As I said in my Facebook post last week, I could write a book about the “agent saga” that has transpired since I submitted the proposal/manuscript of Sarah’s Legacy to Tim Beals on August 8, 2017. Since I’m not good at the RDCV (Reader’s Digest Condensed Version), I’ll tell you the story in this blog and the next.

I never got a confirmation that Tim had received Sarah’s Legacy after I emailed it to him, but he’d said he would be busy and couldn’t give it his full attention until maybe September, so I waited. September came and went, still no word.  On October 12, I sent an email asking for confirmation that he’d received my proposal/manuscript. Still no answer. After a few days, I started looking for another way to contact Tim. Clicking on the “Contact Us” on their website produced a “This page could not be found” message. Even Google couldn’t come up with a phone number. Their submissions’ page said:  Please note: We accept electronic submissions only and kindly request that you do not contact us via the U.S. Postal Service, telephone, or social media.   However, I did find an interview by Tim on the Internet on “What to Look for in an Agent.” One of the first qualifications he listed was that you should receive quick answers from a perspective agent. Hmmm…

I was very discouraged but decided to begin work on book two of the Sarah’s Legacy series I’ve had in mind for months. As the words flowed, my discouragement lifted. I decided I didn’t want to give up the control I would lose if an agent found me a publisher who would have expectations about when a second book/third book needed to be done. I’m very disciplined about writing, but I don’t want someone else to put me on a schedule that changes my lifestyle so that the Lord, my husband and family, and even my neighbor (a grandma who is raising her six-year-old grandchildren) can’t have the same priority  they have now. So I decided to send Tim an email saying I was withdrawing Sarah’s Legacy from his consideration.

Still aware that I didn’t want to “burn my bridges” in case my decision wasn’t in line with God’s plan, I composed the email with care. I reiterated the time line and the fact that since I’d received no responses from him and couldn’t find any way to contact him, I would have to pursue other options. I decided to send my email on Tuesday, October 24, if I didn’t hear from Tim by then. At 3:22 p.m. on October 24, I sent the email. Seven minutes later at 3:29 p.m., I received the following response:

I’m not sure what’s happened but this is the first email message that has reached my inbox this fall. The only other message was the one you sent to Ann on July 11.

 I wish you all God’s best in your search for the best representation and the right publisher.

 I was dumbfounded. I had sent all my emails to the same address as I sent the one saying I was withdrawing Sarah’s Legacy. Now what? I had no idea what to do. Was Satan interfering with my communications with Tim or was God using that method to keep me from something that wasn’t His will? I sent an email asking for prayer to a small group of ladies whom I’ve kept informed during this saga. Later that evening, I noticed a discreetly placed phone number at the very end of Tim’s signature block on my email: P XXX.XXX.XXXX. I sent a follow up message to my prayer warriors after finding Tim’s phone number─which I’d actually had since receiving his first email on July 21!

Donn and I prayed for guidance during our evening prayer time. I had so many questions. Where were the emails I’d sent? None of them had come back. I thought about calling Tim but what would I say? I was torn about how to proceed. What did God want me to do? I went to sleep knowing I would do nothing until the Lord showed me what to do.

(To Be Continued)