May I tell you about New Adult Writing and Agents?

Another day of Blog Me Maybe, my friends, but what is different about today you may ask...  ME  *Grins*  My name is Victoria and this is my first featured post on NA Alley, so yeah!!!!

So today I'm supposed to tell you about me, but instead of gushing about how stellar I am (You can go to the NA Sisters section for that ;D)  I'm going to tell you about something I did recently that has to do with New Adult writing and how it relates to getting an agent!

Ah, yes, getting an agent.  Uber scary, right?  I know I was scared to death when I read about that little section of getting publishing and actually up until I went to the thing I'm about to tell you about I wasn't going to bother getting one.  Why you may ask?  Well, if you haven't noticed New Adult falls in between the categories of YA and Adult fiction.  And with that, makes it a darn hard sell.  No one knows where to put it so agents are fearful of touching it.  I was going to go straight to Indie publishing or go to an independent publisher for my work because I lost hope.  Well that was until I went to my first writer's conference.

I recently went to the Chicago North Spring Fling Writer's Conference.  I was looking forward to the free swag, I was looking forward to meeting new peeps to connect with, I was looking forward to finding an editor at an indie press and asking them questions about submitting to them, but what I was NOT looking forward to was hearing about how to obtain an agent.  You see, my friends, I lost hope as an NA writer and didn't want to pursue it...that was until I went to a presentation featuring an agent and my whole world changed for the better!

Sara Megibow (right)  and her client Tiffany Reisz (left)

I went to a presentation featuring agent Sara Megibow of the Nelson Literary Agency.  I got to choose between this presentation and How to Create the Perfect Villain seminar.  Well, I said, "Why not?"  It couldn't hurt to hear what she has to say.  And I'm soooo glad I did, because you see, Sara Megibow is actively seeking clients with New Adult manuscripts and actually represents author Allison Rushby who has just been contracted with the publisher St. Martin's Press (Yeah, those peeps that created the term New Adult) with a 6-episode historical e-serial that is set in 1920s London.  (Allison speaks about it here on this thread)

I pulled Sara Megibow aside after her presentation and she told me to go for it.  Submit, Submit, Submit those NA manuscripts, because she not only wants them, but she's selling them.  Publishers do want them and we shouldn't be scared to submit to her.  Well, after this bit of information I calmly stepped away from Ms. Megibow and went back to my hotel room and did a little bit of this...

So, after I composed myself I got a new-found hope!  There are agents out there who want our work and won't turn us down just because we fall between categories, so go out there with your head held high and you'll be surprised who you'll find ;)  To submit to Sara Megibow find here requirements here.

Later, Peeps!