Query Quest: What Are My Chances Part II
I started querying my novel SECOND DAWN in earnest back in early June, and since then I’ve sent a total of 40 queries, netted some full manuscript requests, and racked up a fair amount of rejections and CNRs. In July, I posted some stats from QueryTracker, detailing the chances the agents I’d queried would respond to my queries, how often they asked for full manuscripts, and so on. Well, I’ve got more data points now (and I’ve learned a thing or two about the process), so it seems like a good time to revisit this topic. So let’s dive in.
As I said, I’ve queried 40 agents so far, and here are my general query stats.
- Total Queries: 40 (20 pending)
- Rejections: 15
- CNR: 2
- FMR: 3
Percentage-wise, I’m looking at a 42.5% rejection/CNR rate (this is sure to rise) and a 7.5% manuscript request rate (this is sure to fall), but what does that mean in comparison to other querying authors? Well, QueryTracker gives you that information. According to QT, the average querying author sends 44 queries, has an 87.8% rejection/CNR rate and a 5.9% request rate. So my numbers are in line and even a tad better than average, but I’m still waiting on a A LOT of replies, so those numbers could improve (less likely) or get worse (more likely). Still, for a first-time querying author, I’m happy with how things have been going.
But what about the agents I’ve been querying? What do their stats look like? How many queries do they get? What percentage of those queries do they actually reply to? Let’s find out.
Here are the average query response stats of the 40 agents I’ve queried.
- Queries received in past 12 months: 1598
- Query Reply Rate: 58%
- Manuscript request rate (full or partial): 2.4%
- Average Response Time (Positive): 21 days
- Average Response Time (Negative): 38 days
Positive replies are full or partial manuscript requests and negative replies are rejections and CNRs. These numbers are very ballpark, and averages might not be the best way to look at them, but they give you a general sense of what to expect. Let’s look at things in a slightly different way, though.
- # of agents that respond to 20% or fewer queries: 8 (8/45)
- # of agents that respond to 80% or more queries: 13 (18/15)
Interestingly, the agents that respond to queries more often actually receive FAR more queries than the ones who respond at an under 20% clip. It’s not even close, actually. The 20-percenters receive an average of 500 queries per year, while the 80-percenters receive over 2500. Now, if you look a little deeper into these numbers, you quickly realize that the 80-percenters are generally more established agents who work at or even run large literary agencies and, most importantly, probably have assistants that help them answer queries. Most (but not all) of the 20-percenters are less established and often working on their own. The numbers in parentheses are the average days it takes the agent to respond (if they respond). The first numbers is a positive response, the second a negative one. Again, the data is interesting. The 20-percenters respond quicker with requests and the 80 percenters respond quicker with rejections.
Okay, now the numbers that give me nightmares. Let’s look at some response numbers for manuscript requests.
Here are the submission response numbers for the three agents where I have FMRs pending.
| Agent | Subs | Positive Replies | Negative Replies | Response Rate |
| 1 | 106 | 2 | 12 | 11.3% |
| 2 | 50 | 0 | 31 | 62.0% |
| 3 | 59 | 4 | 20 | 32.2% |
Subs is the number of manuscript submissions the agent has received over the last twelve months. Positive replies are when the agent responds with an offer of representation, a revise and resubmit, or a request for more pages. Negative replies are, well, rejections. Finally, the response rate is how often the agent responds to a submission of a full or partial manuscript. That last number is what worries me. It is absolutely possible and even likely that my FMRs are going to become CNRs. That’s a bummer, but it’s just reality, and I have to roll with it. I just have to believe that my full manuscript is compelling enough to at least elicit a response, but we’ll see.
Unfortunately, you kind of have to dig for submissions response numbers on QueryTracker, so I’m not gonna give you the stats for all 40 agents I’ve queried, though I might do that in a future post.
Data is interesting, but I think we should take all these numbers with a grain of salt. It’s important to keep in mind that querying for an agent isn’t a lottery. Getting an agent has more to do, in my opinion, with having a book that’s ready to query and then putting it in front of the right agent at the right time. The numbers can give you a general idea of what querying agents is probably going to look like, but we’ve all heard about folks getting agents after a single query or getting one after three hundred. Right book, right agent, right time. Those three things are like tumblers in a lock–you have to trigger all three at the same time for the door to swing wide no matter what the numbers say. 🙂
Thoughts on these numbers? Tell me about it in the comments.
