168: The Querying FAQ Episode

 

If you want to get traditionally published, you'll need a literary agent first. This episode contains answers to my most commonly asked questions about querying, the process of trying to find an agent to represent you.

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The Querying FAQ Episode

Hello. Welcome to your big creative life podcast. Which way am I looking? I'm looking at my camera this way. Okay, yeah. Welcome back to your big creative life. Hi. Thanks for being here. I'm excited to talk to you all about querying. We've definitely talked about querying before on the podcast, but I wanted to do an episode that is just a resource for y'all. Of my most frequently asked questions I've gotten, well, you know what? Initially I was gonna say, I've gotten an increase in the number of querying questions. But I don't think that's accurate. I think it's more just that I get lots of questions, like frequently about querying. And so I wanted to compile my answers to these questions in one place, the episode we're not going to cover the decision of if you should query or not, because that's something different. There are so many different publishing options.

 

And if it feels overwhelming to you, you can check out. I have a really old episode of the podcast about, you know, should you self publish, traditional publish, whatever, back when the podcast was still called blank page to book. And there's also tons of information online where people talk about their experience. Oh, oops, I think I just turn off the light in my little pod that I'm recording in. So you can definitely get some information that way about the experience of these different routes. But there is no one right answer for you know, should I do this with my book? Should I take this publishing path? Or should I do this? Should I self publish, or should I query and try to get an agent? I can't answer that because I don't know what's best for you. You have to make that decision, and I will say, related to the decision about if you want to query.

 

Well, let me back up a step. So querying is simply the process of trying to get a literary agent to represent you and your work, big publishers, meaning the big five publishers. When you when you think of like getting a big book deal at a traditional publisher, that's those are the publishers that people are talking about. They are, I had to pull them up because I can never remember off the top of my head what they are, because two merged, and I always forget that. So Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, Simon and Schuster, Hachette and Harper Collins, those are the five, the five big heavy weights in the publishing worlds, right? So querying is sending a sample of your manuscript, and then eventually your full manuscript, if the agent requests it to an agent, and if they if they like your work, if they think they can represent you, if they think they can sell your book and be an advocate for you and a partner in your career, then they will sign you on, and they will represent you and send your work to publishers and negotiate contracts on your behalf. They can help you, help guide your career. All these things right?

 

So it's definitely a good thing to have an agent. There are occasionally these big publishers will open up calls where you don't have to have an agent to send your book to them to see if they want to to buy it if you can get a book deal. But 99.5% of the time it's just you need an agent to get your work in front of them. It's the thing I want to say about querying, it's very difficult to get an agent. I will say that I've seen different statistics that are I will be honest very demoralizing about how difficult it is in terms of percentages and but it's just the reality of it. So I think before you decide to query, before you decide to get an agent. Yes, make sure your manuscript is ready. Yes, be prepared for getting an agent. Yes. Think about how exciting it's going to be, and like, try to manifest it. But also, I think it's important to just know that that is an unfortunate reality of the querying process, is that not everyone who wants an agent gets one.

 

And then the second part of it is not everyone who wants a book deal gets one, even if they had an agent. I mean, I've shared my own experience with y'all of having a book die on submission, which means I had an agent. She believed in my work enough to offer to represent me. She was excited about it. We polished the manuscript, we made some changes, sent it out, and it was right before COVID, and it just died like no one wanted to buy it. So that happens too. So all that to say, I just want to get the heavy stuff out of the way first, because I do think it's important to know that if you're going into this process of wanting to query, and I've heard agents say that sometimes it's not a matter of the books. I. Uh, you know, the book being good or enjoyable or whatever, like sometimes it truly is that the agent just doesn't know how they're going to sell it. And then they know that an editor, like a publisher would not know how to sell it and how to market it.

 

So that might be why they don't connect with it, why they don't offer to represent you, is they just don't know how to sell your work. They don't know where it fits in in the market. So it's not always a case of, you know, your writing not being where it needs to be. There are lots of other reasons that go into why agents will ultimately pass and decide not to offer you representation. But okay, now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about the querying FAQs. Okay, the first question I get frequently is, like, resources for finding information and finding agents, finding query letters, you can look at just like, where to go to find this information, which I do understand to some extent, because the internet is a vast place, and it feels like, where do you even start with the idea of querying like, what is it? How do you what what? Yeah, how do you even find agents? How do you know all this stuff? So I am going to paste a couple of resources for you in the description and or in the show notes for this episode. Manuscript Academy is a good one.

