Writing Update: Querying #6
Current stats: 4 requests, 17 rejections, 14 outstanding queries
These past couple weeks since my last official querying update have been… tough.
I haven’t been feeling my best physically. As a result, I’ve been pretty low-energy. Chronic illness does this, and I’m fully aware of how my body’s energy and ability levels ebb and flow, but I really haven’t felt fully back to myself since getting sick at the beginning of the year, and it’s starting to get to me. I did a brief querying update in my last writing update post, but it wasn’t an official query update; it was more of a thoughts on writing post, covering the first few months of 2024 so far.
It’s taken me a long time to learn how to properly manage my health conditions, so I’m grateful that I have a pretty solid approach to keeping myself functional. But I’m also human, and three months of feeling so exhausted is wearing on me. It’s affected my writing, for sure, as I’ve struggled with brain fog, motivation, and focus. I’m still writing, but it looks very different than my lightning rail pace of 2023. As an over-achiever, it’s been a whole journey these past few months to accept my limitations and work within them so that I can stay healthy enough to keep up with everything else in my life.
It’s also affecting my querying at the moment. I haven’t been querying long (when compared to other writers and their journeys), and I think I’ve had a better experience than most so far, but I seem to have developed almost an apathy regarding the process, and I don’t love it. As a deeply emotional person who worked really hard to cultivate presence/mindfulness, and who spent lots of time in therapy learning how feel all my feelings in my body, it’s disconcerting when that seems to be shifting. I know it’s temporary, and that it’ll abate eventually. In the meantime, I’m going to keep drinking lots of water, taking my supplements, resting when my body needs it, and doing things I love.
I’VE GOTTEN MORE REJECTIONS
This now makes a total of 17 rejections so far.
I mentioned my week of rejections in the last writing update. I received 3 that week, and I received 1 this past week, bringing the total to 4 more rejections since my last query post.
My spreadsheet is filling up, with only 14 more queries outstanding. I’ll be closing 2 of those within the next couple of weeks if I don’t hear from them, as their guidelines say that they’ll respond within 8 weeks if they’re interested in requesting.
I RECEIVED ANOTHER MANUSCRIPT REQUEST
I woke up to a partial request this morning that got my entire day off to a fabulous start.
This agent is in my top 3, which means 2 out of my top 3 agents requested!
Based on QT stats and comments, it looks like this agent is pretty quick when responding to manuscript submissions if they aren’t interested, so I’m just hoping I don’t hear anything else from them this week. LOL! Unless it’s good news, of course.
This is my first partial manuscript request, so if I do hear from them this week, I hope it’s to request the rest of it.
I love starting off my week with a request, especially since it was this agent!
OVERALL THOUGHTS
4 requests and 17 rejections so far. I do have 14 queries outstanding, but I’m pretty sure 2 of those will be closing soon, and the other 2 are super long shots, so my brain is viewing it as 10 queries left. I know that most writers query a ton of agents, but I’ve said from the beginning that I don’t intend to do that unless something changes. As of now, I still feel the same. I’ve queried the agents I’m truly interested in working with, and I don’t want to query random agents just so that I can sign with someone. I’m still hopeful and confident that I’ve already queried my agent. I’m doing my best to keep an open mind, and consider the possibility of querying more once I hear back from everyone, but for now I’m content with who I’ve already queried.
On to another week!
Today’s date: March 25th, 2024