Query Response Round-Up: Week of 9/15/23
It’s been another twenty days or so of sending queries and waiting for responses. Things have slowed down a bit–I’m kinda running out of agents to query–but let’s take a look and see how the last three weeks have panned out.
First, here’s my overall query stats as of today.
- Total Queries: 34
- Rejections: 11
- Full Requests: 3
- CNR: 3
- Pending Queries: 17
- Pending Requests: 3
As I said earlier, I’m running out of agents to query. There are some good reasons for this, and those reasons are almost worthy of blog posts of their own, but let me give you a quick rundown.
- I write horror. The simple fact is that there are fewer agents that represent horror than any other (major) genre besides westerns. When I last ran the numbers on QueryTracker, there were 93 agents who repped horror and were currently open to queries. So why haven’t I repped 93 agents? Well, see below.
- One agent per agency. Many agents work at a literary agency that can include dozens of agents. Most of those agencies do not want you to simultaneously query two or more of their agents with the same project. So, for example, there might be five agents at ABC Literary Agency that rep horror, but I can only query one at a time, and the others are basically off-limits until that first agent passes. BUT some agencies operate under the assumption that an agent who passes on your manuscript shared it with all the other agents they work with who might be a good fit, and those agents passed as well, so they ask you not to query any of their agents with that project. Whether or not that actually happens, I have no idea, but since I follow submission guidelines to the letter, that’s more agents are off limits for my current novel.
- Do you really want horror? Sometimes, I’ll find an agent on QueryTracker that lists horror as one of the genres they rep, but when I do a little more research at MWL or Publishers Marketplace, turns out they aren’t looking for horror at all. They want memoirs or YA fantasy or something that is absolutely not horror. So, you know, I don’t query those agents. 🙂
As you can see above, there’s a pretty good reason I’ve only queried 34 agents out of that 93. I do keep an eye on QT’s New & Updated Agents list to see if any agents have recently opened to queries or if a promising new agents has opened up shop.
Rejections
I received two more rejections since last I posted one of these updates. Let’s take a look at them.
Rejection #1 – 9/9/23
This is not right for me, but thank you for the look.
They don’t get much shorter and more-to-the-point than that. I honestly have no problems with rejections like this. Boilerplate platitudes are nice, but I don’t really need them, and a simple no is perfectly fine in my book. This agents only asked for a query letter via email and responded in four days.
Rejection #2 – 9/12/23
I’m sorry, but your project does not sound like a fit for me at this time, and so I will have to pass. Thank you for considering me and best of luck with your future queries.
This is a typical form rejection, and it took 36 days to arrive. Other than that, there’s not much to talk about. Here’s what the agent wanted in the query package.
- Query letter
- Synopsis
- First three chapters of the novel
- Pitch
- Separate bio
- Target audience
- Similar books
That’s a pretty complete query package, and though it’s a small sample size, I’ve done better with agents that ask for more materials rather then less. Not this time, though.
I did CNR two more queries, but other than that, the two rejections I covered above are all the activity I’ve seen in the last three weeks. I’m hoping I’ll hear back on one of the full manuscript requests soon, but it could still be a while. Of course, I’ll let you all know as soon as the blessed news/crushing rejection arrives. 🙂
Thoughts or questions about queries or these responses? Tell me about it in the comments.
Query/Submission Statement: August 2023
August was a busy month in submission land. Most of my time was spent sharpening up my query package and sending queries for my novel SECOND DAWN. I won’t lie; short story submissions have fallen by the wayside of late. Anyway, let’s have a look.
August 2023 Short Story Submissions
- Submissions Sent: 1
- Rejections: 0
- No Response: 0
- Acceptances: 0
- Further Consideration/Shortlist: 0
- Withdrawals: 0
Exciting, huh? One submission and no responses. I’ve sent a grand total of 25 short story submissions this year, and it’d be nice to hit 50. I’ll need to catch the short story bug again to do that, but it’s still possible.
