How Much Do Previous Publications Help Your Query?

DonnaDuck · Jan 26, 2008

I know they certainly can't hurt, if not they actually help you in that it shows the agent that others do want to read your work but not having any, and submitting a query as a seemingly unpublished virgin, could that affect your chances with picking up an agent and subsequently getting published?

I ask because I find it very difficult to concentrate on short pieces to sub out, let alone work on the two novels that I'm working on now that I toggle back and forth between. I ~~procrastinate~~ get distracted pretty easily with writing one thing let alone multitasking when it comes to writing. I certainly try but I tend to lose focus on one thing or another. Is anyone else like this or do you make sure to get short pieces out there while you're working on your novel so when it comes time to query you can say 'I've been published here, here and here.'?

Provrb1810meggy · Jan 26, 2008

It may help a little, but mostly, the body of your query is what will snag an agent's interest, and the book is what the agent will fall in love with, not your credits.

johnzakour · Jan 26, 2008

They don't hurt but most queries live or die on the query itself.

juneafternoon · Jan 26, 2008

Nathan Bransford described credentials as "icing on the cake".

ishtar'sgate · Jan 26, 2008

DonnaDuck said:
I find it very difficult to concentrate on short pieces to sub out, let alone work on the two novels that I'm working on now that I toggle back and forth between.

Good for you that you can do both. I find it impossible. I submerse myself in research and concentrate on one novel only. If I get bogged down or need a break from it I'll take some time away from the novel and write a short story, something entirely different. I had no writing credentials when I found a publisher for my novel. Something I did that might seem strange though, was tell them who'd already seen the manuscript and what their comments were, both good and bad. Surprisingly, it was one of the negative comments that piqued their curiosity enought to ask for the full manuscript. Board acceptance was unanimous so I guess they were all on the same page. Don't be too worried about not having any credentials. Agents and publishers want to be excited about your current project, not something you've done in the past.
Linnea

DonnaDuck · Jan 26, 2008

Awesome. Thanks, everyone! Looks like I have a nice, big cake to build but hopefully I can find some icing for it at some point!

James D. Macdonald · Jan 26, 2008

What previous publications show is that someone, somewhere, thought that you are writing at a professional level.

Naturally, you want to show your most prestigious and most recent sales. A string of sales to 4theluv and quarter-cent-a-word places tells the editor you're submitting to that you're marginal at best -- better to leave that section of your query blank than put the flaming L of Luser on your forehead.

blacbird · Jan 26, 2008

If a record of previous publication didn't help, agents wouldn't ask for it.

caw

bethany · Jan 26, 2008

But not having previous pubs doesn't seem to hurt much. Agents know that novelists often aren't short story writers. I had a fairly high request rate, and no previous publication, so really, I don't see it as a big deal.

maestrowork · Jan 26, 2008

Good credits give the agent an idea what you're capable of in the publishing business -- a story in Glimmer Train or the New Yorker, for example. Bad credits (PublishAmerica, anyone) is worse than no credit at all.

rugcat · Jan 26, 2008

James D. Macdonald said:
What previous publications show is that someone, somewhere, thought that you are writing at a professional level

Let's not forget, agents are not a monolithic group who all think the same way. That's why there's seldom a "right" answer to any question.

When I was sending out queries, I emphasized my previous credits -- two mystery novels published by a major house, with good reviews, an excellent agent, since retired. My pitch was fairly bare bones, just a brief description of the book -- my logic was that the prospective agent would see I was clearly capable of producing a professional and saleable ms, and would therefore be interested in at least taking a look at the ms.

I researched and picked a major agent who handles urban fantasy and represents authors similar to myself. To my amazement, she sent back a short but personal rejection, saying basically that although my credentials were impressive, the premise just didn't grab her. So, chalk up one for working on your query rather than your resume.

On the other hand I got my current agent because the head of the agency saw my query, liked the credentials, actually knew and liked my former agent, so suggested I sent the full ms to my agent for a look. Score one for credentials.

