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!)

Ooh, thanks for that - I looked at AgentMatch but didn’t realise there was a free trial.

No more news for me today. Anyone else had any luck?

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.

That's what virtually all of them want!

Joining this thread as although I'm nowhere near to finishing even my first draft I'm interested to see how you get on. Good luck

It is, but when they literally list those qualities as what they’re after rather than it being implicit, it just makes me think that they’ll automatically say no to anything which isn’t the next 50 Shades or Harry Potter, especially when there’s no other info given about the kind of books that make their heart race.

Maybe they don’t exist, but I want an agent who asks themselves if they love it before they ask themselves if they can sell it, and then I hope they will be invested enough to work on it with me.

No news from me .

The thing is that an agent will take on books she believes in but if she thinks it won't sell for whatever reason, she'd be mad to put in the time and energy. Her salary is dependent on sales. There are different sized markets for different genres, obviously. I went to a Get Writing day in London that was run by Mumsnet and the Janklow & Nesbitt agency. All of the agents were there - it was a great day.

I asked what the biggest advance had been and the lowest - the biggest they admitted to was half a million and the smallest advance was for a thousand pounds. They said that unless they felt a literary novel was going to win an award (Booker etc) then they just couldn't afford to take it on, no matter how much they enjoyed reading it.

I think what being published has taught me is that it's a business. Sales matter. Being able to tell someone what you're selling in just a few words (the elevator pitch) matters. Having a manuscript in the very best possible state before submitting it is really, really important. While they all do love reading, a book that they know won't attract many readers just won't be taken on, so they read manuscripts with that in mind.

This thread is great. I've submitted to one agent so far and heard nothing and it's been a couple of months, would it be ok to give them a follow up email? I've been too scared to submit to any others after this radio silence - I wanted a rejection at least! I know it's silly but I really did have this fantasy that the agent would love my stuff because I'd been really targeted in looking at their list and thought mine would aline well. But that's me being really optimistic, and as mine is literary fiction I know it's a really hard sell. It feels like such an uphill battle before it's even started and I've been so close to just shelving the whole thing

A few months ago I paid to have my first 15000 words read and assessed and got really positive feedback but now I'm down in the dumps again. This thread is giving me a real kick though to give it a proper go again!

*align not aline!

The thing is that an agent will take on books she believes in but if she thinks it won't sell for whatever reason, she'd be mad to put in the time and energy. Her salary is dependent on sales. There are different sized markets for different genres, obviously

Yet some agents do still buy literary fiction long before they have the faintest idea whether it will be well-reviewed or make it to the longlist for an award. Mike McCormack, despite having four critically-acclaimed and award-winning previous books published by big UK publishers, could not get a publisher for his (brilliant) latest novel, Solar Bones a single-sentence stream of consciousness from a dead man sitting at his kitchen table until a tiny Irish independent press picked it up, even though he was represented by the uber-agent Marianne Gunn-O'Connor. Then it had incandescent reviews and won him the IMPAC.

An agent doesn't buy the book, though. They represent the author and try to get a publisher to buy the book. The agent then takes a cut of the advance and royalties.

@sickofphd, it's a numbers game. Send off to about six or eight agents (must be from different agencies - don't bother ever approaching different agents in the same firm unless their website says you can) and personalise your message. Often they are on YouTube or interviewed online. Give a reason why you're approaching them. Send three chapters and a synopsis and then start up a spreadsheet showing the date you sent it off, the agent's name, and their reply. Some never reply, even if they say they will. If you get a rejection, see whether there's anything you should take on board - often it's just a standard rejection, so send it out again to another agent.

If you do get any constructive criticism I'd take that really seriously and reconsider your ms before sending it out again.

My full has been rejected.

The agent said some nice things - she liked the concept but ultimately didn't think the narrative stood out enough in a crowded market. I'm not sure what I can do about that, other than re-writing it altogether .

I feel flat and depressed now. Still nothing on my other five submissions.

Hoping there's better news for Cake, Norma and Sickof.

Sorry to hear that Preparing. It must be so disheartening but it's great that you got positive feedback - it shows you're definitely on the right track!

What I wonder is how anyone gets published at all, especially in literary fiction - a lot of the books I read in this genre don't have obvious 'hooks' or plots neatly able to be condensed into elevator pitches, all the things we're told are so essential in getting the attention of an agent.

I'm from a country with a really small publishing industry and at any given time only a handful of agents will be accepting submissions if you're lucky. I'm also trying to submit to agents in other country but not sure how interested they'll be given my novel is set in my home country and is already covers a niche subject matter.

