I've never gotten a full or partial request

mafiaking1936

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Maybe this will be amusing or illustrative: A quick and dirty graph of my cumulative #queries vs cumulative #requests. Can you guess where I first made massive revisions to the query thanks to feedback? :) In the second wave of requests I made tweaks to the query but also revisions to the MS. So you certainly need both to be solid. The sad part is I burned so many potential agents before having a proper query, only I didn't know it at the time.

QRgraph.jpg
 

pingle

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I didn't get a full or partial on my last book, so you're not alone. I think it was the book rather than the query. Admittedly I approached 95% UK agents, so maybe it's different, e.g. I usually sent the first three chapters as part of the submission package. The book being the problem isn't necessarily the worst thing, you can edit and change a book as much as you want after all. I'm not sure polishing a query is the best use of time if the premise isn't exciting anyone. I personally decided to write something else, and while I'm in the very early stages of querying it, and don't yet know if anyone will care for it or not, I'm still really happy I didn't get an agent for my last book and I'm glad I shelved it rather than sent it to everyone possible. It's a little mortifying to not get any interest, but *meh* not every book is great nor exists at a time that it's right for the market.
 

mccardey

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I now have reached the point where I definitely would not rely on a literary agent to recognize quality work.
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but what if you woke up to an email in your inbox from an agent who’d followed your contest (I do hope you thoroughly researched your contest, and your publisher) and offered to read your current WiP with a view to getting it in front of a Really Huge Publisher. Would you still feel the same?

it’s such a common statement, this I couldn’t get an agent so now I think they’re a waste of time thing. As well as being a very clear indication that the role of agent has been misunderstood. And probably also the role of a query.
 

kujo_jotaro

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I think it helps to first approach agents who only want the query letter without sample pages at first. If they all reject it solely based on the query and they represent the genre you are submitting, then its worth looking at again.

On the last manuscript I wrote nearly three years ago I couldn't get a request for love or money, even though I was convinced I had a really strong opening.

I'd been through my query with professional and published authors who I paid for their services and was convinced it was good, but after I decided to put it on AQC I got put through the meatgrinder and could see it really wasn't all that. After I finished re-working the query, I managed to get a few requests from the subsequent agents I sent it out to, and I promise barely anything changed in my first 10 pages. A lot of agents say they will read the first page or two unless the query really stinks, but from my experience at least, I highly doubt it.