Learnings

What did I learn from all my agent queries?

• To be organized, for one thing. I mentioned this in the last post, but I did my best to avoid duplicate research or queries. A little work getting organized up front saved a lot of time during my search.

• They’re time-consuming. Overall I spent 6-7 weeks on this effort. That’s a lot of time away from writing, but I knew it required dedication and I was determined to give it a shot. On the individual query level, researching, putting together the package required, and sending them off - well, each one was also time-consuming, and that adds up.

• About 40% of the agents I queried responded. That doesn’t really bother me as much as it might other people. Some agents mentioned on Twitter how many queries they evaluated, and I think one even had a bar graph showing the volume each month and the backlog. So 40% might seem abysmally low to some people, but not me.

• Along those lines, don’t expect any feedback from the agents who do respond. In every instance, the reply I received was nicely worded and a form reply. I knew going in that agents aren’t there to give feedback to an author on their story or writing.

• It’s hard to find an agent.