So, three weeks after my very first writer’s conference, I sat in on my second. This was the Breathe Christian Writer’s Conference, held in Grand Rapids. Once again, I found myself sitting in a 1-on-1 across from an agent.
My session with Cy three weeks prior had me wondering if I should be shelfing my fantasy story for a while and focus all my efforts on the children’s book that I’d been asked to email to an editor. I liked my children’s story Tommy: Otherwise Known as God, but it was 8100 words and I was told it either needed to be cut down to 5000 words for third grade readers or bumped up to 30,000 for middle school readers. I asked one of the third grade teachers I work with if she would give it a read and see what she thought – third grade level or for older kids? I also handed off a few copies to another teacher’s kids to see what they thought of it.
My 1-on-1 at the Breathe Conference was very different than my meeting with Cy at Maranatha. This time I was meeting with Linda Glaz from the Heartline Literacy Agency https://www.hartlineliterary.com/linda_glaz.html I’d sat in on two of her breakout sesssions (Writing a First Page That Pops! and Pops Again! and What On Earth Do Agents Want?) One of the points she made in her lectures was to know what your potential agent wants.
“Don’t come up to an agent telling them ‘I know you don’t do such-and-such, but mine’s so awesome you’re gonna want to run with it.'” She warned. “Yeah, I’m gonna run with it – straight to the trash can.” She didn’t do fantasy, and she didn’t do children’s books – my two genres. That was a bit of a letdown, but, after hearing her speak, I knew she was still the very person I needed.
I waited my turn, sat down, and introduced myself. I turned on the recorder app on my phone, not wanting to miss a second of what she might say during our short time together.
“I know you don’t do fantasy, but…” I started.
Her eyes got big and she sat back, leery of my next words.
“I heard your seminar on making your first page pop, and I wondered if you could give me some pointers.”
A huge smile spread across her face. She was delighted. The next fifteen minutes were a novice writer’s bliss. She scrutinized the first two pages, drawing arrows, slashing out phrases and underlining others.
“Here’s your first line!” She circled a phrase buried at the end of the third paragraph. I stared at it. It was an awesome first line! How had I not seen it before? Gratitude leached out of my pores and I stared starry eyed at this goddess with a pen as I basked in her advice.
I told her my 17 word pitch line: “A fairy and an elf meet in a spider’s web. One venomous bite entangles their lives forever.” She liked it, saying it was strong and memorable, two qualities a pitch line needs.
I then told her of my experience with Cy. She knew him.
“Reach out again.” She instructed. “This kind of work is his specialty.”
“He doesn’t do christian fantasy, though. He says it doesn’t sell.”
“Is it an alagory? Is it overt? As long as it isn’t beating the reader over the head and too preachy, I would approach him again.”
“I guess my next step would be to get an editor.” I probed. “It’s an 80,000 word story. What do you thing the ballpark figure would be to get an editor for that?”
“At least $4,000.”
My heart dropped. That was a LOT of money.
“But, Karin Beery gives workshops on editing. There’s three of them that she offers and they’re about $150 each.” I quickly scrawled down the name, asking for the spelling to be sure I got it right. (Karin also puts how-to’s out there. http://writenowedits.com/tag/karin-beery/ and https://thechristianpen.com/tag/karin-beery/
I also asked her about my Tommy story. “I have a very limited social platform at this time. Should I go ahead and send in the story, or wait until my numbers were up?” She suggested I go ahead and prepare it to send it.
“Let them know where you’re numbers are and what steps you are taking to get them up.”
I nodded. My friend Danae was coaching me in the ins and outs of social media, hash tags and using multiple platforms. Little by little, I was getting the jest of it.
Our time was up. I thanked her profusely, gathered up my two pages and phone, and clutched them to my chest as a priceless treasure. God was once again lighting up stepping stones for me leading me forward on my writing journey.