How I got my agent
- Tracy Hoagland
- Apr 6, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 27, 2023
Well, well, well, now you come to me and want to know how I got my agent.
You're not going to like it.
It involves howling at the moon. Three novels and a genre switch from fantasy to psychological thriller. Listening to the same pop-punk band—and basically nothing else—for a year straight. There was rejection, rage, and very, very late nights.
But there was also a lot of dancing very, very late at night to that pop-punk band. There was staring up at the moon as I tried to figure out how to kill a character in the most gratifying way possible. There was cuddling my dog through writer's block. And there was one agent that saw my words and said "Omg, yes." And that's all it takes, right?
Backing up a bit. I began working on this book in November of 2021, calling it my Hamlet: 2 Die 2 Sleep project. That was my entire impetus for writing this book. Hamlet the Sequel: More murder, more drugs, more early 2000s emo vibes, and set it on the Oregon coast in winter. What happens after Hamlet ends and everyone dies? Well, Horatio is left. Poor, loyal Horatio who just can't catch a break.
I spent the next few cold and rainy PNW months drafting. Then the next few months revising with my amazing circle of critique partners (S/O to my Future GOATS on Discord), beta readers, and the advice of the super generous and talented Sarah Lawton and Lucie Whitehouse. I'll never stop referring to Lucie's advice after we spoke about my first few chapters and it boiled down to: Put more you into this.
So I did. I let my protagonist be bit of an asshole. She makes her love of mochas a character trait. She's messy. She makes a lot of bad choices. And she misses her friend. A lot.
It was a year of banging my head against my laptop, ranting about my uncooperative characters to my patient (if confused) husband, and so many different endings.
And then when I dove into the scariest thing I'd done so far and had my oldest and best friend read it. She liked it, but had some small notes:
How did the furniture last so long? Like an old couch in a lighthouse was still there 17 years later?
Cool party for the 30-40 somethings, but where were the kids?? parents can't party like that. Can they???
Yes. Very practical feedback.
Then I started querying! The rejections started to roll in, as they do. It's fine. I've got a thick skin. Then I got a full request. Then another and omg, we're off to the races.
Two weeks after requesting my full, Bernadette Baker-Baughman sent me an email asking for a call and making it crystal clear she wanted to rep my book. My poor husband nearly had a heart attack when he heard my sobs. My dog was ecstatic. My cat didn't care; again, I have a thick skin, can't win them all.
After our call, my mind was basically made up. Bernadette had ambitious plans for my book and I was on board. I did my dutiful writer's thing though and followed up with all the agents that had my package and gave them the (frankly alarming) deadline of a week to get back to me as London Book Fair was approaching. After a weekend of sharing the news with anyone that would listen to my unhinged screeching, I officially signed with Bernadette.
And now we're on submission. I've had some really honest conversations with Bernadette, hand on my throat as I tell her that my imposter syndrome is rearing its shaggy head and saying things are going too fast, are you sure you're reading my manuscript, are you sure I'm ready? This—as my therapist explained—has another name. Foreboding Joy. It's that feeling of, no, I cannot be purely joyful in this moment because I know the other shoe is about to drop. Something truly terrible will strike me down and won't that just suck? And yeah, it would. But for now I'm happy as fuck.
Stats
19 queries sent
7 rejections pre-offer
2 requests pre-offer
3 additional requests post-offer
First query sent: Feb 6th
Offer signed: April 3rd
Went on submission: April 5th
10% request rate pre-offer
26% request rate overall
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