How many to query at once...

There's no "rule", but I did batches of 10.

I do 2-4 a week, which is a good number for me. I can easily research that many agents over the weekend (takes about 2-3 hours)--P&E, website, blogs, and interviews. I usually have one or two more on the list who end up coming off the list because of the research--closed to submissions, info was wrong, don't like the agent, etc.

I have never queried before, and the thought of it is scary, but I would query one agent at a time.

I generally do batches of ten; it's easy to keep track of what I have where, and while I'm waiting for responses, I write and research the next batch of ten.

Just don't do large batches. You only get one chance at each agent, and if you burn through all the good ones with a poor query, you're screwed.

You need a chance to rewrite the query before all the good agents are gone. And there aren't all that many good agents for a given genre.

In this case, patience really is a virtue.

MagaliFuentes said:

I have never queried before, and the thought of it is scary, but I would query one agent at a time.

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Don't do this.

It's a waste of your time to query one agent at a time. Some agents won't respond for months, some won't respond at all. It's better to query in small batches 5-10, and wait to see what kind of responses you get. If you get a lot of rejections, revise your query, and send out to another 5-10 agents. Rinse and repeat.

Like Poppy says, don't do one at a time. 5-10 at a time is a good number to do your batches in. Send out batches once every 2-3 weeks. That should keep a good flow going and give you time to adjust or tweak if you need to.