One morning I looked out at the literary agent blogosphere and saw two great posts that had wonderful advice. Rachelle Gardner delved into pen names and whether you need one, and Janet Reid’s Query Shark offered feedback on a query.
There’s just one problem for the compulsive reader of agent blogs: Rachelle thinks you should query as your pen name, and I think you should query as yourself. And Janet wants you to discard your prologue when you’re sending the first five pages, whereas I want to see how you think the novel begins.
What in the world is a conscientious writer to do about all the contradictory advice out there?? It’s hard enough just to write a query, let alone writing it when you’re being spun in circles.
Here’s a checklist.
UPDATED 5/30/19
Take a deep breath
As long as you’re getting the big stuff right, you’re going to be fine. You don’t need to have every single little teeny tiny thing perfect. You can get an agent’s name or gender wrong and they still might request your pages.
An agent is not going to reject you because you sent them the first five pages of Chapter 1 instead of your Prologue if they like the idea and your writing.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Because really: if an agent is going to reject your query over some small niggling detail, are they someone you’d want to work with anyway?
Remember that publishing blogs are just trying to help
I know how tempting it is to throw up your hands and just think that literary agents are so many Goldilocks with completely different ideas of how hot the porridge should be.
Please just remember that everyone offers so much advice because people ask.
We get e-mails and comments all the time asking about everything from paper size to fonts to anglicized spelling to serial commas. So we try to help, and we’re not always going to agree on everything.
Personally, when I’m wearing my author hat I’d rather have too much information than too little, so I tend to err on the side of dispensing too much advice. It’s up to you to decide which advice you agree with and which you don’t. Just remember that we’re trying to help, not trying to make your life miserable.
Not all publishing advice is created equal
I went back and looked at some of my early blog posts, and holy cow a lot of them are way out of date (I try to update as many as can as often as I can).
Consider the source, consider the freshness of the advice, and beware of anyone who tries to tell you that there’s one way and only one way to find successful publication.
Occasionally an author out there somewhere will have a sense that the way they found success is The Way That Should Work For Everyone, whereas people who have worked across the publishing spectrum have seen the proverbial cat skinned in an impossibly vast number of ways.
Try to meet an agent’s specifications, but don’t go crazy trying to do it
If you happen to remember that Rachelle wants you to query with your pen name and I want to hear from the real you: great! Query accordingly. But don’t go creating a massive spreadsheet with every agent’s particular individual, tiny preferences. No agent expects you to do that.
If you think the contradictory query advice is mind boggling, just wait until you reach the publication stage
In case you haven’t noticed, this business is an art, not so much a science. There’s no one way to do things, and you’re going to face conflicting advice and opinions about your manuscript, cover art, marketing plan, you name it.
There are even more opinions out there than people (sometimes people can’t even decide what they think and have multiple opinions). At the end of the day, all you can do is just take all the advice into account, and choose the route that works best for you.
Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!
For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel and my guide to publishing a book.
And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!
Art: Exilium Melancholiae by Bartholomäus Hopfer
Good practical sense as always. No wonder so many people read Nathan's blog.
Long before there was so much info on the internet potential authors querying found all their info from books like Writer's Marketplace and Writer's Digest. Agent guidelines have always varied, even within the same agency.
I think it's great you posted this, but I also think new writers need to lose this sense of entitlement and start doing their homework. Especially when it's so simple now. I'm tired of the whining and crying. Buck up. You guys (writers) have it easier than it's ever been and you don't even know it.
Well said, Mr. Bransford! When I present, I especially tell people about your #5. Well, maybe not the bit about the publication phase, but about dealing with the contradictory advice. I tell them to get to their mental 100%, even if they break some "rules" and then query.
Serial commas, oh no! Call the cops!
Like you said, what it comes down to is what works best for YOU and yourself alone.
I appreciate this post, Nathan. I knew early today that my advice to query under a pseudonym would not be the same advice other agents would give, but I've been busy all day and haven't had a chance to go back and correct the post. The important thing to remember is, that particular piece of advice isn't one of the essentials, and authors can choose to do what works for them. Thanks for addressing contradictory advice.
remember,
Don't sweat the petty things!
and don't pet the sweaty things…..
