How many agents is it normal to query? Should I be throwing in the towel?

I can see why you're stuck. Are at least a few of your beta readers well acquainted with both the book's genre and the YA market (they read current YA books)? If not, finding beta readers who are may be your next step.

abluerwhite said:

At this point I have queried 60 agents. There's a good amount that just never responded, but I also had 11 agents request a full or partial. All ended in rejection. I've received the same feedback--can't connect to the voice or the main character. Not sure how personalized that is. One agent did say my manuscript is one of the more distinctive stories in the YA genre he's read in a while. As nice as that was, he still said that narrative wasn't strong enough. Part of me feels like it's because my book doesn't fall into anything trendy as of right now.

I do have beta readers. One said she likes the voice and thinks it's very authentic for a mature teen.

I am currently writing something new, but I am very attached to this project. At this point I'm either going to pitch more or let it sit.

This has been through MANY revisions already. Should I keep pitching or let it be? Advice?

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That's a decent request rate and if you're getting the same feedback from a bunch of agents who've read it, I'd take that seriously. I'd presume there's an issue with the voice. I can't tell you whether to revise it or not, but I wouldn't just keep pitching it as is -- people are telling you there's a problem and identifying it specifically.

I'm at around 60 queries and only had a single request for more material. However, I believe it was one of those "query only" submissions, so at the end of the day they essentially got what I sent to everyone else by default. At least it was a conscious reply even if it ended up being a rejection. All offered no feedback and many of them said, effectively "We have a high volume of blah blah blah, this rejection is not a reflection on your content, we're sure someone else will be interested." I've been reading through agent directories and I've basically exhausted the list in those books for my genre. To be quite honest I've basically thrown in the towel. There wasn't even a fleeting interest in the concept except for the aforementioned single case, which I strain to even mention because there was no specific feedback.

It seems you had some bites where they were actually interested in your concept and briefly looked at your actual material. To me that seems somewhat promising and you should perhaps consider continuing your journey.

Abluerwhite - That seems like a really great request rate! I know I sent out my first 20 queries with literally zero responses... . Maybe consider posting a little sample of your work in the Share Your Work board here, if you haven't already? See what people here think...

Wolfalisk - if agents aren't requesting material, that seems like a query issue rather than a comment on your actual writing. Have you considered posting your query in the forum for critique? (You'll need 50 posts first)

It depends. Something like 'I appreciate the opportunity to read your work, but sadly I wasn't able to connect with it/it didn't grab me as much as I'd like, and with the market so crowded I really need to feel blah blah...' that's likely form.

You gave one example -- the most distinctive he's read in a while but -- that is not form. Also you said the feedback came from fulls and partials. While it's certainly possible to get forms on those, it's much less likely. If you're getting specific feedback at all on a requested full or partial beyond like a standard inclusion for a query-only agent (like someone who asks for queries only and then asked for 10 pages or 3 chapters), I'd presume that's personalized and real, unless you've got some reason to think otherwise (like very specific form-like language).

Just asking.....why not bypass agent and go to publishers, I've seen a few publishers where you don't require an agent. Or if you're happy with your novel and proud of it and want others to read it, why not self publish? Just curious because 60 sounds like a lot of agents, is that normal to submit to so many? I'm new to all of this so I'm just curious.

Jan74 said:

Just asking.....why not bypass agent and go to publishers, I've seen a few publishers where you don't require an agent. Or if you're happy with your novel and proud of it and want others to read it, why not self publish? Just curious because 60 sounds like a lot of agents, is that normal to submit to so many? I'm new to all of this so I'm just curious.

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These aren't all equal options. Each meets a different set of goals. And that's not so many agents that giving up is clearly warranted, especially not considering that good response rate.

RaggedEdge said:

I can see why you're stuck. Are at least a few of your beta readers well acquainted with both the book's genre and the YA market (they read current YA books)? If not, finding beta readers who are may be your next step.

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I'm curious about this, too, and the question was never answered. Many of us start with having friends read for us, and that's generally not going to be as much help as you need from beta readers. Too often it's no real help at all.

Jan74 said:

Just asking.....why not bypass agent and go to publishers, I've seen a few publishers where you don't require an agent. Or if you're happy with your novel and proud of it and want others to read it, why not self publish? Just curious because 60 sounds like a lot of agents, is that normal to submit to so many? I'm new to all of this so I'm just curious.

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Agents can reach more publishers, and usually can reach better publishers, than writers can reach on their own. They routinely negotiate better contracts and better payments for their clients--writers with agents usually earn a good amount more than those without. Agents also sell foreign and subsidiary rights for their clients, which writers struggle to do alone. They don't just find deals for their clients, they ensure those contracts are adhered to and that payments are made appropriately, and are correct. And if anything goes wrong they have legal teams available who will work on behalf of their clients to resolve things--all at no cost to those clients.