Given what I now know, however, I should have worked a lot harder on the query portion.

David I · Jan 26, 2008

If you like writing short stories then write them, but don't do it on the premise that they are the foundation for selling yourself as a novelist.

Yes, good short story creds in top journals give you a leg up--but I think it's probably as easy nowdays to place a novel as to get into a top-flight short-story venue.

So write what you really want to write, whatever that may be.

blacbird · Jan 26, 2008

The real question is; Does a prior publication record help get your manuscript read?. If agents are rejecting your query because you can't claim a significant publication record, then your manuscript is never considered, and your actual writing becomes meaningless.
That's a problem, isn't it?

caw

mikeland · Jan 27, 2008

blacbird said:
The real question is; Does a prior publication record help get your manuscript read?. If agents are rejecting your query because you can't claim a significant publication record, then your manuscript is never considered, and your actual writing becomes meaningless.
That's a problem, isn't it?

Unless the agent asks for a sample at the query stage, the writing in the actual manuscript is already meaningless to their decision. Agents are turning projects down based on the hook or premise, not the writing (unless the query is so poorly written as to be unreadable).

I agree with what others have said. If the story is really good, most agents will want to read some pages. I don't think that any agent will reject a home run idea because the writer has no credits.

However, there are very few obvious knock-it-out-of-the-park ideas. So it's usually a subjective decision. In those cases, the agent is going to be looking for clues that this writer can execute this idea. I think that is where credits come into play -- they are merely an indicator to the agent that someone else thinks that this person can write something publishable.

bethany · Jan 27, 2008

blacbird said:
The real question is; Does a prior publication record help get your manuscript read?. If agents are rejecting your query because you can't claim a significant publication record, then your manuscript is never considered, and your actual writing becomes meaningless.
That's a problem, isn't it?

caw

What kind of agent would do that? I mean, if prior publication is icing on the cake, who would reject a delicious cake, well forget that crappy metaphor, I just don't see the credits as the first thing agents look at. I see them as the factor that might tip the scale if they are trying to decide if they should request or not request.

I didn't list any prior pubs, and the first six responses to my query were for more material. I was feeling pretty good about the 100% request rate until number 7 was a form reject

. If you have a good query for the type of story the agent represents, I just don't see it being a big deal. If it isn't your thing, I wouldn't waste time with short stories.

clara bow · Jan 27, 2008

bethany said:
What kind of agent would do that?

imho, successful agents who have the luxury of considering only published authors for clients.

WendyNYC · Jan 27, 2008

I started with short stories because a) I like shorts and b) I wanted to start small, instead of "learning" on a trunk novel. That's my theory, anyway, we'll see how it actually works. I've been published a 2 times, and have a few things still out on submission, so I'm hoping when an agent reads "Glimmer Train finalist" she will get a warm fuzzy feeling about me before diving in to my query. That's my hope. But the story will still have to be good to sell.

Cassidy · Jan 27, 2008

This is kind of funny. I wondered about this too so I wrote three short stories and sent them off, in hopes that an acceptance would help my query for my first novel. Then I got a couple of rejections for the stories and the novel got accepted anyway. Then, maybe six months later, after I'd pretty much forgotten all about it, I got an acceptance for the third story. Of course, I was very pleased but also amused... so much for all my strategy. I'd say just write what you enjoy writing and let the rest sort itself out.

blacbird · Jan 27, 2008

bethany said:
What kind of agent would do that? I mean, if prior publication is icing on the cake, who would reject a delicious cake, well forget that crappy metaphor, I just don't see the credits as the first thing agents look at. I see them as the factor that might tip the scale if they are trying to decide if they should request or not request.

Which exactly proves my points: 1. If prior publication didn't mean anything, agents wouldn't ask for it; and 2. if, as a factor in the decision, a lack of prior publication causes an agent to reject a query, the agent never sees the "delicious cake".

caw

Stijn Hommes · Jan 27, 2008

Short stories are entirely different beasts from novel writing. Being able to write one, doens't necessarily mean you can write the other. Just treat it like icing on the cake.

