127: The Querying Strategies I Used to Find My Agent(s)

 

Querying can feel overwhelming, but the good news is that there's lots of information online. I share what resources helped me most and the strategies I used to find both of my agents (my first in 2019 and my current agent in 2022.)

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Mentioned in this episode/querying resources:

Query Tracker: https://querytracker.net/

Publishers Marketplace: https://www.publishersmarketplace.com/

Manuscript Wish List: https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/

Manuscript Academy: https://manuscriptacademy.com/

Jane Friedman: https://janefriedman.com/

Query Shark: https://queryshark.blogspot.com/

 

 

the querying strategies i used to find my agent(s)

Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of your big creative life. I am Katie Wolf. And I'm excited to talk to you about querying. Because I'm a little a little revved up about something and a little bit a little spicy because someone that I am friends with on Tik Tok one of my mutual's, she posted a video talking about how authors who are querying, or who want to query to try to find an agent should not be paying money for querying courses. And I 10,000% agree to the point where I was like, I've got to talk about this on a podcast episode. So this podcast episode is not going to be just me reacting to that, it also is going to talk you through the strategies that I used to find, actually both of my agents.

 

But I just want to say really quickly that it's fine to take courses on something related to writing. I myself have courses that are available that you can purchase, if you go to the link in this description. In this episode, it takes you to my stand store and I have trainings available on characters on editing your draft, I have idea to book which is my online course that takes you all the way through like how to write a novel from idea to finished, polished, edited book. So that's not an issue.

 

The issue is specifically with querying courses that are pitched and marketed as, here's how you can land a dream agent and get a massive book deal from a traditional publisher. There is no way that you can guarantee those things ever. No person should ever be marketing that way to writers. And if you see that kind of marketing, I want you to run the other way. Okay. There's so much of that is outside of our control, when it comes to publishing the landscape editors besides finding an agent, querying timing, there's so many factors that go into this, that is just bad faith, it's slimy and sleazy for someone to have in their marketing that this is how you can land your dream agent, you get a book deal, even if they have caveats about you know, you have to do the work and whatever, it just feels slimy to me because no one can guarantee those things. I even got on a sales call kind, I guess I didn't really call them sales calls.

 

But it was a call with a potential client who was thinking about working with me in my six month program, and was also thinking about working with me in editing capacity. She also wanted maybe some, like a hybrid option coaching. So anyways, we had this call, and I wanted to learn more about her book, what she was looking for, etc. And this person basically asked me straight up if I offered any, she didn't phrase it this way. But essentially, she wanted to know if there was some kind of guarantee that you know, if you would roll in this program, if you work with me in this way like that, you would find an agent. And she asked me, you know how many people who have done this, I've gone on to sign with literary agents. And I immediately was like, oh, okay, this is not, this is not going to be a good fit. If you want some kind of guarantee for me that you are going to find an agent after we work together. I don't offer any sort of guarantee in my coaching or my editing, because I can't I'm not a literary agent.

 

I have had clients who, you know that I think that they are so ready to query, their manuscripts are amazing. And, you know, for whatever reason, as of right now, they haven't found representation yet. I don't have the answer for why that is, I think that their work is solid, I think that their books are solid. They're just again, there's so many things that are outside of our control. And so it's always a, I don't want to say red flag, but it's definitely something I noticed when people reach out to work with me that wants some kind of guarantee because I'm not willing to give it. I'm not willing to see that and no one who works with writers should you should not be giving any sort of guarantee to you know, what's going to happen to the person after you work together.

 

So anyways, the issue specifically with query and courses is like we like I said, there are no guarantees you don't, there's so much that's outside of our control. But also it's backwards. Yes, you want to make sure your query letter is good. And you are querying the right agents who would be good fits for your book, like yes, there's definitely some strategy involved. But 99% of it comes down to your book, it comes down to your manuscript sample that you send with your query letter. So to spend hundreds of dollars or even potentially 1000s of dollars, working with someone to find agents and to get your submission package ready. But like not actually get feedback on your manuscript is a waste of money. It is a waste of money because it comes down to your manuscript sample and a lot of these queries and courses don't have any personalized feedback on your pages.

