I hope everyone had a safe holiday. This is the day that the vet comes out to check on my horse. If he has lousy news, I will get a second opinion. No doubt.
I read an interesting interview of Michael Hyatt CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing over at So You Want To Be Published. He talks about a lot of interesting things but the one that caught my eye, was this one on Tim Ferriss. Timothy Ferriss is the author of The Four Hour Work Week. In it Michael gives eight blogging tips from Tim. There are some pretty good ones. I really like number five using Google AdWord. I tried it and it's easy to use. If you type in a key word or phrase, it will give you an idea of how popular that would be if you posted about it on your blog. Pretty interesting stuff.
I'm going to add to my agent list today. I'm adding Alyssa Henkin. I'm also going to add Jill Corcoran. She accepts queries and the first ten pages if you're a member of SCBWI or a published author. Question for my bloggy buds. How many agents should I query? Ten? Twenty? Thirty? What say all of you? :)
I queried Ms. Henkin. So my first one is completed. It felt great too. Thanks for all of your help on my question today. :)
I would query in stages. Send out ten and see what type of response you get. If you get no requests, your query letter may need work. If you get rejections on partials or fulls, the MS may need some work that you can do before sending out a new round of queries.
ReplyDeleteMegan, what a great idea. Ten is also a manageable number for me. I've been feeling overwhelmed at this job of looking at agents. This will help. :)
ReplyDeleteI was always of the philosophy send out 1, wait, wait, wait, and wait some more. Then, when received reject and/or no response, send out next, wait, wait, wait and wait some more.
ReplyDeleteI have since learned (thanks to Authoress of Miss Snark's First Victim) that 5 is prorably the magic number. Nathan Bransford also mentioned not sending out to a ton of agents at one time because it can get you a bad rep in the industry.
So, on my next round of querying I plan to send out 5 and see what happens.
Best of luck . . . with the querying and your horse!
S
Scott, if I send out five I've only got one more to add. Pretty sound advice. Hey! How'd you get so smart?? :)
ReplyDeleteDon't query too many at a time, no more than 5 is the norm. See what your results are. If the rejections come back too "generic" maybe tweak your query a bit. If they come back a little more personal, then just keep plugging away. Hopefully you hear a "yes" quickly.
ReplyDeleteKatie, I've decided to do that. I had thought much more was the norm. Glad I asked all my bloggy buds. I do NOT want to make any stupid mistakes with this. Thanks! :)
ReplyDeleteI like what Megan said about sending out in stages. I'm just starting, and I'm keeping my numbers small to get a sense of whether or not my query letter and my opening is working. If, for example, I get a lot of partial requests, then I'll assume that the query letter is working. If not, then I'd revise the letter. Once I feel good about the letter and the opening pages, I'll probably send out in bigger batches, maybe ten at a time. I have a list of about 30 agents, so the whole process won't actually be that long.
ReplyDeleteI query about 5 at a time and wait to hear back before querying more. But I don't quit until I've gone through all of them!! Bwahaha! :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great tips and the question, which has generated useful comments. I think five sounds like a magic number--not too overwhelming but quite active.
ReplyDeleteWhat they said. :p
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Davin, I'm with you. I sent my first one off today. I'm testing the waters, my friend.:)
ReplyDeleteBJ, BWA HA HA HA! :)
Tricia, you're welcome. I'm going with five-ten. It's so scary. Sent one off a few minutes ago. GULP! :)
Danyelle, uhhuh! Thanks for the good luck wish, my friend! :)
I think you have to send more than one to really "test" the waters. I mean, what if it's just not for them? I chose ten agents that said they were actively looking for my genre/style of novel. I queried them first. And yes, even though one said she was looking for dystopian science fiction with a female character, she rejected my query.
ReplyDeleteAnd I knew it wasn't the query. Because out of those ten, I got 6 other requests. So I really think you have to send more than one.
After that, once I start sending out submissions, I sort of go crazy. I know the query works. I get comments on my first chapter, so I know that works too. So from them, I sort of go nuts and query the world. I figure if I have stuff out and the query process is working, why wait? Just to drag out the rejections longer?? Um, no.
Good luck!
Elana, Oh I plan on sending out a lot, but I do want to test drive and see what kind of reaction I get. Thanks,:)And hey. I'll go a little crazy too!:)
ReplyDeleteGood tips!
ReplyDeleteI sent out 30 queries with AD, and got back 10 positive responses. Somewhere around 20, give or take, tends to be my norm. Usually by the time I've heard from the 20, I have come up with new ways to change the query or the book.
Beth, thanks. I sent my first two out yesterday. I'm stopping there, because I forgot to add in my query that I planned on simultaneous subs.:)
ReplyDeleteI have no idea about the submission process. I have submitted before, but that was like a dozen years ago and the only thing I know is that I did it wrong and didn't try long enough. So I got nothing, except best wishes :) Your query did sound very interesting and if you incorporate some of those changes, I'm sure you will find the right agent :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I hope everything is okay with your horse :-/
Lauren, The submission process is filled with many bumps. So they tell me. Hopefully I'm ready to handle those bumps. :) Thanks for saying that. I surely hope I do. Been at this long enough to know it can happen anytime. :)
ReplyDelete