I just finished the process of querying for my contemporary novel. It is a long and drawn-out process where it seems everything needs to be perfect, but also tailored to each agent’s whims. It needs to be professional, but personal. I need to find a connection point with each person. This is the hardest for me. Each agent is expecting me to answer the question, “Why would I be a good fit as a representative for this book?” Sometimes through looking at their bio page and website, I’m able to find an instant connection. They created their website in a way that draws me in! They helped publish an author that I love reading. They also travel. But sometimes, the reason I choose an agent is that their name pops up on my query list. The only answer I could give is, um…you are looking for contemporary fiction and don’t mind crossovers into women’s fiction? But this won’t suffice for a query letter, so I have to improvise.
Then the items that they ask for varies. Do they want three pages of my manuscript or ten? Fifty? Pasted into an email or attached as a PDF? Sometimes they also request a link to my portfolio and other times they want the query letter only. To keep up with everything, I created an excel spreadsheet so that I could write down for each agent:
- Date sent
- Name of agent
- Website
- Link for submission
- Notes on expectations
- List of requested
- Response?
At the top I keep a running tally of response percentages, based on total number of queries. Is it normal to send out one hundred query letters for a book and only receive seventeen responses? My goal is seventy-five percent, but several websites state that they will not respond unless they like the manuscript. What a way to make you feel tiny. I have put my heart and soul into this book for four years and it might never actually get off my computer. When I feel the weight of this, I remind myself that I still have stories in me and I’m just going to take it one step at a time. I will keep creating and hopefully one day a book will get picked up and I will start to see success with my writing. Until then, I’m just going to scribble away at whatever ideas I am working on, trying to make them the best that they can possibly be!
Scribbling,
Hannah Marie.
