Whew! All 50 queries have been posted. You’ll have until Sunday Saturday evening to complete the project in case you were tied up today.
Also, with this many comments it’s almost impossible for me to keep up — I need your help to combat the trolls. Please e-mail me any comments that you find inappropriate.
Most importantly: thanks for playing! What did you think of the contest? Please post your initial thoughts. We’ll be back throughout the week to discuss more.
Anonymous says
get real people. what is harder in this entire literary process than writing a novel???? rejecting is a flick of the wrist. really.
Nathan Bransford says
anon-
I don’t think anyone (including me) said it was.
Sophie W. says
I only requested four. I probably would have requested more manuscripts if I hadn’t been given the five-manu limit, but as the rules stood, I decided to be hyper-critical. I chose: #9, #17, #34, #48. I found I was more than willing to give queries the benefit of the doubt if there was really lucid writing toward the beginning of the query. And a lot of the time, I was really frustrated that authors didn’t include pages! Nathan, how on earth do you choose between good queries with eh stories and eh queries with good stories without PAGES?!?!?!!
Ahem. I did recognize one or two queries from various critiquing cites, but I was good and didn’t mention it to anyone.
Honestly, this wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. If it hadn’t been my sister’s birthday yesterday, I would’ve finished all 50 during the day.
I did think people were being unnecessarily mean. I know *I* was certainly whimsical and irreverent (perhaps to the point of unprofessionalism), but I tried to make sure that the authors knew I was joking around. And I would never attack another person’s writing.
I still can’t believe you’re going to compile all these results. I hope you have a team ready. Or maybe a really big Excel file
Dario (aka Fairduncan) says
Instructive and enjoyable. I can’t say that the process was difficult.
I read through all 50 and found perhaps 50% of the queries rejectable after reading a paragraph or less. Three were instant hits, and by the end of the list I had five candidates for the remaining two spots. A second read through these queries was enough to make the selection. The entire process took me a little over an hour. I suspect that in the real world, many more queries are rejectable at a glance.
Probably the main thing which caused me to reject those queries I did read all the way through was a sense of muddledness on the part of the author. Of all these queries, I think the trucker’s was the best-written and one of the two most compelling.
Thanks for that! I’ll be curious to see the results.
Wandering Spirit says
This has been a very rewarding process for me personally. I learned many things about how I read, what I read and how I make those choices.
I also learned invaluable information about how to write my own queries (when the time comes!).
It’s amazing to see the diversity amongst those manuscripts that were chosen. To me it demonstrates how subjective reading and writing is.
For info my choices were: 6, 10, 20, 29 and 48
Christine H says
Anonymous – my revised query is up on my blog.
Anyone else – if you have a query that this contest inspired you to rework, you are welcome to a) post it on your own blog or web page and then b) put a comment with the link to your page in the comments section of my blog, on the post titled “Query Letter – Best of a motley bunch.”
Hope I’m not hijacking here, but I thought it might be a good follow-up for those of us who really need/want more help.
Friendly comments, only, please. Constructive criticsm – not destructive. Thanks!
Kats says
This has been a great learning experience – I’ve got a whole new appreciation for clear, concise plot descriptions!
I requested 2, 6, 9, 21, and 40 (and would’ve requested 3 more).
Maryann Miller says
Wow, I never realized how tough it could be to sift through people’s dreams and reject them. Guess that’s why I’m not an agent. Not that I think agents don’t have a heart, but you do have to have a special sense of discernment that not everyone has. 🙂
This was fun, but I wouldn’t want to do it again.
Gregory says
Dear Nathan;
Thank you, and a question.
First, tremendous experience. Most important lessons for me: More of what NOT to put in a query.
Very valuable.
Comment: People seem to think they got some insight into your world. Well, 5% of it. But dealing with authors, preparing, packaging, selling selling selling. I often wonder how you manage this blog given the load. Amazing.
Question: First person queries. (Came up with one of them.) Are they acceptable? Not acceptable? Instant rejection? (Did I miss earlier mention of this in your extremely helpful query advice?)
And finally, couple of comments on the comments.