Thanks for addressing this. It can all be a little much. I think the bottom line is that if you've written a great story, show the agent.
Yes, don't listen to all the advice. I couldn't write a good query as the topic I dealt with was a bit too complex. So I only sent proposals to publishers – and while all 7 queries of mine had got rejected, 2 out of the 3 publishers I sent my proposal to responded with a positive.
So, I guess you have to see what works for you.
Thank you so much for this! It was such a relief to take some of the almighty pressure off! 🙂
Thank you so much for this! It was such a relief to take some of the almighty pressure off – and to be reminded that agents are human too 🙂
It gets complicated for the unpublished writer because the agent has so much power in our little world.
It is true that tailoring your submissions to the agent you are approaching is obvious, but the unpublished author (and many published authors) are forced to analyse the intricacies of that first attempt at connection, because so much depends on it from our side. Submitted MS – even the bad stuff – has been worked on for a long time. Usually more than a writer has ever worked on anything in their life.
In some ways conflicting advice is an affirmation stating the connection is ‘elusive’ and ‘magical’ which helps unpublished writers cope with rejection.
Lisa Thatcher
I follow Query Shark and have noticed contradictions before- like don't have your address at the top, while some agents prefer your query start just like a business letter.
For agents I follow, like you and Ms. Reid, I'd try to tailor-make my query. For other agents, I can only read their guidelines and hope for the best.
It's not worth busting a coronary
Great post. It's hard not to sweat the small stuff, but at some point, something has to give.
The best advice I've ever heard is: tune out any advice that starts with "always" or "never."
Hi Nathan, you must be a mindreader. Just yesterday I was in the depths of despair about this whole query system, and this reassurance is just what I need. Thanks for a great blog.
Thank you for posting about this. I think every agent is different, which is why I make sure I do my homework before querying. Using Agent Query (or another site) isn't good enough. You really need to read agent blogs and tweets to see what each wants to see in a query letter. But it's reassuring to know that as long as the big things in the query are there, writers will be okay.
Forgive me if I repeat someone, I didn't have the attention span this morning to read all the comments. Isn't finding an agent all about taste (fit) anyway? I like liver, but I gag on seafood. It has nothing to do with whether either is "good" but rather what I have a taste for. So if agents are so many goldilocks isn't the task to find the one who taste most aligns with your recipe?
Writers tell their stories and agents either connect with the authors style or don't. A rejection is more like sending back the daily special when you find out it has liver in it than a judgement on the work (though it certainly can be that too).
Since there is no menu that lays out the measurements and ingredients you just have to keep trying until you get the plate that pleases you. When that happens, then both you and goldilocks can go away satisfied.
Another helpful blog post we appreciate the wisdom you share with us. Keep 'em coming.
Very, very helpful blog. If nothing else, makes me feel less of an idiot. I have given up and will self-publish, but do appreciate your words, very much.
"If You Think the Contradictory Query Advice is Mind Boggling, Just Wait Until You Reach the Publication Stage"
Amen!
Hi Nathan!
Thanks for addressing this! It's always interesting to compare different agents' preferences, but you're right… sometimes you just have to do your best and send it!
I have a different question – is there any downside that you can see to submitting your query to a query shark type of website or to a message board for group critiques? It seems like such a helpful thing to do. But do agents regularly read these? If you received a query that you'd seen critiqued on a website/board, would that be a bad thing for you?
Thanks for any insight you can provide!
-Ariane
After two years of reading query advice, I just try to hit the common denominators and when I really want to work with some one, I'll utilize my internet stalking skills to find out which keywords are mostly like to get their attention. I've tried the whole highly-personalized with sprinkles on top approach and ended up just feeling jerked around and used. So, I don't get stupid with it anymore. I'll always get the right name and gender, etc., and will make a few changes in the query depending on if the agent reps mainily literary or genre work. But other than that, I wouldn't fuss too much. I read slush for a small publisher and quite honestly, as long as you hit the basics like including a decent pitch, you'll get a fair shot. You'd be surprised how many writers will submit a 60K word novel and not even bother to give a pitch or synopsis.
