I know what it's like to feel rejection - it never feels good, especially when you've worked your butt off on a writing project and something just isn't quite clicking. Why aren't agents (the fish) biting the idea for your book (the bait)?

I want to start this chapter by discussing what querying is and why it's so darn important.

Querying. What is it?

When you've finished writing your book, edited it, polished it, made sure it flows well, etc. etc., it's time to pitch your book to agents who will either say "gimme your full book," "i never want to see your face again" (but a more polite version of this, even though it totally feels like a punch to the gut when they reject you), or will just straight up ghost you. So yay for that :D

First: Querying is done for those who wish to be traditionally published. If you are self-published or don't want to get traditionally published, you don't need to read this, but it can be helpful.

Second: As I mentioned in my introduction, publishing is an extremely gate-kept industry. And by that, I mean that you can't know anything about it, make any connections in it, or get into it without an.... *drumroll please* 🥁🥁🥁 .... AGENT.

Agents are individuals with specific bookish tastes (both audience and genre) that are looking for their next best-selling book. Is it yours? Maybe. Maybe not. If you query a popular agent, say Colleen Hoover's agent, you're probably out of luck, simply because the sheer odds of her even seeing your query letter are ridiculous. Or maybe the agent you want to query isn't open to queries right now.

A query letter is a pitch that includes several items, and my holy grail that I always, ALWAYS direct people to is queryshark.blogspot.com. The agent who hosts this blog goes through real query letters, sometimes a few times, and ruthlessly, to demonstrate what sorts of changes authors need to make to create BOMB query letters that will land them an agent. There are also quite a few success stories here too! Here are some pretty concise guidelines for query letter writing:

Step #2 also includes knowing the market, and knowing what is a demand in the market. Does your book address that need? Are you giving competitive titles that are new and relevant (competitive titles are those books on the market already and were published within the past 2-5 years but would be "rivals" to your book, if yours were to be selected)? Is your word count typical for your genre? And no, I don't mean JK Rowling's 7th book in the Harry Potter franchise or Sarah J. Maas's 7th book in her Throne of Glass series, which boasts 200k words. No debut author will be able to publish a book that is longer than 120k-150k words, especially if it's not fantasy/sci-fi. Well, 99.9999999% of debut authors at least. As our marketing director always says: those authors earned those high word counts. High word counts = more pages to print = higher costs. For a debut author with no connections or "street cred," they won't put too much risk on someone whose performance (sales, marketing etc) they haven't seen before. (Sorry, this was way too long-winded and I'm gonna pipe down now 🤭)

I will say definitively that querying is probably the hardest thing you will do as a writer, especially if you're writing for the ABA market (general market) and if you're writing any of the following genres:

Fantasy
Romance
Mystery/Suspense
Historical Fiction

Memoirs are a hard sell. As one published author quite bluntly put it: "no one wants to read your memoir, because it's going to be boring and uninteresting and no one cares." And sadly, no matter how interesting your life may be, this is true. An autobiograph has higher chances of faring better than a memoir. Then again, it depends on the contents and storytelling in the memoir. Publishing is not cookie-cutter. Also remember, this is my advice from what I've seen and heard as well as the fact that... the company I work for does not publish memoirs. We do publish autobiographies. They just... sell better. 🤷‍♀️

I work with a lot of nonfiction authors, and I will say that while that market is also competitive, it is difficult to find a good writer who writes nonfiction content. It really is. Take John Green, a fiction author, who wrote The Anthropocene Reviewed, a nonfiction bestseller. He is a good writer, so the nonfiction essays in this anthology are fun and interesting to read. We can't all be John Green, Stephen King, or other famous authors who have written great nonfiction, but it's worth noting that if you are a good writer and you have a good nonfiction book, you're very likely to impress a publisher looking for the topic you're writing about. So: be relevant, write good, and your chances will immediately rise on the totem pole.

I digress... I think most of you reading this are probably fiction writers, so I'm going to shut up because nonfiction is just a whole new can of worms that I can maybe discuss at a later date...

Here's a very, VERY sad but necessary truth you must face: the publishing industry is ruthless and saturated. Perhaps I'm a pessimist (pfft, "perhaps"? 🙄), but I've come to terms with the fact that unless I write the *chef's kiss* perfect query letter and my book is catered to exactly the right agent, I won't ever see my book get published traditionally. But even then, I tell myself, even then, when everything seems perfect, there's a high chance things won't go my way.

