I'm Querying Agents: A Timeline
It's a long way to the top (if you wanna rock 'n' roll)
Update 6/28/25: I just signed a publishing contract! My debut novel-in-collected stories is coming soon from Sibylline Press.
I started querying my novel-in-linked-stories in earnest in May 2024. I decided to share my writing, querying, and publishing journey with you. Buckle up—it’s a ride.
Why do I want to share my often embarrassing story with you? There are two main reasons.
First, I want you to know it's never too late to pursue your writing dreams. If you haven't made writing a priority or if you've set it aside, like I did for much of my life, whether it's to work and/or to raise a family or because you didn't have money and a room of your own, you're in good company. Did you know Jane Austen pretty much stopped writing during the 10 years she was living in Bath? Historians say variously that she was unhappy, depressed, didn't like where she was living, had too busy a social life, had less spare time in Bath, or didn't have a space to write in comfortably. For whatever reason, after writing drafts of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and what was to become Northanger Abbey, all before moving to Bath in 1800, her productivity dropped off tremendously for 10 years. She started writing again when the family moved to Chawton in 1809. There, she published 4 novels in quick succession: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815).
Second, I'm learning from agents and other writers that the process of querying agents is a roller coaster and a marathon, and I want you to be encouraged by that instead of being discouraged. Wherever you're at, you're right where you should be. It takes time, and it takes patience, and it takes persistence. Keep doing all the things, and you'll get there. I love this little group chat over on Substack, where four women share their querying stats: Welcome to the (Writing) Group Chat. It puts things into perspective. Querying is exhausting, and it's a long game. It can be a big mistake to hurry the process of writing your book or to expect the querying and publishing process to move quickly. The publishing industry is slow as molasses—accepting that is the first step.
So, here is a timeline of what it me took to get to this point. Warning: I'm 64, so it's a loooong story. But it's meant to encourage you. It doesn’t have to take this long—I think you’ll see that I started getting results as soon as I started diligently putting the work in. I’m hoping it’s the same with querying. Fingers crossed.
TIMELINE
1966-1967: I started writing short poems in 1st grade and was invited to read a couple of them at the school's winter program. I have no memory of reading the poems on stage, but I do have a vivid memory of my dad and I walking hand-in-hand to the school to attend the program. His support of me that night is one of my favorite childhood memories.
1969-1970: I continued writing very bad childhood-angsty poetry and, in 4th grade, I started writing very bad stories, too. I remember in particular writing my first series, stories I stapled together and illustrated in little books. The stories were about two frog brothers named Sid and Cent, one who was mean and one who was kind. This may or may not have been based on a family dynamic and was my first foray into linked stories. I also read, a lot. My dad was in the Navy, so we moved nearly once a year. Everywhere we moved, the school library was my friend. I have vivid memories of finding biographies of famous women on a low shelf in the Westview Elementary School library in Imperial Beach, discovering S.E. Hinton on a high shelf, finding The Island of the Blue Dolphins propped up on a little book stand on top of the book shelves, and checking out a book that taught me how to make hospital corners on my bed sheets.
1974-1978: During high school, I continued writing very bad short stories and even worse poetry, now soaked in teenaged angst. I took journalism and wrote for the school newspaper. I've always erred on the side of being too wordy, so when they needed someone to fill up a bunch of space in the newspaper with an article about the school bathrooms being repainted, they came to me.
1984-1986: I attended Hartnell Community College and began studying English literature. I am immensely grateful to my professor, Dr. Lucindi Mooney, for introducing me to Moby-Dick and Doris Lessing and for encouraging me.
1986-1987: I transferred from Hartnell Community College to the University of California at Santa Cruz to study English literature with the goal of becoming a writer and a teacher. I took an introductory creative writing course and applied to the creative writing program. I'll never know if I'd have been accepted because, due to life circumstances and bad decisions, I dropped out of college. I continued to write sporadically in the ensuing years.
1987-1997: My first "Jane Austen Living in Bath" period. I wrote, but very little.
