Whoa boy am I getting a lot of queries these days.
In addition to the 400 or so I received over the holidays, I came in this morning to another 100+ that had accumulated over the weekend. To put that in perspective, last year I received about 110 over a three day weekend, and that had been a record.
I’m not totally sure why this all is happening, but I’m guessing it’s a combo of:
– NaNoWriMo novels have been edited and are ready for submission
– Contests tend to bring new blog readers and new blog readers tend to bring queries
– People had some time over the holidays to prep their submissions
– Cylon virus weakening human race by compelling people to spend time writing novels instead of fighting robot uprising
And yet, despite my best guesses there are also some slightly unexplainable aspects to this new deluge. For instance, I’m receiving an abnormally high volume of personal religious manifestos. Why? I have no idea. Certain trends just come in waves.
I also really do believe we’re in a cultural moment where an abnormally high percentage of the population is either writing or thinking about writing a novel.
I’m not complaining about all of this – after all, many of these new projects are quite good! It’s just making for a tricky couple of post-holiday weeks.
Any personal theories about the query deluge?
Oh,trust me, know.
Thank you for the kind letdown. 🙂
The Query Deluge is in accordance to the prophesy. The time is nigh.
Nigh to what? I'm not really sure. The prophesy wasn't clear on that part, but it's nigh… very nigh…
nigh…
QueryTracker had you at #1 in their Top 10 Most Queried Agents list last week –
https://querytracker.net/top10.php#
– so anyone that saw you there and hadn't already queried you? Probably was asking themselves "Hey, why haven't I queried Nathan Bransford?"
I'm going with that, or Cylons.
NaNo-s are edited already? Wow.
I have a ms from this summer that I'm thinking of maybe handing out to some readers next month.
Recession.
We've tried to sell a spare kidney on eBay but the bidding was sluggish.
We are too fat to be successful strippers.
Got it! If my religious manifesto's a hit, that kidney'll bring in some big bucks on eBay once I'm famous.
It's the Cylons.
Maybe it's the end of the decade. People are feeling inspired by a new beginning, and realizing what they haven't accomplished yet.
Ha, ha…get in before th' pock-o-lips, huh? You waited too long. You'll be published 3 minutes before the Doomsday Clock runs out and you're vaporized. And you without a backup novel.
Abnormally high percentage of the population thinking about or actually writing? Yes–I have several friends who are writing now, not through writing groups, just friends from various facets of life. Internet demystifying publication so that more people writing make publication a goal? Also yes. 2012 looming as ultimate endgame? Outlying factor. Cyclons? Pretty much in control of everything since Galileo's time.
Time goblins.
Cylon robot virus? On your forums I often find myself alone with a Google Bot. Scary!
I'm not sure what caused so many queries but I am very interested to learn what time goblins are and how they're connected.
I've been averaging 60-65 a day since January 1st, which is A LOT.
And in those queries, I'm seeing a LOT of word count abuse. First novels that exceed 160k, 170k, 180k. Astounding!
You seeing this kind of thing, too?
Some chick named Holly Root gave me five bucks to send you at least five new query letters a day. I asked for ten, but she said things were really tight in the industry right now.
Well, Your ever increasing popularity and the fact that you tell us to query you could be a theory. =)
Has anyone mentioned the correlation between the world ending in 2012 and the religious manifestos yet? 😉
The internet makes people over confident? "Friends" on facebook say, "that is great!" and people think it is?
Side note:I saw a GEM of a title the other day that made me think of you (not that I know you, that's totally creepy). It was LOL funny– a manifesto written by a guy with… well, let's just say that on the self-designed COVER of his "book", there are numerous errors. But here's the kicker, he asked for advice on it, which I gave and he said "they said I don't have to worry about grammar, but thanx". When I looked to see who "they" could possibly be, I found out that his "publishing house" is, indeed, himself.
I hope he didn't send it to you!
