#query advice

So many of you know that in between writing ridiculously long fanfics about Good Omens and the ineffible husbands, I write novels in the real world. And then try to sell them. I have not succeeded so far at the selling them part, but I'm shopping my third manuscript around right now and it's exciting to see how much better I think I'm getting at crafting a novel through the process of working very, very hard on this for the last three years.

At the start of this, when I was shopping around the novel I made from one of my fanfics, I used to post a lot about querying and how it was going, but I haven't in ages. Thought I'd share a little bit about that today.

Novel #1 - Adult Fantasy Romance, written in 2021

Status: shelved Queries sent: 43 Requests received to read the full manuscript: 1 Rejections: 39 Percent requests: 2% Things learned: worked great as an AO3 fic, but I can understand what it was lacking, in retrospect, when I tried to novelize it. I'd like to rewrite it someday. There are not very many agents looking for fantasy in any genre, so that's a little limiting.

Novel #2 - YA Contemporary, written in 2021-2022

Status: on hold, needs some rewrites in act two Queries sent: 136 Requests: 11 Rejections: 125 Percent requests: 8% Things learned: I got much better at pitching and querying in this, and my story was also a lot better. At the *very* end of the querying process, on my 11th full, I got some great feedback on what wasn't working in the middle of the book (which I'd gotten that sooner) and because I'm not sure what to do with this yet and was already writing another book by the time I got it, it's on hold. But I loved this story and I will return to it.

Interestingly, I won a pitch contest on this book and placed second with it in an unpublished novel contest. But it did not get picked up.

Novel #3 - YA Contemporary, written in 2022-23 Status: actively querying since summer. Queries sent (so far): 71 Requests (so far): 10!!! Rejections: 30 Percent requests: 14.1% Things learned: trending up on all fronts! I've gotten more requests in the first three months than I did in almost a year on novel #2, and feedback so far even on rejections has been really positive. I feel like I was much more in control of my narrative on this manuscript, and I have a really good feeling that one of the fulls that are out right now is going to lead to something. Fingers crossed!

Yes!

So tbh I feel like I both had an easier but longer journey. I didn't send too too many queries (in contrast to some folks) but I was querying for a long time. I started when I was 18 for reference, so I queried for almost four years exactly (3 years and 352 days lol) but I took long pauses to overhaul the novel between query batches based on any feed back I'd gotten. I sent queries in batches of 4-6 and didn't send more until I'd gotten responses from everyone from one batch.

So:

33 queries sent (I resent edited queries to the same agents 4 times which feels a little 🧍🏿‍♀️)

6 partial requests (quick bit of advice: different agents have different specific ways they want you submit. It might be annoying to reformat everything, but just do it)

4 full requests (and let me tell you, when I sent fulls to "famous" agents, I was waiting for upwards of half a year, which can also account for the time gap)

1 offer of rep (woohoo!!!!) from an agent I feel really understands my vision for the book, and will be a great representative for me when sub time comes. For revisions, I'm not having to change any plot points, just explain a little bit more stuff so they're not too grueling. Plus I write super fast and that helps lol.

I think querying for so long definitely toughened me up. I was really expecting for the first agent I queried, who I considered a dream agent at the time, to adore my book, sign me immediately, and offer no critiques before we went on sub for three seconds and scored a billion dollar deal (and I queried her TWICE because I was just that hooked up on it lmao). As you can see, that didn't happen. I got some rejections after months, and some after only a few hours. And at the begining? Oh they HURT. They hurt BAD.

And then you get another and another and another, and the sting lessens over time.

I became a lot better at being critical of myself, which I feel like is the most important skill in querying- understanding that you are going to have to make heavy edits, kill your darlings, and just overall refine you book in ways you didn't see before. Even the version I sent to the agent I signed with was far from perfect, and I'm making revisions. And that's okay. It's a step to getting published.

It... Was hard. I had a friend tell me it was just not the right time for my book and to shelve it. I think that hurt more than a rejection. But I knew I wanted to be an author, and I knew I wanted to tell these character's stories, so I just kept working. I rewrote my book more times than I can count since I started writing it at 15. It's just all a very long process, and you have to be patient, and you have to KNOW that this is what you want to do and you're going to do it.

Last weird little tidbits of advice:

I had one person read a very old copy of my book. I had no beta readers. I never hired an editor. Don't do what I did. Beta readers can help you so so much. If you can find someone willing, have them help you!!!

Query that agent! I almost didn't query my agent because they said they were a fan of beautiful prose, and I didn't think I had that. But, after mustering the courage, I finally did and look what happened. Just send the query!! The worst they can say is no!!

If you get personalized feedback from a rejection, that is still really helpful. My book is better now mostly because of my rejection feedback because it was all telling me the exact thing to work on. For me, the writing was fine, but I tended to under-explain things. I got that feedback.... A lot. And I was able to fix it and eventually get an agent (woo!)

(even though my revisions are still centered around explaining oops-)

do not query an MS unless it is finished!!!!!!

even if you “only have a few things left to edit” or are otherwise “close” to the end, do not send letters to agents until your work is 100% complete

Hi dream-emporium,

Yes, of course! As someone who’s gone through the process of writing MANY queries, I have a few tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way:

☆  First, the opening. Your opening line should be short and pithy, something that will make the agent want to go on to the next sentence. For example: “After being falsely accused of a crime they didn’t commit, Character Name has been on the run for months.” You’re basically setting up a situation that makes the agent ask questions–what was the crime they committed, and how were they falsely accused?

☆  Second, the opening paragraph. Here is where you expand on that first sentence, backing away from the pithiness of the hook in order to explain the context/background. You should try to end this paragraph with something that will serve as an interesting transition into the next paragraph.

☆  This paragraph is what I call the “but” paragraph, where you go into the crux of the story’s plot, the big thing that happens to upend your main character’s life. It should set up the immediate dilemma/stakes in your story. YOU MUST HAVE CLEAR STAKES! If Character Name is caught, what happens? What might happen to another character if they’re NOT caught? Stakes help readers invest in the story they’re reading, and therefore agents need to see this in your query.

☆  End the query with a little pizzazz. I like to have one to two sentences at the end that sets up the Big Question about what’s in store for the characters, and remind them what the stakes are. For example, at the end of my TIMEKEEPER query, I wrote: “Danny must discover who’s stopping time andprevent it from happening to Enfield, or else he’ll lose not only his father, butthe spirit he loves, forever.”

☆  End the query with the book title in all caps, the approximate word length, and genre. Also distinguish whether it’s YA, adult, middle grade, etc. Then include some details about yourself, such as if you’ve been published before and where, or what your job is, etc.

☆  Try to keep it as short as you can without sacrificing essential information. The typical word limit I place on queries is 350 (including the bio paragraph at the end).

☆  If you need a resource, I HIGHLY recommend Query Shark. Agent Janet Reid goes through hundreds of submitted queries and shows what works and what doesn’t. Back when I was querying TIMEKEEPER, I read through her entire archive at the time.