Dear Sir or Madam

Hello, dreamers. It appears this round of queries may not be done after all. Not yet, at least

As planned, I did in fact send a nudge to one of the agents I’d queried this past week. Then I nudge another, having forgotten that she’d explicitly stated that she responds to all queries and to nudge after twelve weeks. It had been…comfortably longer than that (amid all the LA hullabaloo I’d lost track). The first nudge has received no response as yet (which was expected; he receives a high volume of submissions, and he too says he responds to all of them). However, the second nudge received an almost immediate reply.

The agent in question began by congratulating me on winning the 2026 Golden Pen, and apologizing for the long silence. She noted she’s received a very large number of queries (which is easy to believe), and promised she’d get back to me about my query soon. She also casually mentioned she is down to her “maybe” pile, and since she hadn’t responded to me yet, that means that I am in her maybe pile.

So…call me maybe?

This has boosted my spirits enough to press my luck, so tomorrow I’ll be sending nudges to the other three agents who’ve yet to respond. At this point, I don’t see what I have to lose. More than likely the other three have already decided to pass on my query, but just haven’t said so. And anything is better than a dreaded “CNR”.

CNR

For those who aren’t querying writers, CNR is shorthand for “Closed – No Response”. The term originated with QueryTracker, the website most writers use to track their queries (and a growing number of agents use to accept queries). A query designated CNR is one that has received no response, but has been active long enough that if the agent were to respond, they’d have done so already. A writer can label a query CNR manually, but the query will automatically be labeled as such if it receives no response after roughly six months.

I’ve talked a lot about how rejections weigh heavily on a writer, so to the casual reader a CNR might actually sound preferable. But for a querying writer, it’s the worst-case scenario. Because it’s frankly the least helpful response (or lack of said) a query can receive.

As I’ve said through my two rounds of queries thus far, early on in the query process no news is generally good news. It’s true that some queries will trigger an immediate request, but these are in the vast minority, generally limited to extremely well-written query letters for highly-marketable work (a friend of mine was querying for only about a week with her dark rom-com). Most responses within the first couple weeks are likely to be “rapid rejections”: a sign that either your work is completely unappealing to an agent, or there are fatal flaws with your query package that threw up red flags.

Most agents respond to queries between six to twelve weeks after submission, with the sweet spot being around eight to ten. After that point, no news becomes bad news. Once you’re past the twelve-week mark, it’s more likely that you’ll be rejected. And far more likely that any agents who’ve yet to respond to you simply won’t.

Querying writers hate having a query end in a CNR because it tells you nothing. A rejection with feedback can tell you if you’re at least on the right track, and perhaps draw attention to flaws in your materials. Even a form rejection tells you something: somewhere in your query, some part of it clearly isn’t working. But a CNR gives you no indication of what went wrong, or even if anything actually did.

Why CNR’s Happen

There are a lot of reasons an agent might fail, or decline, to respond to your query. Most literary agents won’t provide a reason, even when pressed to. They do this because they know they’ve very busy, and all their fellow agents are too, and thus they’re unwilling to go on record calling anyone out. The most they’ll usually say is that 1) they don’t like CNRs, 2) they understand why writers might find it frustrating, and 3) they, personally, strive to respond to every query.

But in the end, the biggest reason boils down to the main reason most agents behave the way they do: they’re busy. It’s important for querying writers to remember that an agent’s job consists of far more than just reading queries. They have other obligations to their agency. If they’re not a brand-new agent, they also have existing clients, and they’re constantly editing client manuscripts, submitting to purchasing editors, negotiating book deals, helping clients develop marketing strategies and plan book tours, and so on.

That said, however, there are at least a few likely reasons for a CNR:

The Agent Skipped Your Query

Look, literary agents are human, and humans make mistakes. They forget things. They accidentally delete things. They put queries aside, fully intending to circle back to them, then never do. They think they responded to a query, but it turns out they didn’t. These things happen. Think about your own work inbox. Can you honestly say you’ve never let something important slip between the cracks?

If you feel this might be the case, it’s not a terrible idea to send a gentle nudge. However, again, agents are busy people. So if you are planning to nudge (as I did), it’s a good idea to have some news to share. Maybe you had a short story published. Maybe you won a contest, or were shortlisted. Maybe you attended a writing workshop and met one of their clients. All of these would be useful pieces of information for an agent to have, and would constitute a valid reason to reach out. A nudge that simply reads, “Have you had the chance to look at my query yet?” is likely to be ignored at best. At worst you’ll come across as pushy, and an overworked, frustrated agent might simply fire off a rejection.

But hey, at least then you’ll know, right?

The Agent Hasn’t Gotten to Your Query Yet

Today, most agents receive a high volume of submissions. And while new agents are coming onto the scene all the time, the volume of submissions tends to grow each year much faster than the growing pool of agents can handle. So it’s important to keep that in mind if you haven’t heard back for a while.

It’s important to note that most literary agents will provide both average response times and procedures for what to do if you haven’t heard back. Check their guidelines carefully. If an agent explicitly states that they respond to all queries, you should take them at their word and wait. Some agents will tell you flat out that they won’t respond if they’re not interested. In that case, protracted silence means “No”, and you shouldn’t nudge them.

The rule of thumb is this: when in doubt, say nothing. Remember that agents talk, even to those who work for other agencies. If you gain a reputation for pestering agents who don’t respond promptly, that might hamper your chances of success in the future.

The Agent Was Unimpressed with Your Query

Unfortunately, if you haven’t heard back from an agent after four months, this is the most likely reason. Due to their workload, many agents simply don’t have the time or bandwidth to respond to every query they receive. As I stated earlier, some will come right out and tell you silence means rejection. Beyond that, it’s a bit more complicated.

My experience, and what I’ve heard from the experiences of others, suggests that in most cases a CNR is about as hard a pass as you can receive beyond a rapid rejection. More than likely, it means your work was so bland or unimpressive they felt it didn’t warrant a response. A rejection, even a form rejection, suggests the agent gave your work a good, long look. They’d invested enough time in it to feel inclined to give you a clear “no”. If they simply ignored you, it means by their estimation your work isn’t even close to being ready to publish.

What You Can Learn

I’ve said it before: you learn something from every rejection: whatever you’re doing, it’s not working. And absent a clear reason to believe otherwise, you should view a CNR as a rejection. Think about it: even if your query did in fact get lost in the shuffle, most agents give at least a passing glance to queries as they receive them. If your query was that good, would they really have lost track of it so easily?

Odds are if you’ve received a CNR from an agent it’s because somewhere along the way you lost them. It wasn’t that your query was bad, it was that it was uninteresting. And in publishing, trust me, that’s worse. People still talk about bad books. Hell, I had to read Wuthering Heights in high school, and if Emily Brontë has a problem with me calling her out, she can come and find me. But nobody talks about bland, uninteresting books. And if you’re trying to find an agent with one of those, you have a serious problem.

Nobody likes being ghosted, but in the publishing world it’s a fact of life. So instead of getting angry about it, learn from it. Sit down with your query materials and manuscript and look for any way you can make it better. Put your work in front of your critique group. Seek out authors who already have agents. Learn, and grow. That’s the key to being a successful writer. – MK