"LOW Profiles," HIGH Word Count

Another project in my head: "Low Profiles," a suspense/thriller. Low Profiles was an attempt at writing a story completely from imagination and not based on personal experiences. I had no idea about serial murderers, organized crime, nor the FBI, but research on these subjects helped me to shape my idea into a story.

It wasn't until after I finished my first draft that I discovered that my word count was almost 150,000! WAY too long for a never-before-published novelist.

I was able to trim it down to 135,000 words and decided to start my journey into publication. Time to learn the ropes.

Now, to find an agent...

I put together a "query letter." I had no idea what that was until I started reading the Internet for pointers on getting published. After composing the letter (which would ultimately be changed 8 times during the evolution of submitting to agents), I found a wonderful website that specializes on tracking submissions to agents all over the U.S. (and beyond), QueryTracker.net. I researched 20 agents who represented the suspense/thriller genre and snail-mailed my query to them.

After a week, a few rejection letters reached my mailbox. I realized this wasn't going to be a slam dunk.

Two days later, I received an email, requesting my full manuscript.

WHAAAAAAT?

Oh my God, an agent wants to read MY manuscript? I was stoked. The agent interested in Low Profiles wanted an exclusive read for 30 days. Okay. I sent it off to the agent.

Geez, what if I get another request within the exclusive 30-day period?

Pfft. Didn't happen. I waited a month, then another 2 weeks before contacting the agent with my full manuscript. I didn't want to sound anxious--or even worse, pushy--but I was curious to know what he thought since the 30-day period had expired and then some. The agent replied to my email: he couldn't open the Word doc file I'd sent to him... He asked for a .pdf version.

After waiting another 30 days with no response, doubt crept in. If he liked it, wouldn't he have contacted me by now? Was it too long? Was it boring? Was it crap?

I sent an email to the agent. No response. I sent another email a few days after that. No response. Then I sent an email to the agent's assistant. No response. Huh? What the heck? I asked around on a few forums if anyone knew what was going on with that agency. No one knew. I had all but given up hope.

If I can't get an agent to return my emails, how will our relationship be once I sign a contract with that agent?

Now that my feet were wet, I moved on to a new project. Low Profiles will have to sit for a while.