Hello, dreamers. I’m back: as of yesterday, I’ve sent my second round of queries. The mission resumes.

As readers who’ve followed me throughout this process know, while querying writers often talk about being “in the trenches”, I prefer to think of it as a mission. The great, overarching mission behind all my writing efforts. Everything, from my pitiful first attempt at a novel through all my short fiction, my mountain of rejections and at last acceptances, has all been for this: the chance to become a traditionally-published author.

All my life I’ve been fascinated by space travel. I’ve followed space exploration more closely than most people, having followed missions like Cassini and New Horizons from the moment the probes launched from the surface of our tiny world. And I dare say that experience has taught me a few things about querying, because in the end, the query process and a space mission have a few key things in common:

Patience

When the Cassini-Huygens probe reached orbit of Saturn in 2004, it caught the public’s attention. But many probably weren’t aware that the probe had been traveling through space since 1997. And while the world at large tuned in for the big moment, engineers and researchers at NASA had been following its trajectory the whole time. Just waiting. Seven years just to catch a glimpse of another world.

I went into this process knowing full well it wouldn’t be easy, or quick. If I was going to do this, I couldn’t allow myself to get discouraged. I knew that, statistically, I almost certainly wouldn’t receive an offer of representation on my first round of queries. Or the second, probably. But I went into this confident that I’d written a good book. A valuable book. One that someone would want to represent, and someone else would want to publish. I just had to find those people.

Obviously, with each round of queries I hope I’ll get lucky. After all, no one will go to such trouble if they’re certain they’ll fail. But the key is to build upon each wave; to refine my query, revise my manuscript. My hope for this round is that I’ll receive at least one full request. Forward progress; if I can get that, I’ll be satisfied. Either way, though, I’ll keep going.

Planning

While Cassini-Huygens took seven years to reach Saturn, it’s important to remember that NASA didn’t just whip up a probe, rush it out to the launch pad, and fire it into space. In fact, the mission’s origins can be traced back to 1982. It took almost two decades for the mission to go from an idea to a launch window. In space travel, planning is everything, especially with a robotic probe.

I tend to think of my queries as probes being launched into space. Once they’re sent, that’s it. There are no second chances. I can’t change the materials I send to each agent after they leave my computer. And while some agents are open to receiving “second chance” queries for a project that’s been heavily modified, generally speaking once they say no that’s it. Unless I come up with a whole new novel to query (which, of course, I’m working on just in case), each “no” means that agent is closed off to me for good.

Looking back at my abortive round of test-queries, I have to admit, I wish I could just take them back. I’m fortunate that I only sent out four of them. I wasn’t ready. Not even close. I’ve learned so much since then, both about how to write a manuscript that’s marketable in today’s literary industry and how to write query materials.

Given the degree to which I’ve altered my manuscript over the past year, I have considered making another pass at some of the test-query agents. But in the end, I view that experience as a cautionary tale; measure twice, cut once. You only get one chance at each launch.

Growth

Of course, there’s value even in failed queries. I like to tell fellow writers that every “no” brings you one step closer to that one “yes”. Essentially, you should learn something from every rejection.

My first round of queries this past fall was more encouraging than I’d expected. I received some personal feedback, all of it very positive. That feedback led me to believe I was definitely on the right track, and ultimately left me thinking I could get away with not modifying my query materials. But, as regular readers know, I didn’t settle on that for long. Because, as I said, you need to learn something from every rejection.

Sure, several of the agents I queried told me they liked everything I sent; they just didn’t feel my story fit with the list they were building. But that doesn’t necessarily apply to all the agents I queried. Somewhere in my query package they found something wanting. Something that made them feel comfortable just breezing by, not even bothering to say why they were rejecting my work. Not saying anything at all, in some cases.

I nearly ignored one of the biggest pieces of advice I give to other querying writers: you should always revise your work after every round of queries, because if you sent a bunch of them out and got “no’s” across the board, obviously something isn’t working. What are the chances I wrote an excellent query letter and just happened to find the only ten agents who didn’t feel comfortable representing my story?

So I went back to the drawing board, and I feel a lot better about my materials this time around.

The Next Phase

And so, here I stand, setting out on the next leg of this journey. When I sent out my first round of queries in autumn, I felt ready. Now, after positive feedback and a top-to-bottom revision of my query materials, I feel more confident than ever. I know there’s no guarantee that this round will yield an offer of representation. But I have reason to hope.

Even still, while obviously I’d like this to be the finish line of the first phase of this journey, I’m already preparing for the next round. It’s something I’ve done for years, and continue to do. When I learned I’d won first place in Writers of the Future last year, I’d already submitted a story for the following quarter. When I received my acceptance letter from Analog, I was sitting on a backlog of stories ready to submit to them if and when that story was rejected.

My experiences thus far have taught me it feels better to win while planning for the next game than to lose believing I was sure to win. And that attitude continues to drive me, through this round of queries and any others that may follow. To all my faithful readers, I’d like to once again offer my thanks for all your support. As I’ve said before, I’m doing this as much for you as for me. If you’re reading this, you’re the reason I’ve come this far. And you’re the reason I won’t give up, now or ever. So keep reading, and dare to dream. – MK