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!)

To be fair, I have read slush before (almost a lifetime ago so not current experience, have posted on these boards about it before under another name) and you could make judgements very quickly sometimes. However, if you are on boards like this, polishing your work and taking care over it, you are probably not in the category getting rejected so quickly.

For me, the easy rejections were the terrible ones, the hard ones were the 'ok' ones, where you got to the end of three chaps and the writing was competent but you felt a bit meh about it.

At the time I was super desperate to 'discover' someone (working for a book publisher not an agent) and I probably requested more full manuscripts than I should've done. I can see now why agents might get fatigued by it.

But before I go too far, they do need authors to make money, so they also shouldn't grumble about submissions! There might be days they don't fancy reading them but they should be an integral part of any agent's job.

I'm not surprised by any of that, really; most agents get so many submissions that there's no way they're going to read on if page 1 is dross. Established agents might only take on one or two new clients a year - good writing really has to hit them in the face to be worth devoting time and energy to. It's really depressing, I agree! But not a surprise.

I'm about two thirds of the way through the second draft of my novel - structural stuff and tidying up plot points, mainly. Then I'll give it to a couple of trusted friends for feedback. Then it'll need another edit for the writing, which is my favourite part. Then time to send it out. Have my spreadsheet of agents from when I sent out the last one to no avail so I'll need to update that and put it in some kind of order - agents move around a lot, don't they?!

Quick query about queries...

Do you always include a line about similar books to yours or only if an agent requests it? I hate doing it!

I only include a line about similar books if the agent requests it and I’ve had full requests from queries where I haven’t included the line.

I do the same as Lurking. My solitary full request didn't come from a sub including comparisons.

I wonder if part of the reason some agents ask for these is to gauge whether you know the market. I don't think it adds much to the submission - you could compare your novel to any bestselling/award-winning book that's in your genre, but it doesn't mean there's a genuine similarity.

Thank you - I do hate making comparisons. It just feels terribly arrogant and I know my book, if published, would have to sit on a shelf with those authors, but it would also be its own thing.

I struggled with the comparison to other novels line but I phrased it as ‘readers of x would also enjoy my novel’. I’m not saying I see myself as being the same as that novel, but I would attract readers who like that style of writing and that genre. I think it’s a really useful part of the submission letter and doesn’t make you look like a raving egomaniac!

Captain - did you include that line when you contacted the agent who has offered you representation?

And have there been any developments since your last update? Are you still on Cloud Nine?

Yes, she was the only person I submitted to and that line was in there! I wanted to show there is a place for my novel, I think, so it made sense to write it even though I obviously feared I would get laughed at for not being in the same ballpark as authors I compared myself to. It’s difficult but I think you have to really believe in your novel if you want other people to. I found it really hard not to start every sentence with an apology, like ‘sorry for wasting your time with my rubbish book’ but I swallowed it down and tried to keep my apologies to a minimum!

I am still very excited. Normal life has resumed around me and it feels like the novel is some kind of parallel universe that I keep frequenting. I’m in the final stage of edits, which I have really enjoyed doing.

Not surprised you’re still excited, Captain!
I’m about to do another (and maybe final) batch of submissions for this book and have a question for everyone: do you think it’s worth submitting to agents that do represent authors in your genre but not successful ones? Ie is any agent better than no agent? Or would it perhaps be better to try again with the top agencies with book two, bearing in mind while editing it all the feedback received on rejections of the full manuscript of book one? So that book two is hopefully better than book one...

I think it depends on the individual, Lurking. Everyone’s got different ideas for how they want their career to go.

If you want to be the Next Big Thing, I’d guess that having a top agent would be an advantage, but if you simply want to be published then I reckon that it’s more important to choose someone you feel you could work with well. I don’t think there’s just one right answer which work for everyone.

In my news I’m still very much thinking about sacking off the whole agent business completely and going it alone. I am feeling very over querying this month!

Honestly even the idea of finally getting an agent but then having to go through the whole submission process again makes me want to cry.

Am I just being dramatic?

