It's time to seriously start submit my query letter to agents. I have talked about this a little before, and have sent out a couple queries already, but now its time to really get down to business. I have incorporated the feedback from my beta readers and worked my novel until it is as good as I can possibly make it. I hope. I have had my query letter looked over several times too, and it, too, is as good as I can make it.
So now it comes down to the actual sending of the query letter. It's even more intimidating these days when all you do is click one button and it's there. It seems so unceremonious.
I have a list of 35 agents that represent my genre. I think I want to have anywhere from 5-7 queries out at a time. It is hard to know where to start on my list. Do I just go from top to bottom? How do I know which ones can get me where I want to go?
Looking at this as a right or wrong choice I think is not helping me. To a certain extent choosing an agent is indeed a "right vs. wrong" type of situation, which one is "right" for you, etc. But on the other hand, each agent is going to hopefully do a good job, do good things for you, and its a much more organic and complex process than one might at first think. I need to keep this in mind and not stress about it like the worlds going to blow up if I misstep.
Honestly I'm terrified that I'm going to get through my list of agents with nothing to show for it but form rejections. Hopefully my work will pay off better then that, but I think I need to be prepared for that type of scenario. We're not in this for a short haul. Kathryn Stocket submitted to 50 agents before she got a yes, and if that's what it takes, then so be it.
But it will work out one day, right?
So for you more experienced queryers, any tips or advice? Tricks of the trade? Ideas to make this process easier, secrets we should know? Anything helps, because, needless to say, I want to do this well.
Sarah Allen
9 comments:
Good luck. It's such an arbitrary thing, catching the right person at the right time, that I think you can only put your best foot forward and see how it goes.
mood
Moody Writing
Don't worry. Send out each query with positive intentions.
Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly
My tip would be to check out their websites and get a feel for the people they are. Then at least you'll have a better idea of the order to send the queries. Bad/uninformative website = unprofessional agent as far as I'm concerned.
Good luck! I'm not quite at that point (hopefully soon) but I'm already agonizing over it too. I agree with checking out their websites, because more information on them can't be a bad thing.
Good luck to you Sarah :)
It sounds like you have done a lot of great preparation for this. My suggestion is similar to Annalisa's. It is worth spending a lot of time researching the agents of interst not only on agent query but even just google their name. You mentioned not knowing where to start on your list, and googling can help with that.
I was able to find a lot of great interviews that way with extra information not mentioned on their site that really helped me personalize my queries.
Best of luck, Sarah :)
YOU WILL SUCCEED! We stand behind you. Go be the next big thing woo hoo :))
Leap of faith time, Sarah. Just shut your eyes and send.
To be honest, I don't have any real advice to give. I wound up querying roughly 13 agents & publishers, and with the agents, I got form rejections very quick (almost like they didn't really read the query) because I happen to target the top agents in the field as a starter.
To this day, I don't know if my query did the job as the publisher that I've hooked up with required the entire manuscript as well.
All I can say is I wish you the best of luck with your querying and here's to your query letter being a major cut above everyone elses.
Good luck!! I'll be in the same boat soon. Just need to finish this revision!
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