Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Success Story

Dear Evil One,

I am writing to let you know that, thanks to you and your minions, I have been experiencing some great success (at least, it's a great success in my opinion).

On October 25, 2007 you, your evil child, and your evil minions critiqued my query (Face-Lift 441). I revised accordingly, and roughly 6 months later, landed my dream agent. I worked with her for nearly a year on revisions, and just this past summer was offered a 2-book deal. My debut YA novel, now titled The Tension of Opposites, will be released on May 25, 2010.

So once again, thank you Evil One, thank you Evil Child, and thank you Evil Minions!

Kristina McBride

16 comments:

Dave Fragments said...

Congratulations and I hope both books sell well. That's a really good title, too.

Taylor Mathews said...

Congratulations! Can't wait to see it on the bookshelves.

Anonymous said...

In case anyone is interested in a synopsis or checking out the cover, here's my book on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6889070-the-tension-of-opposites

Thanks again to everyone!

Kristi

150 said...

Hooray! Congratulations! Man, the minions are getting a great track record.

Sylvia said...

HURRAY! That's great news!

The synopsis is great! And intriguing to read after knowing the book only from the initial draft of the query.

Phoenix Sullivan said...

Woo-hoo! Major congrats, Kristina!

I noticed when I clicked the link on your name, your blog post for today has an ode to EE himself and to the evil work being done here. Perhaps others will also check it out ;o)

Evil Editor said...

I checked it out. Now I want the titles of the other two books Kristina queried here so I can see what I said that made her cry.

Robin B. said...

Congrats!

And, uh...who is Evil Child? I'm confused.

Anonymous said...

EE, I'll have to check my files to see what Face-Lift numbers those were given. I'll let you know tomorrow. And it wasn't a major, ugly kind of cry. Just a quiet weep.

Thanks for all the well-wishes everyone. It's so fun to share some good news after four long years of struggling.

K

Chris Eldin said...

Kristina, MANY congratulations!!! I LOVE your book cover!!! Egmont is a wonderful publisher. I keep hearing such terrific things about them, and I'm sure your experiences are going to be everything you dreamt about and more!
:-)

And such a nice tribute to EE... that was really nice too. It makes us want to buy your book even more because you acknowledged him and the others who helped you along the way. Not everyone does that, so it's stand-up, in my opinion. Well done, and all best wishes going forward!!!
:-)

ril said...

Well done!

Anonymous said...

Super! It seems just as hard to get an agent these days as a publisher. Um, does your agent do tween novels? :)

--Bill H.

Anonymous said...

Thanks again to everyone - I'm seeing some familiar faces here and am happy to be able to officially thank you.

Robin S. - the day my query was posted, EE's Evil Child was at work with him. He added some evil comments to my query.

Chris E. - Thanks! I love the cover too and feel so fortunate to be working with the folks at Egmont. I wouldn't feel right not paying tribute to all of you (especially EE himself). Without your help I don't believe I'd have received much attention from agents.

Author said...

Now I want the titles of the other two books Kristina queried here so I can see what I said that made her cry.


I hope you are all ready for a good laugh. As painful as these queries were for me to revisit, it’s nice to see how far I’ve come. Hopefully at least one person learns from these: Spending some time in a place of total suckage does not mean you have to stay there.

My very first query for my very first manuscript (yes, this is the one that made me cry – and it wasn’t so much the EE’s comments, but my recognition that the plot was a joke. Even the title makes me cringe. And what was I thinking with that last name? Oh, dear, I can’t believe I’m going to publicly humiliate myself again.): Face-Lift 292

Query two for manuscript two: A little better, yes. More attention from agents, yes. But it was not the winner: Face-Lift 380

And just because I found them, here are two New Beginnings (320 & 324) for Face-Lift 380: 320

324

Now, people, if you're going to check these out, please put your coffee down. (I'm going to hide in a corner now.)

_*rachel*_ said...

Aw, they weren't THAT bad.

Congrats on this!

batgirl said...

Hurrah Kristina! I'm a fellow beneficiary, and on my second round of revisions for my agent.
That's a grabby cover. I would definitely pick it up and have a look.