How I got my agent

A blog post which means…after 10+ years working as a writer, I have an agent! What’s the opposite of burying the lead? Leading with the lead? Okay, here we go:

I'm thrilled to announce that I'm now represented by @keslupo at @binderyagency!

This has been a crazy journey and I couldn't be happier to start this next step of my career with Kesia.

— James Schannep (@JamesSchannep) December 19, 2023

This is going to be a long one, so buckle up. It’s also going to be raw and honest. Publishing is hard. It’s really, really hard. Whether it’s self/indie publishing or traditional publishing, being a writer is a labor of love, and (if you’re anything like me) it’s also a long road filled with highs, lows, and constant doubt.

But — as that embedded post above says — today is focused on one of the highs.

So, how did we get here?

If you’re familiar with my work, that’s probably because of my Click Your Poison interactive gamebook series, or because of my novel Social Vampire. This blog post is largely going to focus on the latter, because it’s the novel that landed me an agent. That said, I’m going to be what’s known as a “hybrid author” — meaning I’m free to continue self-publishing my interactive fiction, while my agent will represent my novels going forward.

Did I mention this has been a long road? Let’s take a look at the timeline:

2012

• Idea for Social Vampire (then called TEAM GORDON) which I was going to write as a screenplay for a teen comedy movie.
• Instead, started INFECTED (Click Your Poison #1) based on a completed screenplay of the same name.

I started my writing career with screenplays, which had several false starts, and ultimately didn’t really go anywhere. I figured I’d give self-publishing a try, which was taking off around this time. I didn’t even consider seeking traditional publishers for something as niche as an “adult Choose Your Own Adventure” which is how I thought of Click Your Poison at the time.

We were newly married in 2012, and over the next few years, would move several times for my wife’s career (from California, to Colorado, then to England), and I would continue to publish an average of one Click Your Poison book per year. Fast-forward to:

2018

• Published MAROONED (Click Your Poison #5)
• Decided to start a novel-version of Social Vampire/Team Gordon

2019

• Finished the novel
• Became a Dad!
• Moved from the UK back to the US

2020

• Started Querying
• Began Writing SPIED (Click Your Poison #6)
• Moved again; from Alabama to California
• Became a Dad again!

2021

• Continued Querying… (new title “How (NOT) to be a Social Vampire”)
• Published SPIED
• Wrote HAUNTED (Click Your Poison #7)

2022

• Continued Querying… (new title “Social Vampire”)
• Published HAUNTED
• Started several other projects that amounted to nothing*
• Moved from California to Colorado
• Gave up on querying and serially published Social Vampire on the Kindle Vella platform

*The death of these projects were a pretty significant blow. 2022 was also my 10 year anniversary since I started self-publishing, and served as my career low-point, mentally. I’ve already blogged about these challenges, which you can read about here if you’re interested.

You’ll also notice that my querying spanned a period of about three years (which ended around the time of those setbacks). I received a handful of replies to learn more, three full manuscript requests, one revise & resubmit, and…a whole lot of nothing. I’ve since learned that querying during the pandemic and its aftermath was probably the worst possible timing.

After my setbacks, I no longer had the energy to query, and I was running short on hope. I never stopped believing in this book, but I was having a hard time believing it would ever find its time in the sun (there’s a bit of vampiric irony for you). From here, we stagger forward to:

2023

• Self-published Social Vampire as a novel
• Began writing short stories
• Entered contests for the stories and novel
• Became a Dad for the third time!
• Received an offer of representation

2023 demands some further explanation. I’ll be the first to admit, I had no idea what I was doing when it came to marketing Social Vampire. My Click Your Poison books were a successful series, but they were completely different and unrelated to a standalone, coming-of-age comedic novel.

That said, I’ve had some critical success with Social Vampire, including:

• Shortlisted for the Bath Novel Awards
• Shortlisted for The Letter Review Manuscript Prize
• Honorable Mention for the Writer’s Digest Self-Published E-book Awards [link pending]

And *that’s* what led to my finding an agent. Specifically, the Bath Novel Awards. After I was shortlisted (placed in the top 6 out of 2370), the contest organizer asked if she could help bring my book to agents. I agreed, but honestly I didn’t think anything would come of it.

The “funk” I was in from 2022 had carried on. I’ve had my battles with depression and imposter syndrome, and I was largely going through the motions when it came to my writing career. I was still in love with writing, and I couldn’t help but craft new stories, but I didn’t feel like my efforts were leading anywhere.

To demonstrate my state of mind during this time, I’d like to share a poem I wrote. I entered the Bath Novel Awards on May 31st, 2023. Nineteen days earlier, I wrote this:

Social Vampire was shortlisted in the top 6 books of the contest, across multiple genres (mine was the only Young Adult novel on the shortlist) and after the winner was announced on September 20th, I assumed that was it. A nice feather in my cap, but nothing else.

I was wrong.

I can’t recommend this contest enough, which is currently open for submissions, because it quite literally changed my life. They made the connection with Kesia specifically, because they felt we would work well together. They actually queried her on my behalf.

She read the book, and the week before Christmas, asked if we could talk about representation. I asked her so, so many questions and loved the answers she gave to each. We had a great connection and I gladly signed with her as my literary agent. Which leads to…

2024

• Social Vampire goes out of print in its self-published form
• My agent is going to take the manuscript out on submission to a traditional publisher
• My family is moving from Colorado to Washington, D.C.
• No more kiddos! I’m stopping at three!
• …What else?

Well, for one: I’ve started my next novel. My fire is burning bright once again. I’m plotting out other projects, to include an expansion into Sci-Fi. I’m exhausted, but I’m also incredibly excited (did I mention I have three young kids, and we’re preparing to move again?!).

For those of you in the trenches: Sometimes, going through the motions can be enough. My publishing mantra has long been: you can’t control when lightning will strike, but you can keep planting lightning rods.

Well, for me, I feel like lightning has finally struck. Where else will this crazy journey take me? I don’t know! It’s incredibly thrilling, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Until then, I remain faithfully your author,

PS – Have you been following along since 2012, or are you new to the party? I’d love to know in the comments below! And if you have your own publishing journey, please share where you’re at and if our stories are similar or wildly different. We’re all in this together 🙂