My last post about the SDSU conference and experiences stretched out a tad long. I didn't mean for it to take on its own novella proportions--sorry about that. But upon sleepy reflection last night while snuggled warm under the covers with six-pound Yorkie Ernie by my side, I realized I forgot to mention a few other interesting tidbits.
At one point in my post, I explained my concern about my project being a viable commercial entity, or was I just a legend in my own mind. I asked this question (when I remembered to ask) of two editors and one agent. Each time I asked, eyes grew large and head reared back just a tad before she answered, "Absolutely! Of course! There's an excellent market for this project." Score! And what a relief! Imagine having poured your heart, soul, and untold hours into something only to learn it would never see the light of day beyond your own desk top. I can't believe I didn't mention this particular outcome in yesterday's post, because it was huge for me to get this feedback. Only goes to show that writing late at night and my brain do not mix sometimes, last night being one of them.
During one of the breakout sessions (personally, I like to call them 50-minute educational mini-seminars, because "breakout session" suggests to me that I'll be actively participating) that I attended, three newly-published authors sat together on a panel and discussed their experiences of being, well, newly published and all that that entailed. One of these authors happened to be the actor Eriq Lasalle. As in the guy who portrayed a handsome doctor in the television show E.R. This man was so down-to-earth and gracious. And huge. Not sure how tall he is, but did I mention that he's HUGE! I'm five feet nine inches, and as I left the seminar and passed by him, I had to look up, so I'm guessing he's a good six feet five inches or thereabouts. And funny, and down-to-earth. Did I mention those, too? What was kind of cool was him talking about attending the conference to learn and further his craft. Cool guy.
My last anecdote for this post involves my final pitch appointment with an agent. She was one of those who seemed surprised that I questioned whether my project held marketable potential. And she also asked if I foresaw sequel potential with my character and her story. Both good signs, right? Maybe it was all in my imagination, but I felt that Laurie and I got along famously. It probably had more to do with her being slap happy that I was her final appointment after a long two days of listening to pitches. Whatever. We chatted like old friends--to a point. I always have to be aware that these folks are here for the business and I mustn't take advantage or be overly familiar, which is easy to do when they're as friendly as she was. Anyway, as we were finishing up, I remembered that she knew Liz (another story, probably best left untold), so I mentioned I had attended an online seminar the previous week in which Liz reviewed my work. I'm not sure how all of that translated in Laurie's head because the next thing I know, she's saying that when I query and submit my work, don't just query one agent at a time--send my stuff to multiple agents, herself included. And if one of those agents comes back with an offer to represent, or an editor comes back with an offer to purchase, be sure to let all the other people (who I queried) know so that they have the opportunity to present their own offers. She then presented her card and told me when I was ready that she'd like to read the first ten pages of my work. All of this I also took to be a good sign, because if she hadn't liked my pitch or story, she wouldn't have said any of what she did.
Which brings me to my last good news of this post -- all of the agents and editors requested the first ten pages of my work when I had completed my project. When you've done as much querying as I have and not heard back, it's encouraging to know that you're finally doing something right along the way.
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