The continuing saga of query

[rhienelleth]

Wow, that was a fast turnaround for that query! Totals are currently at:

Queries sent: 6 updated: 9

Rejections received: 3

Partials requested: 1

Waiting to hear from: 5 + the partial

I feel like I need to send out more queries, and at the same time, I've only dug up about three more agents to query.

I hear about people who query 30+ agents, and I have to say - where do you find them?? I've scoured all the lists, marketplaces, author/agent blogs, etc, and this is what I've found. Perhaps I'm just being too picky. If someone has a six month response time for a query letter, I haven't put them on the list. (I may be a bit gun shy since there is a manuscript from a couple of years back that's been on a particular agent's desk for a year and a half, now.)  If they say they rep SF/F, but all their clients are hard SF, I don't put them on the list (at least not for this book). If they say 'no simultaneous submissions' I don't put them on the list - how can I, when I am submitting to multiple agents? (Also, I thought that was a little odd, an agency specifying that you don't query to anyone but them. Editors I get, but agents? Luckily, this does not seem common.)

Perhaps it's time to look into more romance agents than SF/F, especially since that's what nabbed me a partial request.

And of course, none of the above includes agents that don't accept unsolicited/unreferred queries. Sadly, as many people as I've met/known through cons and writers groups, I've yet to to see that whole 'it's who you know' myth come to pass. Even the one Star Trek story we got published wasn't about 'knowing' Dean Wesley Smith. He invited us to the writing group he was a part of after sending a very nice personalized rejection, and then the story we submitted the next year made the cut. So he liked our writing first, and knew us as a result of that.

*le sigh* Off to scour for romance agents.

ETA: Now that I have a few more branches in the fire, so to speak, I'm feeling better about my query stats. 

Comments

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

AgentQuery is where I looking when I last queried, although you might have already looked there.

[xlana.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that link. I was wondering the same thing rhienelleth was. (-: I'm still giving the current agent until the end of this month, but hope is fading fast. I've bookmarked the AgentQuery site.

[kjlj.livejournal.com]

There's also QueryTracker.net

Did you send a query to my friend Spencer at the Lori Perkins agency? Let me email him and see if you can send him something, unless you've already submitted to L. Perkins.

PS just because an agent's website shows only hard SF authors as clients doesn't mean they don't also rep other stuff. Sometimes they don't put all their sales on their website.

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

I am amazed to find that I have not, yet! Jenny Rappaport is on my list, I'm not sure why I haven't queried her/them yet. I think I keep confusing her with another agent and thinking I've already queried them.

That would be awesome, Karen! I feel a little guilty, though. I didn't mean this post to fish for any connections, but I'm certainly not going to turn down the offer!

[kjlj.livejournal.com]

I emailed you his contact info. I can't believe I didn't already do this!!! Good luck!

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Huh, gmail must be moving extra slow today. Still no e-mail, and usually it's pretty fast.

[kjlj.livejournal.com]

You'd better email me your new email address...I only have the yahoo one.

I'm at writersweekend at hotmail dot com

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

E-mail sent. :)

Who you know

[(Anonymous)]

Dean here. Yup, it is always the writing. Even with agents. If the project sings "I can sell this and make us all some money" then the project will get interest. Nature of the "business" I'm afraid. If your query letter doesn't convey that, it won't get interest. And writing query letters is hard.

And interestingly enough, the better the writing, the better the craft, the more chances the story has of hitting. The key is always the next story, the next novel, and working to get better with every story or novel you write.

Who you know makes almost no difference. It is always the work and the quality and marketability of the work.

Cheers
Dean

Re: Who you know

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Dean, as in Dean Wesley Smith? Wow, hi! How have you been? How's Kris? This is Charity, btw, of Mark and Charity Vandehey.

I am just in shock! The Salem writers' group seems so long ago, now. I still miss it and wonder how everyone's doing. :) Mark and I have been concentrating more on novels the last few years, than short stories.

Great to hear from you.

Re: Who you know

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

And also, I thoroughly hate writing query letters. I've decided that in writer hell, that's what writers would be forced to do on into eternity - forever crafting query letters for novels they aren't allowed to write.