Dashboard Literary Agents Success Story Interviews Amy Tucker Carroll

Success Story Interview - Amy Tucker Carroll

An Interview with Amy Tucker Carroll (abcwritedesign on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Jess Dallow of Brower Literary & Management.

08/15/2018

QT: Can you tell us a little bit about the book for which you've found representation? What inspired you to write it?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
My book is called "Charming Julia." It's a 90,000-word novel of contemporary women's fiction about the ill-fated friendship between two women and the daughter one woman gave birth to and the other woman is raising. I am fascinated by female friendships, how they work or, in this case, how they fall apart.
QT: How long have you been writing?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
I have always been a writer, although this is my first novel for adults. I am a freelance writer and graphic designer in my "other life."
QT: How long have you been working on this book?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
I've been writing this book for about 2 years, although it's been swimming in my head for a lot longer.
QT: Was there ever a time you felt like giving up, and what helped you to stay on course?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
I don't think I ever wanted to give up, but I certainly got off-track more than once. Between my regular freelance work and my family, life got in the way and tripped me up. In order to stay focused, I asked a friend to be my "accountability partner." She checked in with me mid-week via email or text, sending me words of encouragement. Every Friday, I sent her the new material I had written. If I had nothing to send her, I had to explain why. I was no longer making excuses just to myself; I was accountable to her as well.
QT: Is this your first book?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
I co-wrote a middle-grade novel about 14 years ago called "Space Junk: The Future is Yesterday." We self-published it and sold the books in stores throughout the mid-Atlantic region (where I live) and on Amazon. It's still available there today.
QT: Do you have any formal writing training?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
I majored in professional writing at Carnegie Mellon University and have taken several creative writing and novel writing classes at the Writer's Center (in Bethesda, MD) as an adult.
QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
I go to the library for three or four hours to write before lunch. I put on classical music and disappear into the story I'm telling. I was never productive at home and not usually focused in the afternoon. Strangely enough, I can edit anywhere.
QT: How many times did you re-write/edit your book?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
I took the advice of several authors who I had read about or heard speaking and just wrote the whole story without editing at all. Once I was done with the draft, I spent more than three months editing the manuscript, going through the whole book three or four times. Once I had a handful of trusted readers give me feedback, I started the editing process again, which took another two months.
QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
Yes. Initially, it was my husband, who is a careful reader and extremely honest and helpful with his feedback. I then gave the book to a group of well-read and thoughtful friends whom I knew I could trust to be honest without crushing me. They gave me incredible feedback as well, plus they told me they couldn't put it down. That gave me a second wind to go into the new round of edits.
QT: Did you outline your book, or do you write from the hip?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
I started with a rough outline and created index cards with the plot of each chapter. But once I got into the thick of it, I had to continually rework the outline and the chapter cards.
QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
I started querying for "Charming Julia" during the third week of May. I received my first offer of representation on July 5th.
QT: About how many query letters did you send out for this book?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
I queried approximately 30 agents in all.
QT: On what criteria did you select the agents you queried?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
I used "contemporary fiction" and "women's fiction" as my initial filter. I read "Publisher's Lunch" and read about which agents had landed recent deals in my genre. I went to #MSWL on Twitter and looked for agents ISO a story like the one I tell in my book. I also read the acknowledgments in many of my favorite books to learn who those authors' agents were.
QT: Did you tailor each query to the specific agent, and if so, how?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
Yes. For almost all of the agents I chose to query, I had read about them through Query Tracker, Agent Query, Publisher's Marketplace, Twitter, their website or other online sources. I opened my queries with something about that agent to indicate I had done research and knew that my book might be of interest to him/her.
QT: What advice would you give other writers seeking agents?: Amy Tucker Carroll:
There are two things that were helpful to me. First, I attended a pitch conference in December. Over the course of three days, I learned how to craft a pitch and how to sell my pitch face-to-face to agents and publishers. In fact, one of the publishers I met at the conference asked to see my manuscript, and my teacher advised me to use that request as a selling point in my pitch. (You can see how I did that in my pitch below.)

Second, I used the pitch I had written at the pitch conference for the first round of queries I sent. After several rejections, I took a hard look at the meat of my pitch and realized I wasn't selling the heart of my book the way I wanted to. I spent a day re-writing my pitch, sent out a new batch of queries and received four requests for the whole manuscript in three days, which led to offers of representation from two agents.

Success Story Interview - Amy Tucker Carroll

Query Letter: