This is the kind of post I’ve imagined writing for a long time. Since this site’s inception as a landing page for who I am and what I’m learning on my way to becoming a published and, more importantly, working author, writing this blog post has been the goal. The kind of post everything on this site was building towards.
An agent offered representation. And I accepted.
Now, I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say yet, and I understand each agency and agent is different, but I’ve always erred on the side of caution when discussing these things. The few times I received a Full Request or a Revise & Resubmit–the moments when I touched the bottom of the grand heaven that is the professional literary world–I never used real names, real titles, and the books I’m writing have always lived within the realm of “Silly Codenames So No One Knows What the Book is Really About.” But now that it’s out there, some names will be accessible but private information will always be withheld.
With that in mind, allow me to break down how all of this happened. If any of you reading find yourself in a similar space I was, hopefully this helps. That’s what this site was for, after all.
I began the Revise & Resubmit for Project NESS last summer, right around this time, actually. July 7. It started off with several weeks of intense review into the requests made by the literary agent. They had ideas, I ran with them, and began to outline the story to make sure the ideas and changes worked. (Again, keeping things vague, but you understand.) Your book is not gospel. If someone with professional experience offers guidance, you need to seriously consider it.
This whole process took about two months of deep work. Remember, I’m the stay-at-home parent, so any writing time needed to happen early in the morning or, when I wasn’t dead tired, at night. I got a few weeks into the actual changing of the story when suddenly…
Baby time. We had to prep for the new baby. This happened mid August? If I recall? Who knows where I am. I have a new baby. Have you seen her? She’s the cutest. During this eight month stretch of time when I was living that New Baby Life, I would pick at the story, think about it constantly, write random notes here and there, collect them all in a OneNote document, and attempt to get serious writing done whenever I had a chance. Sometimes it worked, sometimes I took a nap. Four kids. Remember?
Then May of 2025 came. I was determined to get this R&R out the door. It had been weighing over my head for the entire school year. Seriously, I started the R&R when the twins weren’t even in kindergarten yet and there we were. At the the end of the school year. No more kindergarten. And, what? I wasn’t going to finish it? No. A rush of willpower and an influx of caffeine kept me going. This isn’t something I think I can do all the time, but for this one last push, it was enough. I completed all the changes, sent the revised manuscript to the agent in the early forsaken hours of July 1st, then decided to move on with my life. They would either like it or not. Either way, I had a revised manuscript I could start pitching to other agents and an open road to finally start a new book. Living like a shark, always moving.
Two weeks later…
An e-mail. She liked the changes. She wanted to talk more. She was considering representation.
I got all my ducks in a row. Did some research on what kinds of questions to ask. Asked whatever friends and colleagues in the publishing space what I should do to prepare.
Two days later we had the meeting. It went well. She offered rep. I accepted.
It’s in this time I should mention I think we, as a family, celebrated like three times. First, when I sent the manuscript off. Then, when I got the e-mail for the meeting back. Then, again, when she offered representation. For the boys, going out to celebrate meant going to iHOP and getting to play on their tablets at the restaurant. In the words of Dante, “This is the greatest day ever!”
I received the retainer from the head of the agency, reviewed, asked for clarification on some parts (I’m new to all this. What? You can only do so much reading on these things before the real stuff starts happening. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.), then waited on a reply. Then we had a national holiday that surely slowed things down. People have trips planned. People are out of office. This is normal (is what I kept telling myself). Again, you can find other blogs and videos about this type of thing, waiting on contracts to return. It’s all part of the norm.
Still, I awoke every day and immediately checked my phone to see if it had come.
Finally, it did. I signed. I made the post. You know the one. THE post.
Here I am now, proud to say, the thing all querying authors want to say at some point…
I am officially represented by Haley J. Casey at Creative Media Agency, or CMA Lit.
I’m going to write stories about little Mexican kids saving the world.
And I’m going to do the best I can.
There’s a task planner I keep by my desk, helps me stay organized (when I remember to fill it out), and on it for years the top Long Term Goal was “Get an agent.” That’s been crossed out now.
Only now, I have a new long term goal.
The rest of the planner will fill up as I review the editorial letter my agent sent me. (That’s right. I get to talk like that now.) More changes are coming for Project NESS, making it the best we can together with her expert guidance.
Here we go.
NEW OUTRO TIME
Thanks for reading,
I’m represented by Haley J. Casey at Creative Media Agency
BlueSky: @robacosta.bsky.social
Threads: @RobAcosta
Instagram: @robacosta
E-mail: robertmichaelacosta@gmail.com
Fifth Draft 
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