I like this post. I'm always getting questions about it.
But in a general sense, the entire problem might just fall into the category of too much information.
In other words, there's so much info floating around now about queries, people are just getting more confused than ever. And you can't blame them. They take what they read on every single publishing blog to heart. I would if I were just starting out now.
It takes years to find out that no one really knows anymore than anyone else, and the best thing to do is write well.
Why don't agents standardize?
anon-
Because everyone has different preferences. It's not an easy task to field queries, and every agent has a slightly different system that works best for them. I don't think it's possible to standardize, nor do I think authors would necessarily even benefit from a standardized system.
Nathan, Kudos to you for NOT standardizing. The act of standardizing anything seems to make it 'less than'.
If writing is a creative act, then why squash it by forcing all to conform? (visions of 1984. . .)
Just waiting for the You Tell Me post. . .
Nathan: completely possible to standardize. you said "don't sweat the small stuff." Exactly. Goes for agents too.
More good advice. Supply what the agent wants (and yes each agent may differ regarding requirements).
But also be true to yourself – and your work.
Dan, thanks to your insight, I've had 4 agents literally BEG for my full. Of course I went with all of your rules which might have been overkill for their fragile psyches.
I think what everyone needs to realize is that as much as there are GUIDELINES for this sort of thing, there are no rules. Just Google for query samples and you'll see several instances where agents post samples that break all the "rules" but the writer still ends up with a deal.
Look at Sara Rees Brennan's query for The Demon's Lexicon (https://pubrants.blogspot.com/2007/09/query-for-demons-lexicon-that-landed-me.html) for one example. There's also another such sample on Query Shark.
I used to shake my fist at the literary world until I realized it's just like landing a date. This biz is so subjective that there is no such thing as the perfect query letter, only the perfect query letter for the perfect agent. Because you don't want someone half-heartedly represting you. Wwerd.
Question about Janet Reid's response to the content of that query (not the prologue/1st chapter issue): Do you agree that you can't combine a light-hearted protagonist voice with bad espionage things happening? Or is it maybe just that the bad things in this query were really really bad?
I don't need contradictory advice from agents to confuse me. I'm quite capable of doing that all by myself.
No, I'm not!
Yes, I am!
Shut up, J. T.!
Shut up yourself!
I mean myself!
Huh. And I thought the cover art was the one thing we didn't have a say in! ;D
(Hey, just as long as there's no half-naked space chick on the cover of my book, I'm good.)
I'm sharing this on Facebook to relax my writer friends a bit.
Yesterday, I wrote a post about queries. I wasn't getting any requests with my previous query, so I just revised it. Now I have to see if it's The One or if it needs more work or it's the manuscript. No wonder writers freak out about queries.
Funny thing is, I've sent a query that received several requests but no offers, then months later after reworking the query received requests from those who had previously rejected the query.
And I didn't really change the pitch that much.
Whatever agents or readers latch onto is generally intangible.
Hi Nathan-
I saw your tweet about the deluge of query questions. Just wondering if you still answer all your queries these days, or if you've moved to a "no response means no" policy just to cope with the volume. Alternatively, I'm also wondering if you're still having email (or gmail) glitches.
Sign me, Queried you in August (no attachments, no YouTube links to dancing space monkeys or corn dog eating contests, nothing but query w/ "query" in the subj line) and still hoping
anon-
I do answer all queries, and yes, I've been having some e-mail glitches lately. Please try again, and if you still don't hear from me in a week, e-mail me your query in an attachment and mention that I said it was okay to do so in the body of the e-mail. Sorry for the trouble!
Nicole, I don't want a half-naked space chick on the cover of my WIP either. I want a FULLY naked space chick! Not that there's one IN my WIP at the moment, but I could always add one…
Wait, I'm not always right? Are you sure? Really really sure?
In addition to the submission requirements, add on the people who critique the query for you….EVERY query critique I have had tells me different "rules"…so much so that I am frustrated beyond belief. But, I now believe that if you are true to yourself in your query, the right agent will be true to you. Getting out there is about taking chances, right?