1. David wrote: “The only ones who don’t have it tough are the owners of the publishing houses.”
You could only say that if you have no idea what’s involved in owning and running a publishing house. It’s even stressful these days being a passive owner (shareholder), watching the stock price drop, and drop, and drop…
2. Anonymous was critical of the commentary. Said much of it was breezy, etc. Some was. But I had exactly the opposite impression. So many good comments by busy people trying to help each other, trying to give some direct and honest feedback. GREAT JOB, PEOPLE!
3. Somebody said they wished their query had been selected. ME TOO! It would have been tremendously valuable to get the feedback.
I don’t even mind “snarky” feedback, if there’s a pony in there. I’ll take it!
Well done, Nathan. Again, thank you!
— Greg P
“You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you’re working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success – but only if you persist.” — Isaac Asimov
The Writers Canvas says
Whew! Great blog and exercise this week, Nathan! Just finished going through them.
Kudos to you for your hard work!
Elaine
Lindsey says
It’s hard. I’ve been through 15, rejecting about half and leaving the rest to make a decision later.
There are too many that could be incredible novels but how can I tell without an excerpt?
I don’t want to reject a story I’m interested in just because there’s a single sentence in the query I don’t like, but can I afford to ignore the warning bells?
Some queries look like they have potential to make me money (professional, good credentials) yet I’m just not that interested in the story. What do I do?
Some don’t give enough information about the author or the story, some far too much but I don’t want to punish either of these when I’m genuinely interested in the story.
I find myself coming up with a code that will probably mean nothing to the authors I’m responding to. I have a standard rejection letter which I modify slightly for each query, but not at all if the query is so bad that it’s not worth my time.
I’m too worried about passing up something that a colleague would snatch and make millions from. If I did this job, I’d get no sleep at all.
Gregory says
One additional note…
jjdebenedictis had:
Most common reasons why I decline manuscripts:
[ ]–The manuscript is in a genre which I don’t represent
[ ]–The query appears to be a non-personalized mass mailing
[ ]–The query/manuscript’s presentation was worryingly unpolished
(E.g. Many spelling, grammar, punctuation or homophone errors; a non-standard format)
[ X ]–The writing doesn’t seem polished enough
(This improves with practice; your next novel may be excellent)
[ ]–The plot doesn’t sound compelling enough
(Again, this improves with practice and self-education)
[ ]–The plot sounds too similar to something book-buyers have already seen
That was great. Wish all agents did that?
— Greg P
Jill Lynn says
I didn’t think it was hard to choose five requests, but I did have difficulty remembering which ones I sent rejections to and which ones I didn’t. Also, I rejected the same query…twice. *cringe* Sorry Author.
And, yes, writing the rejections was time consuming (and I was copying and pasting!) I understand now why so many agents only respond to the ones they want to read more of.
Jill Lynn (aka Agent Du Jour)
Jane Doherty says
First of all, thanks Nathan for the chance to participate in this. It was definitely interesting. (RL got in the way and made me lose my place *cries* Now I have to figure out where I left off.)
And I second the suggestion for people who want help with their queries to post it at AW or a similar site for some pointers. (Only pointers – not to have it rewritten for you.)
I hang out in Share Your Work there a lot, mainly in the query area, and it can really give you a handle on restructuring your letters into something presentable.
(But bring a thick skin or the people there will help you grow one.)
— Cyia
Anonymous says
To anon 7:19:
DO NOT LOSE SLEEP!!! I am a published author with a major house and I’ve read almost all the queries and comments and some of them I was laughing out loud–and not the queries. I thought the queries were all decent, with some being exceptional. But even the queries I liked and, had I been playing the game, would have seriously considered, were receiving negative feedback.
1) Writers are far more critical of other writers than agents are.
2) Editors are far more critical than writers and agents. If you sell, know that your editor, who loves you and loves your book, is going to be blunt when she tells you what needs to be fixed. I remember my second revisions letter (my first was pretty light, but that book had been written and rewritten and read by 10 people before I ever submitted it) — but my second I thought, “My career is over and I still have another contracted book.” But my career wasn’t over, and more than a dozen books later I still have revisions, and my editor still helps me make my books the best they can be. Bluntly. 🙂
3) There are many good writers who can not write a decent query letter. Queries and storytelling are two different writing forms. If you have problems writing queries, either have someone else write it for you, or only submit to agents who want 5-10 pages with the query. In the end, IT IS ALWAYS THE WRITING that gets the agent. A great query letter might get you read, but only your book can get you an agent.