August 2023 Queries
- Queries Sent: 20
- Rejections: 7
- CNR: 2
- Full/Partial Request: 2
Clearly, this is where I’ve been spending the bulk of my submission time. I sent 20 queries last month, received 7 rejections, and managed to score another two full manuscript requests, for a total of three. All my FMRs are still pending, so whether it’s to be heartbreak or jubilation has yet to be determined. I’ve been very transparent with my query process, and if you’d like to follow my progress in more detail, check out the posts below.
- Query Quest: A New Rejection Frontier
- Query Quest: Baby’s First Query Rejection
- Query Quest: Agent Query Checklist Part 1
- Query Quest: Rejection #2
- Query Quest: What Are My Chances?
- Query Quest: Full Manuscript Request
- Query Quest: Who Should I Query?
- Query Response Round-Up: Week of 8/18/23
- Query Response Round-Up: Week of 8/25/23
Anyway, that was August. I really feel like I hit my stride with queries last month, and my query package, I think, is pretty strong and has all the pieces I need to query to any agent at any time. Still, this is all new to me, so it’s definitely a learn as you go kind of thing.
How was your month?
Path to Publication: ACTS OF WAR: AFTERSHOCK or the Novel I Wrote in Public
Back in 2017, I got this bonkers idea to blog the entire process of writing and publishing my second novel from Privateer Press (with their blessing, of course). I ended up with 21 weekly updates plus a handful of other posts related to the novel, like excerpts, dramatis personae, and so on. Why did I do this ? Let’s talk about it.
First, a little background on the book. Aftershock is the second in a trilogy of novels I wrote for Privateer Press in their Iron Kingdoms setting, which is the setting for their tabletop miniature games WARMACHINE and HORDES and the Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game. The Iron Kingdoms is steampunk-esque in terms of technology, but the setting is more sci-fantasy than steampunk. The novels revolve around a war between two of the great nations of the Iron Kingdoms, Khador and Cygnar–think 18th-century Russia and England with clockwork and occult elements–and the war leaders of these respective countries. Click the cover below for more info.
So, why did I decide to add to my already insane workload of writing this novel by live-blogging the whole damn thing? For one, I thought it would be good marketing, and the run of updates for the book did bring in the highest blog traffic I’ve seen before or since. Also, it was, for lack of a better word, fun. I enjoyed the meta breakdowns after each week of writing, and it was definitely cool to see the enthusiasm the posts generated among the Privateer fanbase as I teased new characters and models or showcased a favorite model in a battle scene. Finally, I thought it would be cool to have a detailed record written in real time of what it looks like to write a novel, how long it takes, the challenges, and how writing a media tie-in novel differs from working on your own IP. I think it ticks all those boxes.
So what was in these updates? I came up with four elements I thought would interest folks who wanted to learn about my process and/or just wanted teasers for the book.
- Progress: This was primarily how many words I wrote per week while drafting, but in later updates it became how many pages I made it through in editing. My goal was 10,000 words a week, and I achieved or surpassed that goal most of the time.
- The Best Part: Here I would relate one aspect of the writing process for the week that I really enjoyed. Usually, that would be a scene or bit of dialogue that turned out well.
- The Worst Part: Conversely, I would also relate something I really struggled with that week. Uh, usually this would be a scene or a bit of dialogue that didn’t turn out well. 🙂
- Mini-excerpt: Finally, I’d top everything off with a very short excerpt from what I’d written that week. Privateer also let me use some of their vast library of art for these excerpts, which was awesome.
Anyway, if you’d like to take a spin through my novel-writing experiment, here’s a link to all 21 of the weekly updates.
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.
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.
Query Response Round-Up: Week of 8/18/23
I’ve been querying my novel SECOND DAWN a lot, and the responses have been trickling in. I thought I’d collect the ones I’ve received in the last week or so, share them with you here, and maybe indulge in a little bit if query rejectomancy. 🙂
First, here are my overall stats thus far.
- Total Queries: 23
- Rejections: 7
- Full Requests: 3
- Pending Queries: 13
- Pending Requests: 3
I’m quite pleased with these numbers. A 13% request rate is certainly validating. I did have one CNR, but the agent got back me to this morning with a rejection. That said, at least one of those pending queries will likely turn into a CNR by early next week.
