Query Q/A

 General advice

• Be your own Number One Cheerleader! Not everyone is going to love your work, but YOU should :)

• BETA READERS. That’s it, that’s the advice. But seriously though, I can’t emphasize the importance of having an extra set of eyes (or many) on your manuscript before you query it. Us writers cannot take on an unbiased reader perspective, no matter how much time we spend away from the story. Trusted beta readers will be able to give you opinions on what works and what doesn’t. If there’s a problem many readers are pointing out, chances are your manuscript is going to be much stronger if you figure out a way to address that problem!

• Don’t rush into the query trenches. Oftentimes, it feels like if you’re not actively querying, you’re not making progress as a writer. This is 100% not true. The query trenches will always be there and writing is not a race. Query when you’re ready!

• Remember that everything about this industry is subjective. “Not the right fit” doesn’t mean your writing is bad!

• Research for the right agent “fit.” Rather than sending your work to any agent that represents your genre, try to find an agent who will specifically like your work. Websites like Manuscript Wishlist will tell you specifically what kinds of projects an agent is seeking. Sometimes, agents will list their favorite books. Do you also like those books? Are they in the realm of what you write? Consider that when querying them. Also, check out an agent’s client list (you can see this on places like Query Tracker, Publishers Weekly, and on their agency website profiles)—are there any writers you read on that list? Any you’re inspired by? Researching more about an agent’s specific tastes and who they represent will help you narrow down your to-query list. Don’t get me wrong: you should always shoot your shot if you think there might be a chance of an agent you want to work with taking you on. But by trying to find the right “fit,” you’ll narrow down your list and have a better chance of sending to the agent who ends up being the right one.

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• Query in batches. Don’t send your query to every agent on your list right off the bat! Waiting for feedback will allow you to make changes if an agent in your first batch gives you feedback/advice. Or, if you’re dissatisfied with the response rate for a batch, you can take a step back and reevaluate your query package. Everyone’s querying experience is different—give yourself time and space to change direction if you need to.

• Be open to critique. Sometimes, agents will ask if you’re willing to edit WHILE you’re in the trenches (they’ll ask for an R&R, a revise and resubmit, to decide if they’re willing to take on the manuscript with their suggested changes), and most will want to edit the manuscript with you after you sign with them. Either way, remember that this industry will require you to edit. A LOT. Writing is rewriting is rewriting is rewriting…

• Be flexible. If your query letter isn’t getting the responses you want, don’t be afraid to change it up to see if it gets better reception. That being said, make sure to give it some time—an immediate agent rejection doesn’t necessarily mean your query or synopsis need work!

• Find a support system. Querying is much, much easier if you have fellow writer-friends to support you along the way. If you can find other writers who are also querying/have already queried that can offer you advice and celebrate your successes with you, it’ll make a huge difference! I’ve met most of my writing friends on Twitter; I can’t recommend it enough!

 In the Query Trenches

• How did you separate your queries into different batches?

  Since my querying journey officially began with PitMad, the requests I received from the pitch event basically determined who I sent to first! I got really lucky; a lot of agents who I’d wanted to submit to anyway liked my pitch, so I was able to submit to them right off the bat. That being said, I didn’t submit to everyone who liked my pitch. My reasoning was that I wanted to see how my first round of fulls was received (a lot of agents who request during PitMad request the full immediately, which is both really exciting and REALLY terrifying!!) before I sent to any more agents. After PitMad, I also sent cold queries—those are queries you chuck into the void without getting any prior request for them. I sent to agents who were high up on my list and waited for responses. When those responses were positive and agents started requesting fulls, I sent those fulls out, then waited a couple of weeks before sending queries to more agents already on my list. I also sent out a query for every rejection I got (somehow, it made me feel better??).

  My “batches” were kind of weird in that I sent them over the course of 1-2 weeks rather than all at once in 1-2 days. I’d say I did three of them: one for the initial PitMad responses, another batch of cold queries sent to agents on my list about a few weeks after PitMad, and then another round about a month in when I started receiving full requests from those cold queries and wanted to make sure my manuscript got into the hands of agents who were on my pre-PitMad list. I sent out 21 queries in total. The first response I received on a full was an offer (I sat staring at my computer for a long, long time before that sunk in, and even now I’m still kind of in a state of perpetual shock!), and though I received more full requests from agents I’d already sent to, I didn’t send any new queries after I received that first offer :)

• What resources did you find helpful while in the querying trenches?

