It’s been a BIG week and a rollercoaster of emotions.
Vaccine booked! Two days before the first yahrzeit (anniversary) of my mother’s death, I will be fully vaccinated against the disease that killed her.
As for writing news, I have a second picture book under contract! Since this was the story that I had submitted to PB Party, I just withdrew from that contest.
I have also made the decision to go unagented for the time being! After consulting with fellow writers and speaking with two agents (the call), I believe that this is the best decision for now. The timing of my the query process felt too rushed given the fact that I had a publishing contract in my hand and had to pressure agents for an answer.
The new picture book is another Jewish book for Jewish children and I can probably continue to navigate this part of the market alone since I’ve now signed 2 contracts without representation. I should mention that both my husband and I are lawyers and while publishing contracts are new to us, contracts are not.
As for ‘the call’, truly appreciate the candor of the agent who when I asked, “What can you do for me in this market that I’m not already doing?”, responded, “maybe not much”. There was also the issue of experience in the kidlit market. There are pros and cons to having a new agent (or in my case one that is new specifically to kidlit). Saying no was a hard decision to make on my end, but making a decision is a good feeling. I’m putting the whole agent search on hold and I’m excited to have time freed up to focus more on my writing and less on the querying process.
In the meantime, I’m having a great time with my newfound love of picture books and the incredible community of picture book writers. I still have aspirations to write within the Jewish publishing space and also for mainstream publishing, but for now this is a pretty good place to be in.