Q&A Thursday

Spirit of the Law edition

Hi friends!

Let’s answer some questions!

J asks: After submitting to 59 agents and receiving only 2 requests for a full, I did another round of feedback with beta readers on my submission package and have determined the main problem is my pitch. In hindsight, I see that it was composed from a defensive point of view, believing a story about grief with a protagonist with questionable morals— even with a happy ending— would be a hard sell. What's blatantly clear to me now is that the pitch is most likely turning off the agents before they get to my pages, and/or leaving them thinking I don't even know what kind of book I've written because the pitch is incongruent with the opening pages.

My plan is to rewrite the pitch and continue submitting because it only takes One Yes. But I'm kicking myself over not catching this problem earlier. So, I'm wondering: can I requery a few of those 59 agents, (I would only select ones that didn't respond at all and have not said, if you don't hear anything it's a pass) and take a chance that the new pitch will peak their curiosity? Or do I just need to learn from my mistake and accept the possibility that it's time to just let go?

I congratulate you on taking a step back and looking at your work objectively. Well done. It’s hard to come to this conclusion and the act of doing so is fantastic skill building for this project and your next and next and next. Nice work.

Now, on to your question. The letter of the law is No. You query an agent once per project. But the spirit of the law is that if the agent never got back to you and they don’t have a no response means no policy, then I think it is ok to requery them. I separate the spirit from the letter here because I want you, and all readers, to go forth with the understanding that you query an agent once per project. That’s the way it works. If you get into a situation like you are in, it’s ok to poke at it and see if you might be an edge case. Here, this is a reasonable edge case because you have no answer from the agent either way. I think you can send those few repeat queries again, with the bulk of your submissions going to new agents.

THINGS THAT ARE NOT EDGE CASES:

• An agent said no and you think they are wrong so you want them to reconsider

• An agent said no and you totally rewrote your query and you want them to reconsider

• An agent said no and you totally rewrote your book and you want them to reconsider (and the agent did NOT request to see a revision)

• An agent has a no response means no policy but you think that is bogus and you want them to make an exception for you

• An agent has a no response means no policy but maybe your query got sent to spam so you want to try again. (We check out spam filters, folks.)

See what I mean? Good on you, J, for approaching this reasonably and objectively. Good luck!

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C asks: I have been querying agents looking for representation for a novel and a handful of those who declined have encouraged me to try someone else at their agency--without offering a specific name. Is this a new thing?