And a general comment, when you query agents, you first weed out the agents who don’t represent your genre/sub-genre. A romance writer isn’t going to submit a query to an agent who only wants to see science fiction. In this exercise, there was a broad range of queries, and some in genres that Nathan doesn’t represent. I’d hope that when the query does matter, that everyone does their homework. Some of the rejections like “I don’t represent YA” or some such thing shouldn’t be counted if you’re getting those, because you wouldn’t have submitted to that agent in the first place.
— a multi-published author who had over 100 rejections before getting an agent.
Ian McLachlan says
nice idea, Nathan. query letters seem like a bit of a red herring to me – the first few i looked at seemed competent enough, and not all that helpful to the selection process. excerpts from the novels themselves, on the other hand, seemed to me to give the game away almost immediately. if i were an agent, i think i’d just request the first page of the novel, a middle page, and the last page.
Christine H says
Anon 11:48 – Thanks so much for your comment. I have a question for you:
I have heard elsewhere to expect at least 100 rejections before getting published (or agented). But that always puzzled me. Logically, if my manuscript were to be rejected that many times, wouldn’t it make more sense to conclude that it’s just not publishable? (Either for content, or bad writing.)
And if you get that far down the list of potential agents, aren’t you sort of “scraping the bottom of the agent barrel?” Or are there really that many agents out there that 100 is just a drop in the proverbial ocean?
I’m not trying to contradict you, that’s just what I’ve always thought about the process, and I’m wondering how you (or Nathan) would reply.
Anonymous says
Thanks for presenting the challenge. Although I cheated (only made my five “acceptances” and no rejects), it was fun and interesting.
It reinforced for me that you gotta find the right set of eyeballs for your work, since I chose more queries from genres I read.
“BelleAgent”
Laurie says
Nathan, Once again I must say thank you for taking the time to do this. I can’t remember an exercize that was more instructive.
I want to commend all the people whose queries we read. There are alot of REALLY talented writers out there and I will be looking for your books at my local bookstore someday.
I chose #9, #10, #17, #35, #40.
But I also really wanted to see more of #20 and #37, and even now I think I might have messed up by not choosing #20, because I keep thinking about that trucker and I REALLY want to read his memoir.
In the end, I learned that a perfect query isn’t the most important thing. A compelling story is what grabbed my attention.
For example, I thought #50 was a pitch perfect query. It was even a book I would buy for my son. But in the YA catagory I ended up choosing #9 and #35 instead, because I still remembered those stories 24 hours later. They were compelling enough to stick in my head.
Matilda McCloud says
Christine–
If you aren’t getting nibbles after sending out 10 to 15 queries (and if these have been to carefully researched agents), then I’d suggest re-working your query. Do not just send it to 100 agents. If you are getting requests for partials, keep sending out that query. Miss Snark always said don’t stop until you reach 100 agents (but I think she meant if you are getting some personalized responses along the way).
If you get requests for partials, but no requests for fulls, that might mean your idea is good, but the writing needs work. Get some good feedback, join a writers group, etc.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve gleaned so far from this process. Also, focus on those agents on the way up (a few strong sales), not the ones at the very top.
Best,
Matilda McCloud
Anonymous says
My initial thought is that I’m quite surprised the “agents” were so dismissive of non-fiction as a genre! I also wish there were more comments that were directly relevant to the queries instead of form emails. Form emails don’t provide any valuable information for the person sending the query, which was supposed to be a part of this contest for those who turned in queries.
Christine H says
Matilda, thanks for your comment. That makes sense!
Jane Doherty says
Anon; 9:25 A.M.
This was more about letting people see what an agent has to go through each day, and why such feedback is unrealistic.
Many of the people who started off with detailed feedback switched to form rejects by the end.
It proves the point that it’s not an agent’s job to give a writer pointers on how to write a query. they already have a lot on their plate and detailed analysis takes up too much time and effort.
We saw 50 queries; in the same time, Nathan saw 76. And I’d bet the queries that we saw were nowhere near the same quality as the ones he went through on average.
I was fortunate enough to have a query included in this experiment, and I do appreciate every single response – positive or negative – even the form letters.
