Becca Fitzpatrick

Yes, it's true.  I have an agent!  An amazing, talented, living, breathing, BIG TIME agent!  If you've read The Book Thief or I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak, or the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan, or The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay by Rebecca Sparrow, then you already know a lot about the fabulous taste in books of agent . . . Catherine Drayton at InkWell Management!

Seriously, I am SO excited.  No, excited isn't the right word.  I am EUPHORIC!  Catherine's confidence and faith in Hush blows me away.   

Now for the dirt. 

I enjoy immensely reading other authors' journeys, so I thought I'd post a little bit about how Hush went from a few small ideas ponging around in my head to a 300 page young adult romantic suspense novel. 

I started writing Hush five (yes, five) years ago.  J was hunting for a birthday present for me, and came across a listing for community education classes.  He debated between Japanese cooking and an online writing class.  He knew I loved writing from the volumes and volumes of journals I'd written and hung on to from my growing-up years, so the writing class won out. 

After I'd finished three chapters of Hush, I figured it was a good time to send them out to literary agents and see if they thought I had a shot at getting published (my knowledge of the industry was truly amazing, I know).  About a week after mailing the sample chapters, I got two requests to see the full manuscript.  I went into crisis mode and, in the space of ten days, finished writing the novel and mailed it back.  Needless to say, I was rejected. 

Then, one year ago, I dug the story back out and decided I was mature enough and ambitious enough and knowledgeable enough about the real way the industry works to try writing and submitting Hush again.

It took two-and-a-half months to write the novel and the moment I typed the words The End, I started querying.  I mean, the novel was done, right?  Finished, completed, el fin.  

Er, no. 

After garnering several more rejections, and letting the manuscript marinate on my hard drive, I started rewriting.  I cut over two hundred pages.  Chop, snip, slice. 

Then I mailed it out again.  Better results this time, but no cigar. 

So I rewrote again. This time only a hundred pages had to get sent to the recycling bin.  I was getting closer. 

I mailed the story out again.  Even better results . . . small bites . . . but not The Big Bite. 

So I rewrote a fourth time.  This time I did major damage.  No holding back.  I put everything I had into the manuscript.  I caught my second wind and I ran with it. 

Then I mailed the story out and held my breath. 

Within five days, I had three offers of representation.  I could hardly believe it. 

The moral of the story?  Yeah, I didn't think I needed to spell it out.  :)


And now for the shoes.  MY NEW AGENT SHOES.  My I-HAVE-AN-AMAZING-AGENT-AND-I'M-TAPPING-ALL-OVER-THE-PLACE shoooooes.