1998: I had the opportunity to have Catherine Ryan Hyde (Pay It Forward) read and critique one of my short stories. She encouraged me and told me I was a writer who deserved to be encouraged, and she signed my copy of Earthquake Weather, her short story collection. She wrote: "For Leanne, I'm sure I'll read many more of your short stories in print." Little did she (or I) know that it would be 23 years before I'd publish a short story.
1999: I started writing my first novel. I wrote very bad drafts of 2 very bad novels in the ensuing years.
2001: I submitted my first short story for publication and got my first rejection, from Redbook magazine. I still have the tiny little piece of paper that came to me via snail mail. I continued working on my novels and writing bad short stories and even worse poetry, now tinged with middle-aged angst, but I didn't try to get anything published.
2002-2012: My second "Jane Austen Living in Bath" period. Sporadic writing.
November 2013: I started writing a novel during NaNoWriMo 2013. I didn't know it then, but it would take me 9 years to finish. Let me be crystal clear: In some respects, it didn't need to take me that long to finish. All of my life up until I was in my late 50s, I let so many things take precedence over my writing. Twice, I indulged 10-year-long periods of time where I let my time and energy be sapped by situations that didn't deserve my time or my energy. (P.S. I don't do that anymore.) But in other respects, it did need to take me that long to finish. Although I've written all my life, all of that was practice and preparation to write this book. I truly honed my craft and developed my voice over the 9 years that I was writing, revising, editing, and rewriting this book.
August 2016: Nearly 30 years after I dropped out of UC Santa Cruz, I decided to go back to college and finish my English degree. I chose a creative writing emphasis, which meant taking one year of creative writing courses. Twice, I signed up for the beginning creative writing course and then dropped out. I was scared, and I was embarrassed. I was the oldest student in all of my English lit classes. That was hard enough at times. But I was absolutely terrified at the idea of workshopping stories I'd written with much younger writers. I worried about what they would think of me and whether they'd think my old lady stories were weird. (P.S. I don't do that anymore.)
August 2017: I finally took the beginning creative writing course because, at that point, I had to in order to earn the creative writing emphasis. I can't remember the name of our textbook for the course, but it was something like, Beginning Creative Writing for Young Writers. I do remember "young writers" was in the title, which didn't help things one bit.
Winter/Spring 2018: I was enrolled in the two final courses I needed for the creative writing emphasis. I took a piece of my 2013 NaNoWriMo novel and turned it into a short story. As I neared graduation, one of my creative writing professors encouraged me to consider a graduate program in creative writing. I didn't know that was even a thing. My professor didn't disagree with me that I didn't have the natural talent that some of the young writers in the class had. I always had to work hard at it. But, he told me that, in his experience, hard work and perseverence will win out over innate talent every time. When things come too easily too early on, he said, people tend to give up when it gets harder. I knew some things about myself: I work hard, I have a thick skin for rejection, and I'm stubborn. So, I decided to give it a shot. (P.S. Don't be afraid to go back to school in your 50s or 60s. I am still friends with several of the young writers I met in those classes.)
Summer 2018: I applied to two low-residency MFA programs, both of which would allow me to continue to live and work in San Luis Obispo. Much to my shock and amazement, I was accepted to both. I chose to attend the University of Riverside Palm Desert Low-Residency MFA program for Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. Because I'd used up all my day job vacation days for 2018, I postponed starting until the following spring.
April 2019: I started the MFA program. I didn't get deadly serious about writing my book until then. I decided to focus on short stories for my MFA. At some point, I started writing stories that had the same characters and were in the same universe as my novel. I loved jumping back and forth in time and embedding little clues in the stories that linked them together. (When a contest judge later wrote that my book "opens like a puzzle box," I was so happy because that's exactly what I was going for.)
August 2019: I had a poem published in an anthology. It's called "McAbee Beach."
2020: The world got harder in every way imaginable and in a lot of ways that were unimaginable. I put my history minor to good use—I started setting my stories against the backdrop of California's turbulent history and the social injustices going on in the world, which were nothing new. I decided to completely rewrite my book and turn it from a straight novel into a linked story collection.
