Success Stories: How Meg Wilde Got Her Agent
Today's success story is one that's near and dear to my heart. I met Meg Wilde in 2018 at a writer's retreat for Meditation and Revision. Six years later, we hosted our own retreat, Romance Authors' Meet Cute, at the same retreat center! I've been cheerleading, beta reading, and unofficially book coaching Meg ever since she told me her WIP was a dark academia magic library and I said GIVE ME PAGES OR GIVE ME DEATH.
Today, at long last, I'm delighted to announce that she has signed with a Very Impressive Agent, Lucienne Diver of Knight Literary. Here is her story.
1. Can you tell my blog readers a little about the book you were offered rep for? What's the premise? Also, please spoiler the hilarious inspiration story.
LOVE ON SITE is a high-heat, STEMinist rom-com about Natalie, a sustainability engineer who decides to accept her temporary colleague’s offer to help “work out the kinks” of her sexual dysfunction, thus breaking the rules at work, risking her dream promotion, and threatening the future of Cal’s struggling consulting business. The story was inspired by an embarrassing event that involved me opening my upstairs neighbor’s package by mistake, inside of which was a sex toy! I panicked, contemplated throwing it away, called everyone I knew, and laughed my ass off. Immediately, I knew this would make a great meet cute.
Eventually, I taped the box closed and put it out on the stoop. So, while I’m sure she knew it had been opened by someone, she didn’t know it was me. (I think?)
2. Have you written and/or queried books before the one you signed with your agent?
I’ve written 3 books: two YA fantasies and this contemporary romance. It was very apparent to me that the YA fantasies were not remotely query-able. But from the start, LOVE ON SITE felt different. Even amidst all the revising and growing I had to do, it always felt REAL. Altogether, I’ve probably been at it for over 10 years.
3. Was there anything you’d point to as a turning point or turning points where you really leveled up your writing? Was there anything specific you changed that you think helped this manuscript's chances while querying?
Three things initially come to mind, and I think they demonstrate how my craft leveled up across the board with this book. It’s really cool to look back on!
Turning Point #1: I remember having you, Michelle, critique some one-off fanfiction scenes and it completely blew my mind. It helped me fully grasp all the levels we need to approach a scene from — not just WHAT is happening, but how every word will make the reader feel, how far you zoom in on specific moments, how to choose details that carry the most weight or make the greatest contribution to the story, etc.
Turning Point #2: I also know that this story is where the character misbelief concept really started clicking for me. I’d always understood it, but I’d never been able to build the foundation and have all aspects of the story tie back to the misbeliefs as solidly as they did in LOVE ON SITE.
Turning Point #3: Halfway through querying, I decided to revise for stakes based on agent feedback that aligned with a gut feeling I’d been having. It was such a good exercise to think about how we could make the barriers feel bigger to the characters. For Natalie, we added in a female “cautionary tale” colleague who’d been shunned for having a workplace romance, to show what could happen to her as a result of her office romance. For Cal, we made him co-owner of the struggling consultancy, instead of a single consultant who wanted to land a big deal, so his employees' jobs were also on the line.
4. I happen to think that one of your superpowers is that you don't take feedback personally--that to you, any critique is about the book, not about you as a person. You're immediately energized to try something new and keep learning rather than being defensive or hurt that any changes were needed. Can you teach me *cough cough * I mean, teach my readers how you do that??
Aw, thank you! We’ve talked about this so many times and I don’t know if we’ve ever found the answer. I do love getting feedback and it does energize me so much!
Honestly, feedback feels like someone handed me a shortcut, instead of making me muddle through problems on my own.
Maybe it’s because I write marketing content all day, which is constantly shredded and rewritten by editors and clients, so I’m numb to it? Maybe it’s because I only put stock in the opinions of talented people I respect and trust, and I just feel lucky they’re taking the time to share their brilliant minds with me? I genuinely don’t know what it is. But, at the end of the day, it’s all just words on a page. I may decide to rewrite or cut them tomorrow, so why be precious about them today?
5. How did you find the agent who eventually offered? You were querying for quite a while, but you didn't query THIS agent until the very end and then it moved rather quickly, right? What did that timeline look like?
I queried for a million (2.5) years and sent a thousand (119) queries. Lucienne was one I had my eye on and had set an alert in Query Tracker to tell me when she opened. When she did, I jumped! At the time, I had passed the two-year mark and knew there weren’t many more agents I was interested in, who were also open. Despite having 22 requests, I’d gotten 0 offers and was absolutely certain that this book was dead in the water.
When Lucienne opened, she was one of the last agents I queried, the last full request I received (2.5 months later), and offered rep one month later. I couldn’t be happier!
6. Tell me about The Call. How did you know this agent was the right fit for you?
As stated above, Lucienne is a Very Impressive Agent with a Very Reputable Agency. I knew I’d be lucky to work with her, but she really won me over with her enthusiasm! She emailed me twice within 24 hours to make sure I’d received her message, which was incredibly flattering. Then she kicked off The Call by gushing about my characters’ chemistry (is there a better way to win over a romance author?!) and highlighted the core female sexual health themes that were so important to me. The references she provided raving about her were just icing on the cake.
7. What’s your top tip for other querying writers?
My advice to querying writers is to get to know your writer-misbeliefs as well as you would for your characters.
For example, has drafting stalled because of perfectionism? Is ego preventing you from accepting helpful feedback? Is it really time to shelve this book or are you giving up too soon?
That misbelief can muddy the waters, making it hard to trust your instincts about everything from a simple word choice to deciding which agents to sign with. Knowing yourself well and paying attention to when that misbelief is leading you astray will help you navigate every aspect of your creative life!
Meg Wilde is a contemporary romance/romcom author trapped in a content marketer’s body. She writes sex-positive, feminist romances—think sex toys and men who make going to therapy look hot—for millennial readers. She lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband and can usually be found napping, reading, or spooning her dogs.
Meg is represented by Lucienne Diver of the The Knight Agency. You can find her at @megwildebooks on Instagram
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