 

Jane Friedman's blog is a great one. Janet reads blog query shark. She has examples of query letters that she will just dissect, like, people can submit their query letter to her, and she will basically tear it apart and be like, This is what you need to improve this, change this. What does this mean? Etc. So there's great examples of query letters there. And then Jane Friedman's blog too, she talks a lot about the structure of a query letter. So yeah, that's a that's a good resource to check out. Excuse me for finding agents. My resources that I recommend are publishers, marketplace, manuscript wish list. Those are two websites you do need a subscription to access publishers, marketplace, and then also just looking at the acknowledgements of a book that you love, like an author whose work you admire, who you feel like might be similar to to you, the book that you've written, who's their agent. Just, just look at that with Publishers Marketplace, you can sort by deals so Publishers Marketplace houses, not every deal in the traditional publishing world. It doesn't all get reported to Publishers Marketplace, but a lot of deals do.

 

So you can see, okay, who's the author, who is the agent that made the deal, who's the publisher that acquired the book. Sometimes it'll include vague information on the amount of money. So you can see what agents are making deals, what publishers are they finding homes for, for their books in so you can find you can sort by genre if you want. So that helps you find agents who are, who you can query. You can also just look at agency websites. So they'll tell you on the agency website if they're open to submissions or not, because sometimes agents have a full client list, they're at max capacity. They just cannot represent any more people. So in that case, it will say close to submissions, close to queries, and do not query them then, because they're not open to new people. So those are my suggestions for resources.

 

My next question that I get a lot is, How many agents to query? And people mean two things when they ask me this. They mean number one, like, how many agents do you start with? How many? How many agents do you send your query letter to? But then also, like, how many agents to query before you decide that this is not the book, something's not working, maybe you're going to try something else. I tend to air a bit, maybe a bit more conservatively. I guess I've always thought it was more conservative, but I don't really know. I say go for like five to seven people to start, because when you query, you are sending your letter and a sample of the manuscript to an agent, and on an agent's website or Publishers Marketplace or whatever manuscript wish list, they will tell you what to send them. Some agents want to see your first chapter.

 

Some agents want to see your first 10 pages. It just varies, but you're sending the sample to them, if they like the full thing, if they like the sample, they'll ask to see the full thing, which is a full request, if your manuscript is not quite ready, meaning that there are some issues with your opening pages. The characters are not strong, the world building is too problematic, problematic meaning there are issues with it, not Well, I guess, problematic in the traditional sense too. But if there are issues with the pacing, just any kind of issues in those early pages, you don't want to send your manuscript. You don't want to have sent it out to every single agent on your list, like all 75 people, because then you. You've basically blown your shot, because if you get rejections from all 75 of those people, you can't query the same manuscript most of the time. Most agents are not willing to look at it again, even if you've made changes, because they've already seen the book and they've already decided to pass on it. So so if you start small, if you do like five to seven agents, that gives you a chance to kind of test the waters, right and see what kind of response you're getting.

 

Sometimes, occasionally, you will get a little bit of feedback from an agent with your rejection. So they might say, hey, you know, I enjoyed this, but it seems like this character needs work in this particular context, or I enjoyed this, but the pacing really lags in the early chat, in the early pages, I'd look at that right? No agent is going to give you a full editorial letter because they just don't have time for that. And most agents are not going to do this. Most agents, it's just a thanks for thinking of me, but it's not right for me, like just a form rejection, but occasionally you might get feedback. So I think it's worth it to just wait and see what kind of response you're getting, see if you get any feedback, then decide if you want to make changes if you have queried. I don't know. I'm throwing out a number here. This varies. It's not, this isn't a rule.

 

But like, if you're query, if you've queried 40 agents and you have not gotten a single full request, meaning you've gotten 40 rejections, then it's time to look at your query letter. Is it working? It's time to look at your manuscript sample, because something in it is not quite working. In order to like agents are not connecting with it, something's not where it needs to be. So that's, that's where it's time to look at it. So again, I just, I would start small, and then in terms of how many agents to query you, like in your querying process, it just depends. I honestly don't have a sense of how many agents there are out there, like legitimate agents, I don't know. So I can't even throw out a number. I mean, I have heard of people querying 150 agents, or 200 agents. I think it just, I think it just depends. It depends on you, and honestly, it depends on, I mean, you want to make sure that the agents you're querying are agents that you actually want to represent you. Because if you get down to to the bottom of your list and you're like, I don't even care about this person, they're not even that. They're not even like representing my genre, and I don't really like the authors that they work with, but like, what the hell? I'll just query them.

