I GOT AN AGENT!
And I'm feeling very proud.
This week, I was positively thrilled to announce that I have a literary agent.
I’ve signed with the wonderful Elizabeth Bewley at Sterling Lord Literistic. Elizabeth represents shining stars like Elissa Sussman and Katie Cotugno.
The agency represents authors like James McBride (National Book Award winner), Gabrielle Zevin (author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow), Phoebe Robinson (one of my favorite comedians and writers), and Sheila Heti (whose book How Should a Person Be? changed my life when I was 19).
One of the founders of the agency is the man who sold The World According to Garp, the novel that made John Irving extremely famous.
In other words, it is a very, very fancy agency.
In other words, I feel very, very out of my league.
But hopefully that feeling will go away after a while.
I will share more specifics about finding an agent in a future newsletter. I’ve learned a lot from this process that I’m eager to share. For now, though, I have lots of revisions to do before Elizabeth and I try to sell my novel.
WAIT, WHAT NOVEL?!
I realize that, around the newsletter, I’ve been vague about the novel itself! For the past three years, I’ve been working on a tender and funny novel set in Florida that explores absurd Internet culture and the question of motherhood.
I’ve always wanted to write a novel but never thought I could actually do it. And now I did and an actual living person wants to sell it.
I’m just going to sit with that accomplishment for a while.
Yesterday, once I signed the contract, I danced in my kitchen until I ran out of breath.
Then my all-time favorite writer, Kevin Wilson, congratulated me on Instagram.
Kevin Wilson wrote the novel that helped me write my own, the very novel I said was similar to my own in its humor and sensibility whenever I described it to agents. And now he is happy for me.
I am living inside of my wildest dream.
This is all made better by the fact that this is not my first time trying to get an agent. I did not have immediate success. I queried agents last summer. There was some interest, but no one offered. So I kept revising. At times, I really wanted to quit. I wanted to give up and work on something else instead. But I sunk a whole extra year into the novel. And it worked.
Or at least it’s worked so far. I still have to sell the book. (Actually, scratch that: we still have to sell the book.)
New anxieties have entered the chat.
But that’s part of it. That’s the gig.
Around the same time I started writing the novel, I also started writing this newsletter. This space on Substack has been a bright spot for me during countless rewrites and banging-my-head-against-the-wall-because-the-plot-just-isn’t-working moments.
Whenever I describe this newsletter to people who haven’t read it yet, I use the term “community of writers and readers,” because that’s exactly what it’s been for me: a community of smart, fun people who want to keep writing and reading because those things are so so so so so so so important to us. Last year, I opened up paid subscriptions, and so many of you have hopped on board to support me with your hard-earned money.
I am grateful for you all. Thank you for making this victory a lot less lonely.
THINGS I’VE WRITTEN LATELY
I’ve been on the radio talking about music a lot!
STOP MAKING SWIFT
Move over, Barbenheimer. The next double feature is Stop Making Sense and The Eras Tour. Read more and listen to my very silly conversation with Matt Shaw here.
SONGWRITING SCHOOL with JAKE XERXES FUSSELL
This Durham folk singer prefers research and interpretation to songwriting. Read more and listen to my interview with Fussell here.
BOOK CLUB FOR WRITERS
On Sunday, October 29 at 1PM EST, my Book Club for Writers will meet on Zoom to discuss Refuse to Be Done, Matt Bell’s incredible book on drafting and revision. I recommend this title to anyone who’s curious about writing a book-length work!
HOW DO I JOIN THE BOOK CLUB?
Become a paid newsletter subscriber to join. Subscribe for the month for just $5, or save 27% and subscribe for the whole year. (NOTE: subscription prices are going up in 2024, so if you want to join, now’s the time!)