Queries: All Those Little Things You’ve Wondered

This month on the Querytracker blog, we’ve been discussing queries and querying. Today I want to discuss the little things you might have wondered about as you prepare to send out queries.

Full Verses Proposals

The answer depends on if you’re querying fiction or non-fiction. If you plan to query a non-fiction book (with some exceptions such as memoirs), you can send the agent a proposal, which includes a query, outline, and sample chapters. If you are querying fiction, then the novel needs to be completed. If you’re already traditionally published (or have self published and have strong sales), some agents might accept a proposal for your next novel, but in most cases, you’ll still need a complete novel.

Things are slightly different at the publisher level once you’re published. Your agent might shop your fiction proposal to editors. This usually consists of the agent’s pitch, a two-to-five page synopsis, and sample pages (often the first fifty pages). The odds of an editor being interested in your book are greater when they’ve read your previous works. Then they have faith that you will deliver what you promise in terms of storytelling and writing. The advantage of selling on proposal (which I’ve done), is that you don’t have to worry about writing the book and then discover no one wants it. The disadvantage is you still have to write the novel and you have less time to write it than if you had written it first. Of course, if you land a two-or-more-book deal, you’ll have to deal with these time pressures, anyway, with the other books.

Which One To Query

Querying takes time, unless you get lucky and the first agents you query jump on your book. We’re told to work on our next book while querying, but what happens if you finish the book before you’ve queried all the agents on your list? Well, first, if the books are different genres (for example erotic romance and a children’s picture book), query each book separately. Your list of agents will likely be very different. If the books are for the same genre, query the strongest one first. Don’t mention the other books. Save it for if you get The Call. You might decide to shelf the first book and not query the rest of the agents on your list. Or you might decide to continue querying the agents on the list with book #1, and query agents who’ve already passed on the first book with novel #2. But if you’ve just received a rejection from an agent one week, don’t query the other book the following week. Allow the rejection on the previous book time to cool down first, or else the agent will assume you made the same mistakes as before and didn’t take the time to develop your writing and storytelling skills.

Series

You’ve written the first book in a planned series, should you start writing the second book? Unless you’re planning to self publish the book if the traditional route doesn’t pan out, work on a project that has nothing to do with the series. If you do write the second book and book one doesn’t sell, you’ve wasted your time (unless you’re fine with chalking it up as a practice novel). If it’s a standalone story, which doesn’t require you read the other book first, then this isn’t an issue. But if it’s a sequel, work on a completely different project while you query the first book. Then if no one bites on the first book, you’ll have something else to query once you’ve finished the book. Otherwise, it could take you even longer before you can get back into the query game.

Short Stories And Novellas

Can you query short stories to agents? No. Most aren’t even interested in novellas. Check the agent’s website to see if she does accept queries for novellas; otherwise, query editors who are interested in short stories and novellas directly.

I’ve Have An Offer…

Congratulations! If you land an offer from an agent or publisher, contact everyone who still has your query or submission and let them know that you’ve an offer. If it’s from another agent, you don’t mention who the offer is from. If it’s from a publisher, let the agents know which one, but don’t accept it first and then tell the agents. If you do, no one will want to represent you because they can’t shop it around to other publishers.  Some agents will automatically pass on the book because they don’t have time to read it. For others, the offer will result in the book being fast track to the top of the slush pile.

Make sure you write “I’ve have an offer!” in the subject heading, or else your email could get stuck in the query slush pile for a very long time.


Do you have any questions about querying that you’ve been dying to know the answer to?

The Prolific Author

Courtesy of our recent "open mike" questions, QueryTracker brings you the following:

1) If I query an agent with 3 manuscripts and she doesn't accept any, but then likes
the 4th, does that mean she's not interested in representing the first 3? 

2) If I have one agent that likes manuscript A and another agent that likes
manuscript B, what's the best agent choice for me? 

Okay, so we've established that you're prolific, and you're clearly improving because you've gotten interest. Congratulations! This is important, and remember that once you're in the situation to ask Question #1, let alone Question #2, you're in a place of choosing between good and good, as opposed to good and bad, or no choices at all. Therefore your first job is to take a deep breath.

Take a deep breath and remember that you're in the communications industry.

The answer to Question One is: ask her. When she calls to talk to you about representation, after you guys are done discussing the current title, say, "I don't know if you remember that I'd previously queried you, but I happen to have other books I'd shelved. Would you be interested in representing those as well at some point in the future?"

But before you go ahead and do that (I'm assuming you're not on the phone right this very minute, so I can go all out of order here) I want you to consider that at this moment in time, is it possible that you yourself don't want those books out there?

Because you've grown as a writer between Book #1 and Book #4. Is it possible, just a little, eensie-weensie bit possible, that Book #1 got rejected because it isn't up to the standards of your current book? And because you want only your very best work out there, maybe you aren't going to want that shown to editors?

Your agent will most likely want to submit only one book of yours at a time. She will doubtless be delighted that you have other books up your sleeve, but she may hold them back because when an editor calls and says, "We must have this author," she can then say, "You know, she's actually got another book she's working on that has me even more excited!" Can you say two-book deal? I'm sure your future agent can. Even if the agent doesn't sell both books out of the gate, the agent may dangle a second book before editors as a little extra bait: you liked this book so much, and she's already written more…you really don't want to chance another publisher snatching this up, do you?

But again…are those books your best work now? They were your best work back then, but haven't you learned and grown in the past couple of years? Go back and look at them. Read them out loud. Do you flinch often? Does an important plot point seem contrived? Do you want someone to pick that up and judge the rest of your work based on it?

On the other hand, some books are just not good "debut" titles. They're solid books, but they would do better as a writer's second book because they're a little more risky. Maybe your previous books fall into that category.

So this is my recommendation: if the agent previously requested pages off those books, then by all means talk to the agent about them. She may remember why she rejected the other books. If she only rejected based on the query, mention that you have them but don't push too hard. Ask how the agent wants to look at your unpublished backlist. Ask. Because you're both in the communications industry, and you should be able to communicate.

Question Two is in the same vein: if you have two agents offering on separate projects, then talk to each agent about the other project. Ask how they would handle the two titles. Ask how they would handle your career if the books are in two different genres. Ask if they have good contacts and have made sales in both genres. You notice the theme here, right? Talk to them. 

I can't address who is the best choice for you, but you're going to be the one on the phone. You'll be the one who hears their voices, who feels like she's being sold versus feels like she's being courted. You're going to have to figure out which is the one you'd like to have lunch with, who is the one you'd rather call up when you're about to miss a deadline. You figure this out the same way you figure it out when they're both offering on the same manuscript. And if you did your research ahead of time, you don't have to worry about being scammed, so you're choosing between "good" and "good." That's a nice place to be. Breathe. Relax.

Most likely each agent will ask to read the one the other is offering on. Send it. Ask while you're still on the phone what they do with clients who have multiple manuscripts. Ask which they'd prefer to submit first. Write down everything they say, and then later, go back over your notes and try to think about which agent made you feel most comfortable, which agent's ideas about your books felt most in line with your own. 

But in the meantime, keep writing, and keep growing. If you're getting this kind of interest, it sounds like you're practically there.


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Jane Lebak is the author of The Wrong Enemy. She has four kids, three cats, two books in print, and one husband. She lives in the Swamp and spends her time either writing books or swatting mosquitos. At Seven Angels, Four Kids, One Family, she blogs about what happens when a distracted daydreamer and a gamer geek attempt to raise four kids. If you want to make her rich and famous, please contact the riveting Roseanne Wells of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency.