Agented!

When I first started working on the haunted houses book, I had no idea what I'd be in for. As the project grew, I knew I needed to find someone who could be a part of this project. I found that someone with Martha Jette, who agreed to be a co-author for the book. Pretty soon, we got the book into final shape. Not long afterwards, we found a publisher for this book -- or so we thought. As can happen in publishing, things did not work out well with the publisher, so we had to cancel our contract with them and look elsewhere. Our search consisted mostly of publishing companies, yet Martha surprised me one day with the idea of approaching a literary agent for our book. I agreed to proceed, and we waited to hear back from the agency.

When a contract from the agency appeared in my inbox one day, I couldn't believe my eyes. I even asked Martha, "Is this for real?" Sure enough, the contract was the real deal. There were certain clauses in the contract we wanted to negotiate first, and I held my breath, waiting to see what happened. I wasn't ready to celebrate yet; I first wanted to see how the negotiations went.

I am pleased to announce that all went well and now Martha and I have a literary agent for our book, Totally Scared: The Complete Book on Haunted Houses. Hooray! We now have an agent!

Our agent's name is R. Travis Shortt and he is a member of the team behind Black River Media, LLC. The company has worked mostly as a PR firm in the past, and the decision to take on the job of also working as a literary agency came after many of Mr. Shortt's clients expressed a desire for him to be their literary agent. He agreed and has since been working in this capacity for Black River Media, as well as his position as Vice President. Here is their link: http://www.blackrivermediallc.com/ Because this is still new for them, there is not a whole lot on the site about their work as a literary agency. Yet I am confident that this will change very soon.

Also, I have spoken with Mr. Shortt through E-mail, and he has opened the door for me to pitch my other book projects to him when that time comes. So not only do I "share" an agent with Martha for our haunted houses book, I have the opportunity to submit my future book projects to my agent without going through the trials of finding the right publisher for my books. Additionally, having an agent means we and I will receive a better contract from a reputable publishing company.

So that is the latest development for the haunted houses book. I'm very excited about this and feel relieved that, in addition to Martha finding an agent for our book, we both have an agent for our other book projects, as well. What a wonderful accomplishment! We have an agent and I have an agent! Now I hope the next thing to report on is that we'll have a publisher for our haunted houses book -- a publisher that will actually end up publishing our book. Fingers crossed!