By all means work without an agent if you prefer, but in my opinion it's better to have an agent if you can.

Some writers submit to 100 or more agents before finding one who fits them: others get agents relatively quickly. It's difficult to tell what's a lot and what isn't, because books, writers and agents all vary so much. Persistence is key.

11 requests out of 60 queries is actually pretty good. Definitely keep trying. Have you only targeted US agents? Or have you also tried, say, UK agents? It might be more their kind of thing.

abluerwhite said:

JJ, I sent it out to five friends. One is an English teacher, and two are avid readers. Unfortunately, they've taken months to read it and none of them so far have real criticism. I need to find beta readers I can trust, but that will actually give me helpful feedback.

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This is the same kind of thing I did, too, friends who were avid readers, but they didn't have the expertise I actually needed from a beta reader.

The Beta Project is just now getting started in the Novels area. Guidelines are posted in the first couple posts, and you have until May 11 to sign up. You should take a look and consider that.

I'm also a huge fan of getting involved in the Share Your Work areas critiquing other people's work. You can post your own, too, but you'll learn tons by reading/participating in the other threads there.

Hey I know you asked this question long ago, and while I dont think i can offer better advice than what has been said if you dig around this forum, i am interested in knowing what has become of your project? Did you set it aside, did you keep going at it? I wish you best of luck either way.

It sounds like you definitely want to identify some more beta readers. However, you have a really good request rate! 60 seems like a lit but honestly is not the end of the line. Janet Reid has a post about exactly this -- How many queries should you submit? Query until you can't anymore and then send at least one more. (Post linked below). It only takes one person out of 100 to see your potential. If you are getting the same feedback from your rejections, such as the voice, then you probably do want to try to remedy that before you move forward.

Also... I am a youth librarian and am pretty familiar with children and youth materials. I am happy to take a look at your first fifty pages to gauge for voice if you like. (Just PM me.)

https://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2015/11/how-many-is-enough.html

Janet Reid also reiterated her 100 rejections quota in a recent post. You definitely shouldn't be giving up at 60, not if you have more agents to query. I can get your dilemma though. Getting more beta readers who a) don't know you personally and b) are well-versed in your genre would be key. Beyond that, your rejections so far may just be a matter of the agent's taste, so I wouldn't give up hope just yet.

Before I finally landed my agent I"d queried well over 150, so no number is too high or too small. Just look for someone you think might be a good fit for you and go for it!

11 requests for a full out of 60 submissions is a pretty good ratio--at the very least it means your query letter is decent. But 11 rejections of the full ms. suggests to me (as a former literary agent) that there are issues with the ms. itself. You say you've been through many revisions, to which I say "So what?" We all revise endlessly to get to the point where our work is deemed publishable. I literally can't count how many drafts I write before I'm satisfied enough to submit---and then, once a book is sold, there's still more revising to do.

You're in a tough position. Your Beta readers like the book, but they're presumably not pros, and they're not charged with selling it. Sorry to say this, but I don't put much stock in beta readers unless they're in the publishing business and know more than their own taste in books. You've gotten some agent feedback, which is helpful, but not detailed enough to serve as a blueprint for another revision (assuming you were to agree with those notes, if they existed.) Because a lot of writers find themselves in this position, I started offering this mini-service, a detailed, frank review of the novel's opening pages up to 5000 words. I'm not on the forum to advertise my own services, and I'm sure there are editors out there who offer similar feedback for a fee---but I couldn't help mentioning this, because writers like you are the reason I do what I do. There's a Catch 22 in publishing, which is that it's really hard to get professional feedback on your work until it's published; but it's also hard to write publishable work without that feedback.

Good luck, and keep working. Perseverance is half the battle.

Well, just statistically, if there are 1000 agents you could query to and you've only approached 999 of them then you are missing out on a 1/1000 chance of being picked up by not doing the last one.

In general though with life, you get a feeling if something isn't working. Having finished a book myself I know that being told to just go back and change something like the narrative voice (which means go and change almost everything) is like being told to just go back and change the foundations of that 10 bedroom mansion you built on your own.

If you get 1/6 request rate you are obviously a good writer and you'll have learned a lot from your other book. I would go and write another one and then if that takes off then you have your original ready to wow them with.

With 11 reads, it might be worth sitting it out. For a while there my queries were better than my actual manuscript, which NOW I know was far too ambitious for a debut.

Treehouseman said:

my queries were better than my actual manuscript

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I have an uneasy feeling this is the case for the MS I'm currently querying