Your Biggest Query Questions — Answered!
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One author hasn't heard back on their queries since March, another author is hearing that agents loved their premise but is still getting rejections, and another author is just feeling completely bitter and confused. I'm here to help all of you out.
I was looking through my comments on my YouTube channel and saw so many questions related to querying, so I'm going to bundle them all up today and rapid-fire answer them to hopefully give you some clarity. I know how disheartening and isolating querying can be, so I want to help you through it however I can.
Let's dive right in with the first question:
1. Why haven't I heard back from agents since March?
“Thanks again, Alyssa — your insights always help me better understand the complexities of the industry and motivate me to keep querying. I'm back on submission again, perhaps foolheartedly, for several different novels I feel are good enough for publishing after years and years of revisions.
“My big question this summer is: Why is it taking so long to hear back from any single agent? Of course their inboxes are getting hit harder than ever, but this year has been especially quiet compared to previous ones where I used to receive rejections usually within a month or so of submission. I started querying this year back in March and have yet to hear anything from a single agent, rejection or otherwise.
“I know silence after a certain period of time can imply rejection, but I feel like I used to always at least receive a rejection email out of sheer courtesy. Thanks again.”
I think I might know what's going on here. You said you began querying this year in March and have had radio silence since then — that's a long time to wait and not receive any type of response, even a form rejection. When looking at this chunk of time, though, keep in mind that the publishing industry often goes dark through the summer months. This is when many publishing professionals are out on vacation and many agents are closed to queries at this time, so it could be that the specific agents on your list happened to not be going through their queries during that summer period.
The unofficial back-to-office date for publishing is Labor Day, so now that we are into October, I would suspect that you would start receiving some responses. If you haven't, though, there's nothing wrong with following up with the agent to see where they're at. It could be that your query got lost in the shuffle.
I also recommend considering sending out a new batch of queries at this time. More and more agents are open to queries starting in the fall, so you will likely find some additional agents to add to your list and hopefully they will get back to you within a shorter time frame.
2. Why are agents saying they like my premise but still rejecting my query?
“I find your videos very helpful, Alysa; however, my issue is many literary agents have responded to my queries with personalized rejections saying that they love the characters and the premise of my book, but they pass on it. Why is this happening? Why are they passing it up when they think my book is good?”
If agents are praising your characters and premise of your book but still rejecting it, it could be that the writing itself isn't pulling them in as much as they want it to. Take another look at your manuscript and especially focus in on the opening pages — is this scene engaging from the very first line? Does it establish a point of conflict and strong emotional stakes that makes the agent want to continue reading? If any of that is lacking, even if the premise sounds interesting, they're likely not going to go on to request the full manuscript.
Also do your best to make sure your writing is strong on a line level. This can admittedly be hard to see for yourself, so if you haven't sent your manuscript to a trusted friend or even an editor for feedback, you might consider doing that now and see if they're able to spot any issues in your writing that you are blind to. You want to make sure that the pages are living up to the premise that you set out in the query letter.
3. Should you query a first draft or hire someone to edit it first?
“After you finish your first draft, do you immediately try to get in touch with an agent or hire someone to edit your book before you go after an agent?”
I don't recommend querying literary agents with a fresh first draft hot off the press. That's because first drafts are rarely the strongest version of the story — typically there's a lot of work you can do through revisions to draw out the character arcs, make sure the plot is sound, make sure the pacing is tight, and to make the manuscript as strong and effective as possible.
First drafts tend to be riddled with issues because you're still developing and discovering the story through the process of writing. Second, third, and fourth and even further drafts tend to be where you really refine and hone the story. You want to put the strongest possible version of your manuscript in front of literary agents because once they reject it, that's it — so you want to give it your best possible shot.
To do that, I recommend getting feedback before the querying stage. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to hire a professional editor, though you could (this is a service I offer as an independent book editor). But you could also work with beta readers or critique partners — someone that has an editorial Instinct who can offer constructive feedback and help you achieve your vision for the book.
At a bare minimum, make sure you are self-editing the story to take it as far as you can on your own.
4. How many drafts should you go through before querying?
“Working on a second draft of a fantasy romance. It circles around the idea of what happens when the hero of the prophecy is no longer the hero and they're not happy with the state of the world that they saved. I'm so proud that I finished a first draft. How many drafts should you typically go through before querying?”
