QueryTracker Blog

Helping Authors Find Literary Agents

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Calling all QueryTracker Bloggers

I would like to start by linking to all the QueryTracker users out there who also blog. So if you would like me to add you to the list just leave a comment and let me know.

(And, since I'm new at this whole blogging thing, if anyone has any pointers, I'd appreciate that, too.)

I cheated, what can I say?

I admit it. I cheated. I just started this blog and needed some content, so I hopped over to my website and copied some of the stuff from there. But now I'm out of things to copy so the rest will have to be original. Now what do I do?

Saturday, September 29, 2007

What is QueryTracker?

QueryTracker is not just another list of agents. In fact, our agent list is secondary to the real purpose and power of QueryTracker.

QueryTracker is a model for what I like to call "Social Data Gathering." Which means our users each contribute data about their query and agent experiences. Alone this data does not reveal much, but when combined with the data from our ever-growing membership, we can see trends and identify important aspects of an individual agent's actions.

How does it work?
When a user queries an agent, they record the following data about that query:

  • Date Sent
  • How Sent (Email, Regular Mail)
  • To Whom was the Query Sent
  • Genre of Manuscript
  • Word Count of the Manuscript
  • Date of Response
  • Type of Response
  • etc.

What can you learn from this information and how does it help?
With this data, QueryTracker can reveal, on an agent-by-agent basis:

  • The overall number of queries sent to each agent and their accept/reject history.
    This can tell you how busy an agent is, but it also reveals how much an agent is actively seeking new authors. An agent that requests to read more manuscripts is obviously more interested in new authors than the ones that seem to reject everything they receive.

  • The genre-specific accept/reject history for an agent.
    This reveals the agents who are actively seeking certain genres. Just because an agent says they are interested in a particular genre, doesn't mean they are interested right now. With this you can find the agent who is requesting to read more manuscripts of the genre you write, allowing you to better target your queries. This feature requires premium membership.

  • Agent response times.
    By tracking sent and received dates (for queries and manuscript submissions) we can soften some of the pain of the waiting game.

  • Seasonal data.
    Are certain times of the year better for some agents and not for others? Now we can see and reveal any trends that may exist. This feature requires premium membership.

  • Newly added, we are now collecting data about manuscript word count.
    This will tell you which agents think certain books are too long, or too short, and help you to find agents who have already accepted manuscripts of the same size as yours.

  • We continue to expand.
    New ideas for data gathering and reports are always being recommend and implemented, and the site continues to grow both in features and users.