It’s finally my turn to write a “How I Got My Agent” blog. Please enjoy my K-drama puns as I’m trying to stay on brand to the book that got me The Call.
REPLY 2008ish
Like every other writer, I’ve always loved writing since I was a child. Legend has it that the very first item I picked up when I was a baby was a typewriter. (That’s a lie.) I never thought of writing as a career I could pursue. All I did was take the 16personalities test over and over again, and be satisfied that the ideal career for an INFJ was a writer. I felt acknowledged by an online personality test.
But that was all it was. An ‘ideal’ career I could never pursue. So I continued writing for fun. I volunteered to write the script for a school play (which I finished overnight lol). I wrote a 4-page essay—front and back—for a 500-word English exam (without getting extra credits, sadly). Then I started writing stories with my classmates as characters (best way to avoid describing appearance, amiright?). In one story we had elemental superpowers, and in the next we were a girlgroup. I printed and passed the chapters around during lunch time for them to read. They loved it!
Soon I discovered my passion for romance, and writing my classmates or myself in that genre would be… weird. So I changed my subject (before they'd stop being friends with me).
THE WORLD OF THE FANFICS
You know how heroes in movies undergo their training arc to become better at what they do? I consider my fanfic era my training ground. From 2014 to 2018, I was very active on AFF (iykyk). In these years, I wrote:
13 Novels, 6 Novellas, multiple one-shots
I tried writing in every genre to see what I was good at and enjoyed the most. I asked my followers what they liked best about my stories. They all mentioned my humor (and how I creatively kill off characters, but I’m rebranding as a romcom author, so we don’t talk about that). I also learned to write a novel within the proper word count (this was after my 250k words fanfic okay).
Basically, I was in my golden era (or so I’d like to believe). I was very productive and wrote very fast. I posted weekly or daily updates. I never started a story without finishing it. My readers were blessed. Those who had been with me since my early years pointed out I had improved a lot as a writer. And others commented that my writing could pass off as a published book. I laughed it off… I could never….
Or could I?
WHAT’S WRONG WITH MY BOOK? (Whisperer Book)
So here I was, a newbie who knew absolutely nothing about the publishing industry, trying to break my way in because my fanfic readers believed in me. I had written 13 novels (which were essentially first drafts), so how hard can this be?
The Whisperer book was something I had never tried writing before, but at the same time, was the result of everything I’ve experimented with. The idea was so different. Even my friend who reads around 40 books per month had a hard time finding a comp, meaning the idea was either incredibly unique or terribly unmarketable. As I was working on the book’s sixth revision, I got pregnant and went on a two-years writing hiatus.
Two years later, we were deep in the pandemic. I reread the Whisperer book and remembered my love for it. I still believed it had a strong message to help those who struggle against their inner demons. So I worked on the seventh revision and started querying. Dear reader, my book got the PERFECT zero percent request rate!!! 🤣
I did many things wrong. Called it YA fantasy while it should be a contemporary with speculative elements. I didn’t know we were allowed to have non-white main characters, so there was no single Chinese-Indonesian representation. (Thank you Queen Jesse Sutanto for changing this!) My query literally said “this book has approximately 79,368 words.” Plus, the query ended with the dreaded rhetorical question! Basically, I did everything I was not supposed to do.
After 40 queries and 4 months, I decided to shelve it.
K-DRAMA PROPOSAL (K-Drama book)
While querying the first book, I started working on my second book, which originally started as a fanfic in 2014. If you want proof of how much my training arc served me, a before and after of this story would show it. (Not that anyone will ever get to see the old version… Unless I share it in my newsletter… so sign up here 🙄)
I had revised this book four times when Isabelle, a former PitchWar mentor, unofficially took me in as her mentee. She gave me an edit letter suggesting a MAJOR revision, including changing it from YA to Adult. I would have to rewrite almost the entire thing. I pondered on it for several days and eventually agreed. That was when I killed off a love interest (more were killed in later revisions 🥲)
Another great change was switching Yoona from Korean to Chinese-Indonesian because I myself am Chinese-Indonesian. But I was already so attached to the name Yoona. It was during the seventh and final revision, after talking to my Bobapop members, that I finally figured it out. She CAN be Chinese-Indonesian and still be named Yoona! Wanna know how? Buy the book when it comes out and find out for yourself! 😉
I sent the seventh draft to a few more beta readers for a final grammar and spelling check. (Special thanks to Cynthia who pointed out that clocks are analog, not monologue 😅). Eventually, they agreed the manuscript was query ready. They also said it was K-drama adaptation ready, so I knew their opinions were 100% legit.
CRASH LANDING ON THE TRENCHES
I read Anahita’s blog post to draft my query. My mentor, betas, and fellow writing friends helped me with my query and synopsis. It won a DVpit and query critique giveaways and even the query expert Anahita herself volunteered to look over it. The query was revised by an all-star team so it had to work! I sent out my first 10 queries and got a partial and full request. My friends pointed out it was a good stat, so I sent more—a lot more.
