Re-submissions and Re-querying: Yes or No?

You’ve sent in your query and, lo and behold, you’ve landed a partial or full request. First, congratulations! You’re now entitled to do a happy dance and celebrate with chocolate and wine (or whatever you do to celebrate). And now get ready for a long wait. But what should you do if another agent (editor, writer, etc) gives you feedback while the requested material is out, which results in substantial rewrites to your novel (or even just the first chapter)?

According to the Gate Keeper, resubmit it. For more insight into her wisdom and how to do this, check out her posts here and here.

What should you do if you’ve queried an agent with sample pages, but by the time they’ve request the partial or full, you’ve made substantial changes to those pages? According to Joanna Volpe (agent), you need to tell the agent this when you send in the requested material, even if you know the agent won’t be reading the manuscript for several months.

And finally, if an agent rejects your manuscript and provides constructive feedback but doesn’t ask you to resubmit, however, you do a complete overall based on the advice (new title, varied plot, voice, etc), can you re-query the agent with this book?

This really depends on the agent. For some, a ‘no’ means ‘no’. If they wanted to see it again, they would have asked you to resubmit after you’ve finished the revisions. For others, it doesn’t hurt to re-query them, and explain that you have made substantial changes (because chances are great they might still recognize it from before). More than likely, though, they’ll still say no, but it’s not the end of the world. Just keep querying it to agents you haven’t queried before.

Now if you only queried the agent, and they rejected the query and sample pages, you can certainly try re-querying them, but only if you’ve made substantial changes to your query, samples pages (for example, you deleted the old ones), and possibly even your title (because some agents keep record of that). And don’t try re-querying them so soon after the first attempt. Check out Jessica Faust’s and May Kole’s (agents) posts for their thoughts on the topic of re-querying and re-submissions.

These questions were based on ones recently sent to the Query Tracker Blog team. If you have any more questions, please leave them in the comments or email them to us.

Stina Lindenblatt writes contemporary and romantic suspense for young adults. In her spare time (LOL), she’s a photographer and blogging addict, and can be found hanging out on her blog, Seeing Creative.

QT King and Queen Crowned

Welcome to the ceremony crowning our readers' most beloved agents! The votes are in, so let's roll out the red carpet.

I give you the QueryTracker Queen:

Joanna Stampfel-Volpe
Nancy Coffey Literary

"I want to nominate Joanna Stampfel-Volpe for queen. In the small dealings I’ve had with her she’s been really personable and she just comes across as a super easy-going person. Nuff said ;)"

"I nominate Joanna Stampfel-Volpe of the Nancy Coffey Literary Management Agency. She has a keen knack for knowing what works and doesn't work. She's in tune with the publishing world and what readers want. Her nurturing way helps guide her clients to success while making good choices for editors and publishers. She is definitely an asset to the publishing world."

"Joanna Stampfel-Volpe. Joanna is amazing. She takes the time to give loads of feedback and encouragement to aspiring authors even when she's going to ultimately reject the MS. She's smart, young and hungry - everything you'd want in an agent."

"Joanna, of course."

"I spoke with Joanna on the phone for a long time, and I'm tellin' ya, she's a class act."

"You will not meet a more upbeat person than Joanna Stampfel-Volpe. We're all scared of emailing agents, afraid we'll do or say the wrong thing and forever end up in their bad graces. It's even worse when you think of actually having to talk to an agent on the phone! With Joanna there is nothing to worry about. It's like she sees every correspondence in the best possible light. It's almost like you can't say anything wrong to her. She's not my agent, but I guarantee, anyone who is lucky enough to be repped by her has won the agent lottery!"

And the QueryTracker King:

Nathan Bransford
Curtis Brown Ltd.
"Nathan's blog is like the Softer Side of Sears. He is one of the most informative and frequent agent bloggers, and I've learned a ton from his posts, and also his weekly updates on what's going on in the publishing world. Pair that with the QT blog, and I'm set for life!"

"What Nathan brings to the table is he respects how hard it is to deal with the "no response means no," and he promises to answer every query. This is becoming more and more rare, and I really appreciate the extra time he takes to help potential writers."

"His blog is absolutely awesome and offers all kinds of advice from querying to just random interviews! It's very helpful and I love the humor!"

"I would like to nominate Nathan Bransford for Query Tracker King because I love to follow his blog and he seems to be very concerned with giving writers a chance. I got to meet him in person at the last conference I went to, and he was so nice about answering all the writers' questions (even the crazy ones). :)"

"King- Nathan Branford: because he has the most informative website, contests that are fun and always a learning experience, and a wit that is unbeatable."

"My pick for favorite agent is Nathan Bransford. He doesn't represent my genre and therefore won't be on my query list, but he is STILL my favorite agent so that says a lot! His blog is inspiring and informative, and he seems genuinely interested in helping out new writers."

The royalty weigh in!

Thanks for this honor! I really appreciate everyone's kind words. As King, my first order of business is more beef jerky for all.

Queen? Me? Well, I never!

I have so many people to thank...but first order of business: Beef jerky? Nathan, I say...let them eat cake.

Congratulations to our winners, and many thanks to all who voted!

Keep your eye on the blog tomorrow. The winner of the Grand Prize of a website from Purple Squirrel Web Design will be announced!

Suzette Saxton's idea of a perfect day includes a picnic lunch, laughing children, and her laptop. When she's not writing books for kids, Suzette can be found gardening, doing finish carpentry in her home, or walking in the canyon in which she lives.

Click to visit her blog.

