Out of the Querying Trenches (I HAVE AN AGENT): Kind of a post-mortem
[Screenshot of tweet from Joanne Machin posted on February 14th, 2020, that reads: “Loved ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE? Meeting for the first time after gaming online together for years, Benji and Lara are expecting sparks—that is, until their clashing professional alliances come to light. Which makes attending a wedding together WAY more fun. #KIssPitch #CR #OwnVoices”]
On February 14th, I entered a pitch contest on Twitter called #KissPitch, and on February 15th, I stepped into what we authors call “the querying trenches.” Today, on Tuesday, June 23rd, my querying journey ends. I’ve accepted an offer of representation from literary agent Kat Kerr from the Donald Maass Literary Agency! (Insert girlish screaming here.)
I am all about transparency and sharing stories, so here are my final querying stats:
I entered 2 pitch contents: #KissPitch and #DVPit. #KissPitch was far more successful, but I got a bunch of likes during #DVPit, too! I chose to enter these pitch contests because I felt like my pitches were less likely to get lost in the sea of tweets during these themed contests rather than the bigger #PitMad contents.
I sent out 59 queries to individual agents.
I received 22 full requests, which is about a 37% response rate.
I received 6 partial requests (only 2 converted to full requests).
In the end, I received 3 offers of representations from literary agents (!!).
I wrote about the beginning of this journey in a previous blog post, but I wanted to round out my thoughts here. The querying process feels a lot like walking around a dark forest at night, blindfolded, with a shotgun (not knowing how to operate a shotgun) and hoping you’ll hit your target somewhere along the way. There are so many free resources out there on every step of the process, yet, it still feels unwieldy. There aren’t specific criteria set in stone about what will certainly land you a full request, and then, eventually, an agent. I’m not an expert, but I think I’ve done what I could to stack the odds in my favor—so that’s where I’m speaking from. I’m only here to share what seemed to work out for me. I also don’t think I’m sharing anything new or profound, but I do believe I’m good at laying out confusing, ambiguous things into digestible chunks—so I hope this is at least a little bit helpful and/or interesting to you, fellow author and/or creeping friends and family members!
I leaned heavily on my community and my strengths, and I approached this querying process strategically (mostly…).
The Community
It probably wasn’t healthy for me, but once I started to consider querying, I immersed myself in anything and everything I could find about publishing on Twitter. I never had it on my phone before, and I rarely tweeted, but oh boy did that escalate quickly. I found fellow writers who were querying via hashtags like #amquerying and #writingcommunity. For glimpses of other facts of publishing, I also suggest #MSWL (which stands for Manuscript Wishlist, which agents use to talk about kind of manuscripts they’re looking for), #amagenting, and #querytip. I’m a data and information sponge, so the more information I gathered, the more I honed my knowledge what a query letter should be, what I should expect from the querying trenches, and what agents were/were not looking for. I’ll include a list of a BUNCH of other resources I collected on the way at the end of this blog post.
In this way, I found my people! I had cheerleaders and folks who were walking the same journey alongside me. It’s extremely comforting to having people who GET what you’re going through and, having gone through the same process themselves, can offer you advice and a different point of view. And, let’s be honest, it’s just nice to have someone there for you when you need to whine and sulk about your latest rejections. I absolutely think all the feedback I got for my query letter really helped me land at the response rate I got.
The Tactics
Outside of community, what also helped was leaning on two things I think I’m pretty good at, and that’s copywriting and research. I already said I’m a data and information sponge. Just like you need to research a company and employer before a job interview, I learned that it’s imperative to research agents and agencies. The more information you can collect, the better. This way, you can make sure you align your manuscript to the right people from the right angle whenever possible.
Think about this as making a product pitch to a potential investor. What do you need to know about an investor to hook them into “buying” your product? You need to know what they’re looking for. To get this information, check their #MSWL on Twitter, on the Manuscript Wishlist website, on an agent’s personal website, or their bio on their agency’s website. For example, I started by specifically targeting agents that specified a desire for diverse representation, particularly #ownvoices, and that listed romance on their profiles. After that, I widened my net to any agents that were open to romance, but I prioritized folks whose #MSWL listed rom-coms or described a book profile that seemed to match my book (eg, themes like intergenerational tension, having a feminist slant, a book with a women in STEM, etc.).
When I started reaching the bottom of my barrel, I started making a list of all the agencies I ran into and searched their websites for agents who represented romance. My final spreadsheet had about 65+ agent names, but I only ended up querying 59 agents. The very last step here, before you blast out those query letters, is making sure you do your due diligence so you can pick out the agents/agencies with not-so-great reputations. This information is a little harder to find—so lean on your community and network for this part, as well as websites like Writer Beware.
With that being said, my research started even before I started querying; I read a lot in my genre. I have a sense of what the “big” titles are in romance. I have some idea of what seems to sell. Even before I knew what “high concept” was, I knew that I needed a story that had a hook and niche in the market and that I could pitch in a way that “lined up” with the industry. I write on the commercial side, so I knew I needed something that could sell—YMMV on the literary or nonfiction side (I have no experience in either).
