Agent Trackers - Dos and Don'ts

Casey Karp · Sep 17, 2014

I can't believe this hasn't been covered before, but I'm not turning anything useful up via search. Feel free to blindfold me, spin me around three times, and push me in the correct direction if I'm missing the definitive discussion.

I'm getting close to the point of searching for an agent. I understand the need for some mechanism to track my queries (don't re-solicit the same agent for the same book, don't skip a possibility thinking I've already solicited, etc.)

My questions are:

What tools do people find useful and what tools sounded good but proved to be a pain in the butt?
What information beyond the obvious (name, contact info, date of query) do all y'all find it worth tracking, and again, what seemed like a good idea to track, but proved less than helpful?

AndreaGS · Sep 17, 2014

I know a lot of people use querytracker.net.

I ended up just creating my own excel spreadsheet. I also created a column for "Partial Y/N" and "Full Manuscript Y/N" with corresponding dates. I wanted to be able to easily count the number of partial and full requests I got.

Best of luck on your agent search! May it be short and fruitful

Chris P · Sep 17, 2014

I used query tracker as well, if anything for the convenience of having eligible agents listed and links to their websites.

As for keeping track of the submissions, you can do everything on Excel that you would use the QT submission tracker for. But since it's there, I'm using it.

Shadow_Ferret · Sep 17, 2014

^ What they said. I created a spreadsheet for agents I've submitted to.

Lady Chipmunk · Sep 17, 2014

I had a spreadsheet, but I also spent a lot of time on Query Tracker. In addition to whether materials were requested (and when), I had a column for notes in case I got personal feedback or if an agent passed but asked to see future work.

Casey Karp · Sep 17, 2014

I'm detecting a pattern here...

OK, Question Three would be what the advantages of QT are over any DIY approach. We've got the agent links (Thanks, Chris). Anything else?

buz · Sep 17, 2014

I just search my own sent emails to see if I've already queried whatever agent I'm thinking of querying (or to find what dates I emailed).

Chris P · Sep 17, 2014

Casey Karp said:
I'm detecting a pattern here...

OK, Question Three would be what the advantages of QT are over any DIY approach. We've got the agent links (Thanks, Chris). Anything else?

QT has a user comment function that's sometimes helpful. Similar to the agents' threads here, but sometimes more immediate (For Ex: "Susan replied to my query and said she's running about four weeks behind on responses")

QT also tells you right on the agent's page who else is in that agency, with an icon showing if you have queried one of the other agents. Saves a click or two to the Excel sheet, anyway.

Sage · Sep 17, 2014

The biggest problem I had with QT was an inability to track multiple books, but with my spreadsheet, I have all the info on all of them (except a brief loss of data when I switched computers once). There's also a point (less than a year) where QT closes a query or a request for you, even if an agent responds after that (and therefore the response times may be off.

QT also was good for driving me mad. Knowing the fastest, slowest, and average response times for submissions only made me more impatient, especially since mine became the slowest response a lot.

Chris P · Sep 17, 2014

Sage said:
The biggest problem I had with QT was an inability to track multiple books,

Really? Perhaps because I made a donation I get more features, but I have a directory where I can select which project I was querying and it brings up book-specific information. A box on the right of the screen tells me which books I've queried to that agent on the agent's page. True, it doesn't tell me in the summary table, however.

Buffysquirrel · Sep 17, 2014

Casey Karp said:
Feel free to blindfold me, spin me around three times, and push me in the correct direction if I'm missing the definitive discussion.

How about just for fun? ^_^

I use a basic spreadsheet in Excel. Basic cos I have never learnt how to use Excel properly and don't really want to learn anyway.

I track the date submitted, the name of the agency, the name of the particular agent and their assistant (where appropriate), their email and the date of response and nature of response. Lots of Rejection's in that field!

I did start out adding the agency's address but found no real use for that. I only query by email anyway.

Sage · Sep 17, 2014

Chris P said:
Really? Perhaps because I made a donation I get more features, but I have a directory where I can select which project I was querying and it brings up book-specific information. A box on the right of the screen tells me which books I've queried to that agent on the agent's page. True, it doesn't tell me in the summary table, however.