June 2021: When I graduated from my MFA program in 2021, my book was mostly finished. My book has an overarching story arc, like a novel, and it will probably be marketed as a novel when it's published. But for getting-my-foot-in-the-door purposes, it is essentially a linked short story collection, which some agents and publishers may not see as not commercial enough. Other books marketed as novels and with this same kind of structure include A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, and Accordion Crimes by Annie Proulx. But I'm not Jennifer Egan, Elizabeth Strout, or Annie Proulx, so, because my book is made up of linked short stories, it's likely going to be more challenging to get an agent. Novels are easier to query (although nothing is really easy, right?). Memoirs by non-celebrities are much harder. I'm somewhere in between. I was advised to try to get 5 of the book's stories published before querying agents, so that agents could see that my writing has been vetted by editors in the publishing industry, which in theory will make it more worth them investing their time to give it a read.
July 2021: One of the stories from the book, "The Jetty," was published in Kelp Journal. I'd had a poem and few essays published by the time I graduated in 2021, but I'd never had a short story published. So this was my first ever short story publication!
September 2021: "The Jetty" was nominated for The Best of the Net.
December 31, 2021: I made submitting short stories and essays my job in 2021. I set a goal of submitting 100 times and met it—I submitted 107 times. I published several essays in 2020 and 2021 but only the one short story. I kept working on finishing and rewriting my book that year.
2022: Friends, getting 5 short stories published is easier said than done. I'll admit, I was getting discouraged. I only submitted 16 times in 2022, partly because I was frustrated but largely because my workload at my day job tripled in 2022. I was working early mornings, late nights, and weekends, and I was exhausted on every level. I turned 62 in July, and I decided I needed to think outside the box if I was going to get anywhere in this lifetime. I started entering my book and chapters from my book in contests--winning or placing as a finalist in a writing competition is a great way of gaining street cred, according to Scriptnotes podcasters John August and Craig Mazin. More specifically, I started entering cinematic prose competitions. Why? To show potential agents and publishers that my book does have commercial potential.
March 2022: One of the stories from my book, "Time for Flagstaff," was named a finalist in ScreenCraft's 2022 Cinematic Short Story Competition.
October 2022: I finished my book. Reader, I had to finish it because I'd entered it in a competition. I only had to upload the first 50 pages to enter, but when I was notified my book was a finalist on October 21st, I was told I had to upload the completed manuscript by midnight on October 28th. I couldn't take vacation from work—we were too busy—but I arranged to work half-days for a week so I could finish the ending of my book. Thankfully, as a paralegal, I've learned to work well on deadline. I am not lying: I uploaded the finished manuscript at 11:59 p.m. on October 28th.
December 2022: Finishing my book paid off. My book was named the Book Winner and a Mentorship Prize Winner in Launch Pad's Prose Writing Competition. As I result, I was contacted by one literary manager, who actually was a former classmate of mine who wanted to congratulate me, so that was fun. :) Also as a result, Launch Pad pitched 15 literary agents on my behalf. Four requested the full manuscript and passed. 11 declined to read the manuscript.
January 2023: I met with the author who had selected me as a Mentorship Prize Winner and who had agreed to become my mentor, Juliet McDaniel, the author of Mr. and Mrs. American Pie, which was recently adapted to a TV series called Palm Royale. Juliet is one of the most lovely and generous human beings I've ever had the pleasure to meet. I wrote about her on the blog: Introducing Juliet McDaniel. I'm so excited for the much-deserved success she's experiencing. And I'm so grateful for the things she's taught me.
January 2023: One of the judges from the Launch Pad contest, a TV producer, asked to meet with me. She told me that my book wasn't a good fit for her studio and explained why, but she told me that TV needs more voices like mine. That was a huge confidence booster and encouraged me a lot. She invited me to stay in touch, to send her anything I wrote that might be a good fit, and to let her know if I ever wanted to write for television. (I'm not ready for something like that, but wow!) I can't stress enough how much encouragement over the years has kept me going. Hang on to those little signs that tell you you're moving in the right direction.