 

So just please, if you were in the query trenches right now, or this is something that you want to pursue, please do not spend money. If, if you're going to spend money on a query workshop spend like 30 or 40 bucks for an hour, you know, workshop on a Saturday at your local Writing Center, that's a great use of your time and your money, but to pay hundreds of dollars or 1000s of dollars for coaching, or a course that does not include any feedback on your actual book is a waste of money. It is. There's an argument that like, you know, these query courses are predatory, because a lot of this information is available for free. And that's true. But I can see the value, of course, in some ways, because you you're paying for convenience, right? Someone has done all of the work and distilling and gathering information for you so that you don't have to go out and find it. But again, if there's no personalized feedback, it's useless.

 

Just don't do it. I did not spend any money on any query and courses before I did it either time around. And real quick, let me just kind of share my experience in case you are not familiar with my story. So I signed with my first literary agent back in 2019. And we sent my manuscript out on submission to publishers right before COVID. And unfortunately, things kind of just ground to a halt and died for new authors on submission at that time. And we had an editor who was interested in my book, but unfortunately, she got laid off, the imprint closed down this imprint at a big five publisher. And that was that was it, that was the end of the road for my book. I left that agent a couple of years ago and signed with a new agent.

 

And we did a lot of work on my book and revised it, and got some feedback on our first round of submission to editors that there were a lot of books that dealt with like a similar subject matter. And so we decided to pull it and I spent months revising it and changing a lot of components of the story. And we are at the time that I'm recording this, we have yet to send it back out on a second round of submission. But I'm hoping I'm hoping, hopefully soon, it'll be back out on submission. So that's, that's my, my story. So I've signed with two different agents, I've gone through this process twice.

 

I did not pay any money for a query. And course, what I did though, is I worked with an editor on my manuscript the first time around. And that was so valuable, because my book was not ready when I thought it was ready. And she gave me a lot of feedback to help me with the character, the main character to help me with the pacing, just everything. I also paid for a phone call with an agent through the manuscript academy. And I'll put anything I mentioned in this episode, I'll put in the description so that you can go check it out if you want. But at script academy is really reputable. And they have consultations where you can pay for, I forget how long the phone call is, maybe 15 minutes with an agent or an editor and a publisher, if you want to do that, as well just talked about your book.

 

And they will give me feedback on your letter, I believe you can also do that with a sample like your manuscript sample. But I'm not sure it's been a while since I did this. So I had someone look at my query letter that way. And then I also attended a conference in 2019. This was right before I started querying. So I hadn't started the process yet where we did, we did, there was a component of the conference that was dedicated to like query letters. So I got some education and some training in different ways. But I didn't like pay for a course specifically on querying. And I'm glad that I didn't, because again, knowing what I know, now, I would say it's a waste of money. But it was a good use of money to get that feedback on my letter and on my submission package and like work with an editor and all that. So that's definitely something you can look into if you want.

 

Again, I think if you're going to spend money on writing courses, or trainings or working with an editor or whatever, like, definitely get some personalized feedback as opposed to just information. Okay, so what was valuable to me, is reading a lot before I even started querying. So I looked at blog posts, I listened to podcast where agents were featured on the podcast, I read interviews with writers where they talked about how they got their agent, I just, there's there's so much information available online. And I think that writers sometimes I've even seen some comments on my videos when I talk about querying on social media where writers are like, how do you know all that? Like how do you find out about all this? And honestly, the truth is that there's just a lot of information online now. It's not always you know, of course, you have to be careful and kind of make sure that you're getting information from credible sources.

 

So I will put a couple of links down for you in the description of this episode of places that I I found good information from people who are reliable and all of that. But I read a lot about the process to try to understand it before I even started looking for specific agents to query. So once I kind of wrapped my head around what the process was, the way that I actually found agents that I wanted to query is I looked in a few different places, I looked in Publishers Marketplace, I looked in manuscript wish list. And I also if I had books that myself like that I owned, or just library books, I guess, that I thought, you know, would would be similar to my book, I looked in the acknowledgments to see who was representing that author. So that's how I gathered my list. And I probably got about 30 people.

