an overwhelming urge to e-hug you.
Wow. I've heard something like this more often than I should. It's scary. I hope to never find myself in this position, and I eagerly await part 2!
Thanks for sharing! Love your tweet chats.
By God yes, this was helpful. As I am sitting here on month three since The Call. Will her edits really be here "any day?"
Wow, what a ride/read. The terror within, indeed. Sounds like what every writer "nightmares" about. But I've heard similar real life stories about writers who've gotten through this, who've gone on to get GREAT agents after a bad experience with a first one.
The more I read and hear, I think it's pretty usual for an agent to take months to get back on a revision. Agents are busy people. Like editors. The world of publishing runs slowly--so we gotta distract ourselves by continuing to write. It's the only way to stay sane!
Thanks for the wonderful post! You never realize what can happen until the decision is already made. Hindsight.
left comment at georgia's blog
Vivien
deadtossedwaves at gmail dot com
Great post--so well written and so entertaining. Looking forward to more. :-)
hug Renesme the cat for comfort.
Bah-ha-ha!
Ok, that post was completely terrifying, but you had me in your grasp the whole time! :) Can't wait to hear the next one! :)
Talk about a hook and then all that rising action! You have it here. Super post!
And this is one reason why I didn't sign with an agent after getting The Call. I read comments from former clients that her communication dropped off once you signed with her. Not what I wanted in an agent.
Great post, although you left me hanging. Can't wait for part 2. I stopped by the blog as well and checked out, "I didn't connect with your character" as that was a comment I got from an agent who read my first 50. Good advice, I'm going to return and read it more thoroughly for tips on how to fix it--especially if I get a few more of those :)
thanks for the great advice.
Thanks for the post. Please enter me in contest. [email protected]
awesome post, Georgia. We all know ppl who have been through this. It's unfortunate, but it happens. Nothing to do except pick yourself up and start again. Quitting isn't an option if publication is your goal.
Wow, and to think there's more to worry about once you HAVE your agent. lol So many things to consider. Good point Stina brings up... do your homework on the agent.
Thanks for the reminder, Georgia!
Thanks for commenting and stopping by my blog. I had fun writing this and hope it helps to add a little humor to a very serious and heartbreaking situation for some. I look forward to Part 2 which I think is coming next month. And (wait for the shameless plug), please subscribe to my blog to be notified of PART 3! Yes, Virginia, there is a final part coming that I hope you will also enjoy! Thanks to the ladies of Adventures in Children's Publishing for asking me to do this! XO - Georgia
Oh my gosh. My palms are sweating. I have an agent. She is amazing, but I almost had a panic attack reading this!
Oh my goodness, this has me biting my nails. I don't have an agent yet, but I hope I never have to deal with this!
Very interesting post. It's a shame that we work so hard to land an agent's attention, and even when we finally do, may still have to make the important decision of hiring them. I hope we all make the right choice, but as stated in this posts, sometimes you just can't know.