First of all, let me tell you a little secret about me…
I can stand in a room full of people and present anything, seriously ANYTHING. But one on one, I stink. I am incredibly introverted. I have to force myself to be otherwise–and it is seriously painful. The entire time I second guess every word that’s spoken(Did I offend anyone? Did I say it wrong? Did they like what was said? Do I have food in my teeth? Tee Hee).
I have attended two writers conferences to pitch one of my books and I tanked or chickened out. And I mean TANKED. I stuttered, couldn’t look the person in the eye, and lost my words. Basically, I was a blubbering fool.
It’s ironic because I am a huge chatty-cathy among friends and family. So, this time I scheduled four, yes four agent/editor pitches this past weekend to pitch two of my latest manuscripts that I absolutely love. There were some scheduling issues with overlapping appointments so I was only able to see three (not possible to pitch to two people at the same time in totally different places).
And low and behold–I didn’t botch it! Two of the three wanted full manuscripts and one asked for the first three chapters.
Yay! I wanted to jog the room fist pumping everyone but managed to contain myself.
So, tonight there’s a little celebration at the Wall household that includes propping up bare feet, listening to great music, and raising the wine glass.
It will be short lived of course because there’s still two other manuscripts to be completed.
Next month will be the time to panic over whether anyone will actually like what is sent and decide they want it. But that’s NEXT MONTH. Not today.
For now, forget the rain dance, I am doing an old fashioned Book Contract Dance every day for the next month in hopes of success! Want to dance along for your own?
Howdy – You have been nominated!! Check out this post and you will get the skinny on what to do:) http://compexityofthought.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/the-liebster-award/
Yay Shelley! That’s fantastic. Good work you 🙂
Keep practising staring people down. You’ll get the hang of it 😉
Good advice. I’ll consider the stare-down if the current attempts don’t succeed, though I might freak them out. Ha. Best of luck with your writing efforts and thanks for the support! Have a great day.
So, here’s an update–one of the manuscripts pitched is now under contract! Amazing what can happen when someone steps outside their shell.