So this morning I mailed off the partial submission an agent requested last week, complete with SASE and hopefully enough US stamps for it to arrive back here sooner or later. My awesomely wonderful distant US relatives whom I met on Sunday brought me a whole stash of forever-stamps, no charge. THANK you!
And the best of luck to you, my first three chapters. Make me proud.
Other than sending off the partial, my day wasn't good. It wasn't bad exactly, it was just one of those why-bother days. Why bother taking an umbrella when cars sloshing through the street are just going to spray you from beneath? Why bother trying for the umpteenth time to make light of the same social network analysis software that has been nya-nya-nya-ing you for the past three days? Why bother eating yummy food you can't taste and which hurts your throat on the way down?
And then, this evening, half an hour ago, I get another email. From another agent. Who wants another first-three-chapters submission. This time via email.
Squeeeeeee! Now I'm definitely...
There is a... well, not a catch, exactly. More of a snag. This agent requested a three-week exclusive. Obviously, now that I sent my material to another agent just today, I can't grant her that. But I don't want to begin a possible agent-author relationship with a lie by telling her this is an exclusive, either. I also don't want to not send her my material. In fact, I want to send it to her very badly.
A classic dilemma. One I couldn't solve without more information.
Once again I turned on my trusty googlopedia (incidentally, how did people deal without the internet and stay sane?), and surfed the net for advice on this kind of situation. There's quite a lot, since I'm not the only one this has happened to (not that I'd expected that).
Here's the suggestion I liked most and used, a little altered, to answer Ms. Agent #2:
"Other agents are currently reading the proposal and another is reading the manuscript, so I'm unable to grant an exclusive at this time. I'll be happy to send the material on to you anyway, and should I receive an offer, I'll contact you before making any decision."
I hope she says, 'sure, I'll look at it anyway'. Mainly, though, I'm extremely grateful. Another submission request in one and a half weeks! This means I'm on the right track, that my query's getting agents' attention.
And I know that my novel matches - nay, surpasses - the query and will find somebody who'll want to represent it. Even if it's neither of these two agents.
I am totally, completely, utterly ecstatic. I feel like I've won a billion dollars, been proposed to by the love of my life and was granted a lifetime supply of weight-reducing Milka chocolates - all on the same day.
An agent has asked for a partial submission! *squeeeeeeee*
Friday night, I got an email answer to one of my queries (the one from before the first person POV version), asking for a snail mail with my material. I walked on air the whole weekend, while frantically (finally) perfecting the requested three-page synopsis and formatting my first three chapters according to AgentQuery's formatting tips.
On Monday after work, I printed out the pages and floated to the post office to get one honking large envelope that would also hold a smaller, yet still big enough for my material to be sent back in, SASE. I also asked for American stamps to put on aforementioned SASE.
And my floating feet grew cold and reconnected with the ground in a resounding thump.
Doh. American stamps aren't to be had at a German post office. The nice clerk behind the counter informed me they can only offer some sort of online-system, which sounded extremely complicated and a lot of work for the recipient, i.e. the agent I want to make it as easy for as possible. So I need simple stamps, not some fancy rigamaroo that confuses the heck out of users and will frustrate Ms Agent, making her turn the unread pages into Christmas confetti - if she even gets and/or accepts them.
I went home, got behind the computer and did some research. Turns out even finding somewhere online to send foreign stamps to you at a decent price is, well, impossible. AgentQuery suggests http://www.usps.com/, which was the only source that looked reputabel, capable and fairly cheap - but they don't send things internationally anymore (I'll email AgentQuery about that). I'm no slouch when it comes to using the computer and online stuff, but the UPS page boldly showed me my limits in that area. When I finally closed that site I wasn't even sure which way was up or down. I tried calling a UPS subsidiary in the area, but of course by then it was rather late, and they weren't open anymore.
So there I was, ready to hyperventilate, when another doh-worthy thought hit me. On Sunday, this coming Sunday, the in-five-days Sunday, I'm meeting relatives of mine, who are - and this affirms again my strong belief in fate and that we are in the right places at the right times if we let God guide us - Americans, coming to Europe for the holidays.
I immediately shot them a desperate email, begging them to bring a legion of stamps for me (more than I need now, just in case/hopefully I find myself in the same situation again in the near future). Being the wonderful people they are, they answered in the affirmative a few hours later.
Returning me to my blissful state of gravity-defiance.
Merry Christmas to me!!
