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!)

In the same boat as many of you since I just got my first request for a full! Very excited as I seriously thought no-one was ever going to read past chapter three. Immediately emailed the other agents to let them know. 4 have yet to respond, 1 sent me a very nice email saying the book wasn't for her although she loved my pitch and synopsis. Now I'm querying everyone and her grandmother in an attempt to drum up more interest!

I can recommend Nicola Morgan's books Write a Great Synopsis and Dear Agent, which were very helpful to me in putting together my submission package.

Good luck, NormaJeanne. It's an amazing feeling when you realise someone has read the first three chapters and actually liked them.

Wow, good luck NormaJeanne! I had a couple of non-responders too. I’m telling myself that it’s just cause they’re so busy.

Preparing, you sound just like me! I was overthinking every step of the way, but in the end I just wrote a quick note a lot like the one which was suggested on this thread, and the ones which did reply thanked me for letting them know.

I’m also back in first draft mode. I have a good idea, I think, just need to wriggle out the bulk of the plot. That’s my least favourite part!

Thanks Cake and Preparing! Didn't get any more responses today but some of the agents I wrote to had only had my initial submission for a few days, so they may not even have got to my first email yet.

In the meantime, I've done two more submissions and am about to send off a third. I'm going to have to take a break for some urgent life admin tomorrow but hoping to do more on Saturday.

Cake do you plot in advance or see how it goes? I plan ahead but my best twists always seem to emerge when I'm actually writing.

I roughly plan. I like to know what I’m aiming for, but I found last time that much better ideas pop up as I’m actually writing, so I’m not too precious about it.

If I’ve got a pretty good plan for the first five chapters and then I know roughly what will happen after that, I’m good to go!

Another rejection today, bleh. No feedback on this one, just ‘I liked it but I didn’t love it’.

Trying not to take it personally, but it’s tough.

How many agents do you think it’s reasonable to try before you give it up as a bad job?

I think you are actually getting very good rejections! The worst are the ones who never ever reply. If you only submitted 3 weeks ago, you are doing really well so far.

The woman who said she liked it but didn't love it - did she have the full ms or just three chapters?

Sorry to hear that, Cake. Still the sound of silence my end .

Re. number of agents, I told myself I'd try up to 20; possibly more if I made any significant revision to my material along the way or had encouraging feedback.

From what you're saying, Cake it sounds as though your novel is 'right' because you're getting interest and good feedback, but it hasn't landed on quite the right desk yet, so I think you just need to keep going until it does!

Liked but didn’t love had the first 3 chapters. She was one of the original 6.

The one with the full still has the full, no word on that yet, but she did mention she’d just been on holiday and had loads of reading to catch up on so guessing it could be a while.

Hi Cake, I think you’re getting good feedback too - liked but didn’t love is better than a form rejection, they just tend to say something like it wasn’t right for their list.
Good luck with hearing from the rest!

Thanks everyone. I guess this is just a rite of passage for any writer, isn’t it?

Every no feels like the end of the world at the time, but by a few hours later I’ve pulled my big girl pants up and I’m ready to carry on!

This thread is motivating me to finish my first draft. I’m halfway through and have run out of steam! How long has it taken you to get the novel written and in shape for sending out? I wrote 43,000 words in four months and then just stopped writing altogether. I’m so frustrated with myself! The plot is mapped out but I just can’t seem to bring myself to open it back up!

I had to set myself stupid deadlines - it’s the only way I can work. I’m all or nothing. I wrote the first 50,000 words in November cause I was doing NaNoWriMo, then I did absolutely nothing until the last couple of days of January, then I decided I wanted to finish it before my birthday, so I wrote the last 35,000 words in February.

I’d been doing most of my editing as I went (I know you’re not supposed to, but it works for me), so it only took me a week or so to edit, then I got a few people to read it, edited again based on feedback and then read it myself a couple more times before I started submitting at the beginning of April.

I lost my job mid Feb so have been able to crack on with much more than I would have done if I were still working, though.

I had the break in the middle so I totally understand how you’re feeling. Those first couple of days when I started writing again were a real slog, and I felt like everything I wrote was rubbish, but it didn’t take too long to get back into the groove. You just have to plough on and know you can always go back and change it.

Sorry about your job Cake, but at least you've been able to make some progress.

Nothing today apart from a form rejection from one of the agents I submitted to last week. So the tally so far is 9 rejections, 1 agent reading the full, and 8 I'm waiting to hear from. I have a list of about 10 more I want to try and will be sending out more submissions tomorrow.

Thanks NJ - I didn’t like my job anyway, and the redundancy pay was rubbish but it was just enough to give me some breathing space so it was probably a blessing in disguise.

My tally is 4 rejections, 1 reading the full, 7 still to reply.

I have about 5 or 6 more agents to put on my list after some research last night, but I don’t know whether it’s a good idea to wait until I’ve had more responses or just crack on and send now.

I cracked and sent to two more agents last night, so it's with 6 now in total.

6 agents was my starting point!

The thing which I’ve had to make a conscious effort to remember is that while we probably all harbour secret wild fantasies of our book being SO GOOD that no agent can resist it, there are a million reasons why they might say no, and loads that have nothing to do with the quality of your writing and are totally out of your control. So casting a wide net totally makes sense in this situation.

It’s helped my ego to remember that I’m writing the kind of stuff I’d want to read, and I generally don’t enjoy the wildly popular hit books which are everywhere. I like books which are beautiful but understated, and by their nature they’re not going to be as OMG wow. Hopefully I’all eventually find an agent who likes that too.

That or my work just isn’t as good as I think it is, of course, but let’s not go there just yet

I was wary of sending to too many agents in my first batch in case I then thought of a much more effective way to pitch my book. I'm hoping that the full request I've had means my pitch is good.

It's true about the secret fantasies - I always hope that an agent will take one look at my work and fall in love with it. You're right that it just doesn't work like that, though.

I wish I could just forget about my submissions but I can't put them out of my mind.

I know what you mean. Sometimes I realise I haven’t thought about it for an hour or two and then I desperately try to re-create whatever I was doing to make me forget again!

Well, it’s a new week tomorrow. Fingers crossed for all of us, and if that doesn’t work then at least there’s a bank holiday weekend for us to fret through enjoy

I like books which are beautiful but understated, and by their nature they’re not going to be as OMG wow. Hopefully I’all eventually find an agent who likes that too.

Amen to this, Cake. This is very much me, and (I hope) the novel I've just started sending out. Can I ask if you have any wisdom on how you selected agents you thought might be receptive to this? I looked up a few favourite writers of the understated and beautiful and sent to their agents, but tbh, these are very big time agents, so probably very unlikely to take on an unknown...

I don’t know if it’s particularly wise, but I just scour the information each agent puts on their website about what they’re looking for and interpret it as best I can.

If they mention anything along the lines of ‘strong concept’, ‘marketable’, ‘highly commercial’ - it’s a red flag that they probably won’t want what I’m selling. Everyone else I just try to read between the lines.

I’m definitely not the expert on this, though. Clearly!

That sounds perfectly sensible, and pretty much what I’m doing. I also like it when they list recent authors or novels they like, which makes it easier to think ‘Nope!’

I've submitted to two more, so it's now with 10 agencies other than the one which has the full. Fortunately did not get any rejections over the weekend, which has happened before.

Another way of finding agents is AgentMatch, the database on the Jericho Writers site. It lets you sort agents by the genre they represent and by the number of clients they have, so you can target those who are building their lists. It's subscription only, but you can get a free 7 day trial.

But of course always fact check with the agency's own website as AgentMatch can be out of date. It's good for generating leads and has links to interviews etc.