Query Chameleon, Part I

Last night, I started into the wonderful world of querying via the database on AgentQuery.com as part of the newbie author experience. Because the waters are newly tread, I might be waiting a while for some of the 'experience' to culminate.  I don't intend to put any agents on the spot or name them in the process, worry not.  I don't think it's productive to dwell on tastes or quick 'rejection' responses.  In fact, I appreciated the ones that have already gotten back right away saying it's not what they are looking for.  Sometimes, the genres they are currently after are not updated, so no hard feelings.

Right out of the gate, I'm starting with the main query process. One of my favorite blogs to turn to for advice on your basic query letter is Jane Friedman's blog. She has a lot of insightful tips for authors and writers alike and sometimes inspires my own experiences. The gist of her advice is to keep that main query under 300 words.  Because I'm doing fiction, it will split off into that requirement (keep in mind non-fiction had very different requirements). Start with how you know the agent (if applicable), then your hook (main characters, problem, sizzle), the name and word count (if it's a series, mention that), short bio, closing with contact info.  You'll find excellent online templates if you're not sure.

From there, it tends to get agent/agency specific, so I prepped a couple of other things. 

• My synopsis was a break down of the main points of each part or chapter. This is where you will want to lay down spoilers-- the agents want to know at a glance what all is there.  Not all will ask for this, so I kept it separate from the query.
• Sample pages of your actual manuscript!  This was a trickier one.  Most agents want between 5 and 50 pages, but some specifically want x amount of chapters or even words, some... don't want any at all, just a query to even consider if it's up their alley.

Once you have those things accessible, there's good news for a lot of authors here in that email queries are actually preferred in most cases. This saves you from the cost of printing and return envelopes and expedites the process (as well as turn-around time).  Many will leave the 'snail mail' option requirements available nonetheless.

For my search, I narrowed it down to the genre 'fantasy' and agents actively seeking submissions as well as email queries. I did not require they be a part of the AAR, under the advice that it doesn't separate the 'good' from the 'bad'. I will loosen my query as I look for different agents, but I thought I'd try for the most fitting out of the gate.

If you've read previous blogs, you know that the 'fantasy' genre is a beast. It covers pretty much everything from your he-man warriors of high fantasy to grimdark to light and fluffy romance and the paranormal/urban set popular in women's fiction.  Tricky, tricky, tricky. Add to that with my current entry having a foul-mouthed abrasive asshole male as a main character and I'm not disguising that I am a woman with few scruples about getting into his shoes.

The database doesn't really help you distinguish which fantasy is your jive. The database is very general and sometimes even the agent bios on their full profile only kind of hint which one they are after. A lot of the female agents were clearly into the chicklit subsets, which I knew was probably a guaranteed pass. A lot of the males that did get jive with high and epic fantasy also tended to have an author list populated with men, but again, that did not deter me from putting in a query.  One thing I did see a lot of in bios was a clear search for strong female leads, which this story does not indicate.

This is where I feel the short samples present a problem for me. The main characters outside of the beginning pages are almost predominantly strong females and mostly because it was a requirement of the story and plot.  You don't see them right out of the gate, but they are central into the evolution of the male character's usual ways. When there is actually a 60 page 'rule' of literature (it can take 60 pages into any book to set up the full picture of the book or series), then the short samples I lead with are only going to tell agents, well, this is dark, the guy's an asshole, and why the hell should we care? Keep in mind, the first word I drop is the f-bomb and I'm knocking out some of the conservative sorts right out of the gate.  Oops, but it's adult fantasy so serious contenders only.

So personal examples aside, submission guidelines are all over the map and finding your agent by genre might be a similar challenge.  Try to target an agent that jives with you, but don't be terribly picky right out of the gate. Definitely don't judge by how conservative they may look in their bio pics. If life has taught me anything, it's often the most straight-laced that have the wild side. If you're unabashedly a chick lit writer, there are a bunch of female agents looking for the empowered women of color main characters at the moment. Remember that these trends come in waves too.  Sometimes your topic is hot, sometimes you have to wait for the tides to shift towards your genre. You may end up later querying an agent that wasn't looking for you the first time around.

