What It’s Really Like to Get a Literary Agent

Getting a literary agent is supposed to feel like the moment—but no one really talks about what it’s actually like when it finally happens.

In this bonus episode, we sit down with Crystal to talk through her real querying journey: nearly 90 queries, revise & resubmits, unexpected phone calls, multiple agent offers, and the emotional whiplash that comes with all of it.

We talk about the envy no one admits to, the panic of “I can’t not query,” and why so much publishing content feels performative and unhelpful. This is the version of the story most writers don’t hear—but desperately need.

If you’re querying, waiting on responses, revising yet again, or refreshing your inbox while trying not to spiral, this episode is for you.

🍸 A short bonus episode pulled from our Episode 8 conversation—because this story deserved its own space.

Transcript

Jenna G Judith (00:00)
Welcome to Marg's and Manuscript's very first bonus episode. If you've not already, go listen to episode eight where we talk about the romance genre

We sat down with Crystal last week and we heard all about her journey of how she finally signed with an agent and we're just so excited for her. So we wanted to pull back the curtain a little bit, give you this bonus episode where you can hear her story, but also

if you have an agent story or even your own story of how you published your book, feel free to share it with us And we would love to talk with you. Thanks so much for listening to our first bonus episode and stay tuned.

Jenna G Judith (00:40)
Speaking of problems with books, I feel like you just erased one problem off of your list.

Crystal (00:46)
Yes!

Jenna G Judith (00:47)
Yeah!

Cait (00:48)
I was so excited. was like, Dewey, I hope we get to talk about the elephant in the room. ⁓

Jenna G Judith (00:55)
Tell me more.

Crystal (00:56)
yes, I am represented by Rebecca Potos of Neighborhood Literary.

Cait (01:01)
my gosh. Yes!

Jenna G Judith (01:03)
So exciting!

Crystal (01:04)
Yeah

Cait (01:05)
And tell us about

this, because this was like your... your girl.

Crystal (01:09)
It was kind of wild. And I just finished writing up, like I wrote up a post on like my query methodology that I posted earlier this week. And then I wrote up the like obnoxious how I got my agent post. Cause you have to. ⁓

Cait (01:27)
It's a good story though,

like yours is like truly like a really great story.

Crystal (01:33)
queried about 90 agents in total, starting in like, very end of May through to I actually put in my last query after I got my offer, which is part of the story. And yeah, I had

Cait (01:37)
Girl.

Crystal (01:55)
six or seven full requests over the course of it. I got ⁓ four revise and resubmits. Unfortunately, they all had pretty similar feedback to them. So I was able to just do one edit pass and kind of knock that out in like September, October, and then sent that back early November to the agents who said to resubmit.

And one of them was Tiana Kelly at Neighborhood Literary. So she was one of the revise and resubmits I got. And she actually, her feedback was like half of my manuscript annotated, including truly unhinged comments that I loved, because that is my love language is unhinged reaction comments on my Google Doc.

early December, I heard back from her and she said, Hey, I'm actually this is getting passed on to another agent here who might be a better fit. So you should be hearing from Rebecca Potos. And I was like, just Rebecca Potos, NBD. Like, because Rebecca had been kind of high up in the priority.

Cait (03:07)
you

Crystal (03:14)
on my list, but I think she hadn't been opening or she hadn't been open while I was querying. Yeah. So then I was, I was at work. was like after lunch on a Tuesday before Christmas, but you know, the last week of the year before when like we're all kind of doing work, but kind of not.

Cait (03:19)
That makes sense, yeah.

Crystal (03:38)
I'd been emailing with my friend Becca about her book and her query letter and just like catching up with her. And I see an email come in from a Becca And then I look at it's Becca Potos And like, how?

And yeah, so she said she really loved my book and that it checked all her boxes and I she knew like holidays are coming up. But if I had time to talk to her the next day, that would be great. And so I talked with her the next day and it was a great call. She is. Just so nice and but then also.

has like very clear both feedback on like the good and also like very clear, very actionable thoughts on the things that weren't quite working and could be improved. And yeah, so I asked her all the, know, all the what to ask on the call questions that I Googled like earlier that day.

Jenna G Judith (04:48)
You're like, ⁓ shit, what do do now?

Crystal (04:51)
Yeah, I'm like, what am I?

Cait (04:52)
I just

don't want to be like, oh my god, I love you so much, I'll do whatever you want. I want to come off as somewhat professional. You're freaking out.