First off, I'm so proud of you for completing this first draft, so huge congrats! As I just mentioned, you don't typically want to query a fresh first draft. At the same time, there's no specific number of revisions you should complete before querying. Every book and every author is different; you might feel like you have a really strong draft after the third round of revisions, but another author might feel like it takes 10, 15 drafts to get the book to the point that they want it. It depends on the level of revision that you're doing. If you're doing big-picture, structural, transformative edits — the stuff that that I love — then you're likely going to go through more drafts than someone who feels like they have all of those elements already in place.
Focus more on how you are feeling as you go through each pass of the novel. Do you feel like it's at the point where it's strong enough to present an agent? Do you feel confident that it achieves the vision you set out for the story? Or do you feel like it still needs some work? You can also refer to my checklist of what to make sure of before you determine you're ready to query.
5. How do I find agents who represent my genre?
“Where can I contact agents who focus on supernatural horror novels? What steps would you recommend for the steps to take for a first-time author?”
My advice here won't just apply to supernatural horror but can apply to any genre of book that you're querying. To find agents that represent your specific genre, I recommend starting with the industry's leading database, QueryTracker. You can run a search and filter by agents who represent your genre.
In this case, I would broaden up the search to any agents that represent horror generally — not just supernatural horror because they might not list supernatural horror specifically in their profile but could very well be open to it.
Another good database to check is the Manuscript Wishlist website. Again, run a search for your genre (in this case, horror) and see what agents come up.
Another solid technique for finding agents in your genre is to look up the agents of other books that were published within your genre that you admire. Look at recently published supernatural horror novels — either turn to the acknowledgements page or go to the author's website to see who represented that book. If they're open to queries, then that could be a great agent for you to also consider.
6. Should you mention that your novel is based on a screenplay?
“Thank you for this. I love your videos. I would love to see another video that explores Hollywood and novel publishing from an agent's perspective. I have a specific querying question on this topic — the debut novel I have written is based on my original, unsold screenplay. When querying agents, what are the pros and cons of mentioning the screenplay in the query letter? Would mentioning the screenplay help them see my story as a film and/or entice the agent with multiple products, or would it hurt my chances at novel representation because the screenplay did not sell or I would not be considered a dedicated aspiring novelist? I never shopped the screenplay around but I decided to write a novel for more control over the creative process. Thanks again for your videos.”
In the case that the novel you've written is also a screenplay, I recommend just querying it as a novel and not necessarily mentioning the screenplay until you get an agent on the phone and you discuss possible representation. That's the best place to give them the full context for this manuscript and how it was generated.
That’s because I don't see any particular pros to mentioning that it was a previous screenplay in the query letter up front. Keep in mind that agents will always be on the lookout to sell film rights, whether you mentioned that the book was a screenplay or not. Just look at many of the recently released movies and TV shows — most of them are based on books, whether we know that or not. That's because agents will always be looking for opportunities to sell the film and TV rights, so mentioning that it was previously a screenplay doesn't necessarily increase your chances of it becoming a movie or TV show.
I don't necessarily think that mentioning the screenplay would hurt your chances of getting representation, but it is just something you could save for the phone call with an agent, especially because you want to keep the query letter as concise as possible.
7. Can I go to literary agents in person?
“Can I go to a literary agent in person?”
Showing up to an agent's office in person or even calling the agency is likely not going to get you the response you're looking for. Many agents work remotely at least part-time, if not full-time, so it's unlikely they would even be in to talk with you if you show up to their office, and they really prefer you to go through their standard query process rather than pitching them in person. Unless you signed up for a specific pitching event via some type of writing conference or event that they're doing, just stick to the standard querying process. I promise this is the most effective route to take.
8. Can you query before finishing the manuscript?
“Do people actually query without having a complete manuscript? I get being excited, but that's just baffling to me.”
You’re right that for fiction you want to always have the complete manuscript before querying. Some authors try to work around this by querying with a partial manuscript in the hopes that an agent will offer representation and then they can go on to write the full book once their idea has been validated, but this isn't the way that agents like to operate. The one exception is for non-fiction books, in which case it is standard to query before having a complete manuscript — typically you would have a robust proposal and some sample chapters only.
Memoir falls in an in-between area; some authors have the complete manuscript drafted, while others work on the proposal and sample chapters. But, if you're a fiction author, definitely complete the novel before querying.
9. If an agent you queried has closed to queries, can you query other agents?
“If an agency has several agents and soon after querying one agent, the same agent stops receipt of unsolicited queries, can you submit to another agent within the same agency? Sorry for all the ’agents,’ ha!”