If nothing else, it proves that this is a subjective business and what one person passes over without interest, someone else is excited about.
If you need help or feedback on your query, there are messageboards where you can get that kind of help.
Nik says
This was a great exercise. I’ve always known I wouldn’t want to have to see an agent’s query pile, let alone sift through it. This confirmed it, but it also made it apparent just how close some people are, but are just missing that last little something to tip over the edge into success.
Good luck everyone! I saw some cruel comments that made me wish I had the power to delete them, but I also saw some helpful ones. I tried to give feedback on most of the posts so people knew why I came to the decisions I did and I hope I didn’t come across as cruel in any of them because I absolutely did not intend to be other than constructive.
TecZ aka Dalton C Teczon - Writer says
I’m impressed with all the talent here and was also dismayed when I could only choose 5 out of all the great choices. But I understand now why even more so that an agent would have to be so selective. Thank you for this enlightening experience Nathan. Have a great day!
collegelife says
Reading all 50 queries was very educational. (Gives you a good idea of what not to say in a letter!) Thanks for helping me become a better letter writer — you will be hearing from me in the future, now that I understand how to play the query game.
terri says
#10 seems to have quite a fan club, including me!
Perfectly polished? Not for me to say. However, something in the storyline worked for me, and evidently for others as well.
Can’t wait for the stats.
Asherose says
This has been one of the most useful exercises for a writer who wants to get published that I have ever seen. I appreciate it very much. Thank you for doing this!
Kathleen
https://asherose.wordpress.com
Reba says
I used my quota early, but I’m not unhappy with my choices. I went with #s 6, 10, 17, 21, and 27.
I can see now how a few seconds looking at some queries is all that’s required for an automatic rejection. Deciding what to look at was far more difficult in a couple of cases.
I don’t envy you your job (but I sort of think I’d like it, too…)
Melissa says
Loved this exercise and wouldn’t mind doing it again.
Learned that I am not going to request something that really doesn’t grab me. Found I was REALLY turned off by seemingly good ideas in query letters with grammatical mistakes and clunky sentence structure.
I used a form rejection. Although I did this in just a couple of hours — that would have been less if I were going through mail and not using a slow internet connection and the Blogger interface — I knew I, realistically, wouldn’t have time to personalize the rejections.
Heather says
I enjoyed this activity (and actually would do it again on the blog). There were only a couple of caveats to my overwhelming love of the “Agent for a Day” Contest:
1. I fear that those queries that were furtehr down the line didn’t get quite as much consideration (there were a fair number of people who rejected “because they’d reached their limit”). Is that true in the actual publishing world that you set a hard and fast daily, weekly and/or monthly limit?
2. Could you elaborate on how you picked the ones you did? Did you try and create a spectrum of the types of queries you’d receive in a typical day (the good, the bad, and the ugly) or were these picked for some other reason?
3. There were a fair number of people who rejected because it was a genre they didn’t particularly like? Is this common? (Is that why agents/agencies will list which genres they’re NOT accepting?)
Would you consider reprising this, say, on a weekly basis (posting one of the ones who didn’t get put up)? I think the feedback that these fifty authors received could be phenomenal for them.
pengwinz says
(second attempt- first one doesn’t seem to have gone through)
I know this breaks the rules, but here are my votes and recommendations:
Request partials: 9, 17, 24, 26, 40.
Reject with reservations and comments: 2, 10, 12, 15, 19, 20, 30, 31.
Form letter for the rest (probably one of three, depending on what I thought; ie, “work on your CL,” “characters/premise not compelling,” “plot not unique”).
Anonymous says
…BRILLIANT. i loved this. gave me a new perspective, as well as help with my own query writing. THANKS NATHAN, THANKS EVERYONE…
agent x-9
Laura Martone says
Although I already assumed that an agent’s job wasn’t easy, I must admit that I’d find it difficult to peruse 50 queries in a day – if only because I’d be tempted to request so many of the manuscripts (just to be sure!) and because I’d have trouble rejecting others without explanation. Still, even after experiencing the challenge of reviewing 50 queries in a day (and at the last minute, I might add), I stand by my belief that every query that includes an SASE deserves a response (even if it’s just a form letter).