So after eight months of editing and revising, I finally sent my manuscript to Stephen Fraser of The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency. Hopefully, he hasn't forgotten that he requested it (I did write a little reminder letter and he did say I had a year to send it in). I don't know if anything will come of it, but he's the first to want the whole enchilada. Sending it in was an adventure in itself. First of all, it cost me 90$ to print the 316 pages. I bought 2 printer cartridges at 30$ a pop, only to find out that one of them didn't print well (uneven color). I then asked my hubby to take the 2nd half of the MS to UPS store to print the rest. They printed the whole MS, but it had black streaks on every page. Luckily, they gave it to him for free (duhhh), but it was unusable. Then he went to Staples and reprinted the whole thing for another 30$. Then, I went to the post office.
The lady at the post office wanted to play 20 questions, probably because she had seen me spend 20 minutes trying to find an envelope that the silly thing would fit in. She was tickled to find out it was a book, and wanted to know all about it- down to the final scene. She was eager to help, and a little disappointed that I didn't want to spend 42$ to get it to the agent the next day (which would've been a Saturday anyway). She also did her best to convince me that it would be better to send it priority, certified, and everything else she could think of. I told her that after spending 8 months getting the thing ready, I could wait another week for him to get it. Her reply, "Suit yourself!"
So now the waiting game begins again. I would send out a few more queries, but I'm broke and Staples is out of ink ;))
Hope you all are well.
What a great idea for a short story...the saga of printing a manuscript! Of course, only writers would appreciate it (and maybe some grad students who've dealt with similar problems regarding their dissertations).
ReplyDeleteBest wishes on your manuscript. It's wonderful that you've had someone request the full!
Wow, congrats!
ReplyDelete(And here's to hoping that you won't have to send out another snail mail full!)
Sometimes I wonder...why do some agents accept e-queries yet ask for snail mail partials or fulls? Do you think it's just a preference thing? Perhaps they like to read manuscripts on paper rather than on a computer screen?
Anyway, congrats again and keep us posted!