One Line Winners!

Wow, everyone should be thinking good thoughts about Ms. Stampfel-Volpe. Talk about a lot of reading. Not only that, but she's volunteered to do a guest-blog post for us on writing the pitch! So watch for that to be coming soon to the QueryTracker blog. Thanks Joanna!

Winners, please email me (Elana) at my querytracker address (the same one you sent your entries to) for specific submission details and instructions.

Here's what Joanna had to say:

This was a very difficult contest to judge! In the end, there were twenty-seven pitches that I really liked, but I still had to whittle that number down to the four winners out of a serious variety of genres and themes. What won out in the end is high concept and something fresh or with a fresh twist. But I still have to reiterate--it was freaking hard!

To everyone that participated, thank you so much for making this a fun experience for me. And although I may not have picked your pitch, I hope to still see queries from you in the future.

Cheers,

Joanna Stampfel-Volpe

3rd Place: Submission of first 10 pages
Danny Bryan - On their way to happily ever after, the Princess Detectives must first contend with a mysterious death, an impossible jewel heist, multiple kidnappings, a very inconvenient poisoning, and a jester's truly horrific jokes.

2nd Place: Submission of first 30 pages
Jocelyn Rish - After the body she discovers in the woods disappears, seventeen-year-old Breanna must prove it was not the product of her notorious overactive imagination, but rather the handiwork of a killer who plans to silence her.

1st Place: Submission of first 50 pages
Leanna Weissmann - Sixteen-year-old Lily McPherson is skating for Olympic gold - on a pair of skates she shoplifted from Robinson's Supercenter, the store where her cop father died during a shoot out.

Grand Prize: Submission of full manuscript
Katie Anderson - When you look into someone's eyes, you see his soul, but when sixteen year old Emerson Taylor kisses their lips, she sees their pasts.


Winners, please email Elana (elanajohnson@querytracker.net) for specific submission details and instructions.

Congratulations everyone! Thanks again Joanna!

Blog Contest Featuring Literary Agent Joanna Stampfel-Volpe

Submissions are now open!

Contest: Can you sum up your book in one sentence?

Joanna Stampfel-Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary will be judging your one line hook. That’s one sentence people. One period. Don’t compound yourselves to death. We’ve blogged about this (hooks, loglines, pitches, high-concept hooks) several times. Click on these links to read some examples.

Ms. Volpe is currently looking for a wide range of fiction from young adult, fantasy, science fiction, romance, thrillers, women’s fiction, middle grade, historical and commercial fiction as well as non-fiction in a few areas. Before submitting, please check out her profile on QueryTracker to make sure she represents your genre.

Please follow the guidelines below. If you don't, your entry will be deleted and we don't want this to happen to anyone!

The Finer Deets:

1. Your one line hook should be emailed to me, Elana Johnson. My email address is elanajohnson (at) querytracker (dot) net. Note the spelling of my name. The first vowel is an E. The second is not. Please don’t bombard me with repeat emails. I'm on Spring Break (finally!) today and will be sitting in front of the computer, anxiously awaiting your submission.

2. Please put "One Line Hook Submission" in the subject of your email.

3. With your submission, please include your real name and genre. Only completed manuscripts should be entered.

Like this:
Real Name:
Genre:
One line hook:


Things That Are Good to Know:

1. I will send you a quick “Got it.” email when I copy your entry for Ms. Volpe. Again, don’t send a repeat email. If you spell my name right, I'm going to get it.

2. The submission window will be open for 24 hours (until 9 AM Eastern time on Tuesday, April 14. ETA: the contest is now in the judging stage. Please don't send any more entries.). As of now, there is no limit to the number of entries, but watch the blog for updates.

3. Any entries longer than one sentence will be deleted without being sent to Ms. Volpe. Again, don’t compound yourselves to death.

4. You may only submit once, even if you have multiple projects. Go with your best one.

5. This is not an open critique. Your entry will not be published here on the blog for others to see. Only Ms. Volpe will be reading the entries and choosing the ones she likes (which then may be posted on the blog when the winners are announced. But no one will be shredding them).

6. The winners will be announced next Monday, April 20. Here's what Ms. Volpe has offered:
Grand Prize: Full submission of your manuscript
1st Place: 50-page submission
2nd Place: 30-page submission
3rd Place: 10-page submission


So what would we enter if we could?

Mary Lindsey: SOUL PURPOSE is a 68,000-word YA paranormal romance about a sixteen year-old reincarnated ghost hunter with past-life amnesia who is being pursued by a demon who wants her dead and a hot guy who just wants her.

Michelle McLean: Minuette Sinclair is a proper young Victorian lady who falls for the man of her parents' worst nightmares and becomes entangled in the search for a priceless necklace with a bloody past.

Elana Johnson: In a world where Thinkers control the population and Rules are not meant to be broken, fifteen-year-old Violet—who refuses to be brainwashed—does a hell of a job shattering them to pieces in her search for answers about her “dead” sister and not-so-missing father.

Carolyn Kaufman (Archetype): A man wants to eradicate magic from the world until he falls in love with a sorceress...and discovers he can use magic himself.

H.L. Dyer: Maybe if Beatrice knew someone faked her death as a child, she wouldn't be so desperate to remember the first decade of her life.

Suzette Saxton: Hallie knows the sounds coming from behind her bedroom wall aren’t cockroaches, but if she knew what was really back there, she might rethink her quest to uncover the truth in SECRET SISTERS, a contemporary coming of age MG mystery with a twist.

And...go!