Rejections
I received two rejections over the last week, both form rejections, and here they are.
Rejection #1 – 8/12/23
Thanks for writing me and letting me take a look at SECOND DAWN. I apologize for the form letter, but the volume of query letters I receive makes it impossible to send personal responses to every writer.
Unfortunately, I must pass on your material. I realize it is difficult to judge your potential from a query and first five pages alone, but please know that I give serious attention to every letter and writing sample I receive.
Best of luck with your agent search,
Pretty standard form rejection here. The one thing that jumps out at me is the mention of five pages. In my experience thus far, the number of pages an agent asks for seems to fall into three broad categories: 5 pages, 10 pages, and three(ish) chapters. Yeah, I’ve run into one 50-pager and a few that wanted no pages, but these three are the most common. Currently, I have three full requests: two from agents who wanted three chapters and one from an agent who wanted five pages. I think the strengths of my book is more apparent after about 15 pages, but that’s just conjecture at this point.
Rejection #2 – 8/18/23
Thanks for sharing your query with me. I regret to inform you that I won’t be requesting additional materials or offering representation. While I was intrigued by your concept, I’m not the best fit for fantasy.
Please know I can only responsibly take on a few new clients each year, and my decision to pass does not mean another agent won’t be a passionate and energetic advocate for your project. Â
Please accept my very best wishes for your writing success.Â
Another standard form rejection and another “liked your concept, but . . ” rejections. I think those are gonna be pretty common.
Full Requests
Okay, now on to the good stuff. I had two full manuscript requests in the last seven to ten days. Let’s take a look at those.
Full Request #1 – 8/10/23
Thank you so much for querying me. I really enjoyed the first few chapters of SECOND DAWN and would love to read the rest! Please follow the instructions to submit the full MS at your earliest convenience.
This is the kind of response you want to find in your inbox, right? This agent, like my first full request, asked for three full chapters with the query package. Other than that, not much to dissect here. The agent liked what they saw and wants to see more. Of course, I sent the manuscript right away. Unfortunately, this agent is listed under an agency on QueryTracker, and for some reason the software can’t track specific numbers on entire agencies. That said, with the number of clients the agency represents, I’d guess the query numbers were on par with the agent in the second full request below.
Full Request #2 – 8/14/23
Thank you for sending me sample pages of SECOND DAWN for consideration. I would like to take a look at the entire manuscript.
Please upload your submission as a Word document, preceded by your bio and a two-page synopsis (ALL IN ONE DOCUMENT). Make sure your manuscript is in Times New Roman font size 12, double space, with 1″ margin all around, your last name/title appearing on the upper left corner of each page and the page number on the upper right corner.
Kindly allow me at least 12 weeks for a reply before contacting me to inquire about your manuscript’s status (although I will try to respond sooner).
I look forward to reading.
Obviously, this manuscript request is a little more involved. It should go without saying that you should follow an agent’s formatting guidelines when they request our manuscript. In this case, my manuscript was already in this format, so that part was pretty easy. I like that the agent gives me a time frame for a response, and looking at their numbers on QueryTracker, they routinely response far sooner than 12 weeks. The other thing of note with this full request is that I sent five pages with the query. My first two full requests were from agents who wanted three full chapters.
According to QueryTracker, this agent has received over 5,000 queries in the last twelve months and requested full manuscripts from 109, or about 2.2%. Out of those 109 full requests, 98 manuscripts were sent, and the agent offered representation to one author. Those are daunting numbers but, I feel pretty good about making it through the first stage.
So, that’s my last week in the query trenches. Not too shabby. 🙂
Are you querying a novel? I’d love to hear about your query journey in the comments.
Query/Submission Statement: July 2023
Been a while since I’ve done one of these, mostly because I haven’t been submitting a lot of short stores. What I have been doing, though, is sending out agent queries for my novel SECOND DAWN. Those are submissions, too, right? 🙂
Okay, first up let’s do short story submissions.
