Requerying: dos and don'ts

Mercurio Cavaldi · Sep 16, 2009

Hi all -- I researched this site and others and know there is no consensus on whether you should requery after xxx amount of time has passed. Some of you (like me) might have revised their query letter and/or manuscript so heavily in the course of the initial round of queries that you feel the first few agents who rejected your work might actually give it another shot now that your letter or manuscript is much better.

I didn't touch my manuscript--instead, based on feedback from different people (and after several excruciating rounds of edits), I revised my query letter to the extent that it reads like it's pitching an entirely different book. So I can't help but wonder if I should requery a handful of agents. I'll continue to query new agents as well, of course.

So far, I've sent out a dozen queries, received one request for a partial and one for a full, and received half a dozen rejections. Now my question is...

1) Would you requery after a certain amount of time if you really feel your query letter has improved?

2) If so, would you re-title the work, use a different email address, and maybe even a different name? I almost feel like that's cheating... and yet here's this: http://agencygatekeeper.blogspot.com/2009/09/on-corresponding-with-agents.html

Thoughts anyone?

erin_michelle · Sep 16, 2009

I believe the polite thing to do is not re-querying the agents you already queried with the same project. Most agents are the type that once they've said, no, the answer is no. If you have another, different project to query, by all means you can query those agents with that.

So, to answer your first question, no. Sorry!

Danthia · Sep 17, 2009

There's nothing wrong with re-querying if A) your first query was such a mess it didn't give an accurate description of the book or B) you've revised the novel considerably. I've heard many agents say wait between three and six months so the project has time to drift off their memory.

There's no need to re-title it, unless you feel another title is better. Agents know people don't always get their queries right the first time, and they're used to seeing the same projects float by more than once.

Bear in mind though, that unless the original query was truly a mess, odds are the story itself (or the writing) is what garnered the rejection. That may not be the case for you (I obviously have no clue about your query), but agents are pretty good at picking up on a good story idea even if the query isn't perfect. If your original query got you partial and full requests, it was working. You had something there that caught attention.

Bottom line, query again if you honestly feel the query represents the book better. If it's just a matter of "well, maybe they'll like this version better" then I'd suggest moving on to new agents or a new book. And good luck!

Mercurio Cavaldi · Sep 17, 2009

erin_michelle & Danthia -- thanks for your comments. There are a couple of agents whom I'd like to requery, but I also have a handful of other agents in mind to query for the first time. I just really feel my query letter has improved considerably and sounds like it pitches a completely different book, so there are two agents whom I'd like to have a 2nd go at. Thanks!

Requerying: dos and don'ts

Mercurio Cavaldi

A shrubbery!

erin_michelle

Foreshadowing Queen

Danthia

Mercurio Cavaldi

A shrubbery!