206 replies to this topic

[galian84]

Good luck! Keep us posted on any good news :)

[PureZhar3]

Thanks Galian! I've sent out one round of query letters so far and gotten all rejections. The sample size was small (7 agents) and I may send out another round with the current query, but I'm afraid that my current query might not be polished enough, so I'm opening it back up to critiques. Thoughts, anyone?

[DisgruntledWriter]

Have you had anyone look at your first chapter? You might want to see if you can get a few people to give you feedback on your first chapter and make sure it’s as strong as it can be, especially with a story that has a higher word count like yours. Even if your query is great, if your first pages aren’t up to snuff an agent will reject on that.

[PureZhar3]

Have you had anyone look at your first chapter? You might want to see if you can get a few people to give you feedback on your first chapter and make sure it’s as strong as it can be, especially with a story that has a higher word count like yours. Even if your query is great, if your first pages aren’t up to snuff an agent will reject on that.

 

I've had multiple people read the book over multiple rounds of editing, and the first chapter has generally gotten good/great feedback. I got professional feedback for a much earlier version, but not for my recent one (which contains very little of what was critiqued). It is, of course, possible that the first chapter is the problem, but I am inclined to think it is the query. It might also simply be the beginning of the long waiting process, but a little further feedback on the query couldn't hurt, I figured.

[DisgruntledWriter]

Ahh - ok. Sounds like you’ve got the first chapter covered then. Thought I’d just mention it.

[Tanja]

Thanks for your feedback on my story. I would have returned the favor but I'm a little lost to find your latest version. I also saw you started sending out queries. 7 is nowhere near enough to know if it works or not. Keep going. Once you hit 30 and you had no bites, that's when you can start rethinking your query. Also check how many replies you're getting. Some agents reply, some don't. In my case, not with the book I'm working on now, I had a 50% reply rate, which I was told was high. I'd say if you have less than 30% reply rate, yep, work on the query for sure. If you had no bites after 30 queries, yes work on the query again.

 

Hope this helps

[PureZhar3]

Thanks for your feedback on my story. I would have returned the favor but I'm a little lost to find your latest version. I also saw you started sending out queries. 7 is nowhere near enough to know if it works or not. Keep going. Once you hit 30 and you had no bites, that's when you can start rethinking your query. Also check how many replies you're getting. Some agents reply, some don't. In my case, not with the book I'm working on now, I had a 50% reply rate, which I was told was high. I'd say if you have less than 30% reply rate, yep, work on the query for sure. If you had no bites after 30 queries, yes work on the query again.

 

Hope this helps.

 

I'll send out another few rounds then, and see what happens. As for my latest version, it's the one in the original post. Thanks for the help!