Yes, if you pay for it, you get more features, but I'm really not going to pay for something I can do myself for free. And I haven't been on in two years, so things may be different

ssbittner · Sep 17, 2014

I've got my own Excel sheet for now. I like it because I can put as many columns as I want, and if I end up still agent-searching when I finish my next book, I can add onto the existing form.

Casey Karp · Sep 17, 2014

Buffysquirrel said:
How about just for fun? ^_^

Sure, why not? It's cheaper than drinking.

Buffysquirrel said:
I track the date submitted, the name of the agency, the name of the particular agent and their assistant (where appropriate), their email and the date of response and nature of response. Lots of Rejection's in that field!

I figured I should leave plenty of room for rejections. Nice to know I was on the right track.

Do you use separate sheets for each book, or do you have a field for the book as well? (Assuming, of course, that you didn't nail down an agent before you got the second book finished...)

Some very helpful responses here. Thanks to all (including those of you who haven't responded yet!)

Buffysquirrel · Sep 18, 2014

Casey Karp said:
Do you use separate sheets for each book, or do you have a field for the book as well? (Assuming, of course, that you didn't nail down an agent before you got the second book finished...)

I'm only querying one book with agents so far. I'd probably use a separate file for a different book. Then again, when I sent a different ms to the Jonathan Cape open call, I just went down a few rows and stuck it in there....

You might not want to copy my laziness!

EMaree · Sep 18, 2014

I use an Excel spreadsheet! For my last project I had one tab for UK, one for US, but for the new project I'm only focusing on UK agencies.

Whenever I have a new project to query I wipe the previous comments except records of personalised rejections, and then check each agency individually. In the year that passes between projects, a lot of UK agencies change quite dramatically (and there's usually a few new ones to track down as well).

Then it's on to the querying! Agents who gave personalized responses to fulls get priority for new WIPs.

Lady Chipmunk · Sep 18, 2014

I did the donation thing for Query Tracker because I wanted access to the raw submission data for the agents, and because some of the breakdowns on response time and such are neat.

As far as what QT has that you can't do with Excel, depends on how fancy you want to get. Excel works just fine, and if you have enough columns, you can do all the same things as QT, like sort by ranking assigned to agent, etc. However, QT did provide two things I liked: 1) It's a great place to research agents, read comments, etc and having that and my query tracking in one place was handy, and 2) pie graphs. QT provided interesting graphs based on my query and submission data.

However, as I said, I did both, and if you don't want to spend the money, Excel works fine.

Dennis E. Taylor · Sep 18, 2014

Lady Chipmunk said:
I did the donation thing for Query Tracker because I wanted access to the raw submission data for the agents, and because some of the breakdowns on response time and such are neat.

Plus there are so many things that don't work in the free version, it quickly gets frustrating.

Liz_V · Sep 18, 2014

I use an Excel spreadsheet. In addition to the stuff already mentioned, I have a field for notes about what made me think this agent was a good fit -- or why I decided against querying them, as the case may be. When you start, it seems like you'd remember that, but if you end up querying, er, many agents, the details get pretty blurry.

I also have notes about additional stuff needed (like the agent who wanted a separate bio, or the ones that wanted a single-page synopsis at the time when all I had was a longer one), so I can easily track why they're "pending" instead of "already queried", and a column for their posted response time or whether they're NR=N.

I started out tracking a bunch of other stuff like AAR and other memberships, blogs, etc., but then I realized that's what bookmarks are for. If it's something I'd want to check to see if it's changed since I last looked anyway, there's not much point in writing it down.

If I start querying the next book before this one finds an advocate, it'll get its own sheet. Tidier, easier to review, and besides, who wants to look at a list of, er, many rejections when taking a new project out?

Buffysquirrel · Sep 18, 2014

I really need that NR=N field. I only use Excel because it came with the computer....

Captcha · Sep 18, 2014

I used querytracker - especially useful b/c I write in multiple genres and I could easily set it to filter only those agents who represent all of my genres.

I also found it useful to subscribe to Publishers' Marketplace when I was querying. You have to pay, but they have good search functions so you can sort out who's making big deals in your genre(s). I think it cost about $25/month, but I was only querying for about a month, so...worth it!

