They are paying attention. I found with my first book though that paying attention doesn't bring the bacon home. haha
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I queried Ginger Clark about a month ago, and no response, so I'm going to take that as a rejection. Has anyone had any positive requests from her lately?
(Surprisingly, I am not the least bit bothered by the no-response-means-no policy. I think that agents are entitled to do whatever they have to do to make the use of their time more efficient.)
(Surprisingly, I am not the least bit bothered by the no-response-means-no policy. I think that agents are entitled to do whatever they have to do to make the use of their time more efficient.)
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This is wrong. There may be a hundred decent agents you could query for a given book, but getting just one request for material isn't going to do it. On average, you may need ten or twenty requests before one agent says yes.
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That sounds like a logical fallacy to me. All you need is one request to lead to an offer of representation. You can get ten or twenty requests for material and have none of them lead to offers, or you can have just one person ask to see your stuff and have it lead to an offer.
Projects that generate more interest initially might, statistically, be more likely to snag representation--but that doesn't mean that there aren't authors out there who had few initial bites but have still managed to do very well for themselves.
It's a matter of averages. Sure, it does happen that one request will turn into representation, but on average, it doesn't. Probably one in twenty partials work out that way, so for someone to suggest that you're doing great if you get one request out of a hundred queries, this is badly leading people astray. If you want to get a partial request, that's easy. Just go to querytracker and look at their top ten list for the most accepting agents. The top one asks for partials 60% of the time. But how many turn into representation? From their limited data for that agent, zero percent. So just getting one request is not doing great.
Maybe Maddie was confused by the statement, "it just takes one yes." That is, just one offer of representation, or one offer from a publisher. It doesn't mean, "one yes to a read."
As for Nathan, he tops the list of most queried agents. Here are his stats as of today, as reported by members of Agentquery:
960 queries
7% partial requests
<1% full requests
Of those requests, there was one offer of representation. One out of 73 requested partials and fulls. And overall, the chance of any query getting an offer from him is approximately the same as the agent requesting partials 60% of the time. So getting a partial read is getting your foot in the door, but you're still a long way from a sale.
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Agreeing with Julie. They say that in general you should be getting requests at least 10% of the time. If you're not, it probably means there's a problem with the query. The really sucky thing would be if your query isn't very good, but the book is great, and you're being shot down because of the query. It might be that there are agents who would actually enjoy the work, but who are turned off by the initial letter and will never give it a chance. If you're getting so few requests, it's usually a good indication that there's something wrong with either the story or the query. The first isn't easy to fix, but the second is.
The point is, the more requests you get, the better your chances are period, and you should do everything in your power to aim for as many requests as you can get.
The point is, the more requests you get, the better your chances are period, and you should do everything in your power to aim for as many requests as you can get.
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Oh, I agree that it's better to get lots of offers--if only because it puts the writer in a position of greater power and gives him or her lots more options. But one request absolutely can do it. There are plenty of stories about absolutely successful authors whose initial queries generated little interest--or interest that definitely wasn't approaching ten percent (Stephenie Meyer is one; Kody Keplinger another).
This is where the logical fallacy is. Even if authors overall average ten or twenty requests before they get an offer for representation, there will be outliers in those numbers contributing to the average--and the success rate for other authors isn't necessarily going to be reflected in the success rate you have. Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, some authors are just terrible at writing queries, even if it doesn't reflect their writing (or, like Kody, their email is eating their queries!).
Anyway, sorry for the slight derail. The former philosophy major sometimes surfaces at the dumbest times.
More on point--I currently have a partial out with Ginger Clark (yay! I love her . . . ). Any ballpark estimates on how long it usually takes her with partials?
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I think it's more a matter of the fact that outliers are, by definition, about 2% of the population in consideration. As such, I'd rather assume that a lack of requests means there might be a problem I can fix and try to fix it than assume I might get to be in that lucky 2%, because chances are I'm not.
Anyway, to be on topic, everyone here on my list has already rejected me.
Anyway, to be on topic, everyone here on my list has already rejected me.
Even if you have a wonderful query letter and a wonderful book, this doesn't mean you'll get picked up on the first read. Literary agents have all sorts of reasons for turning you down other than publishability. This is where you play the numbers, and twenty agents requesting twenty fulls is like having twenty lottery tickets rather than just one. The best example is Nicholas Sparks--an excellent salesman--who wrote a killer query that got him a 50% request rate. But none of the dozen agents with the full offered him representation. By chance, a new, hungry, and very smart agent went through the slush-pile of a recently diseased agent and pulled out his MS. So even with his marketing ability, a hot property, and twelve fulls out, Sparks still had to hit the jackpot to win his million dollar advance.
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Ah, never mind. Just got a form r from her. She had it for 11 days, if anyone is wondering about her response time. Pretty fast! Soldiering on . . .
Like Nathan, Ginger is on the Querytracker top ten most queried agents list. Querytracker is an excellent source of query statistics. For instance, Ginger's median response time for material requests is 10 days, and 16 days for rejections. The chance of a query turning into an offer? Less than one fifth of one percent.
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Ah, never mind. Just got a form r from her. She had it for 11 days, if anyone is wondering about her response time. Pretty fast! Soldiering on . . .
Sorry Phoebe!
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Sorry Phoebe!
Thanks, G! If things don't work out with this manuscript, I'm definitely going to get in touch with her about my next one. It has mermaids and for some reason, I think she might be looking for something like that.
(It might be her gazillion tweets about it, maybe!)
Woohoo! I just got a full request from Sarah LaPolla! I queried her on April 20 and just got the request today.
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Fantastic Jennifer!!!!! I am waiting on a reply to a partial...did you send a partial or did you go straight from query to full??
Straight to full Funny thing, I was on the verge of changing it to be MG rather than YG because two agents said it seemed more on the verge of MG. But then I got this request so I suppose that will have to wait now!
When did you send your partial off Tenacious?
Funny thing, I was on the verge of changing it to be MG rather than YG because two agents said it seemed more on the verge of MG. But then I got this request so I suppose that will have to wait now! When did you send your partial off Tenacious?