I get that, Hollow, but as you say, their income comes from your advance, sales, rights etc. They are not giving you money, but they are staking their career on your book at the same time, and it's pretty unpredictable for not-obviously commercial stuff. I can think of two prize-winning literary novelists I know who are now writing crime.

Oh Preparing, sorry to hear that I found the rejection after the full request especially disheartening, but it’s important to remember that your work was good enough to be read, so you should still be proud of yourself. Onwards and upwards!

Did they give you any specific feedback about how you could improve it?

Also to clarify, it’s not that my book isn’t commercial at all. It’s just that it’s not shit-your-pants-punch-you-in-the-face commercial, if that makes sense?

I don’t think it’s the Next Big Thing, but I definitely think there’s still a pretty big market for what I’m offering.

Also, got another rejection today (waaah ) but it was from one of the original 6 who I wasn’t particularly invested in, so could be worse.

Still no word on my full.

No, there was nothing very specific - just that the narrative didn't stand out enough in a crowded market. I don't think that's something I can easily fix in the short term - perhaps if I put it aside for a period and came to it with fresh eyes, I might see ways to improve it.

I've sent it to another two agents, so it's out with 7 now.

I'm praying for another full request and an agent who loves it this time!

Have you had anyone else read it?

I know there are editors and assessment services you can pay for, but what really helped me was getting feedback from readers. I chose a few friends who were readers of my genre, were pretty word-smart and, crucially, who I could trust to be brutally honest with me, and I let them read it. The issues I picked up from them were things I wouldn’t even have thought about, and they had some great suggestions, too.

One of them is also my sounding board, and when I get overwhelmed or word blind or in too deep, I know she’ll help put me straight. I honestly don’t think I’d even have finished the first draft without her.

Yes, I have, but I didn't get any brutally honest feedback - just 'it's great' and 'I really enjoyed it' - that sort of thing. I think that's because I don't have any other writers I can show it to, and people who don't write themselves don't always understand the need for unvarnished feedback - and my friends almost certainly wouldn't want to hurt my feelings!

I'm reluctant to pay for a professional edit because, having looked at a few sites, it does seem to cost £££ for a full review of a novel.

I am an effective self-critic, but only if I can distance myself from my work for a while. I might have to take that approach if the 7 submissions currently out yield nothing.

I've got it into my head - I don't know whether this is true - that if an agent is interested, they'll respond really quickly and if more than a couple of weeks elapse with no response to the initial query, it's going to be a form rejection.

All the success stories I read seem to follow speedy timescales, and my now-rejected full request came within two days of my submission, which has reinforced the idea.

I've got it into my head - I don't know whether this is true - that if an agent is interested, they'll respond really quickly and if more than a couple of weeks elapse with no response to the initial query, it's going to be a form rejection.

To be honest I always have this in my head too, despite my experience, which has been all over the place.

I’ve had a full request within hours, but a form rejection really quickly, too. My pleasant and personalised rejections came at 2 weeks and 5 weeks, and the agent currently reading my full didn’t reply to me at all for over a month. So who knows? I think it’s really down to each agent and what else they’ve got going on.

the agent currently reading my full didn’t reply to me at all for over a month.

That makes me feel a bit better . My only other experience of submitting a novel (some years ago) brought almost nothing but form rejections, and they all took 6-8 weeks to come back. I had one nice personalised rejection and a request for a 'partial' from an agent who asked for query letters only in the first instance (the partial got batted back pretty much by return email). I think I sent it to over twenty agents before giving it up as hopeless.

Fingers crossed your full is on its way to an offer of representation!

Hi, I posted upthread but have been following a bit. Just seeing the conversation about time to reply for a full request - I had 2 requests for a full (sent to around 10 agents), one was after about 4 weeks the second after around 2 months (with apologies for the delay getting back!) I signed with the second agent....however, after months of revisions, interest from publishers, redraft and resubmit requests it didn’t sell! This whole process took over 18 months. I’m now writing my second novel....

The main feedback from the editor who was on the brink (apparently) of taking it to acquisitions was not being sure how they would place it in terms of sales and marketing and it was a bit ‘quiet’ considering they have limited places for debut novels. I would say I write slightly quirky literary fiction (ie not genre, not high stakes psychological suspense) - which can be hard to sell (evidently!)

I never seriously thought I’d get an agent so didn’t invest too much hope in that process - the wait for publishers though, when I’d already had some validation and there was a chance it might happen, was excruciating!

Good luck with the submissions to everyone, hope for some good news soon!