Three Decades of Agents

When it comes to agents, Fio has been a total blockhead.   The first agent she ever submitted to, back when white-out was the newest thing, rejected her with a lovely, encouraging personal letter referring her to a second agent, who rejected her with another lovely, encouraging personal letter. Assuming two down meant she was a loser, Fio filed away the manuscript, accidentally tossing it a couple of years ago.

Ten years later, before the age of queries, Fio wrote another romance and, after getting hold of a contraband list of RWA-approved agents, submitted the ms to several of them.  A woman with the last name of "Yo" called Fio and told her she liked the story, but it needed to be longer.  Fio, dumb as dirt, told her that there was no way to make it longer.  The end.

Ten years later, Fio wrote a third romance, and, through a friend, found another agent who wanted to represent her.  She was a part-timer out of California who had written a couple of YAs and gotten them published, but was mainly occupied with taking care of sick relatives.  Needless to say, Fiorella had not consulted a copy of of the RWA agent list this time.  You can imagine how successful the arrangement turned out to be.

Ten years later, Fio joined ARWA and wrote two more romances, entered contests, and started querying agents.  At last the happy ending.  Fiorella is now represented by the divine Liza, whom she adores.  Better late than never.

And, by the way, the manuscript that won Liza over is the same one Fio thought she couldn't lengthen twenty years ago.  Strangely enough, its wordage has doubled through the years.   Must be all the cell phones she had to add in.