The Call: Guest Post by Mindi Scott

We have a fabulous guest post today from author Mindi Scott. Mindi's YA debut novel, FREEFALL, about what comes next for a teen who was the last person to see his best friend alive and the first to find him dead, will be released by Pulse (Simon & Schuster) October 5th, 2010.

From the time I started writing with the intent of getting published, I knew that I wanted an agent. Once I felt that my work was ready, I set about trying to get one. Three years, two manuscripts, and 170 agent rejections later, I was way beyond prepared. I knew the questions I needed to ask. I knew all the steps that needed to be taken. I just needed an agent to call me up to give me the chance.

On January 6, 2009, I was gearing up for a new revision when my phone rang. I stared at the number on the screen, but I didn't recognize it. The caller definitely wasn't local. Whenever this had happened during all those months of querying, I'd hoped that it would be an agent calling to discuss my book. It always ended up being some kind of telemarketer or telephone-survey taker, though.

This time, I answered, expecting a telemarketer's spiel. Instead, the person on the other end said, "Hi, Mindi. This is Jim McCarthy of Dystel and Goderich Literary Management. I finished reading your manuscript. I loved it, and I'm calling to offer representation."

I would be lying if I told you that I remembered much about what I said or how the rest of that conversation went. I just stared out the window in a state of shock, running through my mind that he'd just said that he loved my manuscript.

He kept talking to me, saying a lot of enthusiastic-sounding words.

HE LOVED MY MANUSCRIPT! HE SAID, "LOVED." LOVED!

Then he paused in whatever he was saying, clearly waiting for some kind of response from me. I said, "I'm sorry, can you repeat that?"

He laughed and said it all again.

When we got off the phone a few minutes later, I wasn't quite able to process what had just happened. Something great and wonderful and unbelievable! After all this time, I had an agent call to talk about my book! And I truly comprehend only about a quarter of what he said!

Wait. Did he say that he wanted to represent me? He did. HE DID!

I freaked out, ran around the house (literally), called my husband, my mom, my sister, my best friends. I left insane messages on people's voicemails. When my hands stopped shaking enough so that I could use my keyboard and mouse, I checked my email and spotted the agency agreement that I vaguely remembered Jim saying that he was going to send for me to check out.

And we all lived happily ever after.

Okay, so as you might guess, The Call didn't go exactly as I'd imagined. I'd wanted to be cool, calm, and super-professional and it didn't happen. To aspiring authors out there, I have to say that being prepared and researching the right questions to ask an agent is a very good thing to do. But if The Call comes unexpectedly like it did for me, try not to worry too much. You can and will get a chance to get into the nitty-gritty agent/client details in emails and later phone conversations. I promise!

Even though I don't officially remember much about what was said during that initial call, I do know that it is by far, one of the best that I've ever received!

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Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Freefall-Mindi-Scott/dp/1442402784/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283449255&sr=8-1


Links about Mindi:

http://mindiscott.com/
http://twitter.com/mindi_scott
http://www.youtube.com/user/authormindiscott
http://www.thecontemps.com/

FREEFALL Book Trailer