Heyyyy ya heard the good news?
(Hey- this big block of text below is to announce that I have some good news to share, if you don't feel like reading all of this, and I mean, I really do not blame you there, feel free to just skip to the link below and you'll get the gist of it.)
It's scary to tell people what your dreams or creative ambitions are. At least it is for me and it gets harder the older I get, but it wasn't always that way. When I was in the sixth grade I would tell anyone that would listen that I was going to be a professional basketball player someday, believing that by giving voice to the dream I was making it more likely to become a reality.
Of course, this didn't happen, no matter how many hundreds of three-pointers I chose to hoist on a daily basis, it didn't account for my lack of size, talent, or athletic ability, and then, like with anything, I eventually moved on. I got older and a bit more self aware, choosing to find something else to work towards, and with each new short-coming, deciding to keep those ambitions more and more to myself.
So when I decided to write a book in the Spring of 2014, I told almost no one, mentioning it only to Stacy and a few very close friends. I had tried to write a few different novels prior to this, but my attempts usually dried up after forty-fifty pages, I lost interest and reminded myself how delusional I was for even thinking I could write a novel, but with this book it was different. I let the ideas take shape, tore through rough drafts and revisions, a couple different outlines, and plenty of words (probably fifty-sixty thousand) that led to nowhere other than the realization of where I didn't want to go with the story. I read multiple books on style and plot-structuring. Eventually my rough drafts became a little less rough and after a little over a year, I began to have something that resembled an actual novel length story.
At that point, I told a few more people and allowed some friends & family to read this thing that was so dear to me. It was hard to get their feedback, but their critiques made me better as a writer. I returned to the manuscript with some fresh revisions, cut a few more thousands words, and arrived to a much more polished story.
Then in September of 2015, I began querying literary agents to take me on as a client. A quick note: Literary Agents are the gatekeepers to the publishing world, it is almost impossible to get traditionally published without a literary agent. They take you on as a client and take a (rightly deserved) 15% cut of your eventual book deal. In short, they invest a lot of time into their client's books, but they don't get paid unless the book sells, so because of this they are very selective.
Anyways. I started sending out query letters on my 33rd birthday. I took two days off work, set up shop at Major's house and sent out several query letters. The first response I got was a request for my full manuscript. Success! I knew I was destined for greatness all along, I was going to be the first writer ever to not experience the pain of rejection.
Only that's not how it went. That agent soon politely passed and more rejections followed. I overhauled my query letter, rewrote my first (sample) chapters and started querying again later in the fall. I then started to get more requests from agents to read my full manuscript, which is an honor in itself, but also led to getting more reluctant passes/rejections that had a lot of kind things to say about my writing along with some professional insight of how I could improve.
I regrouped. I took a few months to make some extensive revisions to the novel as a whole, cut a few more thousand words- anything I saw as extraneous, and reworked the ending. I used some of our tax return money and bought a pass to the Chicago Writer's Workshop where I could pitch to agents in person, which even thinking about now is like an anxiety dream manifesting itself in real life, one where you show up to a hotel lobby in your underwear with your teeth falling out of your head to talk to strangers who also happen to be publishing professionals. Except, thankfully, that didn't actually happen. I listened to some Kanye that morning, got myself pumped up, and walked into that hotel to pitch this novel like I was LeBron in Game 7. The trip was a success, I got a few requests and I proved to myself that I was fully committed to making this dream a reality.
Cut to two weeks ago, I received an email from Tracy Marchini a new literary agent with BookEnds Literary Agency that I had traditionally queried just a week or two prior, she liked my book and wanted to arrange a phone call for us to discuss it. This was it, the call (!), or maybe it wasn't. Maybe she just wanted to tell me over the phone why she didn't like this book or worse, maybe the book was such a vile piece of trash she was calling just to tell me why I should give up writing forever, because you just don't have the talent, kid, you can shoot a thousand three-pointers in your backyard forever or you can type until you're on your tenth MacBook, it won't matter, you just don't have it.
Okay. So that wasn't the case, she liked the book a lot, she also had some great ideas for revisions, and thought we could sell it. Our conversation went smoothly and it felt like we would have a good working relationship. However, as much as I wanted to, I couldn't sign the contract just yet. There were still several agents with my full manuscript or with partial manuscripts that I had to contact to let them know I had an offer of representation.
Within a few days, a few of the agents offered their well-wishes and stepped aside, and another expressed her interest in offering representation as well. We set up a phone call, had a great conversation about my book and writing career, and now I had a difficult decision to make. I took a few days to think about it, and, after some careful consideration, decided to sign with Tracy and BookEnds.
I decided to go with Tracy due to her editorial background, well-thought out ideas for revisions, and, honestly, her similar taste in music. Also, I liked the overall feel of the BookEnds agency, their website, their social media presence that was conversational yet professional, and the talented team of agents that she worked with.
So that brings us to now, a big step for my writing career with more steps still to come.
I want to thank my friends & family that read early drafts of my book and encouraged me to keep going: Stacy, Vanessa, Jake, Major, Westley, Sierra, and Matt. Without the direction, insight, love, praise, and critiques you all gave me I don't think I would have ever even got an agent to read this thing in the first place, thank you.
As well, as a thank you to all the friends that I did tell about this project and were supportive, allowing me to ramble on extensively about it without making very much sense. I wouldn't have made it this far if you guys didn't tell me to keep shooting, so thank you.
http://bookendsliterary.com/index.php/2016/07/01/welcome-to-bookends-dane-johns/
