Queries: Round One

Having begun to submit queries for my novel, More Like a Siren, Less Like a Bell , I figured this blog would be a great place to detail the process (better than doing it on my Ghostbusters III petition blog for example). As far as I know, I'm following all of the rules: use standard formatting for the letter, including a specific reference to that agent's work and how it relates to my manuscript; have several friends read over the general letter and edited based on their notes; send only what the agent asks for on their agency's page and don't bog them down with unnecessary kissingup. Time consuming, but actually pretty fun, plus it's giving me a chance to brush up on some YA literature and see better where my writing might fit in the field.

This week, I've submitted to the following: 

Lara Perkins at Andrea Brown

Molly Jaffa at Filio Lit

Nicole James at Aaron Priest

Adrienne Rosado at Nancy Prost

Jennifer Carlson at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner

Nancy Stauffer at Stauffer Literary

Maria Massie at Lippincott Massie McQuilkin

Charlotte Sheedy at Sheedy Litierary Agency

Christopher Schelling at Selectric Artists

And the whole process is going quicker than I thought it might. Within two days I had two responses, one a form rejection from Maria Massie (you can't win 'em all over!) and another an encouraging rejection from Ms. Sheedy's partner, Mackenzie Brady who said both she and Ms. Sheedy thought I had a "fascinating premise for a novel here," but said that Ms. Sheedy is "so overwhelmed with current projects that she is not taking on any new clients at all." Overall, knowing Ms. Sheedy is Daniel Handler's agent and that what I presented in my query letter caught her interest is encouraging enough to keep at this. Plus I like my book. I spent a lot of time on it. Like years. So even knowing there will be far worse than this to come before someone likes my book enough to want to see if book buyers might like it too, this whole query process is actually fairly enjoyable, especially if my wife keeps agreeing to watch classic episodes of Doctor Who with me while I submit to agencies.