Being a good mentee, I eventually did what my mentor did and sent out 40-50 queries all at once. Are you proud of me, my mentor? Lol (Readers, don’t follow our example.) As soon as an agent on my list opened for submissions, I queried them. My strategy: if I’m fast and early in their query queue, maybe they’ll get back to me sooner.
After doing extensive research—Twitter stalking—I gathered a list of agents who watch K-dramas. I was sure they would enjoy my story about a fangirl getting trapped in a K-drama world. So when these agents sent me form rejections, it was the most K-dramaesque plot twist I did not see coming. And that first partial and full I got? All rejected within the same week. Did my target audience not enjoy my book? But my betas loved it. What did this mean?
I realized that K-drama, despite its rising popularity, was still a niche market compared to… a story about a fangirl getting trapped in a RomCom. The more I compared my querying stats with everyone else on Twitter, the more I realized that maybe… this wasn’t the book that will get me an agent. Eventually, I didn’t look for a K-drama MSWL and queried ANY agent who rep romcoms.
My stats were quite tragic compared to most writers on Twitter. When others celebrated getting 15 agent likes during a pitch event, I was lucky I could even get 1 (sometimes I got none). When others' pitch like turned into a full request, some of mine ended up being ghosted. Others tweeted about getting back to back full requests in a day, but waking up to rejections was my norm.
Still, I was lucky to get some requests and editor’s interest. But as personalized rejections came rolling in, I realized how subjective the industry really was. For the exact same pages, I received different feedback.
Agent 1: The plot moves too fast. I couldn’t connect with Yoona’s motivation or personality.
Agent 2: The plot shows too much backstory and explains too much about Yoona’s motivation.
I could only laugh. Though I was very thankful they took the time to read and gave me feedback, I didn’t know what to do. Which feedback should I listen to? I decided not to change my pages and held on to the hope that an agent out there will love the pacing as it was—or be willing to fix it with me.
LEGEND OF THE REVPIT
While querying the K-Drama book, I finished writing my third book (MMORPG book). I entered this book for the RevPit contest with very low expectations. I had sent it out to some beta readers, and while waiting for their feedback, I finished drafting my 4th book, (Wedding Hashtag book). I managed to finish revising my Wedding Hashtag book before the RevPit announcement JUST IN CASE I’d get chosen… Turns out, Kyra did choose my book!
By this time, I was mentally prepared to stop querying my K-drama book since my gaming book seemed to have a better chance. I mean, there are a lot of gaming books coming out, so there should be a market for it, right?
Kyra asked me to do a reverse outline while waiting for her edit letter. And when I received her letter, WOWWWWW…. I mean, she is a professional editor for a reason. But it was so good, because despite pointing out what didn’t work with my book, she also gave actionable feedback on how to make it work better. Some feedback could discourage a writer and make them feel so lost, but Kyra’s feedback was the opposite. I had LOTS of ideas to implement her suggestions. We set up a call to brainstorm and confirm whether my ideas were headed in the right direction. Two days later, I sent out a new chapter-by-chapter outline of the entire revision. She approved and I was ready to go!!! Until….
EXTRAORDINARY WRITER MEL
(Sorry, I know this sounds conceited, but I couldn’t find a better K-drama to reference)
I was deep in my RevPit revisions—so deep, that I had spent days just to get the banter between the MC and LI in chapter two right. I was checking my emails as soon as I woke up like the responsible adult I was. By now, I had received multiple rejections for my fulls and partials. So when I saw another submission reply email, I knew what to expect. I opened the email and scanned for the word “unfortunately.”
But… it wasn’t there…
I reread the entire email again and again, and realized the agent wanted to SET UP A CALL!
I was in disbelief and told my friends about it. I needed someone to help me decipher what this meant. Was it really The Call? For me? Couldn’t be!
It was only after I told my fanfic-readers-turned-close-online-friends-turned-beta-readers about the email that reality began to sink in. Maybe because they were the ones who had been with me since my early fanfic writing days—who supported me when I said I wanted to try publishing and cheered me up when I shelved my first book… I experienced a whole K-drama style flashback montage of our memories together. Then I turned on a sad K-drama OST to really set the mood, and began to cry. (That’s another lie. I cried even without the BGM.)
I told myself this could be an R&R. But BP’s Jenni (as in Bobapop, not Blackpink lol) told me that it probably wasn’t an R&R, because the agent hadn’t finished reading by the time she sent the email. Plus, most agents know while reading that they wanna offer. Cynthia also told me to start sending out queries to other agents on my list in case it is an offer. So I did.
I set up a time for the call and I was SOOOO nervous!!! OMG!!! I was so nervous I had a stomach ache (which I later realized might have been the spicy food I had for dinner). To calm myself down, I picked up my guitar and started singing worship songs. Loll it worked. I used Ann Zhao’s list of questions and had Narjis, CJ, and Alaa walk me through other questions.
Fast forward 1 hour later…
The call went SO well!!!! I forgot all about my nervousness because we spent a good few minutes just chatting about K-dramas (and Chinese and Japanese dramas too) and giving each other recommendations. We even asked each other’s BTS bias. She was so kind and perfect! But the part that blew me away was that she knew every. single. drama that inspired my other projects!