July 2023 Submission Report Card
- Submissions Sent: 6
- Rejections: 5
- No Response: 0
- Acceptances: 0
- Further Consideration/Shortlist: 0
- Withdrawals: 0
I’m not exactly killing it on the short story front in 2023. I’ve sent only 24 total submissions, which has netted me a grand total of 3 acceptances. I’m okay with that, though, as my focus has shifted from short story submissions to query submissions. I’m sure I’ll send more short story subs this year, and if I can get to fifty total subs, that would be fine by me.
July 2023 Query Report Card
- Queries Sent: 11
- Rejections: 2
- CNR: 1
- Full/Partial Request: 1
This total includes June and July, and as you can see, I’ve been a bit busier here. I’ve sent out eleven queries so far and received a pair of form rejections and closed one query for nonresponse. The big news is I received a full manuscript request from a very good agent, and that’s still pending. However that turns out, though, it was a great boost to my confidence to get an FMR right out of the gate. If you’d like more details on my rejections and other query-related stuff, I’ve been posting about it in a new series called Query Quest. Links below.
- Query Quest: A New Rejection Frontier
- Query Quest: Baby’s First Query Rejection
- Query Quest: Agent Query Checklist Part 1
- Query Quest: Rejection #2
- Query Quest: What Are My Chances?
- Query Quest: Full Manuscript Request
Anyway, that was my July. How was yours?
Query Quest: Full Manuscript Request
I started querying my novel SECOND DAWN back in early June, and I expected to rack up a bunch of rejections and change my query and synopsis half a dozen times before I even sniffed a full manuscript request. Well, I’m delighted to be wrong. Early last week, I received a full manuscript request from a great agent. Let’s discuss that.
Remember, these posts are observations based on my admittedly limited experience with querying. In other words, this ain’t gospel, just me recounting my own experiences. Also, as usual, I won’t be identifying the agent in question, just like I don’t identify the publisher in my posts about short story submissions. With the declaimer out of the way, let’s look at that manuscript request.
Dear Aeryn,
I would love to see the rest of this! Please follow the instructions below to upload your full manuscript. I’m looking forward to reading.
The request for a full manuscript came 47 days after the query, which included the first three chapters of the novel (about 7,000 words total). If I were to compare this letter to something from the short story submission world, I’d say it’s like making a short list. It tells you the project is not without merit, and that even if the agent ultimately passes, it makes sense to keep querying. (And to try that agent with another project if the current one doesn’t pan out.)
So what happens now? Well, the first thing I did was upload the entire manuscript shortly after receiving the letter. Now I’ll wait for the agent to review it and make a decision. Based on the numbers I see on QueryTracker, that could be a couple of weeks to a month. Seems reasonable to me for a 90,000-word novel. From what I’ve seen and heard from other authors, an agent will likely respond with one of three responses. One, a rejection. That would certainly be disappointing, but I’d hopefully get some feedback that would help me improve my manuscript. Two, a revise and resubmit. If the agent likes some of the manuscript but thinks other parts need big (but doable) improvements, I might get this response, which would be encouraging to say the least. Finally, THE DREAM–the agent thinks the book is strong enough to offer representation. I should note that even if an agent offers representation, they’re still likely to want edits on the manuscript before they start shopping it to publishers.
One more thing. See how the letter asks for a “full manuscript”? Yeah, that’s why it’s imperative you have a complete manuscript before you start querying. You don’t want to get one of these letters and then have to explain to the agent that you haven’t finished the book yet. That’s not a good look.
This is obviously good news, and though there are no guarantees it’ll go further than this, getting the full request this early is validating and tells me the book might not be complete garbage. Of course, I’ll let you all know the outcome of this full request, and even if I don’t get an offer of representation, the outcome should be educational.
Thoughts on this letter or the querying process? I’d love to hear it in the comments.
Query Quest: What Are My Chances?