  There are SO many resources out there and different things work for different writers, but I can talk a little bit about the ones I used. I’ve already listed some of these above, and I go into more detail about them below, but here are some of the resources/opportunities I found really helpful:

  • Author Mentor Match (AMM) is a mentorship program for aspiring writers looking to be paired up with an agented/published author who will help guide them through revisions of a completed manuscript and help them navigate the query trenches. More information about it here. While I didn’t get into 2019/2020’s AMM, I did apply, and it gave me a first draft for both my query letter and synopsis that I later built on. I met so many amazing writers during AMM that helped me brainstorm and edit my querying package, so even though I wasn’t chosen as a mentee (I didn’t receive any requests for pages, actually), it was an invaluable experience, and I think it’s a great way to get a sense of what the query trenches are like!

  • Eric Smith’s Tips for Querying Writers: Agent Eric Smith has a great querying resource page where he provides his clients’ queries and talks, in detail, about what makes them so impactful. What makes a good query is subjective (just like everything else in this industry), but I find learning from example extremely useful, and Eric’s page was a helpful reference for me!

  • Susan Dennard’s Guide to writing a synopsis: Synopses are hell. But there are resources out there to make them (slightly??) easier to write. Susan Dennard’s Guide is one of them.

  • Jim McCarthy’s List of “Questions to ask agents”: I had many great conversations with agented writers about this before I actually got on the phone with agents, but I was still a little lost as to what questions I should ask when I received an offer of representation. Jim McCarthy’s article is an incredible resource for this!

  • Sami Ellis’s “Cheat Sheet”: Sami made this incredible cheat sheet a few weeks before I got my first offer and it was so helpful to me when I was trying to figure out what came next after getting an offer. I can’t recommend it enough!

• How do you format a query letter?

  There are people who are way better at this query letter thing than I am (see that Eric Smith page up above because it provides a lot of great examples!), and the agency website pages/agent profile pages will usually give you a preferred format, but I can tell you about the things I tweaked here and there! Basically, there are four main parts to a query: address, novel pitch, bio, and sign off. My content pretty much always stayed the same, but I sometimes either (a) made my personal address longer or (b) swapped the novel pitch and bio sections, depending on agency website requirements. Here are the situations where I expanded on my address to the agent:

  • During #PitMad. If I was sending pages to an agent in response to a #PitMad request, I formatted my query like this:

    [Dear Agent Name],

    Thank you for liking my #PitMad Tweet! I’m excited to share my query and [x] amount of pages of [manuscript name] with you. Below is my tweet for reference:

    [copy/paste #PitMad tweet]

    [rest of letter goes here]

  • In response to an agent #MSWL. If I was responding directly to something an agent had posted using the #MSWL hashtag, I prefaced with that in my letter, writing something like: “I’m querying you in response to your #MSWL, which was a call for [insert MSWL here]. I believe [manuscript name] is a great fit, and am excited to share my query and [x] pages with you!” (And then in the next paragraph, you hop into content) Some writers also like to do a personalized address if they see something on the agent’s wishlist that resonates with them. If you feel like you can personalize a letter, go for it!

  • If I had spoken to the agent before. This only happened a couple of times, but if you’ve corresponded with an agent before, you should begin with that! Queries are formal letters, but it’s okay to call back to things and have a very brief sort of “I met you here and it was great!” message in your opening. In general: personalize your query when you feel it’s appropriate, but don’t feel awkward about jumping straight from Dear [x], to the pitch! I did that with a lot of my queries. Sometimes there are things to be said, but most times you just let the query speak for itself!

• What happens once you get an offer of rep?

  I talk about this more in my How I got my Agent Post but I’ll briefly go over the stages I went through here!

  • Scheduling “The Phone Call”: I got a request via email from the agent for a phone call to talk about the manuscript.

  • The Phone Call: I spoke with the offering agent, asking questions about the agency, their editorial vision for the book, contracts, etc.

  • The Two Week Wait: This isn’t always strictly necessary but if your manuscript is still out with agents you want to hear back from, you need to give them some time to read through it. I asked the offering agent for two weeks to respond, and then sent out “nudges” to the other agents who had my manuscript OR query.

