Resumitting a query

My agent, via Twitter (this was a response to a question the other day, not your question):

@Janet_Reid said:

There's no such thing as the query police. You won't be arrested if you query again no matter what an agent says. HOWEVER...you don't really want to re-query agents who've passed. It's less efficient. Query the ones who are ..ahem...virgin.

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In reading agent blogs, I've seen lots of variations: some think it's fine, some say no. But I echo what DeadlyAccurate said: there's no such thing as the query police. The worst thing they can do is reject you again. Odds are, if you wait long enough, they won't even remember your first query.

Try some new agents first. If you get no bites you can go back to the agents who declined the original query. But really, there are tons of agents out there.

That said, I like what Deadly Accurate said about the query police.

If they rejected you then don't requery with teh same project. Why waste everyone's time.

I agree with everyone with one small caveat...

I think is also depends on how different the query is now. If the story has always come through and the query just reads better now, odds are querying the same agents will get the same response. But if you really tanked the first query and it's substantially different and sounds like a new book, and you really want to be with those agents, it might be worth a second try (but no more than that). Especially if time has passed. If it was recent, I'd wait longer before resubmitting.

I'm not an agent but, as an editor, I get a lot of repeat-y queries from authors who finessed their query and tried it again. Thing is, I remember queries - even going years back. I also keep a log of those whom I rejected, so if I see a query on the rebound, I'll reject it again. Like Janet said, it's an inefficient expense of your time.