After submitting to 20 literary agents, I received my first request for more material. The Dream Sequence cover letter, synopsis, as well as 50 pages of the manuscript are being mailed today for further review.

Of course, I will continue to submit to agents just to be safe. But I am beyond excited that someone showed interest in the story! Just the possibility of a “yes” does a lot for the self-confidence.

For you other aspiring authors out there: Don’t stop. It’s a very intimidating process. Sending out my first query nearly cost me all of my fingernails. But after getting the first couple of rejections and non-responses back, it’s starts to get easier. Keep grinding.

If it comes down to it, I will be ready to self-publish. I won’t let the rejections keep my manuscript gathering dust inside my desk drawer. With all the resources we have today, there is no excuse to not let you story fly free (represented or not).

I try to submit to at least 5 agents a day. Using Reedsy.com you can see who is looking for what genre as well as who is open to new authors. Very helpful when building your submission list.

Personally, I started with my favorite author’s agents (probably a little too big for a debut novel) but hey, I gotta shoot my shot. I was turned down almost immediately, but that’s okay!

I am still waiting on other responses and will be for the next several weeks. And again, I will continue to submit just to increase my odds.

But fingers crossed this agents likes the story!