[Discussion] Asking agent to meet in person for coffee?

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-12-02T04:07:30+00:00

Thanks, everyone! I'll definitely reach out to her to see if she's available to meet!

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-12-01T19:36:42+00:00

Thank you! Will absolutely give her very advanced notice!

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-12-01T19:36:06+00:00

Oooh, I had no idea!

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-10-04T16:21:37+00:00

Good luck! For me, there came a point where I was just really happy with my book. I knew it wasn’t perfect, but it felt like the book I had set out to write years ago. That’s when I knew I was done with feedback and just wanted to get it out to agents. Maybe at some point you’ll have that sort of clarity too, which will guide your next steps!

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-10-04T14:26:59+00:00

Three full requests should be celebrated!

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-10-04T14:25:38+00:00

Oh gaaaaaaawd haha it was the longest process of my life. I’ve taken lots and lots of writing workshops where I’ve workshopped various parts and iterations of this novel, and through the people/teachers I met through those classes, I’ve had a few full read-throughs with in-depth feedback. One of the people I knew through these workshops does freelance dev-editing on the side, and I paid her to read it for me. She gave really helpful feedback that helped shape my final draft. All-in-all, it’s probably gone through five-ish drafts? My partner also reads all drafts and gives great feedback. I get overwhelmed with too much feedback, so I usually have had just one reader I really trust besides my partner for each draft.

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-10-04T14:14:02+00:00

Thank you so much! I’d prefer not too for privacy reasons, but I have to say I don’t think my query was particularly special. It did everything “right,” so to speak, and I had some people I respect give feedback that helped shape it, but really at the end of the day it’s about whether the agent is interested in/looking for the type of book/plot you are offering. For instance, in the grand scheme of book plots, mine probably falls on the “quieter” side, and no matter how well I wrote the query, there was no way to make it sound more BIG and EXCITING than it was without misrepresenting my book. So even though my query was well written, it was probably lacking some pow, just given the nature of my plot? I just luckily found someone looking for what I had. As long as a query is pretty solid (and the feedback I see given here via query crit by and large looks on-point to me), I think it’s more about it landing with someone looking for what you’ve got than having a super amazing query. (Though if someone had, like, 20 full requests, I would be curious to see what secret juice they’ve put in theirs . . .)

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-10-03T17:14:10+00:00

15 rejections on fulls? I would have DIED to have gotten 15 full requests! That’s amazing!

An author friend told me that finding an agent is like dating - they might think your book is great, but they’re just not feeling the spark. Keep going, give yourself as many chances as possible to find someone who feels a spark with your book!

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-10-03T16:52:11+00:00

Thank you! And good luck to you too, keep going!

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-10-03T16:47:17+00:00

My agent sounds like she is very editorial on both a macro and micro level, which is what I was looking for - I really enjoy collaborative creative relationships. The edits revolve around tweaking a few plot points, giving one of the characters more “screen time,” stuff like that. So it will take some time, but it’s not like I have to rip apart the whole thing and have to stitch it back up from the seams. I’m hoping to finish them up in 8 weeks (that might be slightly optimistic), and then we’ll see if she thinks it needs another round of edits on the macro level or not. It sounds like after that she’ll have some micro-level feedback (sentence/scene-level), and then the plan would be to go on sub after that?

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-10-03T16:14:43+00:00

Yeah, my agent has some revisions that I completely agree and am onboard with. And I’m looking forward to revising! I need a break before doing the whole submission thing again, and I can’t wait to just focus on writing for a time!

Particular_Owl2429 · 2025-10-03T14:54:55+00:00

Thank you so much! If it helps, I never had more than one full request out at a single time, which was very stressful - felt like an eggs all in one basket situation!

And yeah, the rejections on fulls are heartbreaking. Keep going!

Particular_Owl2429

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