Is it my writing, my story, or just my query?

The more books you write, the better they will be. Go ahead and write the next book.

I agree with Prawn, but I am troubled that you are willing to abandon all four existing novels after only "minimal" querying. I say start working on something new, but keep querying the strongest of what you've got. At the worst, you're out some more postage; at the best, you might hit pay dirt with the next agent you try; or somewhere in the middle, you might at least get a personalized rejection that gives you an idea how to direct your efforts differently next time.

If all you've done in minimal querying, you probably haven't gathered enough information to make any real conclusions about the novels.

Usually, if you send out as lot of queries and get no requests for pages, that suggests either the query was bad, the idea didn't grab anyone, or the query showed a lack of writing skills and professionalism. (This isn't a dig on you or your work since I have no clue of your skill level, just a general statement that covers the most likely scenarios)

If your query gets requests for pages, you know it's working. If those pages get rejected, then you know it's the pages. There are a ton of reasons why pages might not be working.

If the pages get you a request for the full, you know your opening pages are working. If the full gets rejected, it's either the story failed at some point, or it just didn't wow that particular agent. Often you'll get some feedback at the full stage to give you a hint which way this went. One agent can be wow'd and one will hate it, so this is pretty subjective. I had an editor turn mine down for the same reason another made an offer to buy it.

I'd suggest picking what you feel is the best novel, polish it up to a bright shine, write a dynamite query, and start submitting to a ton of agents that represent your kind of work. Once you go through that experience, you'll have a better sense of where that novel stands.

If you think those novels aren't quite up to snuff, take what you've learned and write something with the full intent to submit. Then go for it

I have four novels sitting in my drawer and at the time I thought they were great- After Lottery was published and I went back to them I could see more clearly what was wrong that I couldn't see at the time- The good news is the premises are all fine- they just need serious revision- It may be that they are fine- but it also most probably be that they need more work. It's my opinion you have to pick what you think is your most marketable idea and really work on revising/editing - try to take some writer workshops and post things online to get an idea of where you stand and then when you think it's ready REALLY query. If you still get rejections at that point then you regroup and pick your next likely project- The point is never quit. You should be both writing new material and querying your completed projects.

I've never had anything published and actually haven't queried anything for well over a year now, but I started on a new project recently, originally for NaNo, and one thing I've found is that a lot of bits and pieces from older novels I'd written suddenly made a lot more sense and seemed a lot more interesting / fitting in this project. It felt kind of as if I had been working towards this without realising it. So, what I'd suggest is to just keep writing projects that you enjoy doing, and see where it takes you. Like you said, we're learning all the time here, and maybe once you start working on another idea, you'll figure a way to work something from your older novels.

I've certainly enjoyed the excerpts you've posted at SYW, if that's worth anything

Agentquery.com is a good place to start -- you can find out which agents take e-queries (free) and sample chapters. If they say query only I'm still pasting the first chapter at the end (only 6 pages) because like you I got tired of being rejected on a query. If I'm going down, I'd rather go down for not drawing them into the book, thank you very much

How many rejections have you endured? If it's under 100 for 4 books, and you've revised them well and they pass beta-inspection, I'd say you haven't really gotten started yet. . .

You might need a little tough love.

Take a few chapters to a writers conference and have them workshopped, that will give you a better sense of where you are. Beta readers can sometimes be too nice (especially if they're related to you), and even weekly writing groups can sometimes patronize rather than help.

If you haven't already, try Share Your Work here.

My beta readers--about seven for one story and five for another--liked the stories for all their faults, which I found encouraging.

Click to expand...

That's my red flag. Betas may love despite faults, but an agent won't.

You fix the faults and try again or start fresh.

But--if you don't know what the faults are, you risk repeating them.

Be aware that it takes a lot of practice to get to Carnegie Hall.

For every hour a musician is on stage, she's put in 100 hours of piano practice.

Behind that first sale of 100K words is usually a million works of drek (AKA practice) the writer had to get out of his system!

After selling that first book, I shredded my drek just to avoid blackmail probs!

Gillhoughly said:

For every hour a musician is on stage, he/she's put in 100 hours of piano practice.

Click to expand...

As a somewhat accomplished pianist, I find that an apt analogy and pretty much the approach I take now when it comes to writing. One of these days hopefully I'll be as fluent at writing as I am on the keys.

I agree, try SYW. It might help to have some other writers looking at it.

How long is your first chapter? Send it to me and I'll read it.

I am in a bit of a similar place. I have been sending out "questionable queries" since last summer and gotten almost no responses. Finally, this past Christmas I spent a long time revising my query letter. I have sent it out so far to 34 agents and received back 10 rejections, one request to see my full manuscript and one request for the first 3 chapters.

I was in the middle of a final revision when I sent out the query letters and thought that I would not hear any requests for a while. I got my first request the next day. So I went nuts trying to get my full manuscript ready. With trying to finish my final revision and then getting sick, it took me almost two weeks to respond with the requests for the full manuscript and more chapters. I am worried that I may have blown it. Having said that, I am still excited to have been asked for more.

So I am about to find out if I will get some interest on my writing...or just spark interest in the idea, with my query letter.

In the meantime, I have resolved to send out 10 query letters a week, do no more final revisions on this novel for the next year, even if it is not published by then, and start working on finishing other books I have started.

I am thinking this way...
I feel I have done the best I can do with revision after revision after revision, with my current ability. If my writing is not good enough at this point then it probably still needs to improve. The only way to improve is to keep writing and working on new projects. When I go back now and look at earlier things I was working on I can see a lot of improvement in my writing. I don't want to try to edit my current novel again until after I have finished my next one. Like I said, I think I have done my best and if it is not yet good enough then I will edit it again when I have had time to grow as a writer.

I wrote my second novel because I wasn't drumming up interest in my first novel. While I haven't queried enough agents on the first novel to draw any real conclusions, it's a tougher sell than my new novel, so I'm concentrating on the second, first.

I agree with the others who've said to pick your strongest work, and use it to get your foot in the door. Later, perhaps with time's passing and more tweaking, the books you wrote might be fabulous, and you'll have so much of the work already out of the way.

I think it's a big deal you've written four novels already, no matter what happens to any of them. The practice itself is priceless, and the industriousness you exhibit is admirable. Those traits will bode well for you, as long as you don't give up.

Good luck.

Em

Jeez, friend. A dozen queries? I'm preparing to send out a dozen a week on my latest novel. I'll promise them they're the one and only, blah, blah, blah. They don't want it, that's fine. I read somewhere that the average writer of novels writes six before getting one published. You're just a couple of books away from getting published, statistically. Good luck.