My First Sale

As many of you know, Louise Fury has joined the team at camp L. Perkins Agency. I was regaling her with the torrid story of my first sale, and she said, "You must put that in your blog," so here it is for your entertainment pleasure.

As many of you know, I used to be journalist. I had left a rather slimy agent for training with someone I greatly admired, but was tough as nails. I had only made one sale in my first 5 months (cover story of US Magazine, so not too bad), but she was riding me hard to deliver.

I was riveted by a story on CNN about a family who was begging the Catholic Church to exorcise them of the entity that was molesting them nightly. I turned to my journalist-husband and said, "I really want to read that book when it comes out," and he said, "You're a journalist. Go get the book." And I did. I traveled by bus to Scranton, PA, met the family and the ghost busters and the local reporter covering the story (and saw my first velvet painting in a living room), and came back with the rights all signed up.

My boss was not a horror fan, so she didn't think the book would sell. She wouldn't let me send a messenger to the publishing companies with the proposal, so I walked it there myself in heels, my feet blistering by the end of the day.

A few days later, I had 7 publishers interested in the book. The auction started at $5000 and after two days of bidding, the book sold for $110,000.

The book went on to make number 15 on the NY Times best-seller list, and was made into a made-for-TV movie with Sally Kellerman, who was nominated for an Emmy.

And the point of that story for Louise, and all my agents in training, is that you must follow your instincts on a book, and go after it if you believe in it.

Query Letter Update

Last week, Sandy went through another 150 query letters and is now up to Dec. 30th. So, If you sent us something dated before then, we are probably not interested in seeing your work. However, if you feel we might have missed you (and things do get lost in the traffic), feel free to requery.

However, Sandy will not be doing queries this week because of a death in the family.

Virtual Writer's Conference Tomorrow

Terry Kate, this whirlwind of blogger romance information and energy, has put together this amazing Virtual Writer's Conference that starts tomorrow and runs through the weekend. For $20, you can get an entire three days worth of info and chat with industry leaders without having to dye your hair or get your nails done.

I'll be there at 1:30 with the new head of Dorchester, Leah Hultenschmidt. We'll be talking about our editorial blogging lives.

But I'll be in and out all weekend, because I love sharing what I've learned.

This evening, I was on the Twitter #askagent chat for an hour and half, before I realized I'd never deliver my latest Threesomes anthology for RR, if I didn't get back to work. I signed off with "Night folks. I have to edit a Threesomes anthology for RR" and someone said it was the best exit line they'd heard all night.

Virtual Writer's Conference info below:

March 19
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ccmFNKvtDA
http://bbpcon.blogspot.com

Query Submission Update

Another day at the L. Perkins Agency, where Sandy Lu has spent the entire day sorting through e-queries and snail mail. She went through 200 e-queries and 50 snail mails, and she's only up to Dec. 8.

So, from here on, check this blog to see where we are date-wise. If you haven't heard from us, we are not interested. We are no longer going to be sending out rejections. Same goes for snail mail, so please remember to include your email address, in case we are interested.

As I have told people who re-query over and over again, we receive 30,000 query letters a year. It is physically impossible to get back to everyone in a timely manner.

Please don't double or triple query (meaning sending the same query to me, Sandy and Marisa). Take the time to read about our backgrounds, and choose who you would like to read your query. If you don't know, just send it to the agency email address.

Please don't take this personally. We are trying to streamline the process. We respect your time and hope that you can respect ours.

Liberty States Writers' Conference Next Week

Sandy, Marisa and I will be attending the Liberty States Writers' Conference in New Jersey on March 13, see details:

http://www.libertystatesfictionwriters.com/lsf-writers-conference/

Sandy and Marisa will be taking pitches looking for new writers for representation. I will be there taking pitches as the Editorial Director of Ravenous Romance. Holly Schmidt, the publisher of Ravenous Romance, will also be there.

If you visit the ravenousromance.blgspot.com blog, you'll see we recently posted a call for F/F (lesbian) fiction, as well as a call for another big horror/romance anthology at Ravenousromance.com