 

No, you want to make sure that you're sending your manuscript to agents that you would want to represent you, because why? Otherwise? What's the point? There's a saying in the traditional publishing world that no agent is better than a bad agent, and I can just say with my full chest that this is true. I have had an experience like this, and I can tell you that that is 100% true. You don't just want an agent, because you can, for the for the sake of saying, I have an agent, right? You really want someone who's going to be your business partner, who is going to be an advocate for you. Yeah, it really is true, no agent is better than a bad agent. So I can't answer that for you in terms of how many, but yeah, I would look at your look at your list to make sure that you're still querying people that you feel like would be a good fit. And also look at are you getting any sort of positive response at all? Are you getting full requests? Are you getting partial requests? Are you getting any feedback from these people about your work and also just your mindset? I mean, some people query 20 author or 20 agents and they decide, You know what, actually, I don't want to do this anymore. This isn't for me. So then they decide to take another path that's fine too. It really is a tough process mentally and emotionally. So I think part of it is also like, how are you doing in the process of it? Yeah, so, five to seven. What I mentioned about five to seven agents, once you start to get rejections back, once you start to get responses, then you can send more out, more queries out there.

 

All right. Next question, how to query a series? This is a question I get a lot, particularly from like, fantasy authors. Who are, I don't know. I just see this question directed like, I'm in my comments all the time on social media, people are like, I'm writing a series, like, how do I pitch that in my query letter? The easiest way to do this is, honestly, just to say this is a stand alone with series potential. Boom, that's it. It is a bit of a tougher sell for an agent to sell a series right off the bat to a publisher, because they don't know if the first book is going to have success at all. They don't know if it's going to land. They don't know what a reader response is going to be. So for them to to acquire an entire series, that's a big risk on their part. So a lot of times you want to just kind of say, like, yes, there's serious potential. Yes, this could be a series, but like, just call it. Just say stand alone with series potential. That's kind of the way to do it. In your query letter when you're talking about your book.

 

Okay, next question is around hiring an editor, meaning me like or someone like me, a freelance editor who works with writers who doesn't work at a publishing house. I know it's confusing, because we use the term editor to talk about people at publishers, but it's a different job than what I do. And I answered this a couple of weeks ago in a Q and A podcast that we did in January, but I'll just kind of summarize that answer here, which is, it depends. I know editing is not something that everyone can afford, but I would say it probably is worth it to do a developmental edit or a manuscript evaluation, which is what I offer, because that's going to give you feedback on your plot characters, conflict pacing, world building, if you have that, like all of these pieces that are essential, because you want to send your best work to an agent, right? Do not query your first draft. You want to get it as good as you possibly can, and so part of that involves letting other people read it. Do not send a first draft or even a second draft. That's something that no one else has ever read out to query. You want to set yourself up for success. You want to give this your best shot.

 

And I know it's uncomfortable to let people read your work if you're a new writer, like I've been there, believe me, I know, but it's worth it. I was very close to not hiring an editor. I let one person read it and give me feedback, loose feedback. I mean, they didn't really say much before I queried the first time around with my first book. And then I was like, Okay, I really want to get an agent. Like, I'm really, this is the path that I want to try. I'm committed to it. So I hired an editor who did a essentially a manuscript evaluation, and gave me feedback on my book, and she pointed out an issue with my character that I just was not aware of, and I fixed it, and I improved the story based on her feedback, and I got an agent, and I truly believe that I would not have gotten that agent without going through that revision after this editor's feedback, because the story just wasn't ready. It just wasn't good enough. So I if it's possible for you financially, I definitely think it's a good investment, because you want to give it your best shot, you know. But it's not a requirement.