DonnaDuck · Jan 27, 2008

The thing is I do like writing short stories but when it comes to priorities, the novels come first. I have a few that are finely tuned that I could send out just for hahas but my focus, really, is on my WIPs. At least now I can ease up a bit about worrying about publications and just work on my writing. The thing is, though, I've been known to turn down what could have been a good cake because I didn't like the icing. It's rare, mind you because cake is cake but if I can't eat the icing then the cake itself it tainted, in my eyes.

But thanks for the input, everyone. Overwhelmingly it seems that when it comes to prior pubs, if it happens it happenes, if not then not. Now I just have to worry about my query letter because I SUCK at summarizing things. Granted I must write the book first but even without it, I'll mull over the query more than the book.

wayndom · Jan 27, 2008

DonnaDuck said:
Is anyone else like this or do you make sure to get short pieces out there while you're working on your novel so when it comes time to query you can say 'I've been published here, here and here.'?

I wrote my first novel circa 1988. When I was a kid (1950's and 60's), there were tons of short-story outlets, at least three major sci-fi fiction mags, three detective fiction mags, and every major magazine published a couple of short stories in every issue. In those days, writers got several short stories published before they took a shot at a novel. Stephen King went that route.

But when I looked around in '88, I realized that almost no one publishes short stories any more, and the few mags that did, like Playboy, only published ones by well-established novelists, so they could put their names on the cover.

I concluded that it would be easier to get a novel published first.

If you're not published, the next-best thing is to offer some reason why you'd be a good writer. In my case, I'd been working in radio (on-air) for about ten years, so I cited that as experience in entertainment. If you have no entertainment background, cite some unique or rare background that would suit you to the type of story you've written (like you work for a veterenarian, if your story involves animals).

Ultimately, I think the most important part of a query is that it be well-written. If your query doesn't grab the reader by the lapels, there's no reason to think your novel will. If you write the best damn sales-pitch the agent's ever read, you will absolutely get requests to see the work.

David I · Jan 27, 2008

mikeland said:
Unless the agent asks for a sample at the query stage, the writing in the actual manuscript is already meaningless to their decision. Agents are turning projects down based on the hook or premise, not the writing (unless the query is so poorly written as to be unreadable).

True.

Although I think agents who don't want to see sample pages are--well, to put this nicely, I don't think they ought to be allowed to call themselves "literary" agents.

I always sent pages unless they specifically weren't requested. And if they specifically weren't requested, I didn't query the agent in question.

Miss Snark claimed she always looked at sample pages before considering other items like synopses, on the ground that "good writing trumps all." Too bad that so many agents are moving to query-only, which amounts to "ad copy trumps all."

blacbird · Jan 27, 2008

wayndom said:
If you write the best damn sales-pitch the agent's ever read, you will absolutely get requests to see the work.

Circular reasoning, akin to the famous "If it's good it will get published" platitude. The only way you can possibly know you wrote "the best damn sales pitch the agent's ever read" is if the agent requests the manuscript. And if the agent asks (as most do) for information on prior publications, it's guaranteed to color the assessment of just how "best damn" the sales pitch is.

caw

mikeland · Jan 28, 2008

David I said:
True.

Although I think agents who don't want to see sample pages are--well, to put this nicely, I don't think they ought to be allowed to call themselves "literary" agents.

I always sent pages unless they specifically weren't requested. And if they specifically weren't requested, I didn't query the agent in question.

Miss Snark claimed she always looked at sample pages before considering other items like synopses, on the ground that "good writing trumps all." Too bad that so many agents are moving to query-only, which amounts to "ad copy trumps all."

Hadn't really thought of it that way.

There is a pretty clear divide on this for email queries vs. snail mail queries. Very few agents want pages by email. Fear of attachments, I guess.

I've done exclusively email queries so far -- the convenience is hard to beat. So I haven't really begrudged agents who don't take pages. But the relative merits of snail vs. email would be a different thread.

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