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Thursday, November 15, 2007

Matt's big news

If you are reading this blog and didn't already know this, Matt has been writing songs for several years. In recent years, he decided to try his hand at writing a book. I thought the first book was quite good. I really did! He did not have success in attracting an agent or publisher, so he moved on.
His second book, however, is a REALLY good book (yes, I may be prejudiced), but an editor that he has been working with agrees. She suggested that Matt attend writer's conferences to learn and to meet agents and publishers. In September, he attended the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference in Dallas. At each meal, the writers were encouraged to sit with agents and publishing company reps and "pitch" their books. After doing this Thursday evening, Friday, and Saturday, Matt was sick and tired of pitching his book. On Saturday afternoon (last day), he sat down at an agent's table with no intention of pitching the book. He was just looking for a place to sit. The agent/owner of Hartline Literary Agency invited him to tell her about his book. He gave her a very short synopsis. She invited him to send her a proposal. He did send her one, along with a few others who issued the same invitation over the course of the weekend. He had been slowing adding rejection letters from the others to his "rejection file." Last week, he got an e-mail from Hartline saying "if you haven't already sold this, we'd like to represent you."
This is a literary contract sent to Matt from Hartline Literary Agency. You can't read the details, but it's so fun for us to look at! What does this mean you may say? Well, most publishers will not accept "unsolicited" submissions. Having an agent contact a publisher carries much more weight. Apparently, getting agent representation is very difficult and is more than half the battle in getting published.
We are very excited and hopeful that this will end in a publishing deal. This is a huge step!
Matt would not approve of my posting this, but he doesn't look here unless I tell him to! So....hee hee!

2 comments:

Jill and Rick said...

Congratulations Matt!! Martha, I remember you talking about this book last summer, and I'm so excited for you guys!!

Howard and Kim said...

Grinning here! I think I'd probably frame the contract.

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