 

My first time around, I had a list of about 30 people that I wanted to query. Now, Publishers Marketplace does charge a fee, I believe it's 25 bucks a month. But my recommendation is to get a month subscription subscription search for agents, you can search by, you know, who are the agents that are the making the most deals who are the most active, and also by genre. And I recommend Yes, searching by genre, because that's important. But you also want to look at how active the agents are that that was an important part of my strategy for me, because I didn't want to query an agent who hadn't made a deal in six years. To me that indicated that they weren't very active, maybe they didn't have a huge client list. Like I just wanted to stay away from those agents, it didn't mean that I had to have the most active agent out there.

 

But just I just wanted to stay away from agents who hadn't had any deals in a while. And I also looked for my first time around, I placed more emphasis on looking for agents who represented a lot of debut authors, because that's what I am, that's what I still am. And so I just felt like maybe that would be a good fit. I didn't do that as much the second time around, I focus more on genre, but that's something you can look at as well. I don't know that there's an advantage either way. But I think the first time around that just like felt like something that was important to me. So yeah, and I also made sure this is another important part of the strategy is to make sure when you actually query the agent from your list that you've gathered, make sure that the agent is actually open to submissions, you can go on an agency website, you can go on the agents personal website, if they have one. And they will let you know if they're close to submissions or open to submissions.

 

And you never want to query an agent. If they say that they are closed, and they are not accepting any new submissions definitely don't do that. So you know, once you have your list of agents who represent the genre that you write in, maybe they've got some clients that you know, that you'd love that you think would kind of your book would fit well with, with theres and who are somewhat active and are open to submissions, set up a Google sheet or an Excel doc or Word doc, some way to track all of this, maybe have the information of the agents name, their website, maybe the agency website, any notes that you have about what they want, some people will want like the first 15 pages, and people will want the first chapter.

 

So just make notes to yourself of what the agent wants. Something that is so important when it comes to strategy is doing exactly what the agent requests. I have never worked at a literary agency, but I follow some people on Tik Tok who either are currently agents or used to work at literary agencies. And they talk often about how many submissions they get that do not follow the guidelines, which was shocking to me, because I feel like that's the bare minimum, but apparently not. So if the agent asks for the first chapter, do not send them the first two chapters. If the agent asks for the first chapter to be pasted in the body of the email that you send to them do that don't send them in into attachment. Just I think it's like a basic level of respect that you've at least taken the time to read their guidelines. You are, you know, paying attention to that. I think that that goes a long way. And yeah, I just feel like it's the bare minimum to do that.

 

So make sure that you're mindful of whatever their requirements are. I even queried this time around the second time, I queried some agents who did not want any pages. And I'll be honest, I almost disregarded that entirely. Because I was like, how can they not want pages? But there were two agents that I queried who only wanted the query letter one I got a rejection from right away. And then one was Molly, my agent who I ended up signing with Molly Glick. Her the way that CAA does it is you just upload your query letter and then if they're interested, they'll ask to see the manuscript which seemed odd to me, but I went ahead and did it. I follow their guidelines and then you know, soon after that she requested my manuscript.

 

So anyways, just follow the guidelines. Please. So Publishers Marketplace is great manuscript wish list is great. And agents will get very, there's the dog just running outside, on the street, agents will get very specific sometimes about what they're looking for. So they're like, I would love to find an ad is murder mystery meets this, this this. And if that's what you're writing that is perfect, and it's a perfect thing to mention in the query letter like, Hey, you asked, I'm delivering here's this book for you. Sometimes agents will also say, I don't want this. So like, I don't want any stories that feature. I don't know, death or something like so make sure that you're paying attention to that a lot of agents don't have those specific requirements, only some do.

 

So if you can't find those for the agent that you're looking at, like it's okay. But I think it can't hurt to Google that and see if you could find any information about what they're looking for Twitter is also ex sorry, is also a fantastic resource. A lot of like publishing professionals are on there, and will put out tweets about what they're looking for, or yeah, even this past time around, I did that a little bit more. I queried probably four or five agents, where I found something very specific that they were looking for from Twitter, and was like, Oh, this is my book. And I don't think I get any full requests from any of those agents. But that's okay. You know, it's, I still think it was a good use of my time to try and fit exactly what they were looking for.

