When I had finally completed the manuscript, I was excited. Now all I had to do was present it to an editor, who naturally would be happy to publish it, right? Wrong. I went to conferences and signed up to talk to editors; I waylaid them in hallways and spoke to them after workshops. I got requests to send proposals, but every one of them tanked! The fact that John Steinbeck had the walls of his office plastered with rejection slips wasn’t much comfort. What was I doing wrong? I didn’t know how to write a proposal. Finally a friend told me I needed a literary agent, someone who could sell my book to an editor.
Oh.
So I went through the Christian Writer’s Market Guide (a must for any new or experienced author) and called every agent in the vicinity of Southern California. Not only was no one doing Biblical fiction, but not one was taking on green, untried authors! I could see my enemy clasping his hands and grinning with glee! I had prayed, and cried out my frustration, but now, as some of us have done, I flung my hand in the air and cried out, “If you want me to have an agent, you have to find me one, because I’m done!!!”
Silence.
I left it alone for a while, but one day went back through the names of literary agents, and focused on one name, Hartland Literary Agency. I shrugged and tried to turn the page, but something brought me back to that name. “Call her” I heard in my spirit. What? Call and agent I’ve never spoken to, who lives in Pittsburg? I pointed out to the Lord that she lived 3,000 miles away. How could we get together and talk about my novel? How many of you know you can’t argue with the Lord? I obediently, and with fear and trembling, picked up the phone. God knew what He was doing!
To be continued…
