Writing Update: Querying #3
I want my thoughts to be in real time, even though I’m only posting once a week, so I’ve put dates in the post to record when I actually wrote that section (both for clarity and for my own record).
Time for this week’s update!
All the rejections—they keep on coming! Real-time reactions:
As of Thursday the 2/15/2024, I have 10 queries out without responses. I sent one more out today after hearing an agent on a podcast interview that caught my interest. I did some research on her last night and this morning, and the more I learned, the more excited I became at the thought of potentially working with her in the future. So, I went ahead and sent the query. My stats (again, as of Feb 15th) are 9 rejections and 1 full request. I’ll edit with updates, if there are any between now and Monday’s post.
Monday 2/19/2024 update: No new responses since Thursday.
THOUGHTS AFTER EVEN MORE REJECTIONS
Oof. Two of my top 5 agencies have now rejected me. I can’t lie, that’s a huge bummer.
I’m really proud of myself for how I’m handling all this rejection. I honestly didn’t know how it would go because I’m the type of person to cry at a commercial, but apparently I’m perfectly fine with people not wanting to work with me? Go figure. Whatever the reason, I’m grateful that it’s not negatively impacting my belief in myself as a writer, or my desire to have this book published.
I still don’t want to query more than 50-ish agents total. Unless there’s a compelling reason to do so (i.e. the absolute perfect agent pops up after that point, saying they want exactly what I’ve written), I plan to stop there.
I’ll probably put together another round of queries from my spreadsheet and send those out over the next week or two. I don’t want to have more than 10-15 outstanding at a time, but now that I’ve gotten responses from half of my original rounds, it may be time to prepare another batch.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
My spreadsheet is filling in! I’d like to see more requests, but I’m realistic enough to accept my current stats. I’ve made some adjustments to my query package for the next round, so hopefully that’ll yield more positive results. We’ll see!
I’m staying busy with working on my next novel, participating in my critique and writing groups, and parenting, so all-in-all querying is just another thing running in the background at this point. I’m aware that my queries are out there, but it doesn’t seem to be occupying a ton of my conscious attention. I think that’s a good thing. I want nothing more than to sign with an agent, so I’m just happy that life is keeping me busy enough to not dwell on the unknown and anticipation of waiting to hear back from everyone.
Like last time, I welcome any and all well wishes and luck! And if you’re a fellow author out there querying right now, my thoughts are with you. You’ve got this!
Today’s date: February 19th, 2024
