Query addicts anonymous

This is a healthy addiction. There is no reason to enter a 12 step until after you've signed with an agent. But then you must stop. We'll be there for you.

Been there.

If you're query is working just go for it. And don't offer an exclusive.

Heh, you're starting to make me dread my potential lack of self control when I hit the query stage for my WIP. My patience already runs to tatters when waiting on short story submission responses, but novel queries are a completely different thing. Eep!



-Michelle

Query as much as you want. You are getting a great percentage of positive responses and in time will settle upon the right one. Until that happens, what could be wrong with querying you heart out?

scope said:

Query as much as you want. You are getting a great percentage of positive responses and in time will settle upon the right one. Until that happens, what could be wrong with querying you heart out?

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I think the potential problem is when the query needs work but gets sent out in a huge mass email frenzy to every agent for that genre. So when all the agents say "No" and you discover too late that a bit of work on your query would have gotten you twice as many partial or full requests, you cry because most agents don't like being requeried with the same thing once they have passed on it. Whether or not all requeries would be detected by an agent is definitely debatable, of course, but I think the above is the general reasoning behind querying in bursts.

Of course, if your query is totally awesome and everyone already requests partials and fulls from it, I suppose you can just query away with carefree abandon. Heh.




-Michelle

gettingby said:

My name is Gettingby, and I am a query addict.

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Hi, Gettingby.

My name is Janna. And my problem... my problem is... I'm addicted to caffeine...

*hangs head*

I'll begin querying my novel this summer, and maybe then I'll know what it's like.

Good luck to you!

Queries, what a necessary pain

jannawrites said:

Hi, Gettingby.

My name is Janna. And my problem... my problem is... I'm addicted to caffeine...

*hangs head*

I'll begin querying my novel this summer, and maybe then I'll know what it's like.

Good luck to you!

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Good luck to everyone just starting the query process. Much harder than I thought. I thought I would be as efficient and productive as when I was writing and repolishing and reworking my manuscript. Well....not so.

I started out pretty fast, looking up agents, signing up here and such. And then I hit a tough patch. I sent 11 queries in 1 month. Far fewer than I thought I would have sent.

I have this fun, eccentric friend who does Tarot cards (yeah, I know, don't get skeptical here, whatever helps, right?) who said that I needed to keep querying because in about a month, say mid-June, I would hear back something positive from an agent (a male, in NYC). Okaaay...so I told her I would try to send at least 2 a day as that's all I could manage.

Anyhow, after getting back 5 rejections out of 11, I thought my query needs major rehauling. So, I have gotten some feedback from local writers and indeed, I missed a few things. I'm in the middle of moving from one house to another so the query rewrite will have to happen after the 20th of May.

Whoever mentioned that not starting out at full speed with the queries until your query gets positive feedback is correct, IMO. I'm so glad I was hesitant or procrastinating.

Oh yes, caffeine! I saw this magnet with a goofy 50s face on it that said, "Coffee! You can sleep when you're dead."

Best of luck to you, Bourgeois Nerd!

If you have agents reading your material, do NOT start sending to publishers. Agents will want to know if you have sent it out to publishers. If you've dirtied the waters too badly with your own submissions, they may not take you on. They have connections and knowlege about which editor at which house to submit to. If you get a rejection from that house, you may have blown your chance there.

Only 30 queries? I have over a hundred on my potential email query list. You might branch out a little more.

gettingby said:

I didn't query all weekend. Today, I wanted to send one or two out, but it is hard to find any more agents I like. I've gone to the usual places and am realizing I am running out. Really! I have only been after the New York agents. They haven't all turned me down. I still have six or seven reading requested material and one more who made a request last week, but I haven't made it to the post office yet. I don't think I want an agent that is not in NYC. Should I start moving onto publishers? I should add that I only query my email. So it is not every agent in NYC. It is more like 30ish, I think.

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May I ask why you are only querying to NYC agents who accept emails? Seems limiting.

gettingby said:

I think the best agents are in NYC, and they are closest to the publishers. I'm kinda turned off by agents that don't email. I don't mind mailing my proposal the old fashion way, but I rather do it all over email (or phone).

I know I am limiting a bit. But to be honest, I really do want a good agent, and I'm not going to settle. I think that is the plan. I can't imagine
there are 100 agents out there that I would want, though, I wish there were.

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In the best of all worlds you'll find an agent with offices in New York, your ideal location, but at this early stage of the game why limit yourself to New York? While it's great to have an agent that's nearby and close to the action (I know of what you speak because my agent is in New York), there are lots of terrific agents in other states (I came this close to initially signing with one). And given the computer age we live in, I don't believe that it matters, in the end. An agent in California can do as much for you as an agent in New York.

IMHO you should query agents out of state and perhaps expand your list in New York.

gettingby said:

I think the best agents are in NYC, and they are closest to the publishers. I'm kinda turned off by agents that don't email. I don't mind mailing my proposal the old fashion way, but I rather do it all over email (or phone).

I know I am limiting a bit. But to be honest, I really do want a good agent, and I'm not going to settle. I think that is the plan. I can't imagine there are 100 agents out there that I would want, though, I wish there were.

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I think that many good agents know that people hate using paper, and they use it as a filter so that they only get authors who are ready to take that extra step. Once you have landed one of these agents, the correspondance will switch to e-mail and even the phone - it's too inefficient to do anything else these days.

And, if you're hoping to land a New York publisher, I believe it helps to have a New York agent. Why? There's nothing like personal contact for getting things done.

Soccer Mom said:

Only 30 queries? I have over a hundred on my potential email query list. You might branch out a little more.

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I agree! A client of mine (for editing services) has submitted to around 100. There are certainly a high number of agents out there... and you don't want to overlook a perfect, fantastic one waiting somewhere in lands outside NY.

gettingby said:

I queried 10 more today. Some of them are even outside of New York. I just had this desire to query.

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Just enjoy the addiction.

Oh, gettingby, you have no idea how much I'm feelin' you. It's like every time you get an instant request for material, you think you should stop, but then you ponder every single one of them turning you down, so you just keep going and going.

I've now branched out to other States and regions. I think more than anything it's anxiousness: agents take SO LONG to look at material that you might go nuts if you just wait for them to get back to you.

It's like the lottery. You can't just play 1 or 2 tickets if you wanna hit the jackpot.

Barber said:

It's like the lottery. You can't just play 1 or 2 tickets if you wanna hit the jackpot.

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Except for that person that does hit the jackpot on the first lottery ticket they've ever bought in their whole entire lives...

But we hate them.

Send the snail mails. Then you can obsess over your daily mail service as well as your email account.