Nathan, I suspect strongly that you have THE number one agent blog. This will increase your visibility and bring you more queries. And if the personality types that hang out online tend to be a little, shall we say, "skewed", then this will affect the type of queries you receive. Why not compare stats with colleagues who don't blog, or whose blogs are less well-known. See if they have seen the deluge.
-Steve
Nathan,
Here's a completely different hypothesis from the one I just gave. More and more of the baby boomers are hitting their 60's, which traditionally makes one "old". Perhaps people are realizing that if they ever want to leave behind some creative legacy they'd better get crackin'. Any age stats on your submitters?
-Steve
It's hard to imagine that someone from Nano has something ready for submission already. It took me 30 days to write 50,000 words, but it's taken me another 30 days to write the next 20,000, and I think I may be nearing the half-way mark of my novel. That means I'm looking at another few months of writing before I can even think about editing. I haven't even gone back to read it from the beginning even once, let alone edit it. But I really do think it's a good sign. So long as people are still writing, people will still be reading right? So that means that by the time I finish my novel there may still be a publishing industry left for me to pitch to?
Hmmm, so I guess I need to rethink the whole – I'm going to be a novelist this year – notion. Although, I'm really good at waiting in line, as long as my kids don't need to use the bathroom. I am just curious how long it takes you to go through 400 queries?
i sent you one of the queries. paul jeter. pjetgallery.blogspot.com
i sent it to you because, i treated your advice like a homework assignment, and i want to pass the test.
I can't help wondering how people can get their NaNoWriMo novel edited so quickly. I'm still working on mine – from 2008. It's nowhere near done. I guess some people just write more neatly during November, hence needing less editing…
No theories on the query wave, but I do have a personal religious manifesto. I would share it with you here, but such blatant self-aggrandizing is against said beliefs.
I tend to be on the side of the economy (and the cylons, of course). Even though my situation is really the reverse — I have a very secure day job, which is really not enjoyable at all. I try to eke out my novel in my limited free time and imagine myself at home in my pajamas writing for a living.
The economy has to be a major factor. People are desperate in seeking financial security and they hope that if they can market a novel, they can gain that security cushion they so desire. Same cause and effect for the religious manifestos – human nature seeks divine intervention when times and life get tough.
No theories but back in the 80's when I wanted to do a graduate thesis on religious influences in politics I was told "religion is dead. It doesn't influence politics."
Apparently it has made a come back.
Just finished Ben-Hur. Great book but I'm all for the modernization of novels. Long winded thee and thou speeches are hard to read.
I had originally set that I would finish editing my novel by the end of the year. It was pretty much arbitrary, but I wonder if other's set the same goal…only they actually finished.
Because people think writing is easy?
I watched "Castle" last night. Apparently best-selling authors never actually have to write anything. They just get to kiss Alyssa Milano and flirt with the cute homicide detective. Yet they make millions.
I think a lot of people are feeling the lack of control in our society, whether it's in the economic climate or the involvement in the war, or just the pressures of everyday life. Writing gives a sense of control.
It's an epidemic, spread through the water. It has killed all other water borne viruses in the water. Promiscuous girls around the world rejoice.
I don't know about all the queries, but I like the hive-mind-cylon-religious-manifesto-alien-2012-Baby-Boomer-Nathan's-Blog angle. Or maybe I just like that if you throw all those into a mixing pot you get the plot for my next NaNo project!
Clearly, this is the predicted "fourth step" as annunciated by the Mayan calendar, which leads to the end-of-the-world on December 21, 2012. However, it is likely that on the 22nd, your inbox will still receive seventy-four queries of those wishing to publish posthumously for no one to read.
I would agree with the 2012/Zombie apocalypse theory, however, you'd think more compelling, life-altering and certainly renewal of faith stories would come from any survivors post 2012. 😛
Oh, and just an FYI:
Zombie Procedure Emergency Rule #6
"Bring along something shiny. Zombies are at all times fascinated and confused by the shiny. Distractions with a shiny will give you ample opportunity to bash their little heads in."
Definitely a symptom of the virus.
