Eventually, in July 1991, the manuscript reached a point at which the authors felt ready to submit it to an agent. Child sent all that had been written to date--the first two thirds of the novel, along with a synopsis of the rest--to a New York agent... who subsequently turned it down!

Two months later, in September, he sent the manuscript to another agent, Harvey Klinger, who agreed to take the project on.

"It's as simple as this: RELIC would never have been published were it not for Harvey Klinger. He believed in the book and persevered, even when Doug and I began to have our doubts."
--L. C.

Some eighteen months later, Preston and Child learned that an editor at Tor Books, Robert Gleason, was very interested in the project--as long as the authors were willing to make some fairly significant changes. The authors received a long letter, and a telephone call, in which these changes were outlined. Gleason was extremely helpful and thorough in his critique of the manuscript, and his editorial comments went a long way toward shaping the final version of RELIC as it exists today.

Preston and Child agreed with most of the suggested changes. In what had become standard operating procedure, one of the authors--in this case, Child--drew up a document for the other's approval. Here, Child first summarized Bob Gleason's editorial comments, and then suggested ways in which these comments could be implemented in a revised manuscript. As will be seen, several concepts are put forward here that, though embryonic, ultimately bring the book much closer to its final, published state.