My First Editorial Letter (ouch!)

One YA Author’s Journey to Publication

After nearly two years of querying, I had finally hooked an agent on my third manuscript! Several weeks after signing an agency agreement, my first editorial letter arrived. It was the weekend before the Fourth of July – 2008. I was still riding the high of being a writer with actual representation, but when I opened the file that my agent had sent, I found it hard to swallow. Dear me, there was an awful lot to change. I’m talking six pages of comments, broken down as follows: 2 pages of all-encompassing plot issues that were explained in lengthy paragraphs, and 4 pages of line-by-line comments. Ouch! It threw me back into a momentary depression, making me think that I might actually be made of total suckage. But wait, I had representation. If nothing else, I had to view this as an incredible opportunity to grow as a writer with the expert guidance of my ever-so-talented agent, Alyssa Eisner Henkin.

With that thought, I was ready. Being a former high school English teacher, I had no fears of revision. I could do this. Really, I could.

(Little secret? It’s a good thing I didn’t have a crystal ball, because if I knew what I was facing when I started on my revisions that very first day, all chipper and sing-song positive, I may have simply stopped and run screaming to the nearest dark corner to rock myself back and forth while mumbling something totally incoherent.)

Five months, four drafts, and two titles later, my agent, who I must say is the most patient person IN THE WORLD, asked me if I wanted to shelve the project and start fresh on something new. Because. It. STILL. Wasn’t. Working.

“No,” I said. “I do not. I will figure this out if it kills me.”

So, at the beginning of January 2009, I started over. Like, almost completely. I trashed every page of those flailing former drafts, saving only five measly chapters. I felt beaten down and depressed, and I drowned myself in chocolate ice cream and M&M’s. But I kept going. And in June of 2009, after a few minor rounds of revision, my agent said the words I had waited 11 months to hear.

“It’s ready.”

And then I freaked out. She was going to pitch my book to actual real-live editors sitting in those tall buildings in New York City! They were going to read my book (hopefully) and judge my writing (Eek!). And maybe (Oh, dear, please) even offer to publish the manuscript that had been ripped and gutted and shredded before being rebuilt into something for which I finally felt an enormous pride.