Do actual rejects mean a better query letter?

It could also be just a matter of who you were sending them to or the method you used. A lot of agents don't respond to any rejections by email in general. It might be that you sent out to people this time who make more of an effort. You can check at querytracker.net and see what the stats are for some of the people you're sending to if you're curious to compare to other people's results.

I know nothing, but I'm assuming personally that requests for partials is the best indicator of how good my query letter is.

If they're personal answers, it matters - a little. You made them notice enough to take a bit of extra time, but they're still rejections.

If they're form letters, don't even think about them.

kathleen_grant said:

A couple months ago, I sent a batch of queries out and only received one response... but since then, I've rewritten my query letter and sent out about 15 of them over the past couple of days--and I've already received 4 responses.

I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or not, but has anyone else experienced this?

Click to expand...

Such a lack of response could be coincidence, but more likely it was due to a poor query letter. If you write a terrific query letter, you might get responses from everyone, even those who normally don't respond if not interested. More typically, though, expect non-responders to fall below 30% after three months, assuming you've targeted agents who represent your genre and are presently taking queries. More than that, something may be wrong. The next measure of your marketing materials is the percentage of MS requests. Shoot for 10-15% minimum, as agents reject most of the fulls they request--probably 9 out of 10--and sometimes for stupid reasons.

Post your query in the appropriate forum here on AW and get some feedback.

I write the WORST queries in the world, so it's a miracle I sold anything.

Quoting from this page, How to write a query letter.

http://www.spacejock.com.au/QueryLetter.html

Miss Snark says the following about the ideal query letter:

Just answer these questions:

Who is the protaganist?
What dilemma does he face?
How does it get resolved?

Answer each question in less than 25 words. That's the skeleton for a good query letter. It may not be your finished version, but it will give you the bone structure you need.
If you CAN'T do that...don't query me. Your novel needs the work then, not the query.

There's also a good article on the perfect query letter here, on AgentQuery.com



And here, an example from Miss Snark's famous Crap-O-Meter contests.

Not for the faint of heart!

I went through quite a few queries before I found my agent. My hope was that each query was better than the last. I wrote about it here:
http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/How+I+Got+My+Agent+Greg+Gutierrez.aspx
Check the article out, I think you'll find it both helpful, and (I hope) inspiring.
Never surrender.
Greg Gutierrez
Zen and the Art of Surfing
www.greggutierrez.com

kathleen_grant said:

I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or not, but has anyone else experienced this?

Click to expand...

It seemed to me like the better my query letter got, the more likely I was to receive response, even if just form. The number of silence = no responses did seem to drop. I honestly can't say whether that was coincidence or not, though.

For what it's worth, my latest round of 20 queries has gotten 8 requests (6 full, 2 partial)--usually within a day or two, 3 form rejections and 9 no responses. I'm not figuring I'll hear back from those 9, but every so often a straggler will pop up with something like "Sorry for the delay. Sure, send me the manuscript."