Who do you query?

airandarkness

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So I have two YA projects that I have been querying. Lately I have been struggling with feeling like I've pretty much run the gamut with both of them and should give up on querying them. Then I check myself and realize that's stupid, because I've only sent about 50 queries on one of them and about 30 on the other. Definitely part of the reason I've been feeling so hopeless about them is just because, well, querying sucks and makes you doubt yourself, but I think the other part of the problem is that I actually do feel like I'm running out of people to submit them to. Which sounds silly - there are more than 30-50 agents out there repping YA fantasy, of course. But the thing is, I've heard the same advice from agents and authors alike - don't just submit to any agent that reps your genre. Find ones that actually seem like a good match for your book. I kind of feel like I've done that, and like it's getting harder and harder to find agents that seem like a good match.

I guess my question is...how do other people do it? Because I know most writers don't just give up on a project after sending out 50 queries or so. Do you, in fact, just query any agent that reps your genre? Am I not doing enough research on agents/researching correctly? I usually check an agent's online presence, i.e., their agency's website, their Twitter feed, what people say about them on querytracker, their MSWL page, if they have one, their blog, if they have one.

One of these projects I haven't queried at all for the past several months because I'm just not sure who else to query to. But I always hear people say they'll query hundreds of agents before giving up, so...what am I missing here?
 

Cosmering

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The general advice is to send out batches of 10 or so at a time. That way, if you get no bites, you know your query might need to be revised. If you get requests for materials but then rejections, you know it's the manuscript (and might even get feedback). Etc. Most people don't send out fifty at once! They try to stagger it and judge feedback.

Supposedly 10% is a good request rate but YMMV, that's just what I tend to hear.

I use QueryTracker to find agents who rep my genre. I'll be querying a YA fantasy very soon and have a list of 60 or so. Agentquery is also supposedly very good!
 

Earthling

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I would send to any agent who reps YA and you would be happy to be represented by. If they haven't sold a book like yours then maybe it's because they haven't found one they loved enough.
 

Vonsey

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I understand exactly what you’re going through. Been querying for a few months and have learned you really need to target them to right agent. My current project has some pretty dark themes (terrorism and PTSD), but falls into the thriller category. When agent reps romance, YA, and other cheerful works it’s kinda a hint. While I would sound determined to have over 100+ rejections I probably wasn’t choosing wisely.

Think best info I’ve read lately is how successful good queries really are... they don’t receive one or two partials after 30 queries, they get like a 70 percent return. If your getting feedback like that must be your pages, if not polish the query.
 

airandarkness

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The general advice is to send out batches of 10 or so at a time. That way, if you get no bites, you know your query might need to be revised. If you get requests for materials but then rejections, you know it's the manuscript (and might even get feedback). Etc. Most people don't send out fifty at once! They try to stagger it and judge feedback.

Supposedly 10% is a good request rate but YMMV, that's just what I tend to hear.

I use QueryTracker to find agents who rep my genre. I'll be querying a YA fantasy very soon and have a list of 60 or so. Agentquery is also supposedly very good!

Well, I didn't send out 50 at once, lol. That was over the course of several months. I try to have about 6-10 "active" queries out on one project at a time. I stopped and got feedback and revised both query and pages (this was on the first project) after about 30 unsuccessful queries, with only 1 partial request. I had heard that was good to do after about 30, although having queried a couple of projects now, I'm starting to feel it would be wiser to get feedback/revise after maybe 20 unsuccessful queries. While I definitely didn't query all my top choices right off the bat, I still felt like I'd "wasted" too many queries before taking a break to see if the query needed more work.

Never heard of agentquery, will have to check that out, thanks!

Don't let queries hold up your process. Send out a batch of the things, then forget about 'em and get back to writing.

Oh, I've been writing all this time, of course. Recently finished a couple of new novels that I'm hoping to have query ready by the end of the year. That's not the issue. It's more that I feel like I've pretty much found all the agents who are "good fits" for my project after querying about 60 of them. And this seems strange to me since I hear people they'll query a project until they've got a 100 or more rejections on it.

I would send to any agent who reps YA and you would be happy to be represented by. If they haven't sold a book like yours then maybe it's because they haven't found one they loved enough.

That's true, never thought about that! Thanks.
 
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Earthling

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I understand exactly what you’re going through. Been querying for a few months and have learned you really need to target them to right agent. My current project has some pretty dark themes (terrorism and PTSD), but falls into the thriller category. When agent reps romance, YA, and other cheerful works it’s kinda a hint. While I would sound determined to have over 100+ rejections I probably wasn’t choosing wisely.

I think you might be limiting yourself unnecessarily. My agent reps my fluffy romcoms but her general tastes run to much more serious works.

Likewise, I read the most extreme horror and I read the most fluffy romances...
 

froglivers

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I get you, especially on feeling like I wasted my shot. I'm looking to query a second round this fall/winter, and going over my 10 pages again, and wished I'd not used up my first 20 agents. :Shrug:


If you completely re-do the book, write a new query letter, and have a brand new opening 10p, would it be so bad to re-submit to a select few of them a year later? That wouldn't make you a serial queryer, would it?
 
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froglivers

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I understand exactly what you’re going through. Been querying for a few months and have learned you really need to target them to right agent. My current project has some pretty dark themes (terrorism and PTSD), but falls into the thriller category. When agent reps romance, YA, and other cheerful works it’s kinda a hint. While I would sound determined to have over 100+ rejections I probably wasn’t choosing wisely.

Think best info I’ve read lately is how successful good queries really are... they don’t receive one or two partials after 30 queries, they get like a 70 percent return. If your getting feedback like that must be your pages, if not polish the query.

This is what I'm realizing, too, after I'd gone through the first round. I wished I'd tested the waters with only the first 8, instead of shooting the whole 8-12 in consecutive weeks.
 
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CJSimone

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Think best info I’ve read lately is how successful good queries really are... they don’t receive one or two partials after 30 queries, they get like a 70 percent return.

No need to feel discouraged if not getting around 70% or even close. Most debut writers don't, no matter how good the query/pages. There's a dude who's put this number out there (I think he said a good query should have a 75% request rate), but most have said this is inaccurate. Traditionally, 10% is seen as a "good" request rate (though if you're not getting that many requests, it's probably a good idea to revise the query and/or opening pages).

Agent rejections aren't just about the quality of the query/pages either; they're also about an agent's vision for the work, competing titles they're representing, and other related factors. So 70-75% just isn't realistic, even for a good query.

I've seen writers get around 100 rejections for a single project and then land an agent. And sometimes those are the books that go on to sell quickly to a publisher, while the books immediately scooped up by agents fail to. The journey, as they say, really is different for every writer. :)
 
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goddessofgliese

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Think best info I’ve read lately is how successful good queries really are... they don’t receive one or two partials after 30 queries, they get like a 70 percent return. If your getting feedback like that must be your pages, if not polish the query.

Speaking of 70% return, I wonder if it's an indicator of how good their query letters are. It could be that the agents love their sample pages. I plan to start the querying process in September and I'm doing extensive research on agents right now. I read interviews with agents. Almost all of them say they would read the sample pages as long as the query letter is ok. And they will request more pages if the writing is great even if the query letter doesn't grab them. But if the writing is not up to their standard, they won't request more pages no matter how awesome the query letter sounds.