You’re right, Cake, there probably is no one right answer which works for everyone.
Same with what’s the right next step for you... Self-publishing seems to work so well for some people (those who can cope with and are good at self-marketing?). I agree that querying agents is not enjoyable and imagine that having one’s book out on submission to editors wouldn’t be either - one of the reasons that I think that having a ‘top’ agent would be preferable - presumably they have much greater success with the editors...
This is why the one thing that probably is right for everyone is to be getting on with the next book to avoid the all-eggs-in-one-basket feeling...

I’ve just been directed to The Empowered Author website - it’s really useful and has a lot of advice about different types of publishing - it could be useful for weighing up the pros and cons of self publishing and guidance on how to approach it as well as stuff on traditional and hybrid publishing.

Fingers crossed for you Everythingcrossed! Did you submit to any other agents? Still procrastinating this end, however, I do have a lot going on as well.

Ooh, thanks, Captain! I’ll take a look at that.

Glad to hear it’s all still going well for you

do you think it’s worth submitting to agents that do represent authors in your genre but not successful ones?

I don't think it's necessarily as simple as 'successful book = good agent' - there are so many factors that go into whether a book will be a hit or not, timing and marketing and word of mouth and so on. Lots of that is outside the control of the agent.

The reality is most published books do not become bestsellers. I'd also be reassured by an agent who kept going with a writer who wasn't a big hit straight off, rather than one who dumps their client if the first book doesn't sell very well.

Getting ever closer to submitting my work. If my work isn't word perfect but an agent thinks there is promise in it, would they suggest improvements/assist with editing?

After weeks of silence, I have all but given up on my quest for an agent. My plan is now to review my MS (because it's some time since I last looked at it) and try a couple of digital imprints. I can't decide whether to send out one last batch of submissions. My confidence is low and I worry that yet more silence will only reduce it further.

do you think it’s worth submitting to agents that do represent authors in your genre but not successful ones?

The qualities I'd seek from an agent would be enthusiasm about my work, and being able to enjoy a good professional relationship.

With that in mind, I've always tried to look for agents I think would like my novel - based on their existing clients and their expressed tastes. Looking at their bios, podcasts and so forth, I've also tried to imagine how I'd feel about them if they turned up at work and were introduced as my new line manager - i.e. is this a person I think I could work with?

Good to hear it's going well, Daphnes!

My understanding is that the agent will work with you to edit and perfect the novel - see CaptainBrickbeard's posts above. However, you should make sure it's as' word perfect' as you can get it, in the sense of being proof-read, as agents can be put off by typos and grammatical howlers - see Matey's post about the one-line rejections .

My advice would be not to send your first batch of submissions to all your 'best' agents - send out a small trial batch in the first instance, to get over the risk of spotting something that needs editing seconds after you've hit the send button.

Thanks Preparing, I'm sorry you haven't heard back from anyone yet x I will read the thread more thoroughly when I can grab a bit more time.

Silence is something that often comes with this process, sadly. Many agents don't even send a form rejection if they're not interested - but on the other hand, as Captain's inspiring experience shows, if the agent loves your work, things can move quickly.

Good points, Adult and Preparing, about important qualities in an agent. I suppose what I was thinking about was that the ‘top’ agents presumably have a higher hit rate with editors, and going with an agent who didn’t have the same kind of reputation with those editors would presumably increase the chances of a miserable submission experience.
Sorry that you’re feeling down about agent-seeking, Preparing. Silence is indeed a killer. A lot of commercial fiction seems to be published unagented through the digital imprints so must be worth a shot.
And good luck with starting to submit Daphne.

Hope you hear something soon, Preparing. I’ve sent submissions to four now and will admit to already (ridiculous!) being sad that none have replied yet. Yet I’ve sent stuff off to dozens of short story mags that are even slower. I suppose I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time and now I want a verdict!

Lurking I must admit when looking at SF agents I’ve had to weigh up those with authors I know about and those with a small unfamiliar client list. So far I’ve been going with the bigger agents, but they all have to begin somewhere and the agents at the bottom will be very eager to make sales and thus make their name!