After about 163 queries to literary agents over four months, 40 of which resulted in rejections, one finally said he wanted to represent my book on the history of sadomasochism. We had a couple of phone conversations in which we talked about background and changing my proposal, and he sent me a copy of his agreement.
Unlike the previous agent, this included provisions for breaking off the agreement if I wasn’t satisfied. My friends who know about the writing business looked the agreement over for me, and were okay with it. After my usual anxious waffling, I put the printed, signed agreement in the mail. It should reach the agent in Toronto by the end of this week.
I have no idea what’s going to happen next. The agent says he will start showing my current draft of of the manuscript and a new version of the proposal to American publishers in July. I definitely want to keep revising the manuscript, as I’m running the chapters through my writer’s workshop. I have yet to look at certain research elements, such as Robert Bienvenu’s thesis.
I will continue blogging on this site.
In other news, the shared world science fiction project my writer’s group has been working on for six years is finally nearing completion and we are talking about self-publishing as a “season” of novellas.