Remember Agent 6? The one I sent to last week? I got a rejection from her. Form. I was hoping for something personal, telling me if my query is working or not, but no such luck. I'm guessing my novel just isn't right for her list, and that can generate form rejections no matter how good your query is. Anyway, onward.
The good news is from Agent 4. This agent was a referral in 2006 who nicely rejected Ghost Notes and encouraged me in the direction Badge goes. She said Badge isn't a good fit for her, but she wanted the first 25 pages to present to her agency, which has clients who explore some of the same topics I do. Hopefully, this means there are agents there who would be interested in my work. This is great news. All I can ask from this process is to get in front of the people who seem a good fit, and I'll take my chances with my novel. There are definitely people at this agency who seem a good fit.
So, hope.
Also, I've researched six new agents, each of whom represents writers like me. I'm gearing up for querying these six in early Feb. The only question is whether I stick with my query.
I said early on that if I got two requests for the manuscript out of the first five agents I'd stick with the query, but both of my requests came from referrals, and I don't know what carried the weight: the query or the referral. Still, if I get one more request for pages (there are still two agents I haven't heard from) I'm going to say the query is okay and be done with it. If I don't...I think I'm still inclined to say my query is okay, but I reserve the right to change my mind.
So, as of week three:
Number of Agents Queried-6
Number of MS Requests-2
Number of Rejected MSs-1
Number of Rejected Queries-2
Number of Unanswered Queries-2
This search is more fun when things go right.
See you next week.
Art
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4 comments:
I'm going to jump in here with my not-overly informed opinion to say that I think referrals count more than queries. Or at least I think they did for me, because my query never rose much above the level of lame.
Hi Art. It's interesting to watch your progress with this. I'm still slogging away at streamlining the plot of my first novel...writers must be patient as well as clever. Good luck!
~Marcia
I think they do too, Z. I'd love to think that my query is wowwing them left and right, but since my two requests for the MS both came from referrals, I'm inclined to think I haven't really gotten a positive response to my query yet. Still, does that mean it's bad, or that the book is just not right for these folks? I don't know. Maybe I'll post my query next week and let others decide.
Marcia,
I'm glad people like the posts. I know I appreciate it when someone lets me into their process.
I'm just like anyone, trying to find the best possible situation for my work.
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