Diving In

I have edited, parsed, cajoled, scrubbed, erased, scribbled, cross-checked, eliminated, fretted about, read aloud, and examined my manuscript more times than I can count. I have worked with beta readers, sensitivity readers, whale experts and on-demand fishing folks. I have made the leap in my thinking: now is the time.

Time to jump in. Into the query trenches I go!

Over the months I’ve been slowly doing agent research and have an initial list of agents who mention some of the mentor texts for this book and other keywords (STEM, whales, ocean) on their manuscript wishlist (and if you are about to embark on this journey, check that resource out here). I’ve also been scouring Publisher’s Marketplace and Twitter for clues about what agents might be a good fit for both my book and for me — because there will be other books! I’m also using QueryTracker, a query/submission manager platform that tracks agent submittals (and a data-nerd source of obsession in checking where you are in an agent’s slush pile).

I’ve chosen to pursue a traditional publishing route, which means I’m looking for an agent to represent me, hopefully for my career, and that agent will (again, hopefully) sell this book to a publisher. It’s a long, daunting process that feels enormously vulnerable, and I know there will be many rejections along the way.

Even so, I feel a new kind of excitement. All the hard work I have put in, all the insecurity I have felt at times, all the imposter syndrome (on multiple fronts!), all the imagining I have done. It’s getting real!

Maybe nothing will come of this next phase, and I will try again. But, for now, I feel hopeful about others reading the words and story I have worked so hard to create. And that is worth celebrating.