Fiction, man. Isn't it so fun to craft worlds? To feel your characters come alive on the page? To have characters spit on your planning and decide, "no, now is not the time for adventure. I'm going to sit here and argue with my love interest for five chapters instead!" 😅 A lot of work and creative planning and development goes into your work, so it's completely frustrating when you don't get recognized for your work. You spend sleepless nights, endless (and grueling) hours dedicating your brain power and mental health to this brainchild that you're passionate about. And yet, sometimes, it feels so hopeless.

Hi, my name is Ether and I approve this message. (this is a joke)

Ugh, too many times I have the thought: "Why even bother trying, when it seems like everyone and their mom's second cousin twice-removed wants to publish their crappy book?"
Except, of course, my book can't possibly be crappy, am I right? i̶'̶m̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶e̶t̶i̶o̶u̶s̶;̶ ̶i̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶o̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶y̶n̶d̶r̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶v̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶u̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶l̶o̶n̶g̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶,̶ ̶m̶a̶x̶ ̶2̶0̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶u̶t̶e̶s̶

You get me though, right? We all are a littttleeeee biased toward our own work. I think that's why it stings so much when all that hard work goes unrecognized.

But still, most publishers will not accept an unsolicited (unagented) manuscript. Check out publishers' websites and search for "submissions" somewhere. You'll find out whether they require an agent or not. My company doesn't always require an agent, since we acquire work at conventions and different author pitch events, but otherwise, we only accept vetted proposals from agents we have good relationships with. And... guys, even those that are agented don't get published. It's so difficult, but at the same time, certain publishers are also looking for specific books, and sometimes it just isn't the right timing for your book + that publisher.

I hope a lightbulb just went off.

This shouldn't be a never-ending cycle of "try and never see results," but definitely don't give up. My company rejected, like, flat-out rejected a great book five years ago. That author went to several different publishers, but she also edited her manuscript and made it such that it would respond to our initial concerns about the content. Then, she resubmitted it. And now we are publishing it, because of the market demand and also because it feels more like something we wanted to publish. (Please don't take this to mean that we are meant to alter our work to make the publisher happy. no. please don't do that. This was the author's decision, and she was willing to tweak some elements to make the story into something we could publish. Don't feel like you ever need to trample on your creative freedom, unless you want to badly enough.)

Moving on...

You've crafted a brilliant query letter. Shining, sparkling. (Or you hired someone to write it.... that's what I do lol). [Quick tip: writing a book proposal is a lot harder to do (and it's extra work because your agent won't ever see it), but will make your query letter stand head and shoulders above the rest, because of the amount of detail in it. You can see example proposals with a quick Google search.]

So now what? You find agents that are looking for your specific book. I use querytracker.com to find publishers and agents. They have stats on response rates, their preferred books, and links to their agencies. Honestly, a super helpful resource for writers ready to query. Once you've found a handful of great agent candidates (please, for the love of all that is good and holy, do not mass-send. These are people who are willing to take the time to read your ENTIRE MANUSCRIPT if the letter catches their eye. The letter is the first thing they judge your book by. Keep that in mind as the first line of fire.), send your letter to them. Sometimes, they want snail mail *cringes* but most agents accept email or form completion. Then... you wait.

And sometimes, you never hear back. But sometimes, you get a partial or full request! And that's... such a nice feeling. But it doesn't end there. Remaining professional is important, and now that the agent has bitten the bait, you give them your carefully crafted full manuscript and wait in anticipation for their judgment call: I choose you, or I release you.

If chosen, and you like this agent, yippee! Your agent will be the front line of defense, pitching your books to publishers they have connections to, and will even cold call a few on your behalf should you request it. And then, you just wait until a publisher bites. From there, you'll be signing the contract, refining the manuscript (again), and then things get kicked off.

Unfortunately, a lot of things can go awry in this pattern, and sometimes agents ghost their authors (boo 🤬) or the publisher you get contracted with is... not what they seem. Thankfully this is not the case with most agents, but it's always good to be careful when you pitch to them. They're trying to make money, too. You aren't paying anything out of pocket. They're taking a risk. But also, if they ever ask you to pay them, DON'T. Scam scam scam. Nope. Keep in mind that a good agent will back you up and go to bat for you. They won't be crummy and ask you to pay for stuff or belittle you.

I will talk about those types of publishing "scams" later in the Q&A section. It's similar.

Was this chapter helpful? I hope so. I tend to ramble :D