STATUS – 7.7.2025 – Revise & Resubmit

Let’s talk about what a Revise & Resubmit is.

Better yet, let’s let Jane Friedman’s blog and literary agent, Kimerly Fernando, explain it:

It might feel a bit disappointing because you were hoping for an offer, but let there be no mistake, an R&R is good news. The agent sees something in your work, and they are inviting you to submit again. They have taken time out to read your pages and provide notes to help you improve your manuscript. R&Rs don’t happen to everyone, and an agent doesn’t send them unless they’re genuinely interested.

They want to see how you take the feedback and apply it to your manuscript.

They want thoughtful revisions that strengthen your manuscript.

They don’t want to see surface-level revisions (unless that really is the feedback you’ve received—but if that’s the case, I would expect they would have gone straight to an offer).

They want you to take your time. They don’t want a writer to turn around the manuscript in a few days or even a week or two.

So that’s where I’m at.

Project: NESS, a middle grade contemporary fantasy with paranormal thriller elements, was declined by this agent. That much is true, but the plus side, the upside, is that they liked this story so much and see a lot of potential in it, that they’ve given me another chance to prove myself. Hence, the Revise & Resubmit.

They’re wanting to see it again.

This is only the second Revise & Resubmit I’ve ever received. The first was for Project: GREY, all the way back towards the end of 2020. That took just over a year to complete.

I’m hoping to have this one done within six months. Goal wise, I’d like it all to be done before the new baby arrives in early October, but I’m also ready to give myself some grace. This is going to be hard. The notes the literary agent gave were thorough and well crafted, meaning they spent a lot of time in my book, in my world, and want to bring the best out of it. I want to reciprocate that effort.

We’ll start with taking down all of their suggestions and ideas into the Field Notes. From there, we’ll outline what those changes could end up looking like and where they could potentially fit into the book. We’ll experiment. We’ll write some bits. We’ll expand. Then it’s taking it to the main Word Document, saving a new copy (because you should always save a new copy), and then we start cut, cut, cutting. Along the way, I might outline the entire book on index cards and tape them to a wall like a famous serial killer and string them along to see if there’s a semblance of pace, balance, and excitement where there should be.

I think this is what the pros mean when they talk about proving who you are before you’re signed. An agent doesn’t know you from Adam, so it’s up to you to demonstrate not only can you take criticism, but can you run with it? Can you adapt to it? Can you work together?

I’m not officially signed to this agent just yet, but like the great patron saint of the Acosta Family, Michael Keaton, said: “I’ve gotta go to work.”

PROJECT UPDATE:

#AMQUERYING – NESS will continue to be queried, even while I work on the revisions. That train needs to keep going. BIANCA will also continue to go out.

CITY – This book might have to go on hold for a short time. At least until I get my bearings on where all these edits are going to go.

CURRENTLY LISTENING: The summer of Kingdom Hearts in House Trinacostadad will continue until the school year starts. The boys are. So. In. We’re talking taking out all of their little pretend swords and wands and shields and using the lids of play pots and pans as shields and anything even remotely shaped like a sword as a Keyblade IN.

CURRENTLY READING: Grant Morrison and co.’s legendary Batman run.

I flaked out of all the other books I had bought and attempted to start. Guess I needed some Bat God in my life. I reread all these once a year or so and it revitalizes me spiritually.