 

So, yeah, um. Last question that I get a lot is essentially like, how ready does it have to be? How how good, how polished does it have to be? Um, and there's no correct or there's no, like, one specific answer for this. It's not like, Oh, your fourth draft, that's the one you should query. Because everyone's process is different, everyone's approach, everyone's drafts are different in terms of how messy or clean they are. It just Yeah. What I would say, though, is to keep in mind what I just said in my answer to the previous question, which is, you really only get one shot to send a strong submission to agents, so it has to be pretty strong right Now, I occasionally we'll see content on social media that is fear mongering from people who are querying or who want to try to sell you something, and they will say things like agents won't even look at your manuscript if you have this word In your first sentence. And that always drives me fucking crazy, because first of all, it's not true. Second of all, these people are not agents who are saying this.

 

So how do they know it's just so unnecessary? I don't know. It also paints agents as just these like cackling, like villains who are just waiting. They're so excited to reject your manuscript they can't wait. And if they see the word that in your first sentence, oh, they're just gonna laugh and they're gonna throw it into their trash can. And no, that's not that's not what agents are. It's not how they work. They're looking for new authors to acquire or to represent if they're open to querying. So they want to find a manuscript that they really connect with. They want to find a new client that they're happy to support and represent. So just, I don't know, don't put too much stock in those kinds of videos, because again, there usually may have been people who aren't agents. Is just trying to fear monger and get views or sell you a querying course or something. I will be, I'll share this. I talked about this, I think, on the podcast before. Maybe not Well at any rate, this is very embarrassing for an editor to admit, but I had a typo in my query letter, my very first query letter ever that got me my first agent.

 

Now, to be fair, this was before I started editing. It was right before so but still, just just to tell you, just to give you an example, like I had a typo in the first paragraph of my query letter, and that didn't cause an agent to just reject it, like I got an agent from that query letter in that manuscript. Okay, so, you know, let that just be an example. Let me just look at my list and see if there's anything else I want to say, Do I need a higher query series? I did get a question. I put something on Instagram. On my Instagram stories about questions that people had about querying. And I did get someone asked about querying when you have self published. I'm going to link you to two resources. Janet Reid talks about this. She's a literary agent. And then Jane Friedman also has a blog post on this. She's very reputable, and you can check out her responses. Janet Reed kind of her. Her answer for this is like, just say there's nothing wrong with it. Very good writers have self published very good books. If you elect to self publish your novel, you simply say that I self published my first novel. Blah, blah, blah.

 

You can leave out the rest, any other extra information about it, unless it did really well. Like, if you have stats that are like, I sold 50,000 copies, you want to include that. And then Jane Friedman's advice was a little bit more, I guess, nuanced, and she had a little bit more to say about it. She presents different approaches that you can take, including querying as if you didn't self publish, and then if an agent is interested, you can mention, hey, I self published this. And that's generally best. Her advice, anyway, is that's the best approach to take if you published it, but like, you didn't really sell many copies, it never really went anywhere, then maybe that's the best approach. You can also mention that, you know, just like Janet Reed said, say that I self published anyways, I don't want to just read out what she says, so I'll link these articles in the show notes you can go check out. But there are resources on this, and there's been a lot of attention, a lot of buzz lately about indie authors getting picked up by traditional publishing, where there's an indie author, an indie book that does really, really well. It sells a ton of copies, and then a traditional publisher notices that, and they will pick it up and traditionally publish the book.

 

There are numerous examples of this, but this is not the norm. This is not like there are exceptions that I don't know. It is, it's not. I don't think that you should try this tactic if you have not published anything. It can work, but you have to have a measure of success as an indie author first. My understanding of it, anyways, is that you have to have a level of success before traditional publishing like notices that, and then they will kind of seek you out. So anyways, I'm not an expert on the whole like self publishing angle when you're querying, so that's why I wanted to look up what experts had to say about it. So I'll link those in the description.

 

Okay, I think that's everything I have to say about querying in terms of the FAQ. Definitely check out other episodes of the podcast that deal with querying. If this is something that you are interested in, it's it's a tough road. I will say there's a reason that people call it the querying trenches, because it's a long process, process. It takes agents anywhere from weeks to months to get back to you, and it's just tough. It's just tough. There's a lot of rejection in it. I've gone through this process twice, and I did find agents, but I also got a ton of rejection. So anyways, good luck if you are in the trenches or going to be soon. I'm thinking about you. I'm crossing my fingers for the best possible outcome for you, whatever that looks like, and I'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much for listening.

Katie Wolf