News — Alex Brown

This is a post I never thought I’d write (and one that I still can’t believe I’m writing)!!!

After seven years of seeking representation, I’m ridiculously thrilled to announce that I’m now represented by Hannah Fergesen of KT Literary!!!

HERE’S MY OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT POST AHHHHH!!!!

I sent my first query in July 2012. It was for the first book I’d ever written (a YA Fantasy) and, being the super optimistic baby writer that I was, I fully believed I’d have an agent within like two days of querying and that I’d go on to sell said book.

…clearly, that’s not what happened.

Looking back on it now, I know that book simply wasn’t ready. But you try telling that to 2012 me, who still had a year left of her first graduate program and thought that she was so cool for finishing a book. (For the record, 2012 me WAS, and always will be, cool, but she had a lot to learn).

I wrote a few more books in the years between 2012 and 2019, bringing my written works up to a total of 6 (hot damn!) so far. My second book helped me become one of the inaugural recipients of the SCBWI’s On-The-Verge Emerging Voices award, and every book after that always got me soclose whenever I queried them.

But then my life took a very big downward turn in 2014, and I stopped writing for a while. What used to be my fun escape—a way for me to work through whatever I couldn’t in real life—wasn’t something I enjoyed anymore. In fact, trying to write was making everything in my life crumble at a much faster rate. I was plunged into a years-long struggle with Depression, and had to deal with my life being forever changed by choices that other people made for me.

So I walked away from my fun escape, and from the dream I’ve always had, and slowly tried to heal.

It wasn’t easy. I moved from Massachusetts to California, running away from everything that’d hurt me. I took a hiatus from social media. And I slowly started to allow myself to write again.

But I didn’t realize writing could be fun again until Rebecca Mahoney (one of the best people and writers that I know) and I decided to make a podcast together. Fast forward a few years to 2019 and our spooky little show about folklore and monsters, The Bridge, now has over 1,000,000 downloads and will always be the thing that changed my life in more ways than I’ll ever be able to name. The Bridge gave me confidence to write when I had none. It gave me a way to keep in touch with friends all across the country.

And, today, I can officially say that The Bridge is how I met my agent!

Hannah began representing The Bridge about a year ago. She was Rebecca’s agent and, since I didn’t have an agent, it seemed like a natural thing for her to step in and advocate for our show. We had a good working rapport, and I was always impressed with how much Hannah cared about her clients. Whenever she talked about stories and their potential/impact I always clicked with it. And then she started her own podcast, Good Witches, Bad Bitches, and I got even more excited about the prospect of working with her.

I’d been eager to finish writing my current WiP, which I’ve been calling Space Horror, mostly because I wanted to send it to Hannah. I’d been hoping for a while that she’d offer representation based on this book because I had every confidence in the world that I’d written something that was ready to make it through the query process and I really trusted her with my writing (and podcasting) career.

But then the coolest thing happened: I tweeted about an anthology idea that I really wanted to edit and Hannah replied saying that she wanted to see the pitch. I sent her a summary of what I wanted to do, she offered me some great feedback, and then she also offered me representation!!! She’d had the same gut feeling that I did—that we’d work well together—and, most importantly, she loved my work and ideas.

After I woke up from my sudden fainting spell, I read through her email and then we set up a call (after a lot of caps-locked responses and exclamation points on my end). I sent her the first huge chunk of Space Horror and a 7-page synopsis (sorry, Hannah!!!) and eagerly awaited her thoughts on my WiP.

We had The Call a few days later, and everything she suggested in terms of revising Space Horror matched up with what I wanted to do. Our work and communication styles matched up quite nicely, and I already knew that we’d be a good agent/author match from working with her for about a year as The Bridge’s agent. She loved my ideas for future stories, really understood what I was trying to do with Space Horror (and how to get it there), and it was clear from The Call and speaking with her clients that Hannah was the right agent for me!

I accepted her offer and am over-the-moon excited to announce that Hannah Fergesen—my dream agent—is now my literary agent!!! AHHHHHHH!!!! YAY!!!!

2012 Alex, keep going despite those rejections. It takes a lot of work, but eventually you turn into a badass didn’t have to query a sixth time!!!

Since I don’t have query stats, here are some fun life numbers from 2012-now:

1: Podcast

2: Graduate Programs

3: Cross-Country Moves (MA to CA, CA to IL, IL to CA)

4: Years of Depression

5: Rounds of Querying

6: Manuscripts

7: Years!!!

Which brings us back to ONE offer!!! I can’t wait to start this new journey with Hannah and am so excited that I found the right person to champion my work (and me)!!!

DAMNED IF YOU DO: My YA Comedy-Horror Debut!

THE GATHERING DARK: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FOLK HORROR

How I Got My Agent