Crystal (04:57)
right? ⁓

Yeah, I should seem like I know what

I'm doing, maybe. I did fangirl a little bit because Ashley Herring Blake is one of my niece's favorite authors, especially her middle grade stuff. That's the age my niece is in and there's like very little lesbian representation in middle grade. ⁓ So.

My niece absolutely loves her. So I did fan girl on that a little Because Rebecca is her agent as got the offer from Rebecca and went back to the agents that still had like the full request.

And I also went back to some that had not like still had outstanding queries that had never requested, but were like also in the top. the day after one of the agents who was like also in that high up, like top placed agents in the, the specific sub genre opened up.

I got the watch notification from query tracker.

And I was like, I can't not, I can't not query. So I sent in the query. And for those who haven't used query manager, ⁓ they have a specific thing where you can message the agent to say like, I have an offer of representation. And I think that like bumps it up in their queue. So I submitted my query and then immediately sent the offer of representation message.

Jenna G Judith (06:10)
Right.

Crystal (06:35)
I was like, I know it's kind of weird to have done this, but you just opened. I just got this offer. So I wanted to throw my hat in the ring.

Cait (06:36)
out there.

Crystal (06:44)
I did have a call with that agent and did also get an offer from that agent.

Jenna G Judith (06:50)
Holy shit!

Crystal (06:50)
And it was a really hard choice.

⁓

Jenna G Judith (06:53)
Okay?

Crystal (06:54)
It was an incredibly

difficult talked about this either outlier or on the last call where it's like, when you're querying, you worry that best case scenario is going to be, I only get one offer and it's from a baby agent who's never sold anything before.

And so I have to decide, do I take that offer or do I stay on the market and keep looking for another agent? I was mentally in the place of preparing myself for that as best case scenario. And like, okay, do I go with baby agent or do I self-publish? That was going to be the question for me going into 2026 with this. to within literally the last

two weeks of the year.

now have like two.

Cait (07:42)
Yeah.

Crystal (07:43)
very amazing options. I was like.

Cait (07:44)
I'm smoking it.

Jenna G Judith (07:47)
No, I won't even say what are the odds because you worked your ass off for that. You worked so hard.

Crystal (07:52)
Yeah.

Cait (07:53)
Yeah.

it's awesome and it's so fun to see your journey and just having like met you at WFWA like over a year plus ago and just kind of talking to you about where we were both at and ⁓ so many people listening are on the same journey or in the same exact places that we are and to.

Crystal (08:05)
Yeah!

Cait (08:17)
just hear good stories that happened to good people that you know literally started where we all started and didn't have any special connections and queried the way that everybody's querying and ⁓ didn't already have a book out or didn't, all of these other things. ⁓

Crystal (08:26)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, didn't have

bylines in Cosmo and Harper's Bazaar. Yeah, yeah.

Cait (08:40)
Right. ⁓ It's really exciting.

So we're just we're so happy for you. We're so happy that we get to bring you on and talk about that. So excited.

Crystal (08:50)
Yeah, because

Jenna G Judith (08:50)
So, side.

Crystal (08:51)
it

is like the happy for you, so happy for you when like everybody else's like signed with an agent announcement come out is so real. Like it's so real. Like I'm so happy for the people I know who signed with an agent in the last year. But when you just see like person after person after person when you're querying.

Jenna G Judith (08:57)
Yeah.

Crystal (09:18)
It's so hard, especially in those times where you've just gotten like a string of like nothing but rejections for two weeks. It's so hard to like not let that envious feeling get up there. And I think the envious feeling is totally normal.

Cait (09:27)
Yeah.

I totally agree. I think that like, this is something that we can even bring up on another episode maybe about like marketing yourself or whatever. think that the posts that are like,

how I became an agent and author, you know what I mean? Like kind of like those type of posts are just like the, my God, come on. Like I wanna hear your story in the most honest way. And that's why I love you telling it because I think it comes from this like really great, like I have been working my ass off for so long and I've been in the, you know, like I have multiple things I've written and I could have, you know, like you've done so much that it just feels really refreshing to hear it from you.

like those posts that are like come with me as a spend the day with me as an agent and author it's like go home

Jenna G Judith (10:30)
Excuse my

Crystal (10:31)
Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (10:31)
language, but eat a dick. If I don't get canceled by the end of the year, it's gonna be a shocker.

