I’ve been at this for over a decade and the querying landscape has changed drastically. From Covid to the rise of QueryTracker, more writers than ever have been dipping their toes in the trenches.
I’m not going to tell you how to write a query, there’s lots of resources out there from PubTips to legions of Agents and Writers giving far better query tutorials than I ever could. Querying is hard, and you’re going to be rejected. Here’s some tips to get you in the right mindset for your querying journey…
- Agents are People too. They miss garbage day, failed at something, and have had explosive diarrhea at a most unfortunate time. They are not infallible, ethereal beings that will judge you unworthy and send you to the writer’s abyss. They will not instantly reject you for misspelling their name nor will they blacklist you for a typo. They are partners, collaborators, and advocates. Trust me when I say that the majority of agents are just trying to get by, just like the rest of us.
They are not infallible, ethereal beings that will judge you unworthy and send you to the writer’s abyss.
- You’re going to get a rejection. It’s going to happen. You might end up with 100 rejections, and that’s okay. Social Media algorithms will show you writers who get the agent within a few weeks with their first book, but that doesn’t happen for the vast majority of writers. The hardest thing to keep in mind is that it’s not personal. You could write the best book in the world and still get rejections for so many factors that quite frankly have nothing to do with you. That agent may love the story but doesn’t have the connections to sell it. They may already have something similar and don’t want two similar stories competing in submissions.
You could write the best book in the world and still get rejections for so many factors that quite frankly have nothing to do with you.
- Subjective…. One of thee most frustrating aspects about publishing is that it’s all subjective. One agent might think the pacing is too fast, another may say it’s too slow. So who’s right? Neither. And yeah, I know what you’re thinking. An agent has given you feedback. They’re experts in selling books so they know what’s best, right? Sort of.
- More and more agents are withholding their feedback for this specific reason. They know how writers work. We get feedback, spiral, and rewrite in a frenzy and end up overcorrecting our work for an agent that already rejected in hopes that the next one won’t. But in this process, we lose that spark that originally drew the agent in.
- Dear reader, just because an agent rejects your work does not mean they don’t want you to succeed. Agents want you to get published, even if it’s not with them. So, don’t be frustrated if you don’t get feedback.
- Small cavate here – If you find that multiple agents are giving you similar feedback, you should probably listen. Most of us jump the gun and query projects that are not ready. If you think that’s you, get in touch with your fellow writers.
We get feedback, spiral, and rewrite in a frenzy and end up overcorrecting our work for an agent that already rejected in hopes that the next one won’t. But in this process, we lose that spark that originally drew the agent in.
- Find your group.
- There are so many FREE resources. Reddit has PubTips. There are a plethora of Discord and Slack groups dedicated to querying and writing. Find them! Join a bunch of them and stick with the people you resonate the most with. Personally, I suggest avoiding the groups ran by Social Media Personalities that are run more like fan groups and prefer the motley crew of queriers myself, but you’ll figure out what works best for you. Being a writer means being critiqued. It means learning how to interpret feedback (a skill on its own).
It’s scary, putting yourself out there. Being vulnerable. But you can’t learn to swim on land.
- Write the next book while querying.
- If you don’t do something to occupy that brain of yours, each rejection will hit harder. Each day will result in stalking the Query Tracker timeline. Waiting for responses that may or may not come is a terrible waste of your energy. Write, read, and keep yourself busy. In the long run, you’ll be happier if you write what you love and focus on the craft itself rather than the querying process.
Querying can take a long time. Agents receive hundreds of queries a month now, and they still need to prioritize their clients. Many of them have full time jobs on top of agenting.
- Most importantly of all, be kind.
- Be kind to agents, your group, but most of all, be kind to yourself. Remember when I said agents won’t blacklist you for a typo? That is still true at the bottom of the page as it is the top, but they most certainly will remember you if you’re rude.
- Just like the dreaded Goulash lady you serve every Wednesday or the Karen who doesn’t understand the store return policy, people remember when you’re a jerk. There’s no need to respond to a rejection, and there’s certainly need to lash out. Don’t burn the bridges. Just keep it moving.
- And when you’re at the end of the list of agents you want to query and you didn’t get the results you hoped for, that doesn’t mean your work isn’t good. Lots of writers have different ways of coping with rejection. Some go to their groups for support, others treat themselves, some have a separate email for querying. Others get creative and knit a row on a blanket for each rejection or even do blackout art on the rejection forms.
Do what helps you cope, but in a healthy, positive way.
Shayna Grissom Writes 
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