My Query Stats

Every querying process is different. Some people send out fifty queries on the first round. Others only send one at a time. No matter the process, the results are almost always the same. The author is fretting, sweating and obsessively checking their email in the hopes of that one email that would change their future.

When I shared the good news that I now have an agent, I didn't even think about sharing my stats with you, but I've since been asked to share my story in more detail, so here is how it all went down.

The first query was sent on January 19, 2012. I waited four full days before sending a few more. My first partial request came on February 8th. That same agent then requested the full on March 8th. Everything was quiet (read: full of rejections) until April 9th when I received another full request. I received a very prompt rejection three days later from the second agent. On April 20th I had another full request.

Then, on April 30th I received three full requests. This is where the tide started to turn from rejectionville to OMGville. Later in the day on the 30th, one of the agents who'd just requested the manuscript that morning emailed me again to ask for a time to speak on the phone that next Wednesday, May 2nd.

I might have died a little. It was surreal and awesome and crazy good. That phone conversation went really, really well and I loved the agent. She offered representation during that call and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped beating for a few seconds. I informed her that other agents were still reading the MS, so she gave me her blessing to take my time in considering my options, should I have other offers. I notified the other agents that afternoon and the next week was insanity.

Later that day on the 2nd I received a partial request from another agent. I let her know that I'd just received an offer of representation and wasn't sure I'd hear back from her, but sent her the partial. 

I received what I thought was my last offer from Marcy Posner on May 7th and had set up the phone call with her the next day. About thirty minutes before I was to receive that phone call, I received an extremely unexpected phone call from the agent that had come in at the last minute requesting the partial. She had loved what she'd read and wanted the rest of the manuscript and asked me to please not make my decision yet.

I was floored because I was pretty sure the phone call I'd been expecting from Marcy was going to be the last one and that I was going to accept her offer. So to say I was in shock is a major understatement. I spent the next ten minutes before the original call came in trying to calm myself down. And when Marcy did call, I really, really, really enjoyed the conversation. I connected with her and she connected with my story and it just felt right. But I had promised the other agent I'd give her time to finish the book.

I did eventually end up getting an offer from the second agent, but there was no shaking the connection I'd felt with Marcy. It just felt like the best fit. So I'd decided to go with Marcy's offer and I'm so very happy I did.

But I will say this: Every single one of the agents who'd offered were incredible and I would have been honored to work with any of them. I feel so blessed to have had this experience of the rejections and the waiting and eventual offers.

So.....the final stats of my querying process are:

54 queries sent
48 rejections (20 no responses/28 rejections/1 request to query again in the future)
3 partial requests (2 turned into fulls, 1 requested after offer of representation accepted)
7 full requests
5 offers of representation