How do you stay sane while querying agents?

[CakeRage]

I finished my first book earlier this year (after saying for years I was going to write it), and started submitting to agents 3 weeks ago.

I’ve had a couple of replies, both really encouraging, but ultimately both rejections, and I feel like I’m losing my marbles. How do you keep it together while waiting? Not sure I can take the emotional rollercoaster

The first agent replied within hours to ask for the full manuscript, emailed again the following day to say she was halfway through and absolutely blown away by it, then a few days later to say she did love it, but thought it needed a few changes making. I revised the whole thing (10,000 extra words of work), then she replied just to say it wasn’t working, and she wouldn’t be taking it further.

To be honest I’ve been pretty gutted by it. How do you stop the little judgy voice in your head which tells you you were an idiot for getting your hopes up?

The second agent replied to say she was really impressed by my writing, but didn’t feel I was a good fit for her list at the moment, and recommended another agent (different agency) who she thought would like it. I handled that one much better, even though I guess it was more of an abrupt no.

Please tell me how you cope with this stage - or come commiserate with me at its horribleness!

(Sorry for my crazed rambling - feeling all my feelings this week!)

Oh, how frustrating, Sick! I agree with Lurking - the encouragement is a good sign. It is like a punch in the gut, though - so near and yet so far!

Just silence here, as usual. It makes me yearn for the days of paper submissions - at least you always got your SAE back with a 'thanks but no thanks' slip. I hate this trend of not replying at all.

Think we have crossed wires here, Hollow - I wasn’t suggesting this is the truth for all books. It was because we were all beating ourselves up over struggling this much when some people have ten agents fighting over them within hours of submitting or whatever. And when I read the article (written by an agent! Although I paraphrased of course) it was basically explaining that when that frantic scrabble happens, it is almost always always one of those kind of books. And that if you are taking longer to be noticed, it’s not that the BOOM idea writer is amazing and you’re terrible, it’s more that they see the first line of their submission letter and they know immediately that they can sell it.

I just found it comforting, and thought others on here would too.

Oh, so sorry to hear that, Sick. What a bummer for a Friday

The feedback is encouraging though. And when you resubmit to them, you can use the ‘you previously read this and said you would be interested in seeing a revised version’ line, which should catch their eye.

My first full ended with the agent asking me to revise and resubmit it based on her feedback, which I did, but her feedback was pretty vague and I didn’t fully understand what she was asking me to do. So I changed it in the way I thought she meant and obviously she didn’t mean that at all because she passed on the second version. I was totally gutted by that one cause she emailed me while she was reading the full and used words like ‘brilliant’ and ‘accomplished’ and ‘beautiful’ and I really got my hopes up and then when she finally passed I felt like someone had just pushed me off a cliff. You’re right. It’s a horrible process.

Sorry to hear the silence is continuing Preparing - your username is bang on the money at present for all of us it seems!

Argh Cake, that is horrible! That sounds identical to my experience, since this was my first full request and also got really glowing feedback like you. I wish they would temper their language so as not to get our hopes up. I'm scared I will have the same experience as you and have it rejected a second time. Also, it's all so subjective - of course there was merit in this agent's feedback, but I wonder if it's worth putting all this time and effort in to edit it when they've already rejected it once.

It's hard, and right now I'm in no mood to be thinking about it, but I know there's no room for despair and no other way but to keep on writing and submitting and hope for the best!

Oh no, so sorry to hear that, Sick. You and Cake describe such demoralising experiences. I haven’t got as far as you in the whole process but I find myself in bookshops wondering how all these authors made it through the process when it seems like such a huge mountain to climb!

I wonder if they consider the words that they use when dealing with fragile writer egos? I did feel a little bit led on, lol.

That was my first ever submission, and she initially replied within 2 hours, so it felt like a real whirlwind, as I hadn’t expected replies for weeks. After that, the months of silence have felt like a very different experience.

I just tried not to even think about it for a few days, and when I came back to it I felt a lot better. It’s my rejection protocol now. I allow myself one day to wallow (and sometimes I REALLY wallow), and the day after that I pull my socks up and get the hell on with it.

Reading your experiences has given me a much needed reality check.

I am getting ready for my submissions (eek!) but have a question.

An agency have said submissions should be double spaced and in 12 point font. Great for the excerpt from the manuscript, but do the covering letter and synopsis need to be in such a format?

I ask because some agents request a one page synopsis and double spacing will meam less words? Any advice would be appreciated.

I would double or 1.5 space your synopsis, but the covering letter is usually pasted into the body of an email, so I wouldn’t worry about that one too much.

