And so it begins... Part 2b

Where did we leave off? Oh, yeah... I had made a list of agents, and begun proposing. Onwards and... upwards?

And so it begins... Part 2b

I sent out proposals to a dozen agents or more, probably, over the course of two months, two or three per week, all solicited queries. But... not all of the Vintage Kitchen series. Though I knew the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries was a solid cozy series idea, I also believed (still do) that the other book/series proposal was/is a good idea. Some of the literary agents were not suitable for a purely 'cozy' proposal, so I sent those agents the other idea. I would, I decided, leave it up to God/fate/destiny what happened.

One or two got back to me fairly quickly with a 'this isn't for me' kind of response. But it was a bad time of year to be proposing to anyone in New York. For those who don't know, the publishing world basically shuts down in December, July and August (in my experience). The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is especially bad, so I knew it would be tough sledding. Most agents and editors are determined to clear their desks of piled up work in that period, and focus on the clients and projects at hand.

One saving grace, in that time, was that I had a finished romance manuscript accepted at a big new start-up, so Christmas 2009 was not terrible. I can say that now. It didn't feel so sunny/rosy/rainbowy all over then. I was distraught and full of doubt. Had I made a mistake? Should I be writing the next big romance novel? After all, it was work, and I like romance novels.

January came, as it inevitably does, in the middle of that long winter, and so, as January progressed, came the 18th, right after the 17th, as usual. Jessica Faust was now... open for queries again!! But me? I let the date pass without leaping onto my computer and sending off the cozy proposal. Wouldn't want to look to anxious, you know. I was like the uber-cool fella who slouches along by the popular girl, but doesn't join the horde of hopeful suitors. I'd wait. A few days. I couldn't stand to wait long, mind you.

I sent my query to Jessica on January 20th or 21st, and sat back to wait. She requested the proposal fairly quickly, I sent it, and then sat back to wait again. And wait I did. She was inundated with queries/proposals, as I knew she would be.

But a few weeks later I got an enthusiastic email saying she read the proposal, couldn't believe she had waited so long, and wanted to talk. We talked, and in that phone call she tried to give me time to think about signing with her. Hah!!! As if I'd let her go that easy. I told her I didn't need any time; I'd done the research, and I knew that she was my 'dream' agent. I didn't need a moment more, not even a millisecond.

'Send me the contract', I said, and sent an email to every other agent who had one of my proposals. I was off the market. It had taken me five or six months, but I got my literary agent, and I was gung ho to go!

And so it begins... Part 3  - The road to mystery publication, which started so slow and winding, takes a steep new ascent, and I'm just along for the ride... wheee!

And so it begins... Part 1a

This is all new and exciting for me, creating a mystery series, and if you are a cozy reader, I thought the process might interest you.

I am introducing my new cozy mystery series, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, starting some month/year in the future with the publication of Hoosier Dead Guy? (that's the working title, anyway... do you know what a Hoosier cabinet is? If not, you soon will!). (Edited May 9th 2011 - New title is A Deadly Grind... so far, anyway. Editor was concerned folks would hear 'Hoosier' and think basketball!!) I thought, in speaking of the series in this blog, that I'd start at the beginning and work forward. Even in Wonderland, this usually works quite nicely. (Remember, the King of Hearts said, "Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end, then stop."

So, the beginning of my achievement of a lifelong goal - a three-book contract with Berkley Prime Crime for a cozy mystery series - is thus; several months ago I achieved my dream of scoring the big score... Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary agreed to represent me. Amazingly. I've spent years thinking I wasn't ready, and maybe I wasn't, or maybe I was holding myself back by writing things that weren't really up my alley. I love and read cozy mysteries, but I wrote several mysteries that could best be described as awkward hybrids, neither fish nor fowl. (Sidebar... where did that phrase come from? Note to self; look it up.)

But wait a minute... that's really not the beginning, is it? What proposal did I show Jessica that convinced her to take it - and me - on? How did I come up with the idea, you ask?

Okay, so we really need to go back further, more than a year ago.

I had a literary agent, and we had worked together for years in my previous incarnation as a romance author. (Aha, says the perspicacious reader, so you did have a hand up in the business! In one sense, I suppose I did. Successfully transitioning from being a romance author to publication in my first love, mystery writing, eluded me for years, though.) But he and I were going in different directions, and that's okay. It took me far too long to recognize it, and we stayed together for too long out of loyalty and mutual appreciation. He was (and is) a really nice guy, and a good agent. For someone else. But I wanted to be a mystery author, and always have, and he didn't have a whole lot of experience in that area.

So, I began to research agents, and it didn't take me long to figure out that Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary was it, the pinnacle, the epitome of everything I wanted. So I brushed up my proposal for a mystery series, and sent it to her.

And got a polite rejection. I could have left it at that, but I didn't. I emailed her, thanking her for the rejection (!! This is generally not advised, but I did it anyway.) and asking if I could do something to the book that would make it more palatable. She said, 'not really'. Then she wrote the key phrase that changed everything for me. She suggested that I was a very good writer - that wasn't the problem - but if I was truly interested in writing a cozy mystery series, I should look at her list of clients, and pick a few books to read.

I listened, and...

Continued in Part 1b!