Secondly, you need to know the rules to follow to make sure they know you understand their process. That is, PLEASE follow the agency/agent’s submission guidelines! These will spell out how to submit a query letter and what to include within your sample pages (how many pages, synopsis, etc.). And then, you need to package and pitch your product the right way. This last one trips A LOT of people up because many authors are… authors and not marketing writers, which is fine, but I think this is a great “hat” to be able to put on. For me, I find it really easy to mimic and learn different writing styles, so I read a million blurbs and query letters and then revised the shit out of my blurb so it sounded like the other ones in my genre.
What I’ve learned is that a query letter does not need to be the most original piece of writing you’ve ever done. It’s a marketing asset. Even if you aren’t inclined to that kind of mindset, if you can follow the rules and industry expectations, you’ll be significantly ahead of the curve.
I really want to wave my hands and go “that’s it!” but I know it isn’t that simple for a lot of people. There is so much subjectivity in every part of this process. I can’t for certain say my writing is “good”—that is far what this process is about. Does having a solid manuscript help? Quite a bit. But is that all publishing is about? Nope. I feel like I’ve only dipped on toe in at this point.
The Call
When June rolled around, I felt good about where I was. I had a dozen fulls out, and I knew some of them were hitting the three-month mark. Something had to give.
I received my first request for what I suspected was The Call during the first week of June. It followed a lovely, enthusiastic email from an agent (not the one I eventually signed with), and I read it three or four times and almost cried. I told my husband an agent wanted to get on a call with me. I took some deep breaths. I squeaked and put my head on my desk, smiling like an idiot. And then I texted my friends and told them: IT. HAPPENED.
I asked that agent for two weeks to get my shit together. That afternoon, I sent out a flurry of emails and messages on QueryManager. I nudged all the agents who still had my query and my fulls and partials. One thing I wasn’t told was how this step triggers more rejections, and while I knew I had a offer on hand from one agent, those still really, really stung. I hadn’t prepared myself for that. Over the course of two weeks, I received over a dozen rejections very quickly, though all VERY kind and congratulatory (I was told multiple times that I’m clearly a “talented writer” and many agents really liked many aspects of it, but had to pass for various reasons—so THAT part was great to read, and I really needed it). And, to my surprise, I received TWO MORE requests for phone calls.
Over the course of the next two weeks, I took several phone calls very nervously. My heart raced, my palms were sweaty, and I forgot important questions during every call. I had three offers of representation on hand, and it was an extremely difficult decision to make with SO many factors to consider. I talked through the decision with so many people, and many folks had differing opinions for different reasons, but by June 19th, I’d made the decision. I sent The Email. I’d accepted Kat’s offer of representation, and I felt REALLY good about it. I am so excited to work with Kat to build a long-time career as an author, and I’m looking forward to sharing my books and my writing and my journey with the world.
Only the first step…
While very exciting, this is the only end of on journey and the beginning of another—my book hasn’t sold yet, and the path to that next goal post is another adventure in itself, the first step of which is to working with Kat to edit and polish it up, probably a few more times.
Here are my final words, and if you don’t take anything out of this blog, please remember these words: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF DURING THE QUERYING PROCESS. It’s an emotionally difficult process to put your heart and soul out into the world. The rejections will come, and they will hurt. It doesn’t stop hurting, even when you have three offers of representation in hand. During the month of March, I don’t remember during much else besides falling in and out of sleep on my couch, checking my email and QueryTracker, and playing Animal Crossing. I had weeks of depression where I couldn’t think of anything except querying and every rejection I got just felt like a kick in the gut. I’m not usually this sensitive, but this process was really rough. I’m glad I got where I did—but everyone needs to find a way to stay even-keeled. Find your people. Eat good foods. Remember to shower and take your meds. Stay away from QueryTracker during the weekends. Turn off your email notifications. Sleep. Write something new, for fun. Disconnect your self-worth from the querying process. Find a therapist and talk it out. Whatever works for you—take care of yourself. Diligently.
Whoever you are—author or lurking friend/family member—thank you so much for being here, and thank you for every single good thought you sent my way. <3
Special shout out to these folks:
My husband, Thomas, my mother-in-law, and my best friend, Sarah, who cheered me on during this entire process and believed in me and told me they were proud of me even when they had no idea what was going on.
Everybody who read any draft of Game Changer and/or the query letter and told me they loved it even when it was full of typos and questionable plotting: Liz, Erin, Jennie, Jessica, Jen, Jami, Julie, Alana, Gwynne, Lisa (sorry if I missed anyone!),
The atk #amquerying Facebook group and the other secret Facebook group full of romance writers <3,
And Melissa and Alana (yes, you get two shout outs!), especially, for talking me through those final moments when I panicked.
Resources for Querying Authors:
Alexa Donne’s “The Best Way to Query Your Book | Successful Query Strategy” video
Eric Smith’s blog: Perfect Pitch
Hashtags to follow: #MSWL #amagenting #querytip
I can’t name them all, but there are some terrific agents to follow on Twitter who regularly tweet publishing advice!