Querying multiple ideas?

One project at a time. And it's not being fickle to write different genres. Many writers do.
(Psst...it's just "mystery" or "novel" not both. )

I write in multiple genres and plan on querying this summer for all of them.


My baby,horror,isn't going too strong right now. So I figured I'd cast my net far and wide.

You can query different agents with different work, but just present each agent with one project. When and if an agent expresses interest, then you can mention the other works.

Peyton,

One at a time. Start with your strongest book.

Kitty,

You might want to give some thought to submitting various works to a score of different agents. If one agent likes your work it would logical for him or her to ask you what else you have or are working on. Since lots of agents handle various genres, a work you have elsewhere might be on interest to them--or to another agent at the agency. And I can see where an agent might think it offsetting if they learned that you had obtained representation from one or two other agencies. Each agent wants to guide your career as a writer, not be one cog in the wheel. Just something for you to think about. Perhaps staggering your submissions by 6 to 12 months would work better for you..

You are the person who may be the exception to the rule. So it depends a lot on how you want to get from here to there, and defining what there is.

You've got two books published with a publisher who's going under. That means you've got actually three streams going, your old mystery series, the new one, and the nonfiction. Further, you commented in another thread that you have a personal following.

Do you want one agent to represent you with all three? If you have the numbers, I can see a letter that starts out with the publishing situation and you want an agent so this doesn't happen again. Then a brief paragraph about your present series and its status, followed by two brief paragraphs about each of your new projects.

This approach could work. It might lay goose eggs. But then you can go back to a more normal approach.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe