Good Lord there is a lot of bad advice about querying out there. And I don’t know why people continue to dispense it, but it’s clearly coming from people who haven’t done their research in the right ways… like, by listening to how good, respected agents actually feel on the subject.
So, let’s discuss a few of the bad pieces of advice out there, and why they’re so bad, shall we?
1. Query only your bottom choices first, in case your query sucks.
Now, why is this bad advice? Well a couple reasons.
- It uses agents as your test subjects on a query. Why on Earth would you use agents as test subject on your query instead of other writers? You should not be sending out a query that sucks, period, even if it’s to agents you don’t care about. (And you definitely shouldn’t be querying agents you don’t care about, because what’s the point for either of you?) Use the right test subjects – other readers and writers. When a minimum of three people (who aren’t of the varity that tell you everything you produce is a unicorn tear) tell you they’d request from your query as is, then you’re probably ready to go. Until then, you’re just wasting everyone’s time, including your own. (And yes, obviously you may still receive comments that suggest your query needs tweaking, but that’s a chance you take, especially because of #2)
- If you get an offer, you’ll never actually get to query your top agents. Now, apparently, some people think that if you get an offer, you can toss out your query to your top choice agents with an “I have an offer of rep.” No, no you cannot. Here’s what you do when you get an offer of rep – you e-mail all the agents who have material (this is non-negotiable), and depending on circumstances* you might also e-mail all the agents who have just a query. THAT IS IT. YOU DO NOT GET TO SEND OUT MORE QUERIES. This is how it works for agents/editors as well – once an agent gets an offer while out on sub, (s)he only gets to nudge the other editors who are reading. You’re not going to intrigue new agents with “Here’s my query – YOU HAVE ONE WEEK TO RESPOND.”
*I did this when I got an offer because it was within the week I started querying, and I’d queried agents who’d requested fulls before, so I had significant reason to believe they might be interested but hadn’t had time to respond. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this if an agent’s had it for two months and has never requested from you before.
2. You should be taking advantage of every opportunity possible, all at once.
This is, to an extent, great advice. But what it’s missing is the part where they’re the opportunities you actually want, and that going after what you want still requires a certain amount of respect and professionalism.
For a while, I was getting a lot of questions about what to do if you got an offer from a small press while you were looking for an agent. But here’s the thing – in reality, you shouldn’t be bumping into that issue. And here’s why:
When you query, what you’re saying is “I want an agent to work with me and this book.” When you sub to a small press, what you’re saying is, “I want to work with you on getting this published, in a partnership between me and you.” When you do both at the same time, what you may well end up saying is either:
- “Agent, I’ve taken the opportunity to do what you think is best for my manuscript out of your hands and made the decision for you.” It’s taking all the trust you’re supposed to be putting into an agent and basically tossing it out the window. Not to mention that as much as I love small presses, they’re seldom going to be an agent’s first choice. (More on that here.)
or
- “Editor, you’re actually not my first choice – really, I want an agent. But I also want a book deal, so, just hold on while I awkwardly navigate this whole agent thing I’m in the middle of and then I’ll get back to you, please?”(This is definitely the lesser of the evils, and I have plenty of friends who’ve scored an agent while navigating a book deal to no negative repercussions. But, it’s a lot harder to deal with this paragraph without also having to deal with the previous one.)
Now, I also know what you’re thinking – WTF am I supposed to do when I’m in a contest or Twitter pitch party and both agents and editors are requesting? The answer is you don’t have to send material to everyone who asks. If you want an agent, and you’re not looking for a book deal with a small press right now, don’t sub to the small press you don’t want. Remember that this isn’t set in stone: you can always sub to the small press later, or query these agents later.
3. If you really, really love your book, you will never, ever give up on querying it.
Look, I stand by all my manuscripts. I love them. But here’s the thing about querying – even though what you’re querying is just one manuscript, what you’re really doing when you query is trying to find an agent who wants to rep your career. So yeah, you can send out your query to 300 agents (at least I think you can; I have no idea how many actually exist) and number 300 may want it, but then you’ve got your 300th-choice agent repping your career.
So what to do? Well, you have options. (Please note that I am simply presenting the options that exist; each has its own pros and cons as well.)
- You can shelve it and move on to query something else. This may result in that ms being buried forever, or it may not. It’s possible that once you sign an agent with a new ms, (s)he might be willing to look at that one too. Or maybe you’ll get a book deal and be able to use it as an option, or “book 2” or whatever.
- You can self-publish it, and then if you still want to pursue an agent, you can query with a different manuscript.
- You can submit it to publishers that don’t require agents, and then if you still want to pursue an agent, you can query with a different manuscript.
So if you’re asking yourself “When is it time for me to put this manuscript away?” here’s my personal answer: The time is when it’s been rejected by all the agents you want, you don’t want to self-publish it, and either you don’t want a small publisher for it or you’ve been rejected by all the ones you do.
4. Always mention/avoid the topic of having previously submitted to this agent.
See that slash? It’s because this isn’t a black-and-white thing. What matters when deciding whether or not to mention having previously submitted to an agent is what happened when you previously submitted to an agent.
DO mention if you’ve queried with a different manuscript and (s)he requested a full.
DON’T mention if you’ve queried with a different manuscript and received a rejection at the query stage.
There’s no reason not to try again with a new manuscript, even if you were rejected at the base stage earlier. New manuscript, new shot. The one caveat to this is that you must put some time between the queries. Getting a rejection from an agent and coming back with a new manuscript the next day? Raises suspicion about why you have another manuscript at the ready, and whether or not you’re querying both simultaneously, which you shouldn’t be doing. I believe six months is the standard time to wait between when an agent rejects and when you query him or her with something new, but obviously variables will always factor in there!
5. Mention your age in your query.
This may not work against you, but it’s not likely to work for you, either. Just skip it.
6. Mention the agent’s other clients in your query (in suggestion of a referral).
This is good advice only with the client’s explicit, expressed permission. Do not ever fake a referral. I pretty much guarantee the agent will find out you did not have permission. This goes triple if you don’t even know said client. (Parentheses added to clarify, as Laura said in the comments, that if you’re saying you’re interested because they rep a client whose books you love, that’s definitely OK!)
7. Exaggerate your publishing credentials.
Hahahahahaha yes, because NO ONE WILL EVER FIND OUT YOU DIDN’T REALLY PUBLISH A BOOK YOU SAY YOU DID, or that you sold 10K copies fewer than you said. For real, if you think agents are that stupid, why do you even want one?
8. Offer an exclusive to your top agent so (s)he will take you more seriously.
This one is a huge no. First of all, as I’ve blogged about before, exclusives are decidedly not in a querier’s best interest. Now, it’s one thing to decide to give an exclusive to an agent who asks for it, but agents who don’t ask for them actually don’t want them. Exclusives just put undue pressure on agents they didn’t want, and maybe it’ll speed them up or maybe it won’t, but how would you feel about repping someone who put a burden on you you didn’t ask for? Whether you want to grant an exclusive to someone who asks for one is up to you, but it is the only circumstance under which you should be giving one.
So, those are my opinions on Best Querying Practices! Agree? Disagree? Questions? Comments?
The Daily Dahlia 
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Dahlia, this is fantastic and so timely! I currently have a situation that I’m thrilled about but it’s also stressing me out. I have several fulls out on request and received a request for an exclusive partial. It was only for a short period, and I didn’t expect to hear from the other agents in that time (I also didn’t expect this agent to want more!). Well, she now wants the full exclusively, but I’d never mentioned the other requests I’ve already got out. I fear if I tell her now (and send the full), it will leave a bad taste in her mouth. But if someone offers during that exclusive period, I won’t know what to do. Any suggestions are welcome!
Glad it came at a good time! It’s always best to be honest – sometimes timing works out so that you’ve already got material out before someone asks for exclusive, and when that occurs, you can always say, “Agents have material from earlier queries, so unfortunately I can’t guarantee an exclusive at this time.” What I did when this happened to me was offer not to send any *more* queries, which you can offer, or not, but there’s no real advantage there. (The agent ended up waiving exclusivity; sometimes they don’t really care about it, but it’s an agency policy that they have to request it, I guess?)
My personal opinion is that if an agent is insecure enough to pull a request because she can’t have it exclusively, then good riddance – your agent needs to be a fighter who doesn’t back down from some competition; that’s literally her job. If she doesn’t want a manuscript she likes a lot anymore because other people have it, that doesn’t scream a lot of confidence that she’s the best choice.
Thank you so much!
Obviously there are exceptions to most rules and I don’t expect them to all be listed here 🙂 but I have a question about sending a new MS immediately after a pass. If the agent says they’d like to see future projects, and you have one ready, do you think it would be appropriate to send it with an, “I actually do have another I’m getting ready to query, here it is if you’d like to take a look.” (?)
I ask because I know a very successful author who spent five years just writing, not querying, and when he started to query he did have multiple projects he was proud to send, and he did this. It worked out for him, he ended up with that agent, but it might come off as pushy to some? Thoughts?
I think it’s reasonable to have more than one at the ready and to ask if they want to see it (though I wouldn’t just give it immediately without being asked), BUT if you’re going to do so, keep in mind to do so in a way that takes into account assuaging major fears this might bring the agent, because it *does* raise questions about how ready this is and why it’s not the one you initially queried.
If it’s not really ready, don’t force it; they’ll want it as much a month from now, or six. Don’t make assumptions based on “Oh, the agent will forget they ever said that to me if I don’t send this now” because
A) who cares? Remembering they asked for something you write in the future is no more of a guarantee of offer than anything else, and if it’s because they like your writing, then they’ll like your writing again, unless they don’t, in which case, what would mentioning they once did do for you? and
B) you’ll just mention in your query that they requested the last time queried, and they’ll look you up, and that’s that.
BUT ALSO, consider what happens if you’re querying two different manuscripts at the same time – what if an agent offers on the first one? They love that one you know this agent doesn’t, and they may love this second one too. Wouldn’t you rather the agent who potentially wants both, vs. this agent you know doesn’t love a manuscript you still have in play? Sure, once you’re done querying that first manuscript, if you shelve it, then it doesn’t matter, but for now, why run straight to an agent with something else if there’s a really high chance you’re gonna have to shelve what you love enough to be querying now?
Reblogged this on Sophia Kimble and commented:
This is a great blog on querying for all you writers out there.
It is a relief to read more and more articles on querying rules and practices while already practicing them. It’s been a long haul as a new writer, but the hard work is finally paying off. Thank you for posting this and offering new advice or reassuring us.
Take care,
Jennifer
This is GREAT advice. I forwarded it around on Twitter when you first posted because I have not queried before but I’ve heard a few of these “bad advice” tips and I’m glad I read this post before following them blindly! Thanks for being such a reliable source for those of us still dreaming and pursuing publication.
Thanks, hun! Hope others find it helpful too!
I seriously marvel that some of this advice floats around–it’s crazy! Great post with tons of great points here!!
Love this list! I’m always terrified that I’m doing everything wrong every time I hit “send” on a query… it’s nice to see that I’m not as hopeless as I think I am! 😀
Thanks for this list. I began querying for the first time a few weeks ago and it was nerve racking!
Great advice, as always. Some of those you’d think would be common sense, but… Lol. (I’m interested inn the query giveaway.)
Good info. My main fault was querying too early–way too early. Now I’m ready, but I’ve learns my lesson a little painfully. Yes, there’s a lot of OPINIONS out there–can’t even say it qualifies as real advice. I’m passing this blog on to a good friend who’s at the beginning of her writing endeavors and is shocked at the lack of continuity of rules, agent do’s and don’t’s, etc. I keep telling her: “welcome to the wonderful world of writing!”
I’ve finally decided to stop twitter contests and just focus on regular queries and agents. Working on a “revise and resubmit” for an agent I really want to work with, so I’m filled with hope I’m getting close!
Thanks for all you insights! Great blog!
I have made the exclusive mistake, back in the early days. Other than that, I’ve only queried too soon. But it’s soooo hard to know when too soon is b/c you can love something and not even realize just how much better it can be (even after getting people to look at it.)
Ugh. Querying is hard. But thanks for the guidelines!
Great advice. I’ve seen a lot of these ‘hints’ and ‘tips’ out there and then I see other’s say the opposite and it always confused me and made me weary to listen to advice that an agent or editor didn’t make themselves. This was such a great help, thanks!
Great advice! When I was querying, I used this approach ( http://agencygatekeeper.blogspot.com/2010/03/middle-way-new-method-of-timing-your.html ), and it worked well for me. I definitely didn’t do everything right when I was querying (querying too soon, for example), but I loosely followed this method.
That sounds about right to me! I definitely staggered my top choices a bit, because yeah, sometimes you just don’t know when your query isn’t working until you get out there. But if you do ALL bottom choices and it turns out you’ve got a great query and you get an offer but don’t really want any of the agents? That’s a really awkward position to be in!
Definitely good, solid advice, and I couldn’t have said it better myself. From now on, when I get these questions, I am going to point them here! 😀 Thanks, Miss Dahlia 😉
Thank YOU, Dawn!
This is an absolutely excellent post for a new queriers! Thanks for sharing it and I will probably link to it during every contest I throw.
Aw, thanks, Brenda!
Wonderful post! Thank you for clearing up a few things. Much appreciated.
Thanks for coming by!
Great Advice! I always seem to fall under wrong advice and I am wondering if this is why I am getting rejections. Though my query letter could suck! Thank you for your wisdom! You truly are helping me out with your posts!
It’s really hard, I know. There is a LOT of bad advice out there, and it’s given really authoritatively! I like to think my advice is good advice, but I’m sure plenty of people read my blog and think I’m an idiot.
Good advice. It’s great to see things explained like this.
It’s funny sometimes to find out when different people think it’s time to quit querying. Some will go past a hundred, some will quit at 20 and move on to the next ms. Maybe it depends on whether they have another ms in the works, because it might be easier to quit. But if all you have is that one, it could be harder.
Well that’s why I left it at that abstract point of assessing your agent list – because I don’t think there’s a correct number. I think there’s only when it’s right for you, for this manuscript. And I think the right time is when it could hurt more than harm you to keep going, by reason of going down a path you don’t want in order to get this one manuscript published.
So, this is per #2. What about authors who self-pub and then query because the self-pub is doing so well? There are success stories in that realm, but it seems to be along the same lines as getting a small pub deal and alerting agents with your MS. Another thought is what if an agent requests a full, and it’s been out for months. In the mean time, some great editor pitch contests arise with smaller pubs you’d love to work with even if you had an agent? Should you pass up those opportunities to wait longer on those fulls?
Self-pubbing and then querying is a very tricky issue. Once you self-pub, an agent no longer has first rights to sell, so your self-pubbed book becomes an undesirable product for them to sub. The exceptions of course come with the ones that sell exceptionally well, and to the best of my knowledge, those partnerships with agents often happen as a result of an agent approaching and saying, “I want to rep this and see if we can take it to a big house,” rather than the author querying.
There are certainly exceptions, and honestly, I’m not so sure how those work. I think they’re weird case-by-case situations, but you’d have to present a really convincing case that you’ve got something worth their time. I’d certainly never do it with sales below 10K units.
I’m not at all planning on doing this, btw. Just think it’s an interesting exception that is floating around out there. 🙂
I like this… a lot! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading!
Thanks! I never thought about #4. But if the agent previously requested a full, she must have seen something she liked. Great idea!
As for #6, I think I’d word it differently. Mentioning other clients is a good idea, right? (“Since you rep Ms ABC, and I love her books…”) As long as you don’t pretend they are referring you.
Oh, duh, sorry – bad wording on my part! Will fix!