  • Corresponding with agents: If agents are interested in reading your work, they’ll respond to your nudge either asking for pages or confirming that they’ll read your full! And sometimes they might not confirm, but still get back to you anyway. (Or not? The Querying Trenches are a mysterious place) All of the offering agents I spoke to also encouraged me to follow up with them if I had questions.

  • Other offers: In my two week wait, I received two more offers of rep, and spoke to two more agents, telling them I would get back to them by my deadline.

  • Speaking with agent clients: One thing I highly recommend is asking agents if you can speak to their clients. Sometimes, they’ll bring this up themselves. Talking to other authors the agent has signed might give you a better idea of the agent’s editorial style, how closely they work with their clients, etc.

  • The Decision: Regardless of how many offers you receive, this is a big decision! Make sure you feel secure and excited to sign with the agent before you accept their offer. Do you like their vision for the book? Are you comfortable corresponding with them? Do you feel like they’d be a good advocate for you? If the answer to all these questions is yes, then YAY, CONGRATS, SEND THE ACCEPTANCE! When I sent back my offer acceptance I was a bundle of nerves and jittery excitement for days after!

• What lessons did you learn while you were in the trenches?

  Ah, this is a hard one! I think my three biggest takeaways were:

  • The call with the agent is one of the most important parts of this journey. I’d heard stories from other writers about how they chose to leave their agents because they felt they were incompatible. Some agents had visions for the books the writers didn’t agree with. Those accounts really stuck with me when I was navigating the trenches. One of the best questions I was asked before I queried was: “What do you want in an agent?” Honestly? I had no idea what I wanted then, and I think that’s okay. But I also think it’s great if, when you get an offer from an agent, you have a sense of how intensely you want to edit your own story. I had three agent calls and all of them were with really fantastic agents whom I genuinely loved speaking with. But they all had very different editorial visions. The first two agents had only minor suggestions. Then there was Jennifer, the agent whose offer I accepted: she got into the nitty gritty of my narrative and gave me suggestions that would force me to rethread certain parts of the story. And I loved that about her edits. I realized on that call that I wanted an agent who could push me, who asked tough questions and offered suggestions for how to reframe certain issues. No matter how many offers you get, I still think it’s great to have that sense of what you want, because then you can use it to help navigate your call :) If you get more than one offer, go with the agent who you feel understands your book best, and who you think will be the best person to help bring it into the market. (Also, if you click on a personal level, that’s great! I know everyone’s agent relationship is different, but in the very least, make sure you feel comfortable coming to your agent with your concerns!)

  • Querying is a void and we all know nothing. I know this is cryptic, but I hope that by saying “it’s okay not to know! Most of the time, you won’t!” makes you feel better? There’s no “this response rate means you’re doing well” in the query trenches. I overthought everything (which I think we all do), but the fact of the matter is that you just seriously don’t know the why of anything, unless an agent gives you a reason for it. Reason the agent responded so late? Reason the agent never responded to your query? Reason the agent didn’t connect to your query? Agents are busy people and there are many, many reasons; don’t beat yourself up for not being able to deduce any of it. And as for response rate: if you personally feel like you’re not getting the full request rate you want, play with your querying package! You don’t know where it could get you. My point is that there is no magical “do this and this” formula to get an agent. All you can do is prep and present your project to the best of your abilities. The rest is…well, an unknowable void!

  • EVERYTHING IS SUBJECTIVE. All-caps for this one because, seriously, every single part of this process is subjective. When I was getting opinions on my query before I sent it out, a good friend of mine warned me in advance that I was going to get differing (sometimes maybe even polar opposite) opinions on my query and that, in the end, I had to go with the version I liked best. He was right! Some people said my query wasn’t formal enough, others said the pitch didn’t have enough stakes. Some writers told me to not include my prologue in my query package, others told me the tension wasn’t high enough in my opening pages. At the end of the day, you need to go with what you feels works best. Like your prologue? If you wholeheartedly think it will hook the agents, keep it (but make sure it’s short!!). Worried about being too stiff in your query? Inject some personality into it. One of the most difficult parts of this industry—but also the most rewarding—is that everything is subjective. People will love/hate your story, love/hate your synopsis, love/hate your query, love/hate your prologue etc. Unless you get feedback that is consistent across the board, go with your gut!