Casey Karp · Sep 18, 2014

Liz_V said:
I started out tracking a bunch of other stuff like AAR and other memberships, blogs, etc., but then I realized that's what bookmarks are for. If it's something I'd want to check to see if it's changed since I last looked anyway, there's not much point in writing it down.

Excellent; I was hoping for some "don't bothers"! I had been thinking about tracking blogs, Twitter, and similar information, but you're right that it's rather redundant.

Buffysquirrel: "I really need that NR=N field."

Yeah, that's one I hadn't thought about at all. Definitely need to be able to filter on that when trying to figure out who to follow-up with.

Captcha: Thanks for the reminder about PM. It's too easy to get caught up in the mechanical details and forget what the underlying goal is!

Phyllo · Sep 18, 2014

While I keep my own spreadsheet, I'm a massive fan of QueryTracker. And I can't understand anyone's unwillingness to pay for the premium features (which are great). I mean, it's 25 bucks a year. That's five fancy coffees, for those of you who are fancy coffee drinkers. Plus, for the $25 payment, you no longer get any ads. Someone is doing the work of compiling and curating all that information and creating the links, so why should it be free?

As Chris P says, you get the comments, it's easy to cross-reference (projects, other agents), and you get stats on their request rate, what genres they typically request, average wait times, etc. Information that you can't get elsewhere and certainly isn't available on a DIY basis. It's also easy to create your own private notes for each agent, along with assigning each agent a rating in terms of priority. And like AW, it's a community. The more of us that are on there and contributing, the better the information gets. Among the users who contribute comments, I find most are very supportive. There's only one feature that QT has that seems pointless to me: their forums. I haven't bothered because I can't see them being comparable to AW. But for those on QT who aren't a part of AW, again, it's just another benefit.

Casey Karp · Sep 18, 2014

I'm sympathetic to the folks recommending QT, but I'm one of those people who needs to have all of my data within easy reach at all times. (Picture me on the train, hunched Gollum-like over my laptop, mumbling "Who shall represent my Precioussssss?")

So I'm going to take the spreadsheet approach. Different strokes for, well, you know the rest.

For the benefit of someone reading this thread later, based on your suggestions, I'll start with the following set of fields and then after I've put the spreadsheet to the test with actual queries, I'll add another post documenting changes I made as deficiencies revealed themselves.

Name - I hope this is obvious.
Agency - This too.
E-mail - And this.
Genre - Specifically, which genre I submitted the book as. Relevant because I may slant the pitch at a couple of different genres depending on the agent's preferences.
Sub Info - Link to the web page with the submission information
Sub Date - When I sent the query
Title - Which book I queryed for
Exp Resp Time - Expected response time (could be NR=N)
Exp Resp Date - Sub Date + Exp Resp Time (or when to give up if NR=N)
Partial Date - Blank unless/until agent requests a partial
Full Date - Ditto for a full ms request
Resp - Final response. Hopefully they won't all be Reject. For the sake of this experiment, though, it would be nice to get a few rejections to test the flexibility of the format.
Resp Date - Closing the Expected/Actual loop
Notes - Additional information required, specific personalizations, reasons why I queried, etc., etc., ad nauseum

Treehouseman · Nov 5, 2014

Trying not to come TOO late to the party, but I went from Excel to Query Tracker.

What I found in this age of 50% No Response=No, sometimes No Response=Just running a bit behind.

The Data Explorer (part of the premium features) is an excellent Agent Research feature. Some agents have died at their desks, y'know?

Agent Trackers - Dos and Don'ts

Casey Karp

AndreaGS

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

Lady Chipmunk

Nut in Search of Rodents

Casey Karp

buz

edits all posts at least four times

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Buffysquirrel

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

ssbittner

scientist, artist, writer

Casey Karp

Buffysquirrel

EMaree

a demon for tea

Lady Chipmunk

Nut in Search of Rodents

Dennis E. Taylor

Get it off! It burns!

Liz_V

Not my first rodeo.

Buffysquirrel

Captcha

Casey Karp

Phyllo

Still sitting

Casey Karp

Treehouseman