Hello, dreamers. It’s now been more than three months since I submitted my first round of queries. I’ve still yet to receive a response from two of them. At this point, more than likely I won’t. It happens; as I keep saying, literary agents are very busy people. Some, particularly those who still receive their queries through email, don’t get around to every query they receive. Some are bound to get lost in the shuffle. Either way, it’s time to move on.

What that means is I’m not preparing for my next round of queries. So this week, I’ll fill you in on just what that entails, and how the long, drawn-out query process usually goes.

The Spaces in Between

It’s easy, even for writers, to look at the query process as three simple steps:

Step One: you write a book.

Step Two: you query literary agents.

Step Three: one of them offers to represent you, and soon after you’re published.

But it’s not that simple. I’ve said before that the query process involves a lot of waiting. What I may not have mentioned is that the waiting doesn’t necessarily stop after agents have responded. Because more than likely your first round of queries won’t be successful. Or the second. Or perhaps even the third, and so on.

When querying a novel, it’s common practice to send out queries in rounds: concise groups of queries, typically limited to ten or twenty. This allows the writer to better keep track of their extant queries, but it also allows the writer to refine their materials between rounds. And that refinement must happen.

The fact is, while it’s true that literature is subjective, and thus perhaps an agent will pass on your work simply because they don’t enjoy it, it’s unlikely that a large group of them all feel the same way. If that is so, well…maybe writing just isn’t your thing. In any event, you can’t control an agent’s tastes. So you must focus on what you can control.

Ultimately, the one thing you know if an entire group of queries strikes out is that something isn’t working. So, before you send out your next round, there are a few things that need to be done:

Revise Your Manuscript

Maybe it was your story. So your first step before the next round of queries involves going back to the heart of things: your manuscript. If you received a full request, which means an agent was interested enough to ask to read your entire manuscript, that probably means your query pitch is working. But it also means that something’s definitely wrong with your MS. If not (which is more likely), then your task is easier. You can focus on your sample pages.

Most literary agents won’t ask for your full manuscript as part of a query. They don’t have that kind of time. Instead, they’ll ask for a sample. Most agents will ask for just the first five pages. This is enough for them to get a feel for your writing style and ability. It also provides the hook: the early passages where you try to pull the reader into your novel and persuade them to read more. If your hook isn’t enough to keep an agent’s attention, it probably won’t work with readers, either. After all, the agent didn’t have to pay to read your work.

Ideally, whether you’ve received a full request or not, you want to look over your entire MS. There’s always something else you can do. Some improvement, however minor, that might make your book more appealing. As I’ve mentioned here on this site, I embarked on a major reworking of The Ursa Frontier after my first round of queries. That happened partly as a result of writing my query letter and synopsis, where I realized I was struggling to fit all the important plot points into a concise summary.

More than likely, that meant my book was too long. I was trying too hard to cram too much plot into a single novel.

Revise Your Query Materials

More than likely, this is where the problems lie, particularly your query letter. Agents tend to read query materials in a set order: first the query letter, then synopsis (if applicable; many no longer ask for one), and then the sample pages.

This may sound disheartening to writers; after all, if you’re a writer and you’ve written an entire novel, you’re probably thinking Anyone would love this book if they just sit down and actually read it. But starting with the query letter saves agents a lot of time. And the truth is, it makes good sense. After all, when shopping for books, readers will look first a the blurb on the cover.

As I’ve said before, agents look at query letters not just to get a feel for your book, but to get a feel for you, the writer. They want to know how well you can sell your story. If you’ve sent out a round of queries and come up empty, more than likely your query letter isn’t doing a good enough job of selling your work.

And the reason this is step two is because, again, your query letter has to sell your story. If you’ve made changes to your manuscript, your query letter and synopses must be revised to reflect them.

Select Your Next Targets

Once you’ve got your shiny new query materials, it’s time to decide who to send them to. Writers who are querying will typically have a long list of prospective agents, but that list can change over time. Agents retire, get out of the business, or change agencies somewhat regularly. They will periodically close to queries, usually during the summer months or around the holidays at the end of the year. And they may also change what genres or types of stories they’re looking to represent.

So you can’t just start firing off queries to the next names on your list. You start on an industry website (QueryTracker is the current go-to), and make sure all your potential targets are still open to queries. You check in with them on Manuscript Wish List or social media to confirm that they’re still interested in stories like yours. And once you’ve refined your list, you send out your next round, and wait. Again.

Most debut authors must go through this process multiple times. Between that and the reality that agents periodically close to queries, the process can take years. But you have to be patient. You wrote a novel. A whole damn novel, with paragraphs and chapters and everything. You did it. So you owe it to yourself to stick it out. You can’t let yourself just give up after receiving a rejection. Or five. Or ten. Or fifty.

Whenever someone asks me what the most crucial skill for a writer is, my answer always comes without hesitation: dealing with rejection. You’re going to get a lot of “no’s” before you get that one “yes”. But you have to keep going. If you’re willing to throw in the towel after a few people pass on your work, then writing probably just isn’t your thing. – MK