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Requerying
Jun. 28th, 2015 06:39 pmJanet Reid — one of the literary agents who blog — was once asked whether it is ever OK to requery a literary agent who has already sent a rejection. She replied that you can, if it's after a major revision; but that you should inform the agent, and gave this mockup as an example:
> Dear Snookums,
>
> I've revamped my novel SharquesGoneWild from an adult to a YA
> thriller. It's a lot better now. I hope you'll want to take a second
> look.
>
> Obviously of course, not those exact words but you get the idea.
Thanks to Janet Reid, notes of this nature are noted in my database and in my head forevermore as "snookums" notes.
Yes, I do requery.
• If I sent a query letter to an agent and get no reply, I may requery a year later especially if my standard query letter is quite different by then.
• If I sent a query letter positioning my book in one way (memoir nonfiction) and it was rejected, I may requery at a later point pitching the book within a different category (YA fiction for example).
• If the lit agent was one of those who request a partial (first 10, 25, 30, 50 pgs, first two chapters, etc) and rejected or did not reply, and it has indeed been rewritten since they saw that material, I may requery with a 'snookums' note acknowledging that they've received a query on this book before, but that it's been substantially revised.
You should not take this as a stated opinion that requerying literary agents is a perfectly acceptable practice. It's a practice that probably does annoy some of them. I've thought about it and concluded that my situation is somewhat different from that of an author who expects to write several books over the course of the next dozen years. They need to get published periodically. I need to get this book published. Authors who tailor their work to the market in order to get a book (or another book) into print learn to recognize when it's time to put one in the trunk and move on, and can't afford to annoy literary agents who might otherwise represent one of their future offerings. Me, I'm pushier. I have one book to find a home for and less to lose if some lit agents blacklist me for requerying.
• I don't want to descend to the status of "spammer" though. If I've requeried and received a second rejection, I won't keep pestering them about it. At least for now. (Ask me in 3 years if I'm still unrepresented and unpublished. In fact, check the web for stories about a crazed author in prison for kidnapping agents and tying them to chairs and forcing them to listen to him read his book out loud... that's not in my plans either, but...)
Anyway, I've made some modifications to how my system collects stats. Requeries were not being counted in the totals. Now I can optionally include those to get a better sense of how many queries I've actually sent (as opposed to how many agents I've queried).
NOT COUNTING REQUERIES (hence comparable to prior stats reports):
The Story of Q, total queries: 572
Rejections: 537
Outstanding: 54
Under Consideration: 1
As Nonfiction, specifically: 383
Rejections: 354
Outstanding: 49
As Fiction: 189
Rejections: 183
Outstanding: 5
Under Consideration: 1
----
COUNTING REQUERIES:
The Story of Q, total queries: 623
Rejections: 568
Outstanding: 54
Under Consideration: 1
As Nonfiction, specifically: 433
Rejections: 384
Outstanding: 49
As Fiction: 190
Rejections: 184
Outstanding: 5
Under Consideration: 1
————————
Index of all Blog Posts
> Dear Snookums,
>
> I've revamped my novel SharquesGoneWild from an adult to a YA
> thriller. It's a lot better now. I hope you'll want to take a second
> look.
>
> Obviously of course, not those exact words but you get the idea.
Thanks to Janet Reid, notes of this nature are noted in my database and in my head forevermore as "snookums" notes.
Yes, I do requery.
• If I sent a query letter to an agent and get no reply, I may requery a year later especially if my standard query letter is quite different by then.
• If I sent a query letter positioning my book in one way (memoir nonfiction) and it was rejected, I may requery at a later point pitching the book within a different category (YA fiction for example).
• If the lit agent was one of those who request a partial (first 10, 25, 30, 50 pgs, first two chapters, etc) and rejected or did not reply, and it has indeed been rewritten since they saw that material, I may requery with a 'snookums' note acknowledging that they've received a query on this book before, but that it's been substantially revised.
You should not take this as a stated opinion that requerying literary agents is a perfectly acceptable practice. It's a practice that probably does annoy some of them. I've thought about it and concluded that my situation is somewhat different from that of an author who expects to write several books over the course of the next dozen years. They need to get published periodically. I need to get this book published. Authors who tailor their work to the market in order to get a book (or another book) into print learn to recognize when it's time to put one in the trunk and move on, and can't afford to annoy literary agents who might otherwise represent one of their future offerings. Me, I'm pushier. I have one book to find a home for and less to lose if some lit agents blacklist me for requerying.
• I don't want to descend to the status of "spammer" though. If I've requeried and received a second rejection, I won't keep pestering them about it. At least for now. (Ask me in 3 years if I'm still unrepresented and unpublished. In fact, check the web for stories about a crazed author in prison for kidnapping agents and tying them to chairs and forcing them to listen to him read his book out loud... that's not in my plans either, but...)
Anyway, I've made some modifications to how my system collects stats. Requeries were not being counted in the totals. Now I can optionally include those to get a better sense of how many queries I've actually sent (as opposed to how many agents I've queried).
NOT COUNTING REQUERIES (hence comparable to prior stats reports):
The Story of Q, total queries: 572
Rejections: 537
Outstanding: 54
Under Consideration: 1
As Nonfiction, specifically: 383
Rejections: 354
Outstanding: 49
As Fiction: 189
Rejections: 183
Outstanding: 5
Under Consideration: 1
----
COUNTING REQUERIES:
The Story of Q, total queries: 623
Rejections: 568
Outstanding: 54
Under Consideration: 1
As Nonfiction, specifically: 433
Rejections: 384
Outstanding: 49
As Fiction: 190
Rejections: 184
Outstanding: 5
Under Consideration: 1
————————
Index of all Blog Posts
