OK! Not a bad first critique! I chatted with an editor from a top publishing firm over the weekend, and she had really positive things to say about my first 10 pages. She said that she was engaged with the main character, felt there is a story there that is marketable, and that she definitely wanted to keep reading after she was finished with the pages I had sent over. Though when I asked if she actually wanted me to email her the rest of the manuscript, she kind of dodged the question, but hey, I’ll take it!
So what’s next? I think it’s time to start emailing agents and seeing if they are interested in chatting with me about my manuscript without me first sending them $100. I mean, the goal is to eventually make money on this project and not have it be the reason I’m eating cereal for dinner (I’d prefer that reason be that I was too lazy to cook an actual meal. Like tonight).
Reaching out to one agent a week seems pretty doable. especially for a guy who spends his working hours doing sales, so it is time to start doing my research. Look out, agent #1.