Some news I'm still standing in the kitchen with: a literary agent has requested the full manuscript of my novel, A PALE HOLLER. It's the first full request I've received for this book.
The book came about in a slightly backwards order: the screenplay came first, and the novel grew alongside the final shaping of the script. That discipline mattered. My natural prose runs dense and lyrical, and left to itself it can loosen a story into fog. The screenplay was the governor — it kept everything concrete and playable: a kitchen window, a wire fence, a dog refusing to cross a line in the grass, the locusts stopping all at once. The script became the bone map. The novel became the root system. The story got to become mythic because it first had to become filmable.
I'm not naming the agent while she reads — that's her time and her quiet. And a request is a beginning, not an ending; anybody who's spent a season in the query trenches knows the arithmetic.
But this community has read my pages, traded notes with me, and talked sense into me more than once. So some of this win is yours.
Tell me something good from your desk this week. I'd like this thread to hold more than one piece of good news.
2 people like this
Congrats, Adam. Your journey sounds very familiar.
I've lost count of the rejections to my own novels. My beta readers are dumbfounded every time. I explain it's the nature of the literary world's algorithm — they want us to bring the market along with the story, not just the story itself.
A Pale Holler sounds wickedly peculiar. I hope the agent feels it the way you do.
My first screenplay grew out of a 34,000-word novella I wrote in fifteen days — fifteen very long days while the inspiration poured out faster than I could catch it. The epiphany hit at 3:37 in the morning on day four. I jumped out of bed and didn't stop until midnight. A week after my beta readers weighed in, I took a swing at adapting it for the screen. The screenplay gave me room to add scenes the novella never had space for.
One of my critique partners couldn't get his wagon wheels out of the rut. He wanted my protagonist to be Amy Dunne from Gone Girl. I explained why she wasn't. He suggested I rewrite her. I quit the group.
Best of luck with both, Adam. Sometimes the novel and the screenplay find their audience at the same time — from opposite directions.
1 person likes this
Well done on the request! Another step closer to the bigger goal - I'm very excited for you!
1 person likes this
HOW AWESOME Adam J. Spencer ! Very happy for you!!!
1 person likes this
Congratulations!
1 person likes this
Wow, I am so happy for you. That book cover/movie poster is a real eye-catcher.
I just sent out the latest revision of my novel to a test reader. My writing process was the exact opposite of yours. I completed the novel and then started the screenplay adaptation. Looking at the work from the pared-down screenwriter's perspective enabled me to cut many pages from the novel. It was a valuable lesson in eliminating any junk that doesn't move the narrative forward.
Congratulations on your accomplishment. As you said, the request is just a beginning, but to get that request is something to be proud of.
1 person likes this
Congratulations!
1 person likes this
Congratulations
Thank you, Lauren Hackney. One step at a time is the only way any of us gets there — grateful to have you cheering the small ones.
Ha — thank you, Darrell A Pennington! I appreciate the enthusiasm more than you know.
1 person likes this
Charlotte Tressler — thank you, and thank you for the word on the cover; that one went through plenty of drafts too.
What strikes me is that we ran the same tool in opposite directions and it taught us the same thing. You wrote the novel, then let the screenwriter's eye show you what to cut. I wrote the screenplay first and used it as a governor so the prose couldn't fog things over. Different order, same lesson — the script has no patience for anything that doesn't move.
Good luck with your test reader. That's its own standing-in-the-kitchen moment — pages out the door, nothing to do but wait. Rooting for you.
Congratulations on the agent milestone! Sending good vibes your way—and ease!
1 person likes this
Madeline Gouin — Thanks. Just a manuscript request—here's hoping it becomes more than a read. But today, a full read feels pretty good.
Congratulations, Adam!
Be careful of agents whovsimply ask forctgecfull manuscript. This us not normal.
Be careful of agents who start with asking for a full manuscript. This in NOT normal!!!
1 person likes this
Jeff Gregory, I used QueryTracker to submit my book to a short list of agents whose tastes I believed aligned with mine. Since each agent had slightly different query requirements, I customized each query to suit its intended recipient. Initially, none of the agents requested a full manuscript. I sent three initial queries. The first query was rejected within an hour, and the second received no response. However, the third agent took the time to read the first 50 pages of my manuscript along with the other items in my query package, then reached out to me via QueryTracker to request to read the entire manuscript.