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Today I’m excited to announce an Interview withÂ Jessica TherrienÂ – Author of Oppression (Book 1 of Children of the Gods). Â In response to my question – she talks about her decision to Agent or not to Agent after she already attained a publishing deal. Oppression launched on Tuesday this week and is in the top rankings ofÂ B&N’s teen books!

Without further ado – I give you Jessica:

Hi. Iâ€™m Jessica Therrien, author of Oppression (Children of the Gods #1). First and foremost, thanks K.T. Hanna for having me on your blog! Itâ€™s a pretty good-looking blog, so Iâ€™m glad to be here.

I was asked to write about my experience getting an agent, which didnâ€™t turn out the way you might expect. That is, I currently donâ€™t have an agent, but an awesome publisher instead.

I started trying to find an agent the way every aspiring author does. I queried. Each response that came in the mail got my heart pumping, but every one of them turned into heartbreak. I cried. I moped. I gave up.

If youâ€™d have told me at the beginning that when I finally did get that long awaited offer from an agent, Iâ€™d end up turning it down, I wouldnâ€™t have believed you. I was desperate for one. I NEEDED oneâ€¦to me, an agent was always the first step in getting published.

Well, turns out I was wrong. I found my publisher at a local conference (SCWC) and they offered me a contract. I freaked. I screamed. I jumped up and down, accidently smashing a snail with my flailing (poor snail). Things were happening. My book was actually going to be a book, with real paper pages! BUT what about the agent?

Iâ€™m a systematic person. Agent comes before publisher, we all know thatâ€¦

I officially had a contract offer from a real publisher. Surely an agent would sign me now! As expected, they were suddenly interested, and I got an offer from an agent right away. Perfect, right? Onlyâ€¦didnâ€™t I get the publishing contract on my own?

I went back and forth, to sign or not to sign. If I signed with the agent, 15% of my earnings would go to them, when they hadnâ€™t really done anything.

Now donâ€™t get me wrong, Iâ€™m not saying an agent wouldnâ€™t be nice. Iâ€™m sure they do a lot, but their main purpose is to find a publisher, and I had one. I asked the agent if she planned to market my book to other publishers, and she said it wasnâ€™t a good idea the way things were with the industry. As a debut author, there wouldnâ€™t be much to negotiate, and I might lose the contract with ZOVA.

That decided it for me, and in the end, I signed with ZOVA on my own. Iâ€™m glad I did. It turned out to be the right decision. Working with ZOVA has been amazing. I truly believe no other publisher would have been better for me. I was able to work with them one on one and develop a great relationship with the people handling my book. Oppression wouldnâ€™t be what it is today without them. Theyâ€™re my publishing super heroes.

Thanks for stopping by for the blog tour! I hope you enjoy reading Oppression (Children of the Gods #1).

~~

 

Thanks for popping over, Jessica. Don’t forget you can win a signed copy of OppressionÂ HERE. Make sure you stop by and say hi.

And if you don’t already have a copy, make sure you pick one up!

$0.99 E-Book
Amazon Kindle Edition (UK,Â France,Â Germany)
$12.99 Paperback
Amazon (US)
Barnes & Noble (US)Â -Â on sale for $7.79
Amazon (UK,Â France,Â Germany,Â Japan)
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