 

So yeah, so that's an important part of the strategy to like really finding agents who you think would be a good fit to represent you. Now, in terms of strategy about who to query first, once you have this list of agents, people have different recommendations, people do different things, some people prefer to start small, and then work their way up to the big dream agents. I did the opposite, I queried my dream agents first. And the benefit of waiting and not queering your dream agents first is that maybe your manuscript isn't quite ready. And you might get some feedback from other agents. And then you can revise it and you haven't missed your chance with those big agents.

 

But I just felt like, you know what, I'm gonna go big. I feel like my manuscript is solid, I feel like my submission package is ready. Like, I'm just gonna go big, and go for the ancients that I really want it. Yeah, so I went big. A query like the dream agents first. And then what I did as well, which I'll mention, as part of my strategy. The second time around, this was a lot more important for me, this is something that I really paid attention to is the agents response time. So I looked at query tracker, which is another fantastic resource. There's some information about, you know, what the agents are looking for in terms of genre and all that. But query tracker also has data on how long on average, it takes an agent to respond to queries. Now, all of this is self reported, like people just, you know, input, hey, I got a response from this agent, six days after I submitted my manuscript, or whatever. So you have to take it with a grain of salt. But it's really helpful.

 

So that, if I'm looking at, you know, I've got my list of agents and I see, okay, this agent number seven, takes on average six months to respond to a query, then I can manage my expectations, maybe I query them right away, to get it out there to get my manuscript in their inbox. Or, you know, honestly, I don't even think I had any agents on my list who took that long to respond just because I, I didn't want to wait, I was kind of impatient when I, when I queried this last time, because I had left my agent and I felt like I wasted so much time, just, you know, having that book die on submission. And then there were some communication issues that I had with my agent, where it was taking a long time to get a response. I just felt like I hadn't had any momentum for a while. And I was really eager to get going.

 

And so I wanted agents who are going to be responsive. I don't always recommend that as a strategy, because again, it's about finding the best agent for you. But I'm just being honest with you and telling you that that was something that impacted my decision of who I decided to query. So pay attention to that. And I also, probably in the first 10, well, probably eight, I think I sent out eight queries initially, like in my first batch. And a lot of those eight were people who I saw a query tracker responded really quickly. And they were also agents who I felt would be a good fit. I wasn't only picking them because of their response time. But I got some notes right away, which helped me cross them off the list like okay, so and so is uh, no, I'll keep moving. I'll keep going through this list. And I also got a few for work. So pretty quickly, which is great.

 

 It was a great sign and that something was working in my sample. And so that was encouraging to me to keep moving forward. And yeah, so then I would keep track of everything on that Google sheet that I created, like, when did I submit my query? When did I hear back from the agent, when did I get the pass, or when to get the full request or partial request or whatever, so that I always had at least six or eight queries out at one time. Eventually, I got to the point where I sent more, I probably had like, 15 out at one time. Just because again, I was kind of impatient. Now, I didn't have Molly initially on my list, because what I saw on Publishers Marketplace was that she wasn't she represented a lot of different genres of fiction, but she didn't have like psychological thrillers, or I don't even think she had thrillers, or suspense novels, like specifically on her list, so I thought that she might not be a good fit.

 

But then I was looking later, a few months after I'd been queering. Into my queering process, I saw something from her I can't remember what it was maybe a client who was writing thrillers that she represented that I was like, Oh, my book similar to this. So something just made me decide to query her. And at that point, I think I had been querying for about three or four months, maybe, this time around, I sent out about 60 Total queries. And I had a pretty good full request rate, I think it was like 15, full requests or something and a few partial requests as well, which is interesting. I don't think I got any partial requests last time, the first time that I queried, I didn't send out nearly as many I might have sent out 15. But I didn't get any partial requests, just a couple of foals. So anyways, this time around, yeah, it took me a little bit longer took me a few more months, and a number of additional queries, like I just had to send out a lot more.

