I sent out my first queries this week. Honestly, I thought that it would feel different. I thought that I would have a rush of adrenaline, like when you get to the top of a roller coaster just before the drop. Instead, I felt like I was missing something because it was almost too easy.
Shouldn't it be harder than typing words into a box and hitting send?
But the reality is, I've been working toward this moment for months. I've done a ton of research on preferences and best practices, and I've had multiple people read and re-read my pages, my query letter, my synopsis, etc.
I had a query package ready before I could even think about sending anything.
I highly recommend this.
The thing is, many authors will query before their book is ready. Or they might throw their book at any agent they come across.
A lot of querying is getting the right piece in front of the right person at the right time, and there's really nothing we can do about that besides writing the best book we can. We can, however, prepare for that moment.
Agent lists.
One of the first things I started, about two years into my writing journey (when I knew for sure I wanted to publish traditionally), was making a master list of agents. Any agent I came across that repped YA, I wrote down. Nothing else mattered at the time; I could adjust later. This step was simply figuring out who was out there.
When it got closer to the time I thought querying was possible, I started to research. I scoured the internet, googled those agents, found them in acknowledgements, anything that would help me learn about them. (Not in a creepy way, but a professional would-you-be-interested-in-what-I'm-writing way.)
A big mistake is querying agents that clearly do not represent your genre. It's frequently a waste of effort because they probably won't want to read it anyways--even if it's the best piece you've ever written.
Once I had my list, and I knew a bit about each agent, I made an excel sheet to contain all the information I might need:
Name
Query Date (when we got there)
Response Time
Agency Address
Submission Guidelines
Submission Email/Link
Reason for Querying (This is really important; based on their manuscript wish list and interests, or books they represent, I wrote that down. I want to know that I'm querying someone who genuinely wants to read what I've written.)
From there, I dove deeper into the agent's tweets, interviews, etc. to get a gauge on character. Was this someone I would want to work with? Does it seem like we would be a good fit?
At this point, having just started out, the field is big enough that I can be this picky. But as a general rule of thumb, it's better to have no agent than a bad agent. I still want to know that the person I'm working with will champion me and my work as fiercely as I do.
From here, I categorized each agent into three tiers. The top tier being the dream list, and then B and C list. This made it easy to choose who to query first, and who might be most interested in my writing.
Great (free) places to find agents:
mswishlist.com (this one collects tweets relating to their current wants, you can search by genre or keywords to find agents)
acknowledgements in books
publishersmarketplace.com (you can find recent book deals and agent summaries, so you can know if they've recently sold anything that sounds similar to what you're pitching).
Synopsis.
In my research, I've found it less common for agents to request a synopsis, but you'll probably need to know how to write one later on in your publishing journey, so you might as well start now. Plus, this is a good way to learn some key selling features of your book as it explains the whole thing, beginning to end, no pulled punches.
For tips on writing a synopsis, you can check out this post.
Varying manuscript lengths.
Every agent is different, and they'll all want to see a different number of pages. I found it helpful to have separate documents for the following lengths of my completed manuscript:
10 pages
30 pages
50 pages
First 3 chapters
Full manuscript
This makes life easier when you're sending out queries. Instead of having to go back to the original manuscript and copy/paste every time, you can either attach, or Ctrl+A copy/paste. This way, you're saving yourself time.
Also, finish the book. DO NOT QUERY unless you have a 100% completed, polished, sparkling manuscript. (If you're writing fiction. Non-fiction is a little different. But for fiction, you have to have a finished book.)
The query.
One of the most important parts: the actual query. Just like the manuscript, this should have eyes on it, multiple times, before sending it out. You just never know if you might have a typo, or if your summary could be condensed.
For tips on best practices with query writing, check out this thread by Laura Zats.
And there you have it! Full query prep and what to have in a query package. I've said it before and I'll say it again, always tailor your queries to the agents preferences. Do your research. If they want 10 pages, don't send them 20. If they want a synopsis over first pages, send them the synopsis.
Not following their requests is a quick way to ensure they never read any pages.
I also highly recommend to keep writing while you're querying. I know it can be stressful, or maybe super exciting, but it's important that we don't put all our eggs in one basket. We may feel this book is the one that's going to take us places, but we might not be seeing the whole picture. It's important to keep writing and learning and growing while we wait to hear back.
Are you querying right now? How is that process going? Shoot me a message to let me know what's working for you!
Happy writing,
Erin