My usual synopsis is just under 500w, which just sneaks into a second page with the spacing, but I hope that doesn’t matter too much!

My agent’s take on it is that more and more of the editing is now actually being done by agents and less by editors, who are now less liable to take on a book that they believe in but which still needs work than in the past, because it’s so hard to get a book past sales and acquisitions. This was in the context of an editor’s response to my first novel, which is out on submission in which he said he wasn’t making an offer at this point but wanted to ask if I was open to reworking.

Thank you Cake!

Many agents specify that all documents have to be double or 1.5 spaced, so my synopsis follows that format - it's a one-pager (just!).

I've always just written the covering letter in the body of the email.

Thank you Preparing!

Thank you for sharing your stories. It's a vital reality check to all the stories about debut writers getting six figure advances I read about in the Bookseller.

The six-figure advances don't always lead to huge sales, though. Look at Chloe Esposito's 'Mad' trilogy - she was signed up at the end of a Faber Academy course with about 20 agents fighting for the book. She got over £2m in advances including film options, but the first two books' sales performance didn't exactly light up the room, and the third book doesn't seem to be coming out any time soon.

I read 'Mad' and the first few chapters (funnily enough, about the amount you'd use for a pitch!) were great, but then the writing just deteriorated.

That’s often the way, Preparing. I haven’t got much experience in publishing, but I’ve worked writing products for consumers for twenty years, and there is almost always a disconnect between what marketing and buying departments think customers want, and what they actually want. They always want to push ‘Fresh & New’, but the sales would always hammer home to us that the great buying public actually much prefer ‘Same Old Shit’.

It’s depressing as hell as a creative, but what’s popular is not always good, and what’s good is not always popular. Just look at 50 Shades.

All that said, I 100% would not kick a six-figure advance out of bed. So good on these people earning them. I only wish it was me!

No, nor would I, Cake! I'd give up my day job for a £1m advance (I have a modest lifestyle) and if the book sold poorly, I'd try again with something else under a different name.

I'm absolutely hopeless at anything sales-related, which is one reason I think I need an agent - I don't have whatever it takes to sell my own book successfully.

What was the general consensus on nudging agents with a full?

Nudge after 3-4 months?

Ah okay I’ve a ways to go yet then.

I can’t quite believe the MAD story above. I wish Chloe Esposito every success as she deserves it as much as really anyone does but three million dollars in advances! Plus film rights! Good for her, may the same good fortune come to all of us, but still it seems crazy! A great lesson in many ways.

A form rejection from my recent batch of subs - what a quick turnaround - they must have really hated it .

I'm now wondering at what point do I decide I'm flogging a dead horse with this book, and draw a line under it. Do I send it to every agent in the UK who represents my genre, or should 20 be the limit (currently at 18, 5 still out).

I would think - send it to as many as you can. You never know!

@PreparingForDisappointment I'd give up my day job for a £1m advance (I have a modest lifestyle) and if the book sold poorly, I'd try again with something else under a different name

You wouldn't be able to do that, sorry! You would be used in the marketing of the book (festivals, newspaper and magazine articles, bookshop signings etc) and if you sold badly you would find it very, very difficult to find someone else who'd take you on.

I know someone that this has happened to. It sounds so exciting but if that book doesn't sell, you've had it!

And that £1 million would be immediately halved with your agent's fees and taxes.

Sorry to burst your bubble!

Yes, I did start off thinking along those lines, Captain but then I started to feel paranoid. If I complete Book 2 and all the agents have seen Book 1 and disliked it, they might think 'Oh, no, not her again!'.

I'm fighting against another paranoid fear that the agent who read the full has put it on some kind of agents' circular of books it's not worth bothering with, which is why I am not getting any more fulls.

if you sold badly you would find it very, very difficult to find someone else who'd take you on

I suppose I could try ghostwriting for my husband as a last resort!

I've factored in agents' commission and taxes. I could give up work on £500k (net) - I only need enough money to live off until I retire and my pension kicks in, and I am no spring chicken!

I'm now wondering at what point do I decide I'm flogging a dead horse with this book, and draw a line under it. Do I send it to every agent in the UK who represents my genre, or should 20 be the limit (currently at 18, 5 still out).

I would definitely send it to every agent you’d be happy to be represented by before you give up. When I started I had 25 in my head, but it was just an arbitrary number I’d plucked out of thin air. If you’re getting any kind of positive feedback I’d keep going. What if the agent who loves it is number 21?

The only positive feedback has been the full request I got back in May. I'm seriously wondering if that was a mistake on the agent's part - if she had two emails open at once or something and accidentally requested my manuscript when she meant to email someone else.