Hey there, intrepid subscribers! This is just a note to say that your eyes don't deceive you. The newsletter looks different this month because I've left Substack. No action is needed on your end!

Earlier this month, I got the sort of email I've been dreaming about for most of my adult life. As you might have intuited from the photo below, an agent reached out to ask for a call. The Call, as we call it in the querying trenches...

I'll go into more detail in an obligatory How I Got My Agent post, soon. But, long story very, very short:

I'm agented, baybees!!!! As of April 26th, I'm now represented by Rebecca Matte of Bradford Literary Agency.

I feel incredibly lucky to have found an agent who really gets MAGE, ALL BUT DISSERTATION and has a stellar vision for making it even stronger.

What does that mean, exactly? Well, I'm glad you asked.

That Agented Life

I will be working with my agent on another (or maybe several more) revisions of Mage, All But Dissertation so that we can get the manuscript in tip-top shape to send to editors.

After that, I have a couple of other novels in various stages of doneness to finish!

Favorite Querying Resources

In honor of leaving the querying trenches, I thought I'd round up some of the things I found most helpful over the past year:

This Twitter thread on querying in and after 2022, because advice from the Before Pandemic Times doesn't always apply anymore (and might set you up for failure and stress).

Print Run Podcast hosted by Laura Zats and Erik Hane of Headwater Literary Agency. This pod ranges from query and first pages critiques to industry shop talk, and it was one of my favorite resources for thinking deeply about queries as a specific genre. There's more content if you subscribe via Patreon, but if you can't afford to subscribe just reach out and they'll give you access.

QueryTracker is, you guessed it, a tool for tracking your queries and agents' responses to them. It's also a great tool for discovering new agents, though you'll want to do some extra legwork to research the agents and agencies you find.

Manuscript Wish List recently got a major overhaul. It's a repository of information about agent and editor wish lists. Some of the data there is old -- it's on individual agents and editors to update their pages -- but it can be a great way to track down more agents to query!

Publishers Marketplace, while behind a hefty paywall, is the central place to find out about agents and the deals they're making. When you're trying to decide who to query (or who to work with, if you have agent offers), knowing a bit about agency and agent sales records can be invaluable. You can sign up for a $10 day pass, or subscribe for $25 a month. I think it's probably a better value (and more useful) to sign up for a whole month and then cancel because subscribing gets you access to expanded versions of PM's free newsletters.

Track Changes (a miniseries on the First Draft with Sarah Enni podcast) is a wonderful breakdown of the publishing process, from querying through book launch and beyond. There are a bunch of great guests, including writers and industry professionals, and I found it very informative about the parts of publishing many writers don't know much about until they're in them.

April Media Recommendations

In lieu of a bunch more recommendations, I'm going to close this issue of Wallowing in Ink with a song to ease the passage of these final April days:

Wild Child's "Going In".

Thanks so much for wallowing with me!

Courtney