You can say you want lots of editorial support, until your agent (not mine!) takes you on edits for a year or more. You really can’t know exactly what you want from an agent until you’ve been in that kind of relationship. Truthfully, my first agent and I parted ways very amicably. How did you know your agent was the right one for you? And I felt so angry that all these agents who’d had my full for six months or more were telling me: I really love your book but wish we’d had time to do an R&R. And I was terrified I’d make the wrong choice. You’d think that after receiving a good number of rejections, I’d be happy to say no to agents who were interested but it made my stomach hurt. What was the week surrounding your offer(s) of representation like for you? Now however, I’d suggest you teach yourself to write a synopsis because you’ll be writing them at every stage. Truthfully, I put off anyone who asked for a synopsis because I was scared of writing one. And then I’d send them out five at a time, each time careful to make sure that I put the right name on the top and in the email, and that I had the right information of what they were looking for in a query (1 page, 5 pages, 10 pages, etc.). I kept a file with information on all the agents I was interested in, what comparable writers they had as clients, what personal touches I could add to the letter. What was your method for querying? Small batches? Query widely? Wait for feedback? And you get to see how many other people are just as nervous as you. It’s simple and clear, and for the most part, a very supportive community. Querytracker is amazing and it was one of the only things I missed when I stopped querying. You definitely won’t sign with an agent if you stop querying after rejections. At every stage it takes pushing through the doubt, timing, luck and so much hard work. Nobody sails through the query process to a fantastic agent to a six-figure deal to the NYTimes Bestseller list.
Long enough to get discouraged, but you need to push through. Every time you receive a rejection, send out another query. What advice would you give to querying writers? Now for Natalie’s insight on querying, signing with an agent, going on submission, and being a debut author! Natalie is a young adult author and her debut, THE DISTANCE FROM A TO Z, is now available from HarperTeen Epic Reads! She is represented by Rena Rossner of The Deborah Harris Agency.Īmazon * Barnes and Noble * Kobo * HarperCollins
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