Querying Again
I've been on a 3-month hiatus from sending out query letters. On the publishers' front, I had an unanswered query ticking away waiting for the "allow 3 months for us to reply" window to expire, because the next publisher I wanted to query asks for exclusivity. Just sent them a query this morning. And now the clock resets again.
Meanwhile, queries to literary agents has also been suspended for awhile because I got a request for a full (in other words, a lit agent responded to my query letter with a request for me to send in the entire manuscript for their consideration) and I've been waiting on the verdict to that before querying other lit agents.
I'm mostly in a mode of not taking the lit-agent-querying very seriously. I mean, I've sent out over 1000 queries to lit agents and never gotten an offer to represent me. In contrast, I've only sent out 39 queries to publishers and that resulted in two publishing contracts. (One publisher, Ellora's Cave, went out of business, and the other, NineStar Press, assigned me an editor who wanted deep cuts to my book that I wasn't willing to make). Be that as it may, however, only 6 of those 1000+ queries to literary agents resulted in a request for a full, and this is one of those 6.
Wendy Sherman of Wendy Sherman Associates took one day in 2013 to examine my manuscript and decide not to pursue. I had been introduced to her at a paid pitch conference and I don't know if she would have requested to see the manuscript if that had not been the case.
Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli of Jet Literary had my manuscript from late April until early July in 2015 before deciding against representing my book.
Linda Loewenthal of David Black Lit Agency took only six days in August 2015 before declining with a very thoughtful analytical personally tailored rejection letter explaining what they did and did not like about the book.
Anjali Singh of Ayesha Pande Literary held onto it for a month in 2016 before also writing back with praise as well as analysis for what gave her misgivings about the book and deciding not to go forward with it.
Eric Ruben of The Ruben Agency had my manuscript in hand for a month last spring and then sent me back a cursory "not for me" email.
Hmm, it's helpful for me to have compiled that. I see that this current request-for-full has not been awaiting a reply for such an unusually long time after all. (Two months as of January 17th).
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Meanwhile, queries to literary agents has also been suspended for awhile because I got a request for a full (in other words, a lit agent responded to my query letter with a request for me to send in the entire manuscript for their consideration) and I've been waiting on the verdict to that before querying other lit agents.
I'm mostly in a mode of not taking the lit-agent-querying very seriously. I mean, I've sent out over 1000 queries to lit agents and never gotten an offer to represent me. In contrast, I've only sent out 39 queries to publishers and that resulted in two publishing contracts. (One publisher, Ellora's Cave, went out of business, and the other, NineStar Press, assigned me an editor who wanted deep cuts to my book that I wasn't willing to make). Be that as it may, however, only 6 of those 1000+ queries to literary agents resulted in a request for a full, and this is one of those 6.
Wendy Sherman of Wendy Sherman Associates took one day in 2013 to examine my manuscript and decide not to pursue. I had been introduced to her at a paid pitch conference and I don't know if she would have requested to see the manuscript if that had not been the case.
Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli of Jet Literary had my manuscript from late April until early July in 2015 before deciding against representing my book.
Linda Loewenthal of David Black Lit Agency took only six days in August 2015 before declining with a very thoughtful analytical personally tailored rejection letter explaining what they did and did not like about the book.
Anjali Singh of Ayesha Pande Literary held onto it for a month in 2016 before also writing back with praise as well as analysis for what gave her misgivings about the book and deciding not to go forward with it.
Eric Ruben of The Ruben Agency had my manuscript in hand for a month last spring and then sent me back a cursory "not for me" email.
Hmm, it's helpful for me to have compiled that. I see that this current request-for-full has not been awaiting a reply for such an unusually long time after all. (Two months as of January 17th).
--------
I am now echoed on DreamWidth, like many other LJ folks. My DW acct is here. Please friend/link me on DW if you are a DreamWidth user.
--------
Index of all Blog Posts