I’ve been using a marvelous database called QueryTracker (highly, highly recommended) to find agents and keep track of my queries. In addition to these vital services, the site provides TONS of data on each agent, and you know me, I fucking love me some data. So, I thought it might be fun(?), educational, and a little terrifying to look at query and submission data for the ten agents I’ve queried so far. I won’t be identifying these agents because this is just about the numbers and what we poor query monkeys can learn from it. This is certainly a sample size, but, in my opinion, it’s a decent snapshot of what you can expect.
| Agent | Queries Sent | Requests | Request Percent | Subs Sent | Positive Responses |
| 1 | 981 | 13 | 1.3% | 12 | 4 |
| 2 | 2975 | 64 | 2.2% | 55 | 1 |
| 3 | 2371 | 46 | 1.9% | 46 | 1 |
| 4 | 3056 | 53 | 1.7% | 52 | 4 |
| 5 | 2495 | 237 | 9.5% | 100 | 4 |
| 6 | 730 | 34 | 4.7% | 31 | 2 |
| 7 | 921 | 30 | 3.3% | 22 | 0 |
| 8 | 3084 | 16 | 0.5% | 14 | 3 |
| 9 | 2201 | 6 | 0.3% | 5 | 1 |
| 10 | 238 | 3 | 1.3% | 3 | 1 |
Some quick explanations. I’ve changed some of the headers so it’ll make more sense to folks who don’t use QueryTracker, but this is all directly from their data.
- Queries Sent: The number of queries the agent has received in the last 12 months.
- Requests: The number of times the agent has requested more pages from a querying author, either a full or partial manuscript request.
- Request Percentage: The percentage of queries that yielded a manuscript request.
- Subs Sent: The number of manuscript submissions has received (after a full or partial request).
- Positive Replies: The number of times an agent has offered representation or asked for a revise and resubmit after a full manuscript submission.
Of course, the most daunting number here is the number of requests verses the number of queries. Most of these agents are hovering around one or two percent. Remember, though, QueryTracker can only report the queries of authors who use the service, so individual numbers probably are higher or lower in some cases. Still, those are small numbers, and when you look at the number of authors actually offered representation, it gets even more daunting, but as hard as it may be, I don’t think you should look at this like some kind of lottery. A have to believe that a good, well-written book accompanied with a strong query letter and synopsis has a far, far better chance of snagging an agent’s interest than these numbers suggest. In addition, proper research into an agent’s manuscript wish list and other books and authors they represent can only increase your chances of a good outcome, right?. That’s not to say it isn’t an uphill battle, but I believe you CAN be more prepared than the average querying author, and I think that increases your chances a lot.
What about the status of my queries to these ten agents? So far, I’ve received two rejections and one full manuscript request (more about that in a future post), and there are a couple of queries I’m likely to close for nonresponse. Obviously, getting a full request so soon is really encouraging, but I’m not gonna get my hopes up too much. I’ll keep querying, keep writing, and keep my fingers crossed. 🙂
Thoughts on these numbers? Tell me about it in the comments.
Query Quest: Rejection #2
Recently, I received another rejection from an agent I’ve queried with my novel SECOND DAWN. It’s the second since I started this process earlier in the month. Now, if this was a rejection for a short story, it wouldn’t be post-worthy, but since I’m new to this querying thing, I’m finding all aspects of it interesting, even the rejections, so I’ll share it with you.
Here’s that second rejection.
Dear Aeryn,
Thank you for your email. While SECOND DAWN sounds interesting, I don’t think it is right for my list at this time.
I appreciate your querying us and wish you good luck in finding the right agent who can successfully champion your work.
This is clearly a form letter, and not too dissimilar from a form letter I’ve received from a dozen short story publishers. What’s interesting about this rejections is that it came the same day that I queried and the agent asked for only a query letter and a bio. No synopsis or sample pages. I gotta say, I’m a fan. Took very little time to send the query and very little time to get a response. That is a winning combo in my book. From what I saw on QueryTracker, it looks like this agent is equally quick with full requests as they are with rejections. I would absolutely query again with another project.
Now, this is not to say that an agent who wants more materials or takes longer to get back to an author is doing anything wrong. Every agent has a process that helps them decide which projects are the best fit, but after years in the short story trenches, I can’t help but appreciate a rapid response. 🙂
Thoughts on this rejection? Got one of your own to share? I’d love to see it in the comments.
Effectively Wild – A Baseball Horror Story
Night Walk & Other Dark Paths
Acts of War: Flashpoint
Acts of War: Aftershock
Acts of War: Stormbreak
Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 