If you have queried an agent and then that agent closes to unsolicited queries, your query is still considered accepted because it was before they closed their inbox, so I would still wait until you get a response from that agent or the time elapses when they say to have considered it a rejection before querying another agent at the same agency.
Typically, agents close to unsolicited queries when they are catching up on all of the queries they already had, so it's likely that your query is still in their backlog of queries to consider. So, make sure you get their response first.
10. Once an agent rejects you, can you query other agents at the same agency?
“Hi, I hope you are still taking questions. I'm at the querying stage for my first novel. I've received my first round of rejections but the ones who personalized them all said that my writing craft was good, they just didn't feel like they were a good fit for the book and to keep trying. I put a lot of effort into researching each agent and genuinely thought the ones I queried would want to at least request the full manuscript.
“I know rejections are part and parcel of the process, and I'm happy to hear they seem to think my writing craft is good. I will definitely keep going as I truly believe in my story. I just want to ask if you think it's okay for me to query other agents at agencies that have rejected. Some state you can and some state you can't, but the ones who say nothing are the ones I want to ask about.”
I know it sucks when an agent you feel is a perfect fit for your book ends up rejecting you without even requesting the full manuscript, but it happens all the time. There are so many factors that go into an agent reviewing your query beyond just what they say they're listing in their manuscript wishlist — things that you don't even know. It could be that the agent already has something on their list that's too similar to your project. It could be that they're just steering their list in a different direction right now. So, try not to get too hung up on it and try not to put too much stock in your ”dream agents” — keep reaching out to agents who are open to queries within your genre.
As for what to do if an agency doesn't specify whether or not you can query another agent at that agency once the first one has rejected you, I would go ahead and say you can. The worst thing they can do is reject you because you've already been considered by another agent at the agency. Just make sure you're checking their website and seeing if they have a policy for this, but if there's no specification, it's pretty commonplace in the industry to allow authors to query another agent after the first has rejected you, so I'd go ahead and do that.
11. If you live in Canada, can you query agents in the US?
“I'm wondering if there is anything I should know about querying an agent in another country or who lives geographically far away from me. I live in Canada and would most likely be querying in the USA, and there's only about two agents within 4 hours of where I live.”
It doesn't matter that your literary agent is located geographically close to you. Many agents in the US represent authors who are based abroad, and there are even some authors based in the US whose agents are based in the UK, so geographical location is not ultimately that important. When it comes to choosing which agents to query, focus more on agents that represent books within your genre. And when it comes to Canada specifically, the Canadian and US publishing industries are quite intertwined, so it's perfectly acceptable for you to query US agents.
12. What do you do if querying is making you bitter and confused?
Alright — the last question here isn't actually a question, but I still wanted to address it:
“My worry is that I'll never figure out how to make my book or my writing better or good enough to be published. I could write multiple books, pay thousands of dollars to developmental editors and beta readers, spend years working on craft and still never catch up with the market. It’s very possible to never be good enough, and that makes me so sad. I'm bitter and confused from the middle of querying — perhaps I will feel better later.”
This comment makes me so sad, but I totally understand the sentiment, and it's something shared by many authors who are deep in the querying trenches. If you're watching this right now, you might be feeling some of this, and it's completely normal.
I'm not going to lie to you and say that if you put in the time and energy and effort and money to make your book as strong as it can be you're guaranteed to get a traditional publishing deal. That’s unfortunately not how the industry works. There are no guarantees whatsoever — even if you do all of the things that people say you should do, even if you follow all the advice I post on my channel. It’s a hard truth, and it's not a fun thing to think about, but the sooner that you understand and come to some acceptance of it, the better off you'll be.
To set the proper expectations for your publishing journey, I want to encourage you to keep going and keep putting yourself out there because I have seen debut novelists in your exact position go on to achieve their publishing dreams. But, at the same time, if querying is just getting you down, it's affecting other aspects of your life, then it is completely fine to take a break from querying.
Also remember that Big Five publishing via a literary agent is not your only option. You could also discover indie or midsize publishers that accept submissions directly from authors, or you could consider self-publishing.
Querying is competitive, there's no doubt about it. But even if it doesn't work out, that doesn't mean you have to shelve your book forever. There are certainly other ways you can get it published and share your story with readers.
Thank you so much to everyone who left me a question. I hope this was helpful! I know how hard it is to be in this position. I'd love to keep doing these Q&A sessions more regularly, so drop me a comment on my YouTube channel if you have something you'd like me to address in the future. Thank you so much for reading, and happy writing!
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