She confirmed she’d like to rep me!!! AHDHRORLSJDLKFFHKSHRLRL
DESCENDANTS OF THE OFFER
I asked for a three week deadline because it was Memorial Day Weekend soon. I started sending nudges to agents and withdrew a few queries. I told my husband he might have to put our son to bed this coming week in case any agent wanted to set up a call. During this time, Melissa helped me out a LOT. (Her MG debut, Misadventures in Ghoshunting is coming out in Summer 2024, so I trust her expertise, and yes this is a PSA to add it on Goodreads).
I thought I’d check my emails less often during this waiting period, but nope. I checked them every three minutes. My fingers could open the email from muscle memory alone. But every time I got a new email, it was another rejection. Lots of agents stepped aside because they couldn’t read within the given deadline. They sent me THE nicest and most supportive messages. And I’m very grateful that no one who had my full ghosted me.
Still, even after getting an offer, my brain decided to welcome imposter syndrome. What if the book wasn’t good enough? What if the offering agent takes back her offer? How did other people get 10+ additional full requests after their nudge, while I only got 3? Why does no one else want it?
But here’s the thing… Because I’ve read numerous HIGMA blogs, I unconsciously made their experience my standard. I thought the norm was to get 2 or 3 offers, while in reality, it only takes ONE yes. I was lowkey relieved I got no other offers because I’d be anxious writing a “rejection” email. Besides, I knew the offering agent would be perfect not just for my K-drama book, but for all my future projects. She already won me over.
So I’m thrilled to announce I am now repped by Melissa Jeglinski at The Knight Agency!
IT’S OKAY NOT TO BE OKAY
To all my querying friends, being in the trenches IS hard. If there was something I wished I knew before querying, it would be these things:
1. Don’t compare your journey to others (especially on social media)
You’ll notice even in this blog post that most of my doubts and insecurities stemmed from comparison. The tweets that usually appear on my timeline were all celebratory tweets, which was fine cause I like cheering others on. The problem was that I had unconsciously set their achievement to become my standard. So when my querying journey was the slightest bit different and didn’t measure up to their experiences, I felt like a failure.
I needed to remind myself that I only saw the good news online. Most people chose not to publicize their struggles. So it wasn’t fair to compare my journey to theirs when I didn’t even know their entire story. Everyone’s journey is different, so don’t think less of yourself just because your journey’s different from others.
I won’t tell you to “not give up” or to “take a break from querying” since you’re the only person who knows your own limit. But what I can tell you is that it’s completely fine to take a break from social media. Mute these celebratory tweets if you must. I’m always genuinely happy when someone gets a full request or rep, but there were days where it only made me doubt myself even more. If you’re not in a space where you can cheer others on, that’s fine. It doesn’t make you a bad person. We’re all tired. And we deserve rest.
2. Find a writing community
I know this is contradicting to my “stay off of social media” advise, but I found all my writer friends on social media.
Having a writing community is sooo important. These are the people who understand the blood, sweat, and tears of querying. I’ve DMed a lot of friends just to rant and cry and wonder what was wrong with my book. I’ve spiraled so many times to the point my friends had to constantly remind me why they love my book.. And the thing is, I didn’t break down just once or twice. It was like I had a monthly schedule for my breakdowns. Still, my friends were always ready to lift me up after every fall. They kept believing in my book when I lost the ability to.
If I had to relive all my querying sadness and disappointment just to find my writing friends again, I would. Awwww 🥹🫶
3. Rejection is a step closer to success
This is my personal motto that I’ve been holding on to ever since I first decided to enter the publishing industry. I knew lots of rejections awaited me, but this helped me keep my vision on the end goal.
I imagine the querying process like a gameboard. If a rejection is what moves our pawn forward, then getting more rejection is really a way to move our pawn closer to the finish line.
It might not work for others, but this helped me face the rejections I got. It was the reason why I had the courage to send out a lot of queries. Every time I got a rejection, I reminded myself I was one step closer to finding The One.
OUR BELOVED QUERYING STATS
The part you’ve all been waiting for! I queried since October 26th, 2022 and received the offer on May 5th, 2023. So if my math isn’t failing me, I queried for 6 months. And here are my stats:
Total Queries Sent: 98 (withdrew 5)
Partial Request: 5 (all ended up being rejected)
Full Request: 12 (+3 after nudge)
Rejections: 70
CNR: 21
Offer: 1
Pleaseeee don’t think “oh she got an agent after two books and a few months of querying.” If you think of my journey, you can’t leave out my training arc. The process to get to the end goal is just as important as the end goal itself. If I didn’t polish my writing skills by writing those fanfics first, I would’ve swamped the agents’ inboxes with half-baked books. We don't want that.
And of course, LUCK. It’s the only factor that is out of your control, so all you can do is your best and hope it will all work out.
Here, manifesting some luck and good news for you all! ❤️✨
Comments