Distinguishing where I'm going wrong

It's hard to know what's happening as ten queries is not a lot, and you don't say how long you've waited for replies. A few days? Weeks? Months?

Here are some things to keep in mind: Target correctly. Make sure agents rep your genre, are looking for similar to what you have. If you're having a gut feeling that your query isn't up to snuff, try a query editor. Your sample material: Here is where it is impossible to know as I haven't seen them, and every agent has subjective tastes. But make sure you aren't starting with a lot of info dump, exposition, a really slow scene, or a cliche like waking up, running breathless through the woods, etc. (You can easily find beginnings that agents aren't fond of.)

Hi Never-Ending!

You're in the right place.

Based on what you're saying, I suspect your instincts are correct and your query letter needs work. Once you've got 50 substantive posts, you can post your query in Query Letter Hell, and a band of rabid squirrels cheerful fellow writers will help you sort out the issues. Similarly, after 50 posts, you can post your opening under the right genre in Share Your Work.

In the meantime, I suggest heading to those forums and critiquing others. You don't need to be an expert on query letters (or opening pages!) to have an opinion on why something does or doesn't work for you, and thinking about others' work will help you gain some objectivity toward your own.

It could be the query, it could be your opening, it could be both or neither. Sorry, not very helpful, I know. Some agents won't look at the opening pages if the query doesn't grab them, others look at the pages first, so if they aren't intrigued there they aren't looking closely at the query.
What genre is it? In general, some genres can expect a higher percentage of requests than others, some genres are hot, some are in a lull (and remember what's hot or in a lull may not be immediately obvious to you if you don't work in publishing, what we see on the new release lists are two or three years away from when when they were queried). How long has it been since you sent those queries?

When you hit 50 posts you can post work in SYW, either your query in Query Letter Hell (password: vista) or your opening in whichever SYW section makes sense for your mss. In the meantime, you can participate in SYW by reading and critting others, one of the most if not the most helpful way to learn.

Good luck,

You won't burn bridges with agents by querying. My current agent rejected two of my earlier manuscripts at the query stage and never even mentioned it when she offered rep. But I do recommend getting your query letter critiqued before you send any more out. The Query Letter Hell forum can be very daunting, but even if you don't take everybody's advice, it will help you see any large-scale issues.

Generally no responses means a query problem -- if you're sending to agents who request the first 10 or whatever, then yes, that could be an issue too. Some agents read pages first, some read query and won't go further, depends.

There's a query letter area in the Share Your Work section here (password is: vista), where you can find a lot of info and where, once you have 50 substantial posts, you can put up your own query. There are also places to post an excerpt of your general work for critique (the sections are by genre mostly, and have the same password). Even posting a couple thousand words will generally reveal problems that are pervasive through the entire ms.

The best thing you can do to work toward your 50 posts is critique other people's shared work. You don't need to be any kind of expert -- all kinds of feedback can be helpful. It'll teach you what works and doesn't.

While you're waiting to get your 50 you could try the Querytracker forum: https://querytracker.net/forum/index.php
It's a smaller, gentler bunch but still helpful for a first pass critique.

There are also professional "query crafting" services, if you've got the disposable income, and you're willing to spend the money. However, you should research your options and go with the reputable ones. Alternatively, sometimes agents and other industry professionals will offer query critiques either at events you attend, as part of contests, or even if you make a donation to a worthy cause they are currently supporting. There are a few ways to get a professional to take a look at your query if you're uncomfortable with getting a "crowd-source critique" from a big group. It really all just depends on where your comfort/security levels are.

Letting you know I got my current agent at #41. For another project #64.

It may may be a case of them being out there... somewhere....

The Never-Ending Sea-

Your experience is similar to what I've been experiencing. I revised my novel a number of times, but still have had zero luck with queries, not even getting requests to read more. Anyway, now, I have ditched the old version I crafted with a writing coach. I am presently working on a new version based on input from people in the Query Letter Hell forum.

It seems that most agents nowadays, or at least the ones I've queried, ask for the first 10 pages or three chapters or whatever along with the query. This saves them time, I suppose, which is the ultimately the point.

But I hear you--it's frustrating being at the other end of that. You submit a query letter, those 10 pages, and a synopsis and when you get a form rejection you're left in the dark about which of them is the weak link. Or if all of them are!

I feel like maybe I'm missing something, but you said this is your second week of waiting? If so, that's really not a long time. My writing teacher last year told us that in the UK 8-12 weeks is a pretty standard turnaround, so unless the agent's website specifically says otherwise ("If you don't get a response within 4 weeks, assume we are not interested at this time") then I generally give them the benefit of the doubt for at least that period of time. I've got queries I submitted back in February that I'm not going to consider as "no reply" until the end of April.

Other than that, I can only echo what others in the thread have said. Try tweaking your query, if that gets you some requests for more but doesn't result in anything further, review your opening pages. Rinse and repeat. Don't send huge batches of queries at a time, go for 5-10 and see what kind of response you get so you can adjust your strategy moving forward. Good luck with everything, it's certainly not a comfortable position to be in.

Shoeless said:

There are also professional "query crafting" services, if you've got the disposable income, and you're willing to spend the money. However, you should research your options and go with the reputable ones. Alternatively, sometimes agents and other industry professionals will offer query critiques either at events you attend, as part of contests, or even if you make a donation to a worthy cause they are currently supporting. There are a few ways to get a professional to take a look at your query if you're uncomfortable with getting a "crowd-source critique" from a big group. It really all just depends on where your comfort/security levels are.

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Please don't pay someone to write your query for you.

Agents want to see your work, not someone else's. Many agents will automatically reject queries which the author didn't write, too, which makes them doubly useless.

Moving onto the OP's question: there are all sorts of reasons why our work doesn't get picked up. It could be the query; it could be those first ten pages; it could be that you're sending the book out before it's ready, or sending it to agents who don't rep that sort of work, or who aren't taking queries at the moment. And, sadly, it could be that your writing is not yet up to scratch. We can't tell you, because we've not seen your work or your query letter, and we just don't know enough about you and how you're querying.

One thing I do notice is that you wrote a book, sent it out, then a few years later you rewrote the book and sent it out again. On the whole, writers are better served if they write new things rather than repeatedly reworking old, rejected works: you learn more, you'll be writing in a more current frame of mind. You might be better off setting that first book aside and writing a whole new book, and seeing how you get on with that.

The Never-Ending Sea said:

Critiquing other peoples' works has always been difficult for me...

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If you offer your *response* to the work - did it hold your interest? were there parts where you got lost? what parts did you like best? were you able to 'see' what was happening and the like, this kind of information - the actual effect of the written words on a reader's mind - is really like gold for a writer.

So if you are considering offering your 'crits' (feedback) just keep that in mind. IMHO, it's not our place to tell another writer *how* to write. If we are writers, it's up to us to figure that out. But knowledge of how our written words affect readers is a very useful tool when making revisions. So relax, read an SYW piece and just explain the effect the piece had on you.

I am in the same position; thats why I joined this forum. I can't wait to get the hell. Figuratively, not literally.