Hello, dreamers. I have now officially passed the six-week mark. Broadly speaking, six weeks is the earliest a querying writer can expect to hear back from agents (barring a “rapid rejection”). Most of my queries for this round are still active, which means I can expect to hear back from at least a few agents in the coming weeks.

At this stage, it’s hard not to get impatient. I’ve been waiting for a long time now. I’ve tried to remind myself that this is my first time querying during the biggest query window of the year. Mine is no doubt one of hundreds of queries each of my target agents has received. They’ll get back to me. Some of them won’t, and that’s just how it goes. But a lot of them will. And worst comes to worst, I’ll at least gain some useful feedback I can lean from going forward.

Whenever I reach this stage in the process, I start looking ahead. Not just to the next round of queries (which, as I’ve said over the past few weeks, I’m already doing). But with an eye to my overall query strategy. Many writers only receive publication after hundreds of queries (I really hope I don’t end up being one of them). As I’ve said, many times, this is a lengthy process. If I get through this round with “no’s” across the board, my first decision will be whether to attempt to query during the iffy early spring “Second Chance” window, or sit back and rethink everything in preparation for the autumn window.

However, in querying there are two potential endpoints. In one (the one you hope for), you receive an offer of representation from an agent. In the other, you eventually exhaust your list of potential target agents. At that point, it’s no longer possible to get published with your current book. I call this “striking out”.

“Striking Out”

There are a lot of literary agents out there. More are entering the market all the time. But the number, however large, is finite. If you write genre fic – say, science fiction – that number is a lot lower. That means, even if you don’t find an offer of representation, there is still an endpoint.

Once you’ve reached the point where you’ve queried every agent that reps your genre, that’s it. Now, in today’s literary industry, it doesn’t technically have to be the end. Some agents will accept a second query for a book if it’s been substantially rewritten, even if they don’t explicitly ask to see a rewrite in their rejection letter. And as I said, new agents are coming up all the time. But if you’ve made it that far through the list and haven’t received any interest, it’s time to face the music:

Nobody wants your book.

For an author who’s gone through the grueling process of writing an entire novel, nothing can be more disheartening. You’ve poured your heart and soul into something that took years to write and perfect. You sought out critique partners. You entered contests. Amid rejection after rejection, you never lost hope that this was the one: the book that would help you break into the literary market. And suddenly you’re back to square one.

I’m a long way from that point right now, thankfully, but just thinking about it makes my chest tighten. Should Seven Days on Samarkand strike out, I’d have to set aside not only that book, but my plans for a lengthy series of novels, spin-offs, and tie-in short fiction. At least for now.

But while striking out represents the end for one novel, it doesn’t have to mean the end of your publication dream. You can still get there, but to do so, you’ll have to try something new. I know that sounds daunting, but you’ve come this far. Which is why it all begins with the important first step:

Don’t Lose Hope

So yeah, this sucks. It sucks really hard. But there’s a reason few writers who’ve struck out querying a novel simply give up. In my experience, querying is one of those things where the longer you keep at it, the less likely you are to ultimately fail.

It’s fair to say that there’s no better way to learn the ins and outs of the publishing industry than querying a novel. Maybe you were clueless at the beginning (I know I was), but as you progress through the query process you have two options at the end of each round: give up, or learn. So if you’re smart, you learn. You reach out to other writers, particularly those with agents who made it. You seek out industry publications, like the blog of Jane Freidman, or listen to podcasts like “The Shit No One Tells You about Writing”. With each round you refine your query letter, your synopsis, your opening pages, and your entire querying strategy.

And the further into the process you go, the more you’re convinced that, even if you don’t get there with your current book, you can get there.

By the time you’ve exhausted your list of potential target agents, you’re a querying pro. Maybe you’re weary, but more than likely by that point you’re beyond the hopelessness. Querying has become your business. And once you’re there, hey, maybe starting over from square one knowing everything you know now isn’t such a bad idea. Which brings you to the next step…

Write A New Novel

I know that sounds painfully simplistic. “Oh, your tires all blew out? That’s okay. Just make yourself four new tires.” But remember: you’ve done this before. Like any other skill, writing gets quicker with practice. If you took a year to write your last book, I’ll bet you can write your second in half that time.

If you’re to the point where you’ve struck out, you’ve probably reached this point already. As I always say, the work of an aspiring writer is never done. While querying you should, ideally, be continuing to write. Specifically, you should be working on at least one more novel.

However, this brings me back to querying strategy, and this particular aspect is something I’ve mentioned more than once over the past year. If you’re a genre fic writer (sci-fi, for instance), more than likely the novel you’re querying is meant to be the first installment of a series. Obviously it doesn’t make sense to start querying book two if book one got a universal pass.

This is why I always face a difficult decision late each summer, when I’m trying to decided what novel project to work on over the fall. On the one hand, if my current novel nets me an offer of rep, it’ll be helpful to have the next one or two books in the series at least partly complete. However, if SDoS does, in fact, strike out, I’d like to have something totally different to start querying with right away.

Either way, by the time your book actually strikes out, you should already have at least one more novel you can go ahead and query with. I’ve seen more than one writer querying multiple books simultaneously, though given how mentally and emotionally draining the query process can be, I don’t recommend it.

Don’t Forget about Your Previous Novel

With all that said, under no circumstances should you just toss your previous novel in the recycling bin. Remember that, generally, querying only has to happen once. Maybe your last book didn’t have what it takes to draw in an agent. That doesn’t mean it’s not good, or even publishable. In case I haven’t made it clear enough through all these posts, there are a lot of factors that go into an agent’s decision on a query. Maybe your book just wasn’t friendly enough to the current market to warrant representation.

But markets change. And once you’ve got an agent on your side, you have a powerful advocate and editorial force in your corner. If you make it through submissions and actually get your novel published, you’ll have a publishing house and editor at your disposal. Once your name is out there, there’s a good chance your beloved book will still find a home on bookshelves. And you’ll have a group of industry professionals surrounding you, eager to make it work.

I seldom mention it here on my site these days, but Seven Days on Samarkand was not my first novel. The first was a dystopian, far-future space opera. I got a lot of positive feedback on it. Even wrote a query letter and put together a list of agents. But in the end, I opted not to query. The decision was strategic: by that point, I was already working on what would become Seven Days on Samarkand. I realized that my first novel was absolutely nothing like anything I planned to write moving forward. As such, it felt disingenuous to seek representation with a novel, only to pull the rug out from under my eventual agent.

The path to publication isn’t a straight line. It has twists and turns, stops and starts. But through it all, you learn. About writing, about the literary industry, and life as a modern writer. So if you’ve struck out with your current novel, you shouldn’t. It’d be a shame to let all that effort and experience go to waste. – MK