Hi folks, I am at twenty queries this week and I thought I would share a few insights and my deepest (and maybe darkest) reactions to the process. In no particular order.
My MFA mentor let me know she sent out 28 queries before she first got a nibble, but acknowledges how much the literary landscape has changed in that decade. These agents receive dozens . . . hundreds . . . of queries a month. (She has also since switched agents.)
I think I would rather have radio silence than be asked for my full manuscript and THEN rejected, with the form response that volume prevented her from providing feedback. Granted, she is a very famous agent and it was a reach in the first place.
No, on second thought, radio silence is the worst they can do. The very first agents I sent to, back in April, have never responded. Even though I actually met them — one, through a $99 Manuscript Academy session after which I made all the changes she suggested; the other, during our MFA residency in New York. Just a form rejection, so I can cross you off my spreadsheet. I totally understand why you have no obligation or time to provide any feedback. You’re committed to your actual clients. Plus, some authors become hostile if provided with real feedback, ruining it for the rest of us who just want to improve their manuscript. But send me a damn form rejection, PLEASE.
I have noticed a more reliable response time and rate from agents who use QueryManager rather than email. This is an online form into which you submit your bio, query and sample pages — along with (sometimes) a synopsis and a pitch. It is apparently easier to manage and queue queries on their end and spit out their form response. And it ties right into QueryTracker, which I use to research agents and keep track of my efforts. Note: QueryManager is for agents; QueryTracker is for writers.
If you are at the querying stage, it’s worthwhile signing up for Publisher’s Marketplace for $25 a month. It is a wealth of information about the business, and you can discern whether agents just hung out a shingle or are actually making deals for their clients. For example, I learned (too late) that a couple of the earliest agents I queried had nothing going on. They have not responded, so I am in limbo and can’t query anyone else at their agencies.
A lot of my researched agents are closed to queries at the moment. It’s summer, a slow season. I will probably stop querying until September, doing more scouting in the interim.
But . . . about that research . . . I scout and find the Perfect Agent on #MSWL. They seek upmarket book-club adult fiction, a unique (not New York or LA) setting, a strong female voice, underrepresented protagonists, LGBTQ, hopefulness and joy, yadayada. Check. Check. Check. Then I will see on Publisher’s Marketplace that this thoughtful, right-up-my-alley agent has just completed “a very nice deal” on RED PLANET RAMBOZONS, a sci-fi dystopian horror fantasy thriller in which rogue lesbian astronauts battle women-hating zombies on Mars, pitched as “The Walking Dead meets The Martian and The L Word.”
Okay, I kid. But I have seen agents I have queried report deals that don’t relate at all to their wish list.
If I sound a bit discouraged, I am at this moment in time. Plus, as I have mentioned I am recovering from spinal surgery and struggling a bit to focus. But I keep Bonnie Garmus’s 98 rejections in the back of my mind at all times.
Rather than just rant, I am regrouping and rethinking. And scoping out the next novel. Two preliminary decisions: I will NOT self-publish and I will NOT pay to have my book published. Period. I also decided, per a previous post, that I do not want to write short fiction or creative nonfiction. OMG, that is its own world of endless waiting, frustration and heartbreak for dubious reward.
So if it is so difficult to get an agent to represent you in the traditional publishing world, then what? You should always have a Plan B, or just a Plan 1-A. (“Plan B” sounds like an admission of defeat.) I am not going to disclose Plan 1-A at this point. But the other overarching question you should ask yourself is: Really, why do you write? What does “success” as a writer look like for you? What will it feel like when you achieve it? Will you be disappointed?
There have been some really insightful Substacks on this topic recently, and my plan is to tackle it next week. Because when you have just dropped $35,000 on an MFA, such a question definitely needs to be explored.
This wish list gives me hope. Outstanding query to (redacted agent).
Best of luck. The querying trenches are tough.
Keep grinding, Lee Ann! Send out those queries and start writing your next book so you can offer two when you get your agent!