Advice for someone as they start to query

I am in your shoes, LStein, so I'm going to creep on this thread to listen and learn. Like you, I don't have Twitter (acctually no social media other than LinkedIn), so I'm especially interested in what folks have to say in response to internet presence.

I do have some insight into your questions around agents, though. In chatting with a few published friends, I've heard that Agent Querry is good and doesn't really need a subscription to use effectively (they recommended I did not subscribe, but that's a sample size of two, so curious to hear what others have to say).

They also recommended Preditors and Editors and Writer Beware to cross-reference. It looks like Preditors is under construction until Jan 1, but Writer Beware is live. Both seem to focus on logging agent, editor, contest (etc.) reputations and calling out scams and pitfalls.

Those same friends also recommended that I reverse lookup agents by thinking of books in my genre that are similar and then researching who represents that book/author. That task led me to a lot of reputable agency sites where there were other editors that may be an even better fit. Plus, who doesn't love a good spreadsheet?

Hope that's helpful!

LStein said:

Hi all!

After many years, I'm finally getting ready to query my first novel! I would love for people who have been through this to weigh in on some important decisions:

1) Agent query or Querytracker
Which do you prefer more? If there is a paid option, is that worth it?

I use the unpaid version of Querytracker. Agent Query is supposed to be good but I find the interface more challenging. Curious what others say, here...

2) Publishers Marketplace
Worth it to subscribe? If so, should I get the 1 month or 6 month subscription?

I've heard good things about this. Curious what other people have to say.

3) Twitter
Should I get on Twitter? Helpful in getting an agent or a waste of time?

Most agents active on twitter are younger agents (associates and interns) rather than the big guns. Some of them seem to be easily distracted by shiny things. I remember one agent tweeting that she loved Travelers and That Was What She Wanted and so I bent over backward to prove that my story was anything like Travelers. Now, years later, I see how foolish I was and how ridiculous her tweet was to begin with. And those sorts of agent tweets from young agents happen often. But yes, twitter is good. To me, it is mostly helpful (and very very helpful indeed) to be on twitter for the #askagent sessions and the statistics they share. It makes agents seem real, which is good. Twitter is also useful because when there is a Blow Up in the publishing world, it hits twitter. When an agent acts against their clients' interests, it ends up on twitter. It also ends up here, and elsewhere, but definitely on twitter. Maybe half a dozen agents (out of the 180 on my list) have a note next to them, because of twitter, which will keep me from querying them.

4) Internet presence
Rn, I don't have much of one. If they googled me, they'd see some info about my job, a couple of newspaper articles about me when I owned a business. They might come across a story or two that I've had published. My FB is on private and I don't really have other social media. Should I be making sure I have more of an internet presence? Should I start a website? I have a semi-anonymous blog. Should I mention that in the query? (They won't find it otherwise since my name's not on it)

I don't know the answer to this; see what others say.

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Good luck! Be sure to have other people look at your manuscript, but also be sure to hang tight to your voice and don't let feedback kill your story, which can also happen. IOW get external eyes on your work, and then put any sense of ego to the side and evaluate the feedback objectively. Use what is right.

IME, the most important thing to remember about querying is you're going to react to rejection in ways you can't anticipate right now. As a practical matter, at least for me, this means I have all the bits of my query package assembled before I query even one agent. That way if I'm in the throes of Rejection Depression, I can query the next agent by rote before my impostor syndrome talks me out of it.

But to answer your questions:

LStein said:

1) Agent query or Querytracker
Which do you prefer more? If there is a paid option, is that worth it?

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I used QueryTracker. I paid, because I found some of the organizational features useful, but you don't have to.

I have this vague memory of reading that AgentQuery isn't kept as up to date? Either way, multiple sources are good.

2) Publishers Marketplace
Worth it to subscribe? If so, should I get the 1 month or 6 month subscription?

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No comment, since I never subscribed. You can get some sales data from PM, but it's worth noting reports of sales are voluntary, so it's not a comprehensive source.

3) Twitter
Should I get on Twitter? Helpful in getting an agent or a waste of time?

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I like Twitter. I don't think it helps getting an agent. You can learn some interesting things about some of them, though, if you look at their feeds. (Not all agents are active on Twitter; mine isn't.)

4) Internet presence
Rn, I don't have much of one. If they googled me, they'd see some info about my job, a couple of newspaper articles about me when I owned a business. They might come across a story or two that I've had published. My FB is on private and I don't really have other social media. Should I be making sure I have more of an internet presence? Should I start a website? I have a semi-anonymous blog. Should I mention that in the query? (They won't find it otherwise since my name's not on it)

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Almost none of this matters. Work on presenting your book as well as you can. Unless you are incendiary in some way (or are writing non-fiction and can document your expertise), an agent isn't going to care about your social media one way or another.

The one thing I'd say is essential, or close to essential, is a web site: yourname.com, or as close to that as you can get. You don't need anything personal on here at all, but you should at a minimum have information about your published/forthcoming work. Think of it as a Yellow Pages entry (betraying my age here ).

UntoldStoryteller said:

They also recommended Preditors and Editors and Writer Beware to cross-reference. It looks like Preditors is under construction until Jan 1, but Writer Beware is live. Both seem to focus on logging agent, editor, contest (etc.) reputations and calling out scams and pitfalls.

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P&E is, I believe, not being updated anymore. Writer Beware is an excellent source.

The best source I've found, though, is here at AW. I skipped a number of agencies not because of "scams," but because of personality issues people ran into that I didn't want to deal with.

Though, I'm not even sure I want to make an author website yet. I have very little I could include there except for a few stories published 8-10 years ago. But, I''ll think more about it.

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You don't have to put up anything right now. I would suggest grabbing the domain name, though, even if you don't use it for a while.

Don't rush into querying would be my advice. I think you finished the book very recently, didn't you? I'd let it sit for a while, while you master the arcane mysteries of the QL, then re-read afresh - and then perhaps, if you haven't already, get some other eyes on it before you send it.

There's no rush. Nothing in publishing happens quickly.