 

And then I finally queried Molly sent the letter in which again, I follow the guidelines exactly, even though it was weird to not send any pages of my manuscript. And then got a full request from her. And then she emailed back, maybe a month later, and often wanted to get on the phone with me, and to offer me representation, which is so exciting. Like, literally screamed when I saw her email and scare the shit out of Sam, who was in the other room. But yeah, so that's my querying strategy of how I found really both agents, but particularly Molly, my current agent. There again, I'll just reiterate what I said at the beginning, like there's so much information available online, from reputable sources about how to do this about how to make sure your query letter is ready, how to make sure that your manuscript is ready.

 

Even if working with someone working with an editor or getting a manuscript. Submission package or query letter critique is not in your budget, that's fine. There's still a lot of information out there about like, how to assess your own work to make sure that it is ready. Because when it comes to querying, I know this sounds scary, but it's just the truth that you only have one chance to impress an agent. So if you send them a draft, if you send them 15 pages, or two chapters, or whatever they asked for, and it's not polished, it's clear that it's just a first or second draft, you know, the agents gonna pass and then then that's a so yeah, I would just really make sure that your manuscript is as good as you could possibly get it. Same with your query letter.

 

And one other thing I want to say about the query letter, so part of the part of what pisses me off about certain creators or like courses that I see when it comes to query is they place all of this emphasis on the query letter. For I mean, I can understand it like, obviously, the query letter is important, it's going to like pique the agents interest, but the query letter is not what gets an agent to request your full manuscript to read. And it's not what gets an agent to offer you representation. An agent is not going to be so impressed with your query letter that they just don't read your book and decide to offer you representation. That's not how it works. So and I don't remember if I've shared this before, I probably shouldn't talk about this on social media.

 

But I actually had a typo in my very first query letter that I sent out. This is before I started editing, to be fair. Was it Yeah, it was it was before I started editing, and yeah, it my query letter was not great. Like it was fine. It did the trick, but it was not amazing. And I got an agent from it. So I just want you to to hear me when I say that, like, yes, the query letter is important. But when it comes to this, like fear mongering, and pressure about the query query letter. Yes, it's in important, but that's not, that's not what's going to sell you. That's not what is going to make an agent offer to represent you as your book.

 

So that is where you need to be focusing like 90% of your efforts, okay? And that can be hard to hear, because it's like, the query letter feels so important. And it is like, don't get me wrong. But again, you don't just just please focus on your book, please focus on your manuscript sample, because that's what's going to make a difference when it comes to getting an agent's interest. You know, I also want to say that I have heard from agents, this is not me just giving you my opinion on this. But I have heard from agents who have said, don't try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the query letter itself. Like, you don't need to show off your creativity and your quirkiness and whatever, in the letter itself. Like you can infuse a bit of that. But this is not the place to just do something wildly, completely different.

 

There are form query letters that you can find online, you can look at examples, query shark is a resource I'll put down in the description of this episode, where you can look at successful query letters, or you can look at query letters that people submit for feedback. And this agent tears them apart, because a lot of them are not very good. So you can get a feel for what a query letter is supposed to be. And don't deviate from that. This is not the time to like do anything wild and crazy, you the goal of it is just to convey basic information about your book, to get the agent interested enough to want to read your sample and to like, tell them a bit about you. That's it. That's that's the function of a query letter. So yeah, don't go wild, trying to be all creative and different with it. That's really not the purpose of it. And also, again, don't spend your time there, spend your time on your book.

 

Okay, so that is my querying strategy of how I found my agents, not how I signed with them, because I signed with them. I mean, I it is how I signed with them. But it's also not because I find them because of the book. Anyways, I just feel like it is an important distinction, because this is how I found them, like online to even know to query them. So yeah, if you're in the trenches, I hope this is helpful. And if you're thinking about it, if you're going to be querying soon, hopefully you got some good tips from this episode and resources. And I do have a few other episodes of the podcasts that are about querying to that you can check out if you want more. I don't know more resources or information or anything like that, too. I think I also have an episode on how to survive the querying process because that's important too. Alright, thanks for listening.

Katie Wolf