Reacting To No Response

no response means no for more and more agents, it seems. I'd be inclined to leave the no reply ones alone rather than badger out of fear of burning bridges I may want later, but that's me.

Agents get hundreds of queries a month and it's almost impossible to respond to them all. If an agent responded to all queries, she'd never be able to represent writers and sell. It's certain, however, that they'll respond to a query that catches their attention.

The most important thing you can do is to follow-up. Don't be shy or think an agent will view you unfavorably. Follow-up is the name of the game in the agency business. Nothing would ever get done if agents didn't follow-up, so it only makes sense that you do the same.

Figure out a respectable length of time (maybe two weeks) to give an agent to respond to your query and then follow-up. (Your follow-up can be exactly that or you can simply resend the query letter.) If there is no response, wait another length of time and follow-up again. If the agent's office ignores both of your follow-ups, you have to figure that no answer IS an answer. And move on. If the agent eventually reads your query and wants to make contact, he will.

Keep in mind that some agencies do not allow their employees to entertain unsolicited query letters (which has given birth to the query letter for the query letter - a letter asking permission to send a query). That shouldn't prevent you from sending the query, however. If you never hear back, it could be for a bevy of reasons - none of which are worth your time trying to decipher. However, if you find you're getting the same treatment with dozens of agents, you might want to reconsider tweaking your query letter.

All I've had so far have been no responses (not that I've sent many queries out) so I'm going by the assumption that there's no interest.

Read the agent's guidelines carefully. If they say no response after a certain length of time means no interest, then scratch that agent off. If the guidelines say nothing about no response, there isn't a reason in the world not to inquire, after a reasonable length of time, which is usually two months.

Agents are not ogres, they have nothing at all against a polite inquiry after a couple of months, doing so is not badgering them in any sense of the word, and sennding a polite inquiry is, in fact, the expected norm.

If the agent says "no response means no," then do NOT follow up!

I sent out nine queries in the beginning of November (there aren't many agents who represent my little subgenre within mystery), got one request for a partial (which has since turned into a request for the full), got four form rejections (including one indicating the agent is closed to submission, despite my being referred to her by another agent), and five no-responses, which, at this point, 2 1/2 months later, I'm pretty sure are rejections.

If you're wondering, eight of the queries included at least one chapter pasted into the email (so it could have been EITHER the query or the writing itself that caused the lack of interest), and the one naked query generated a form rejection.

It's definitely important to be assertive (not aggressive) in querying. Since the agency biz is an aggressive business, being assertive only speaks their language. As stated by others, if you're instructed not to follow-up, move on. Some agencies might even send you a letter from "business affairs" telling you not to send queries anymore. But otherwise, following up, IMO, is mandatory. It is PART OF THE WRITER'S JOB. You're doing yourself - and your work - a disservice by not following up.

Like Jamesaritchie said, go over the agency submissions/individual agent page carefully. If they give an approximate response time to queries eg six weeks, don't follow up until at least the 2 month mark. Twitter and agent blogs are also gold for little updates about queries they have received "I'm all caught up to x date" or "Arrgh, I'm so behind, please be patient."

I once got a full request 5 months after I sent the query. It happens.

I think it's good to remember that an agent's top priority is not reading queries, it's doing all the business connected with the writers she already represents. This can be extremely time-consuming, and as soon as she gets one thing done, three more can pop up overnight.

The best of agents can get far behind on queries, and on how long it takes to read and respond to a partial or full manuscript. Reporting guidelines really are just estimates, so be patient.

When this happens, they do not mind polite inquiries, at all, in any way.

What the do hate is the writer who starts asking after a week, and then asks again every week thereafter. It happens.

Step 1: check their website for a idea of their time line. If they're a no response means no agent they will say so and usually give a time limit. "If you haven't heard from us within 4 weeks its a pass" kind of thing.
Step 2: Query Tracker. A serious life saver. You can check average times for each agent as well as watch the comments for recent interactions. If 5 other writers post that they have been waiting as long/ longer than you, it probably just means the agent is behind.
Step 3 (optional): check the agents twitter if they have one. Some will update their query status
Step 4: forget about it. If you sit and wonder about every single query you'll go crazy. Unless you have reason to believe the agent lost your query and it has been over 3 months and the agent always responds to queries so far as you can tell (in which case you can nudge), then don't worry about it. Consider it a rejection if you have to, and if it comes back as a request its simply a pleasant surprise.

The only time this is really a concern is if you have an offer and don't know if your query is still being considered. In which case I'd send an update just to be safe.

I agree with everything Tromboli said.

I'll add one thing. If you do follow-up, make sure you say you're following up and include the original query. As in:

"Dear [agent], On [date], I sent you a query for [project] and wanted to check in to see if you were still considering it. I've pasted the query below. Thank you."

Or something. Keep it simple.

Just dropping by to say I hate the no response. I just take it as a no, and if I get an offer, I'll go to my favorite one and let them know. Otherwise, just keep querying.

If, after three months of no response from a query, I slip on my black cape, open the window at midnight, fly out and locate three or four sleeping throats to bite for blood. Once I've done that, I'm fine.

caw

May I suggest a few throats for you to bite?

Seconding Query Tracker. If you go to the list of agents and do a search for your particular one, clicking on them will take you to a seperate page with a comments tab.

The comments are the best part of the site, people report when they've submitted and when they get a reply, so you can see how busy the agent is. A lot of CNR (closed, no response) on queries usually means that the agent only responds to queries they like. I've even seen agents commentiong themselves when they've been delayed for a particular reason.

I feel like more and more agents (now) fall back on "only responds if interested." Which I completely understand, but it just makes it that much more difficult for us when submitting...

etherme said:

I feel like more and more agents (now) fall back on "only responds if interested." Which I completely understand, but it just makes it that much more difficult for us when submitting...

Click to expand...

A lot of editors do the same thing now. I have no problem with it. If anything, it saves me time and money. Submit, wait a given amount of time, and move on. No muss, no fuss.

I hate the "silent pass" as it leaves doubts in a writer's mind (as if we didn't already have enough of those, right?)

Note: always send your query from an email account with your name i.e. charlesfletcher~at~msn.com as it's less likely to be spam filtered than if you're sending out from your general account i.e. goodtimecharlie~at~msn.com

Stylo said:

Note: always send your query from an email account with your name i.e. charlesfletcher~at~msn.com as it's less likely to be spam filtered than if you're sending out from your general account i.e. goodtimecharlie~at~msn.com

Click to expand...

Plus it looks far more professional. I've seen a few agents on Twitter complaining about that.

Stylo said:

I hate the "silent pass" as it leaves doubts in a writer's mind (as if we didn't already have enough of those, right?)

Note: always send your query from an email account with your name i.e. charlesfletcher~at~msn.com as it's less likely to be spam filtered than if you're sending out from your general account i.e. goodtimecharlie~at~msn.com

Click to expand...

Good advice about the e-mail.

I guess the "silent pass" doesn't bother me because I always have so many queries and stories and you name it out that I hear back from something pretty much every week. It makes those I don't hear from easier to accept.

But I assume a silent pass is just a no, the same as any other.