Secrets of Landing an Agent, Part I: The Author!

My friend Katherine Grace Bond, poet and YA author and teacher and terrific critiquer, recently heard the words that writers long to hear: "May I represent you?"

*sound of crowd cheering!*

That's right, Katherine is now represented by Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger!

So I invited Katherine to spill some of her secrets to landing an agent right here. Welcome, Katherine!

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HOLLY: The actual event of receiving an agent offer is kind of a momentous and memorable event in any case, but yours is particularly hilarious. Tell us how it went down!

KATHERINE: Now you’ll find out what an awful wife and mother I am!

My husband was having sinus surgery on the day I had scheduled to talk with Sara. He thought this wouldn’t be a problem because I was to simply drop him off at the hospital at 5:45 in the morning and then spend the day at my mom’s, which was ten minutes away. I planned to take the call at Mom’s, where I would have a quiet room to talk. As it happened, he got out surgery an hour earlier than we’d anticipated. And I couldn’t bring myself to stay away from the hospital. I had to see him and know he was okay. So I went, phone in hand, and found him just about to transfer out of recovery. He was having an adverse reaction to the anesthesia and was very nauseated. But they got him settled into his room and I asked him if I should reschedule the phone call. “No,” he said bravely. “This is important.”

I was to hear from Sara at noon and every few seconds I looked at my phone for the time. Andrew was more and more miserable and began throwing up blood. I was patting him and nurses were going in and out and checking on him. I kept checking the phone: Two minutes to twelve…one minute to twelve… At 12:03 the phone rang...

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