The Query Checklist You Didn’t Know You Needed Part 4.

What Happens After You Hit Send

You’ve hit send and now you wait. That’s the hardest part, the waiting. Believe me, agents understand this. I’ll post next week on what happens when I open for submissions, but we’re not intentionally trying to torture writers by making you wait. There’s a process.

There are four outcomes:

Rejection
A pass: Often a form letter, sometimes personalized. I don’t want to reject authors. I actually do want new projects and authors when I open for submissions. I like finding new talent and working with them to negotiate deals on their behalf and then watch their careers take off. I’m not in this to soul crush. As I said in the first part of this series, make sure you’ve done your homework and send your work to the correct agent. Too many of the queries I receive are not right for me whether it’s the wrong genre, too short (65K and under), or other reasons. Do your homework so you better your chances of avoiding the rejection letter. With the number of submissions agents get, it’s almost impossible to do write a personalized pass to each person. That’s a sad but true fact.

If you do get a reject, it stings, but move on. Please do not respond and argue with the agent. Don’t troll the agent on social media, etc. If you are hurt and angry, understandably so, please know it’s not personal. I’ve turned down people I personally know (I do not represent friends or relatives as a rule). This is because publishing is a business and I don’t want to take on a project I do not think I can place. It’s a business decision, not a personal, emotional one. Even if I think your project is amazing, but it’s not in a genre I have experience working in, then I am not the right fit for you and it would be a disservice to take you on as a client. You wouldn’t want an agent who is fumbling through a submission process and I don’t want to be that agent! Go find the right agent for you and your career.

Also, please don’t write back and ask for editorial feedback. If you are keen for feedback there are many different ways to get it: join a writer’s group, take a writing course, find a writing partner, find beta readers, hire a book doctor. Agents are not a free editorial service provider. I don’t even like that I am including this but it’s something I wish wouldn’t happen. I cannot provide editorial feedback to everything that comes in.

Rewrite and Resubmit (R&R)
The agent sees potential but wants you to revise before reconsidering. I don’t do this often as I’ve been burned in the past. I gave notes to an author with the hope they resubmit, but they took the notes and signed with someone else. Ouch. If I think you have what it takes, I’ll give you some encouraging feedback with no expectation. If you resubmit, that’s great, but it’s no guarantee I’ll sign you. If it’s still not where it needs to be I will have to reluctantly pass again.

Request for More Pages
A partial or full manuscript request: You're past the first hurdle. The reason a full synopsis and the first three chapters or first 50 pages are requested are simple: The synopsis lets me know if the story is good, well plotted, rich and has a high concept/hook. The pages show me if you can write the story well: is the pacing good, the characterization, the inciting incident, etc.? If you can captivate me with this, I’ll request the full. As stated in the first part of this series, do not query if you don’t have a full manuscript ready to fly. A full POLISHED manuscript! Nothing is more disappointing than loving the first three chapters and then having the rest of the manuscript fall apart.

Offer of Representation
The dream outcome: An agent wants to sign you. Congratulations! This is the most exciting part of the querying process, receiving an offer of representation. Sometimes there are many offers to chose from, other times there is just one offer. Both are good news.

When there are many offers of representation, we agents call this a beauty contest. I do not like beauty contests, as you can imagine. I have to really like your work to stay in one. I am in one right now! (I really, really like this book and author – fingers crossed). I plan to write about this soon, so stay tuned to see how it works on the other side of the offer, including questions to ask a potential agent. Remember, this goes both ways: you’re asking the questions, but the agent is gauging the situation too. We are looking to see if we can work with you and what you have in store for a career moving forward. If an agent doesn’t ask about other books, that’s a big red flag. More on that in another post coming soon.

Once you do have an offer, you need to do your due diligence on each agent and see who you think might be the best one to work with. Set up a call and ask the right questions. Talking with an agent can bring a lot of clarity. Do they have the right amount of enthusiasm? What’s their vision for your book and career? What’s their communication style? What’s their submission process? And on and on it goes. In the end, you’ll sign with the right agent and be on your way.

Once you’re out of the query trenches, you’ll be even close to being published!

This concludes the query check list series.

Every Thursday I want to focus on writers. I’ll talk about the other side of the query, what happens when something lands in my inbox, examples of great pitches, how to handle an agent call, how to choose and make the most of writing conferences, a few war stories, and more. I hope you find it helpful.