Another National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has come and gone, and I know that means some of you are thinking about querying your novel. Before you charge headlong into the fray and submit your story to literary agents or directly to publishers, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
- Do not submit first drafts. Your book needs to be edited. Your query is your foot in the door, but you don’t want that foot then shoved into your mouth by submitting a low-quality manuscript. A good story can sometimes trump mediocre writing, but bad writing full of typos and grammatical errors will get you nowhere. If you need some editing tips, you can check out an earlier post I did on that subject.
- Queries may not seem like a big deal, some antiquated “gatekeeper” ritual designed to annoy and frustrate new authors. That’s not the case. Queries are your chance to show the agent: A) You can follow directions (which is very important, because if you can’t follow the submission guidelines on their website, that’s the first sign you’re not going to be able to follow an editor’s directions and/or that you will be difficult to work with), B) How your story is different from all the other stories like it and what your writing style is like, so that C) The agent can see if it fits their interests and if they think they might be able to sell it. Not all agents are good at selling every genre under the sun. Most specialize. Do your research. Query broadly but appropriately.
- There is a technique to writing queries. Like the back cover of a book, it should give you an idea of what the story is about and entice the agent/editor to want to know more and read your pages. It should not be ambiguous or gimmicky. It should answer these questions: A) Who is your main character, B) What do they want, and C) Who or what is standing in their way of getting it, and D) How do they proactively go about reaching their goal. Be specific, and avoid cliché or unclear phrases like “and then everything changes” or “and then he/she/it faced a challenge unlike anything they had ever faced before.”
- The query should not extol the virtues of your writing (ahem, “show don’t tell” comes into play here), discuss secondary characters at length, or info-dump about the history of your world or characters. Keep it to around 250 words – 3 or 4 paragraphs – that address the plot.
- Include one more short paragraph at the bottom that includes the title, word count, genre, and your publishing credits (meaning if this is your first or hundredth published novel or any short stories you’ve had published, not how many creative writing classes you took in college or how much your family and friends love your work).
- Your query should be for one book, not several—if you believe you have a series on your hands, then say something along the lines of, “MY BEST FRIEND’S UNICORN is an 80,000 word work of young adult fantasy and has series potential.” That’s it.
- Not quite as important, but just as an aside, remember that your query is a business letter. Even if it is done via email, it should be professional. No sparkly GIF images, stick with one font for the entire letter (suggest size 12 Times New Roman or Arial), and black text. Remember to address it to “Mr./Ms. (agent last name)”. One email per agent, not one email sent to 100 agents. Even if the body of the text is the same in every letter, it should be addressed to the agent by name. Personal touches can make a difference, and spam-blasting is a great way to put yourself on the fast track to being ignored.
- More on the technique of query writing here, query critiques here, and examples of queries that worked for others here.
Now that I’ve discussed the how-to of query writing, I’m going to give you an idea of the odds. I saw a tweet from agent Sara Megibow of Nelson Literary Agency the other day that broke down the queries she received thus far in 2012:
36,000 queries
1200 sample pages (30 pages) requested
98 full manuscripts requested
7 offers of representation
That’s one literary agent in one year. In 2011, I saw another agent mention how she had received 28,000 queries and took on 4 clients. I apologize that I don’t have the source for this, but another agent or editor then went on to speculate that approximately 90% of agented authors go on to get book deals. That’s an unverified statistic, but by my own observations, it sounds about right to me. It gives you an idea of your odds and how important it is to put some care and effort into the process so that your manuscript and query both shine.
Of course, if you’re wondering what that means monetarily, you might want to take a look at this and this before quitting your day job. Not all of us can be Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, or Stephenie Meyer.
If you’re thinking of self publishing as an alternative because you’re intimidated by those odds, make sure you take all of the pros and cons of both options into account.
I’m not posting this to deter you from attempting to publish your book—only to be sure that you go into the process with your eyes open, and that you have an idea of what you need to do to have the best possible chance of succeeding.
Good luck!