We are Borg. Resistance is futile. 🙂
Good luck with that slush pile. Sounds like you need hip waders to tackle your in box. *LOL*
As far how long it takes to edit a Nano book, I was too busy writing to participate in Nano this year despite my best intentions. *LOL* I've turned in two manuscripts to one of my publishers since then, and working on another they're expecting. I treat my fiction writing the same way I approached my non-fiction, with tight deadlines and paying close attention to self-editing during the process to tighten the manuscript as I go. It's worked for me so far. *LOL*
Then again, this IS my evil day job. I have to make money doing it. *LOL*
I was going to say it was because word of your sheer awesomeness has spread, but I am not ready to query yet so I won't bother to suck up.
I think the recession is a big part of it. Writing is a way to make some extra money with minimal expense
Well, that little 'contact me' link below your picture might have a bit to do with it, Nathan. 🙂
I remember when I saw that I thought, "Wow." Then I thought, "Boy, that looks so easy, think I'll query Nathan." Then I remembered that I don't have anything to query you with. That was extremely disappointing. I stared at that box in frustration for quite awhile.
I'm still frustrated. There's just something about that little box that's so accessible, and it makes me want to send you things.
I don't suppose I could send non-query things that way? Maybe just a daily update on how I'm doing? Or some of the papers I'm writing for school? Just to give you a break from reading queries all day.
Anyway, the point is, I bet people who actually have something to query you with find that box darn near irresistble.
misa101 – Minimal expense?! Not only have I spent a large number of hours and blood on my writing, I have spent money on research, joining organizations, and on postage in the search of an agent.
At this point, I sure as hell would have made a lot more money working at McDonald's. If you someone is looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is definitely not the field people should be considering.
I used to work for a literary agent and I can tell you the patterns for heavy submissions: early January (people wrote durign the holidays), early summer (school's out), and the worst, just after Labor Day–people suddenly had to "get on" their project after summer was over.
Gotta be Cylons. Them buggers are everywhere.
Well, after I finish my novel, set up my webpage, my blog, my public facebook and write the query (which I will send to Query Shark as well as my online writing group), then I will be querying Nathan. 🙂 Based on books he has published and what he has said regarding his interests and his response times, well, I fully expect that to be my first rejection.
There has to be a novel in this Mayan-alien-Cylon conspiracy.
I agree with the Nanowrimo thing. Oh and the cylon thing too.But 400 queries? Your poor strained eyes.
I don't know if someone said this already, but there are a lot of students who graduated last May unable to find work. Overall, I think the biggest reason for the massive query count is the evil economy genie pouncing into everyone's household, either leaving them time with a WIP or desperately clawing at story possibilities. And the greater influx of spiritual journey queries may reflect the desperate tmes many people are enduring these days as we as a population face extreme cultural, economic, and personal upheavals.
And then there's the other reason: "Hey, I'm the most fascinating person on planet Earth. Who wouldn't want to read my life story? Think I'll query Nathan about it." 🙂 n
Don't worry Nathan your awesome!You'll get through all those queries!And I'm not sucking up either.Okay, maybe a just little…
I think many people are scared that the publishing industry is changing really fast and they want to get in before it's too late.
I DO think we're at a cultural moment, but the cutting edge of that moment, the really exciting new writers that wouldn't have written before now – surely they're the DIYs, the punks and independents who wouldn't touch an agent if one waved a flag in front of them and shouted "six figure advance".
And on a mundane level, a lot of people have been snowed in and are using the time productively!
I think I know why the upsurge, despite the holidays. Your blog url is listed on another popular agent/publisher blog (religious) which might explain the new content coming in. I hope it's a blessing 🙂
I agree with what most of the others have said: economy, free time, New Year's resolutions, and the recent success of authors which might imply writing is 'easy'.
Looks like any queries I might have sent you would be lost in the deluge.
Thank goodness I wised up and stopped querying at all. I'd hate for my pitiful excuses for 'novels' to actually be put before an agent or editor.
"How many newspaper and magazine writers have been slowly pecking away at a novel in their desk drawer."
How does a writer fit inside a desk drawer?!