Query Response Round-Up: Week of 8/25/23

Another week in the querying salt mines. Let’s see how I did and what kind of responses I reeled in.

My overall query stats as of today.

• Total Queries: 30
• Rejections: 9
• Full Requests: 3
• CNR: 1
• Pending Queries: 17
• Pending Requests: 3

I sent seven new queries this last week, and I think I’m done for the time being. I’m gonna set back and wait for responses to roll in before I send any more. I feel like I’ve hit all the agents that might be a good fit and are currently accepting subs. There are a few likely candidates opening in September I’ll probably query, but until then, I think I’m at a good place to pause.

Rejections

Two more form rejections last week.

Rejection #1 – 8/21/23

Thanks so much for sharing SECOND DAWN with me. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m the right agent for this project, so I will have to pass.

Please keep in mind that this is a subjective business and mine is only one opinion. I wish you all the best in your search for representation and in your writing career.

Not much to talk about here. This is your typical boilerplate query rejection. The agent did respond very quickly, though. I sent this query on 8/17, and they responded on 8/21. According to QueryTracker, this agent responds to over 98% of queries. That’s impressive. Here’s what the agent wanted in the query package other than the general details like name, email, etc.. (I’m going to start including this for all responses).

• Separate bio
• Query letter
• Synopsis
• First 10 pages of manuscript
• One-sentence pitch
• Potential target audience
• Similar books

Rejection #2 – 8/25/23

Many thanks for reaching out. You have an interesting story to tell and there’s a lot to like about your approach. But, in the end, I’m afraid I didn’t come away fully convinced this was something I could represent successfully for you. I’m sorry not to be more enthusiastic, and best of luck in placing it elsewhere.

Another standard form rejection. The agent does say interesting story and likes the approach, but its hard to tell if that’s indicative of something more than the standard form rejection or not. In the short story world, it’s not uncommon for publishers to have multiple form rejections, some indicating that a story was closer to what they were looking for than others. Do agents do this, too? Maybe, and that could be useful information if I were to query this agent again with another project. Here’s what the agent wanted in the query package.

• Query letter
• First few pages of the manuscript (I sent four).

You’ll notice this agent wanted a lot less info in the query package than the first agent. I find that agents who want queries by email, as this one did, rather than an online form such as QueryTracker’s Query Management tend to ask for fewer materials. Some of that may have to do with the risk associated with attachments and the hassle of pasting huge chunks of text into an email, and some of it might have to do with what the agent believes they need to decide if they want to see more. In this case, I feel like it was the latter. This agent responded to my query in a single day. Love that.

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And that’s it for the last week of querying. I was getting about one full request a week there for a bit, so it was only a matter of time until the rejections started rolling in.

Thoughts or questions about queries or these responses? Tell me about it in the comments.