How I Got My Agent: Erin Knightley

“How I Got My Agent” is a recurring feature on the Guide to Literary Agents Blog, with this installment featuring Erin Knightley, author of A TASTE FOR SCANDAL. These columns are great ways for you to learn how to find a literary agent. Some tales are of long roads and many setbacks, while others are of good luck and quick signings.

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 REJECTION, REJECTION, REJECTION

It was a cold November morning in 2010, and there I sat at the ungodly hour of 7:58 in the morning, my fingers poised anxiously over the keyboard. I had already written and copied the paragraph I wanted to post—I was merely waiting for the appointed hour.

This was to be the start of one of the most unusual methods for gaining an agent I have ever heard of. I was about eight months in to trying to find representation for my first novel, MORE THAN A STRANGER, and thus far I had experienced several close calls, but nothing had quite panned out yet. During those eight months, I had rewritten my book three more times, rewritten my query about a hundred times, and watched my inbox with a frequency that bordered on obsessive. Okay—it was obsessive. I had queried again and again, burning through my list of top agents and marking down the date anytime I received a request or rejection.

Unfortunately, the latter seemed much more frequent than the former.

AN AGENT "SPEED DATING CONTEST"...?

After a string of recent rejections, I heard that agent Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency was holding a speed dating contest. Yes, that’s right – a dating contest to find her next client! The first step was to be one of the first 125 commenters when they opened the contest at 8 am. The very moment the clock flashed 8, I sprang into action, pasting the pre-written comment and hitting ‘submit’ in record time. I waited, heart stopped, to see if I made it. Success! I was in. Now I just had to submit my first three pages, sit back and wait to see if I made it to the top thirty.

I was thrilled when I did. And then I was ecstatic when I then advanced to the top ten, which involved submitting a partial ms. But then… I received an email. Deidre was taking me out of the contest. What?? She said that though she loved my voice, the story wasn’t ready. She suggested I make a few key edits, and if I did them successfully, then she hoped to be able to offer representation.

(Read a full interview with literary agent Deidre Knight.)

Offer representation?? To me?? I danced around the room in a tizzy of delight, feeling for the first time that an agent really saw my potential. I didn’t care if it was only a few weeks from Christmas—I was going to double down and attack the suggested edits with a vengeance. I worked for weeks and weeks, finagling the plot, tweaking the characters, smoothing out the writing. It was painful—God was it painful—but I could see the book getting better all the time.

When I finally submitted the revised book, I was a WRECK. I felt as if my whole future rested in the hands of this, one of the best agents in the business. Days passed, and I waited with baited breath. Would it be enough? Would she be willing to take me, a complete newbie author, on?

THE REVISIONS PAY OFF

As it turned out, it was! Deidre signed me, with the caveat that she felt the manuscript still needed work. The following weeks and months were a blur of hard work. The one major bright spot was when I finaled for the prestigious Golden Heart® award. She claimed she wasn’t the least bit surprised :)

Deidre, being the super-agent extraordinaire that she is, expertly choreographed my submission to all the major houses in such a way to get the maximum benefit from my being a finalist. And boy did it work! We received multiple offers within two weeks, with two houses going to auction for me. Now I am a multi-published author with Penguin/ NAL, with my second book, A TASTE FOR SCANDAL, recently hitting shelves in December, and my third book scheduled to be released in September 2013.

Entering Deidre’s contest was a total long shot, and beyond unconventional. Even more so since I didn’t even win it! But it just goes to show that every avenue is worth being pursued. You never can tell when an opportunity will turn out to be your opportunity, so you must go after them all!

And whatever you do, don’t get discouraged. A writer can never be defeated, only challenged. Keep writing, keep growing, keep going—you never know when your big break is right around the corner.

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