Does This Query Plan Make Sense?

No.
This makes absolutely no sense.
This is also a good way to get yourself scammed. You need to do as much research into agents as you did writing your book.
Using Agentquery.com is a way to start and then cross referencing using Publishers Marketplace (a great investment) you can start to see successful pitches and exact type of book handled...
Are you non fiction or fiction- For fiction you need a completed manuscript...

1) waste of everyone's time and postage to shotgun query.
2) you'll feel like a hambone making emergency posts when you get requests for partials and fulls: "Hey Everybody, got a request. Should I fulfill it or did I query a bd agent?"

Really, don't skip the research step. Google is your friend. So are the dozen+ agent blogs, agentquery, literarymarketplace, AW, etc.
Hard copy books, too. Hermans, WM, LMP...

ExposingCorruption said:

My plan is to send out as many queries as possible before doing any in-depth research into the agent.

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Why on Earth would you want to do that? Find the agents who have successfully represented the books that fit the same market niche(s) as your book and query them.

I would point out to you that's the advice of everyone on this board who's a multi-published, highly respected author (James McDonald) or an author with a big-deal, buzz-worthy new book (Patricia/Orion) or a so-far-midlist hack with experience in the publishing industry (me). It's the advice of every agent who's posted here, and of every agent who blogs or speaks at conferences.

I mean, you can do what you want, and if it works for you, grand. But to me, your plan doesn't make sense. It flies in the face of all the professional advice out there, and in the face of all the advice from your peers.

What you're doing is the equivalent of cold-calling numbers from the phone book to make sales. Researching agents, on the other hand, is creating qualified leads for yourself.

A market niche can go beyond genre. I know agents who handle fantasy but ONLY urban fantasy, for instance. So if you write fantasy other than urban you are wasting your time and theirs by submitting to them. You won't know this without in-depth research into their list.

What is the point of sending a query and getting a request if you end up not sending the partial/full/requested material since the agent is inexperienced, questionable, a scammer, etc.? It would really stink to get all excited over a request just to find out that you don't even want to send it to that agent!

There are some agencies that don't need major investigation- Writers House and Trident for example, but if you don't do your research, how will you know what agent there would be the best fit for your manuscript? I think doing your research first is your best bet. It's kind of the accepted wisdom for a reason.

I agree with everyone who posted. When you do the research ahead of time, you know exactly who you're querying and why.

ExposingCorruption said:

IceCreamEmpress, you missed my point. I have edited my post to make it clearer.

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No, I got your point. Your point was wrong, in my opinion.

An unqualified query doesn't make any sense. Read the agent blogs about this--there is nothing they hate more than getting a scattershot query. They will reject those no matter what. See Kristin Nelson's FAQ on this, for instance.

A good query (and did you read the stickied thread about what makes a good query?) includes a comment about why you think your work might be a good fit for the agent's list.

When you send a mass query, you're poisoning the well on the agents who might actually be a good fit for you. Again, it's like cold-calling vs. qualified leads--if you have a good product, it's better to develop qualified leads than to cold-call. Cold-calling is for useless crap that you want to pump and dump; qualified-lead sales is for items of value that you want to supply to a repeat customer in a long-term relationship.

Only you know which your book is.

One other thought -- you may want to send your queries out in batches. If you find that you're not getting any requests for partials, you may want to revisit your query to see if you can make it more effective. Once you've queried an agent, you're really not supposed to re-query them, so you don't want to send tons and tons of queries out at once, realize your query isn't effective and then have no one to send it to once you've revised.