Even though it hasn't been 24 hours, I've gotten back three short replies, which I knew wouldn't be favorable. Two just said that my genre wasn't actually a fit for their list (which I expect might be the case in a few queries I made) and one just didn't mesh with the voice. This accounts for their taste and that can't be helped. I really can't fault them for the honesty and it doesn't reflect my talent as a writer. I would love to get some more constructive feedback, but most agents have their time frames. 6-8 weeks was the max turn-around time with most saying if you didn't hear back, it's a no. Some went so far as to say they would reply within the time frame, which I think is amazingly generous that they would take the time to put in the effort to do so. Considering some agents get around 100 queries a day, that seems unreal.

Let me add that I'm also kind of jumping the gun here. Most blogs advise you to wait until spring to query since a lot of agents disappear over the winter holiday season. I would love to see UnNamed trad-pubbed, but I won't let it slip through the cracks either.  It will get out there somehow or another, but it may take months to find that agent. I know that writing the stories that I want to read rather than market-whoring will make it difficult. 

 

I know a lot of writers have heard this bit, but JK Rowling herself faced over 40 rejections before someone latched onto Harry Potter. She was also strongly encouraged to write as JK Rowling because that market thought she'd have a better chance not disclosing her gender, that it would deter readers.  Oy, we have a long way to go, people. It's not just women though. There are also some female-heavy markets that don't easily welcome male writers.  It's a problem. I would love to say that I want to keep my name *fist pump* but when you put all of the work into something, sometimes you lose that battle just to get people reading. And yes, I do self-publish my novice works under my name, so I may lose out on using my name for traditional.  Boo to that too. Many writers assume pen names.  It's not exactly secret, but an author name is treated like a brand.  We can't all be Stephen King and write whatever crap we want and expect it to sell regardless of where it strays. In a perfect world, maybe, but in a perfect world, escapism wouldn't have quite the appeal either.

I'd like to continue to add parts to this topic here and there as I pick up more news. Somewhere out there, my soul agent is waiting for me. Even if it takes 80 rejections to find them, I know my quirky cat is on the fence. I've had people suggest that rather than do the footwork, ask other authors or read mores blogs, but here's the thing: no two experiences will ever be alike. We're all products of the times, our work, the zeitgeist and we need more personal experience to share rather than simply parroting what we're told. I blog to motivate people into taking their own journey. As frustrating and maddening as it can be, I really feel alive with the struggle as opposed to the dark places I'd wallowed in in the past.

Maybe someday I can write a memoir that will scare the hell out of people.  Chances are I'll take the easy way out and make it a literary fiction with the names changed. For now, I do like to inject the flaws and fears and triumphs into fiction.  

 

Is there a character in my books that is me so far? Not really, but they all are me in parts. Characters can be like children, but take that statement very loosely. Some of the parts of me that they 'inherit' are parts that I want to kill, so it does not endear me to them in that way. I'm never in a hurry to kill off characters. The less you build a character, the lesser the impact of their death.  Think about how many people you actually cared about dying if you followed Game of Thrones.  It was a short list for most of us. GRRM had to write tomes to get us to care about the characters before killing them off. Most of us were damn glad to see a few of them go. 

 

This is why epic fantasies are a tough sell, especially trying to build that momentum in a first book at 80-100K. I hope I can find a publisher that says word count be damned, just keep selling the story. It was difficult to trim down UnNamed to isolate the tale. Each book set in this world is intended to follow a new main plot with a new central focus on different characters, so I had to make you care about a lot of things in a relatively short span.  Keep in mind that this word count limits the new author to a page approximation of between 300-400 pages. The big fantasy writers are easily getting to write tomes spanning 1000 pages or more. In many ways, my first entry into the series is more like a sample for the genre, but agents are not going to touch your tomes until you're creating a demand.

Once again, I hope some of my research is helpful, even if the general advice might run vague for someone with a journey not so parallel to mine. Nonfiction writers and different genres are going to present different hurdles. 

I would love to hear more people's stories. If I'm a bit off on any of my facts, feel free to comment. I am happy to edit to reflect changes. Keep in mind that older posts/statistics might only reflect that time period, not a lack of information.

As always, keep writing.  Don't wait for your muse.  Sometimes you have to work without them and wrangle them up for later drafts.