Cait (10:39)
It's like, spend the day with me as a published author at a big top five. Like, I don't care about your day.

Crystal (10:39)
Hahaha!

Jenna G Judith (10:44)
BLEH

No!

Crystal (10:47)
Yeah.

And also realistically, your day is sitting in your pajamas at a computer.

Jenna G Judith (10:48)
I don't give a shit.

Cait (10:53)
Yes!

Jenna G Judith (10:54)
you probably still have a day job.

Cait (10:57)
I really hope that this is what we take out of this episode.

Crystal (10:57)
Yeah, yeah

Jenna G Judith (11:02)
I guess.

If anything, I'll cut

it and I'll put it at the end as like bonus content. Like you made it to the end of the episode. Jenna says eat a dick. but, ⁓ I'm in pajamas. You saw me.

Crystal (11:10)
Yeah.

Cait (11:10)
Yeah. Really?

Crystal (11:13)
Yeah. Like I'm in my pajamas now. You know?

Like, yeah.

Cait (11:20)
Who?

Me too, and you know

what? When we first started this podcast, I was so concerned with the fact that we were also filming it and putting it on YouTube. I would try to make myself look really like presentable and the background was so aesthetic and stuff. And then I was like, this isn't what I look like when I'm writing. The whole point of this is supposed to be like, we put our pens and paper and computers away and we have a drink with our friends after we're done writing. I'm like, this is not a representation of what

Crystal (11:37)
That's true.

Cait (11:50)
what I look like when I'm done writing. What I look like is I'm drinking a margarita out of a can. I'm in my sweatpants.

Jenna G Judith (11:53)
No. I'm drinking a margarita out of a mug.

Crystal (11:55)
Amazing.

Jenna G Judith (12:01)
Like legit, like Cody, when he was making my margarita, I handed him the mug. He's like, you wanted in a mug today? I'm like, yes. Why? Why the fuck not?

Cait (12:09)
You what? Yeah, we had the limo

thing and we were like, cheersing, you know, it's just too real now. We need to make it a little bit more real.

Crystal (12:15)
Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (12:16)
No, I did

Crystal (12:18)
Also,

Jenna G Judith (12:18)
put on eyeliner.

Crystal (12:18)
A++ contribution. A++ contribution to the pod, Cody, making the margarita.

Jenna G Judith (12:25)
He's a saint. He's awesome.

Can you please tell me though about like what that conversation, like the phone call was like? Was like, was she just, I don't know, like showering you with compliments or was it like, tell me more about you? Like what, what was the subject matter?

Crystal (12:42)
Um,

so there was a lot of showering me with compliments. Yes, please keep keep coming. Um, yes. And then there was the like, you know, okay, what what can be improved? She before I had even gotten back to her to say, like, yes, I'm I choose you say yes to the dress, etc.

Jenna G Judith (12:49)
You're like, I'm blushing, I'm blushing.

Cait (13:06)
I choose you.

Crystal (13:07)
I, she had apparently already written up an edit letter with all of her like thoughts and notes and stuff like that. Like she was like, you know, on the, on the chance that you signed with me, I already wrote this up. she is on it. Yes. so I've already got that and I've got my, I did my, I did the, the print it and bind it.

Cait (13:20)
girlfriend is on it.

Jenna G Judith (13:33)
from Staples. Yeah.

Crystal (13:35)
Yeah,

Jenna G Judith (13:35)
Or Office Max or whatever.

Crystal (13:37)
Office Depot is like a little bit cheaper, so I went with them. So yeah, I'm going through now and doing like making the suggested edits. ⁓ Jenna, you will be excited to hear she has chosen Williams as her team for Formula One.

After an author dinner where she was given some F1 lore, she chose Williams, which I'm like, we approve.

Jenna G Judith (14:07)
Well, like, you can't not choose Carlos.

Crystal (14:10)
I know, he's just...

Jenna G Judith (14:13)
But also, like, are we gonna be Cadillac fans now?

Crystal (14:15)
yeah, I mean, I love Checo and I love Bottas, although I hate that they say his name Bottas, because that just sounds wrong.

Jenna G Judith (14:17)
Okay, good, thank you.

Yeah. No.

Cait (14:27)
you

Crystal (14:28)
But like the sky coverage

says botas. And I'm like, it's gotta be Bottas right? It's

Jenna G Judith (14:33)
It's both of us. It has to be both