The agony and the ecstasy
As of this moment, several fabulous agents and an amazinglysuperfantastical author are reading my manuscript. Huzzah!
As of this weekend, the main characters in my manuscript have regressed to 17 year-olds and the end has been rearranged accordingly. Boo!
The major change was the result of an email conversation with fabulous agent number four, who is currently the only holder of the updated manuscript. The other agents still have too-old-for-YA protags with a too-old-for-YA ending.
So here's my question: What's the protocol for alerting agents of a manuscript revision when they've requested and received my full already? Is it a complete and total violation of the laws of submissions?
The boldface type says an author shouldn't be querying if his/her work isn't 100% done... and then done ten times more. It's supposed to be polished to perfection, ready to go, and spotless before it ever reaches the agent's inbox. I thought it was. I really did. I was wrong.
How unprofessional will I look saying "Um, hi again. It's me. 'Member that MS I sent you a little while back? Yeah, well, I need to send you the new version. 'Kay? I had to change some stuff. Alrightee, thanks. Bye."
Most distressing for me is a splendiferously bejeweled purveyor of snark who may or may not be knee deep in my old version. She's one of my mystical Top 3; an agent I'd get out of bed at 5am and go jogging for. Hate mornings, hate jogging. That's about as serious as you can get about an agent if you're me. After being outguilted by her in a Twitter #FF mishap (#mustbemorecarefulwithFFs), I'm mildly terrified to pester her about the change but even more afraid to have her pass on my MS because of the age/end issue I've just remedied.
You know what? It's a darn good thing writers aren't dramatic, creative, emotional types. This could all be very stressful for someone like that.
On a lighter note, congrats to Stephanie Perkins and Kiersten White on their sparkly new covers! Seen one, excited to see the other.
As of this weekend, the main characters in my manuscript have regressed to 17 year-olds and the end has been rearranged accordingly. Boo!
The major change was the result of an email conversation with fabulous agent number four, who is currently the only holder of the updated manuscript. The other agents still have too-old-for-YA protags with a too-old-for-YA ending.
So here's my question: What's the protocol for alerting agents of a manuscript revision when they've requested and received my full already? Is it a complete and total violation of the laws of submissions?
The boldface type says an author shouldn't be querying if his/her work isn't 100% done... and then done ten times more. It's supposed to be polished to perfection, ready to go, and spotless before it ever reaches the agent's inbox. I thought it was. I really did. I was wrong.
How unprofessional will I look saying "Um, hi again. It's me. 'Member that MS I sent you a little while back? Yeah, well, I need to send you the new version. 'Kay? I had to change some stuff. Alrightee, thanks. Bye."
Most distressing for me is a splendiferously bejeweled purveyor of snark who may or may not be knee deep in my old version. She's one of my mystical Top 3; an agent I'd get out of bed at 5am and go jogging for. Hate mornings, hate jogging. That's about as serious as you can get about an agent if you're me. After being outguilted by her in a Twitter #FF mishap (#mustbemorecarefulwithFFs), I'm mildly terrified to pester her about the change but even more afraid to have her pass on my MS because of the age/end issue I've just remedied.
You know what? It's a darn good thing writers aren't dramatic, creative, emotional types. This could all be very stressful for someone like that.
On a lighter note, congrats to Stephanie Perkins and Kiersten White on their sparkly new covers! Seen one, excited to see the other.
