How I Almost Blew up This Opportunity with an Agent

The marks that angle across the ski trail to the upper right are from otters sliding in the snow.

Do you get emotionally attached to your novels in progress?

The one novel that I’ve returned to again and again to rethink and revise and resubmit is my MG novel about a young, recently deceased dog who’s having a lovely time in the canine afterlife. As soon as memories of his girl on Earth return, he wants to go back to her. But just like in real life, he can’t.

This book is one I especially hope to have traditionally published someday. I think it will be helpful for kids who are grieving their beloved pets.

But first-person animal point-of-view characters are a tough sell. Lots of agents don’t like them. Same with editors.

Nevertheless, I love this book. And as I mentioned in my last post, I started querying it again in late 2024 and early 2025 when my MG zoo mystery queries were not attracting much attention from agents.

When I nudged Mary Cummings about my zoo mystery (she’d requested the full manuscript back in July), I also gave her a brief pitch about my dog novel. She asked to see the whole query and a few sample pages.

Her response to the dog novel’s opening pages was disappointing. She liked the concept but the dogs didn’t feel “doggy enough” to her, so it “wasn’t a match.”

My immediate reaction was to thank her and move on with my agent search.

I’d even started typing my response to her when I stopped myself and thought maybe I should see what other writers I know would do in this situation.

The gist of their comments was “GO FOR IT” with this agent. I got the impression they would have smacked me upside the head if they could. 😉

I also texted my sister about my dilemma and the fact that Mary wouldn’t represent my dog novel. Stef isn’t a writer but she is a visual artist. She texted back, “Sooo … why are you so invested in the dog novel?”

I replied, “Because it’s wonderful and it’s my love letter to Diesel [my first Brittany] and everyone who’s loved and lost a dog.”

“Maybe your personal feelings on it are impacting things,” she wrote back.

Yep. Nailed it.

I was acting impulsively because I love my dog story so much. That emotion was clouding my judgement.

After a day of thinking over Mary’s offer of a phone call to discuss representation, I emailed her that if she was still interested in talking, I’d be happy to chat. We spoke a few days later.

Saying yes to Mary does not mean my dog novel will never see the light of day. Perhaps the time for it isn’t right. The market has to be ready for it.

Our feelings about our work can make it so difficult to see it objectively. That’s why working with a book coach to get your work ready for submitting to an agent can be so valuable.

If you’d like to chat about working together, send me an email: bookcoach at micheleregenold.com.