It could be the query... or the opening pages... but I agree with Kate that 19 isn't enough rejections to tell you very much yet! How many queries have you sent? I used to think 20 queries was a baseline for testing whether the pitch + opening pages are working, but I think the number is closer to 50. Keep going!! :)
It could be the query... or the opening pages... but I agree with Kate that 19 isn't enough rejections to tell you very much yet! How many queries have you sent? I used to think 20 queries was a baseline for testing whether the pitch + opening pages are working, but I think the number is closer to 50. Keep going!! :)
Thank you! I’ve sent 24, still waiting on 5, but I really appreciate that. So if I get to 50 and still haven’t had a single request for a full, that means it’s the query? Because what’s concerning to me is that people can request the full and still reject it but no one’s even requested the full yet.
Ahhh, it's so hard to know! I feel your pain. I definitely think keep querying (and start your next book!!), but it also can't hurt to look over your materials again. You mentioned people have looked at your query -- have you had other writers give you feedback? Agented writers? (Not that agented writers necessarily know more, but if they've had to tackle this particular hurdle before, they sometimes have a better sense of what works.) Also it can be good to have a mix of people who've read your manuscript (so know the heart of it) and people who haven't (so can tell you what it's like to read it cold). And people you trust to be brutally honest! (Not that they should be brutal about it. But truly, deeply honest about how it reads.) Same thing for the opening pages -- how do you feel about those, and the feedback you've gotten on the ms itself? Also, have any of the rejections been personalized? Not that you have to answer all these questions haha, it's just some ways to think through all this. There's been talk elsewhere in this thread about hiring editors, and it's not something you have to do (especially with QueryShark and beta readers) but it could be an option if you send more queries and don't get any nibbles. I feel like this is a place for an infamous Kate McKean shrug!
This is so helpful too! I’ve had other writers read my query, but not necessarily agented writers. I also sent it to QueryShark and mine hasn’t ended up on there yet. How would you go about finding agented people to read it? Beta reading sounds useful but I’m also not quite sure how to go about it. I finished my book and sent it to a few different friends who had offered to read it and then ended up with 3 people who read through the entire thing and gave me feedback (which is still very helpful). And then I let it sit for several months, edited some more, started a new job, let it keep incubating, edited out a few more drafts, and decided to start querying at the 2ish year mark after manuscript completion.
I know there are some Facebook and Discord groups where people post query letters for critique, if you're on either of those platforms. Sometimes they aren't that useful, because people's opinions are just their opinions! But I was trying to think about if you could use some more feedback from other sources. My email is in my profile if you want to shoot me a note and I'll do some thinking about other resources!
Keep going! And I'm sorry to say there's no way to know if it's the query or the pages or the book or the market or if Jupiter is in the wrong house. Sometimes it's two of those things for one agent and five for the next. Have faith in your work and keep going. And write your next book.
Thank you! This has all been so encouraging, and I think I just need to put half my brain toward querying and half my brain toward my new project (which I’m also excited about hehe). And I mean, if it’s not my first book, maybe it’s my second (though I will keep querying). At the end of the day, we all do this because we love it, and I have to just keep reminding myself that.
It could be the query... or the opening pages... but I agree with Kate that 19 isn't enough rejections to tell you very much yet! How many queries have you sent? I used to think 20 queries was a baseline for testing whether the pitch + opening pages are working, but I think the number is closer to 50. Keep going!! :)
Thank you! I’ve sent 24, still waiting on 5, but I really appreciate that. So if I get to 50 and still haven’t had a single request for a full, that means it’s the query? Because what’s concerning to me is that people can request the full and still reject it but no one’s even requested the full yet.
Ahhh, it's so hard to know! I feel your pain. I definitely think keep querying (and start your next book!!), but it also can't hurt to look over your materials again. You mentioned people have looked at your query -- have you had other writers give you feedback? Agented writers? (Not that agented writers necessarily know more, but if they've had to tackle this particular hurdle before, they sometimes have a better sense of what works.) Also it can be good to have a mix of people who've read your manuscript (so know the heart of it) and people who haven't (so can tell you what it's like to read it cold). And people you trust to be brutally honest! (Not that they should be brutal about it. But truly, deeply honest about how it reads.) Same thing for the opening pages -- how do you feel about those, and the feedback you've gotten on the ms itself? Also, have any of the rejections been personalized? Not that you have to answer all these questions haha, it's just some ways to think through all this. There's been talk elsewhere in this thread about hiring editors, and it's not something you have to do (especially with QueryShark and beta readers) but it could be an option if you send more queries and don't get any nibbles. I feel like this is a place for an infamous Kate McKean shrug!
This is so helpful too! I’ve had other writers read my query, but not necessarily agented writers. I also sent it to QueryShark and mine hasn’t ended up on there yet. How would you go about finding agented people to read it? Beta reading sounds useful but I’m also not quite sure how to go about it. I finished my book and sent it to a few different friends who had offered to read it and then ended up with 3 people who read through the entire thing and gave me feedback (which is still very helpful). And then I let it sit for several months, edited some more, started a new job, let it keep incubating, edited out a few more drafts, and decided to start querying at the 2ish year mark after manuscript completion.
I know there are some Facebook and Discord groups where people post query letters for critique, if you're on either of those platforms. Sometimes they aren't that useful, because people's opinions are just their opinions! But I was trying to think about if you could use some more feedback from other sources. My email is in my profile if you want to shoot me a note and I'll do some thinking about other resources!
Keep going! And I'm sorry to say there's no way to know if it's the query or the pages or the book or the market or if Jupiter is in the wrong house. Sometimes it's two of those things for one agent and five for the next. Have faith in your work and keep going. And write your next book.
Thank you! This has all been so encouraging, and I think I just need to put half my brain toward querying and half my brain toward my new project (which I’m also excited about hehe). And I mean, if it’s not my first book, maybe it’s my second (though I will keep querying). At the end of the day, we all do this because we love it, and I have to just keep reminding myself that.