April 2023: One of the stories from my book, "Trees," was named the Grand Prize Winner in ScreenCraft's Cinematic Short Story Competition. As a result, two literary agents asked to read my full manuscript. Both passed, but they were so kind and lovely to me. I also contacted a literary agent I'd met with in 2021, who'd read two of the stories from my book and liked them but who'd thought the book wasn't commercial enough. I told him about the contest wins and tried to convince him of my book's commercial potential. He requested my full manuscript but passed.
June 2023: Bouyed by my contest win, I queried 3 agents. All 3 passed.
September 2023: An abridged version of "Trees" was published in the New American Studies Journal.
January 2024: As a result of the Launch Pad competition, I met with 2 film/TV producers, both incredible women with amazing projects. My book wasn't the right fit for either of them, but on the advice of Spencer Janes at Launch Pad (I love him!), I pitched them another story of mine, unrelated to the book. They both asked me to send the story. The meetings were absolutely great practice for pitching my book and forced me to work harder on developing my pitch.
February 2024: As a result of the Launch Pad competition, I had a nearly hour-long meeting with a film producer who turned out to be such a kindred spirit. She was lovely! Again, my book wasn't a fit for her—she prefers to dramatize and adapt true stories to film. But she asked me to send her my full manuscript so she could read it and see if she could think of a director who might be a good fit. (I don't expect anything to come of this. For one thing, she is probably way too busy with her own stuff to read my book. But I am so appreciative of women like this who encourage and lift other women up. Just the fact that she asked meant the world. Hearing kind words from people in the industry is so important--it will help keep me going.)
April 2024: When it rains, it pours! I was notified that 1 of the stories from my book, "The Big South," would be published in The Coachella Review in June 2024, and another story from the book, "The Art of Oblivion," would be anthologized in The Amber Waves of Autumn in October 2024. I'm over the moon to share that Joyce Carol Oates, who is one of my favorite short story writers, will have a story in the same anthology. I am gobsmacked!
4 out of 5 short story publications achieved!
May 2024: On May 17th, I submitted to Berkley (an imprint of Penguin Random House) during its open submission period. (If by some miracle they offer me publication, I'll have the chance to hire an agent to represent me in negotiations, which was an important factor for me in deciding to submit.) At the end of May, I started querying my book like it's my job. I decided to query 10 agents on alternate Fridays and to submit short stories and essays to 10 journals on the other Fridays.
June 2024: My short story “The Big South” was published.
July 2024: My short story “Goody Two Shoes” was accepted for publication by Floyd County Moonshine. My essay “Slipstreamed” was accepted for publication by bioStories. And thanks to a friend introducing me to a Los Angeles Times editor, I wrote a piece for the Los Angeles Times.
August 5, 2024: My essay was published in the Los Angeles Times yesterday. Four of the stories from my book will have been published by the end of this year. It's not the five I was going for, but I'm going to count the contest placements and wins in place of that fifth publication. I share all this to show you how much progress I made in publishing once I really devoted myself to submitting work
I've decided not to submit any more stories from my book to literary journals—although it varies, a rule of thumb is that not more than 25% of your book should be accessible elsewhere. I've published 4 of 12 stories, which is 25%. I also have about a dozen more stories in this same universe, some of which could be included in the book to lessen that percentage if it became a concern.
Current Stats
Counting the agents Launch Pad and ScreenCraft pitched on my behalf, here are my current querying stats:
Queried: 35
Full Manuscript Requests: 7
Passed: 21
Ghosted: 3 (these are included in "passed" too based on the passage of time)
Still waiting to hear from: 14
Based on advice on literary agent Michael Carr’s YouTube channel, I’m letting this sit for a bit, so I can decide whether I might need to revamp my pitch materials.
Please wish me luck, and I'll update you periodically. And if you're currently querying your book, I'd love to hear from you! How’s it going?