Blogger: Rachelle Gardner
I sat on two panels at the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop this past week, and in both sessions, writers asked whether they should be submitting to one agent at a time, or submit to multiple agents simultaneously. All the agents on the panel chuckled and we agreed: It doesn’t make sense not to do simultaneous submissions.
The panel went on to discuss how inefficient it is to query one agent or editor, then wait until they respond before sending to someone else. You could spend the rest of your life querying agents if you sent them one at a time.
The normal response time from an agent or editor can be anywhere from a couple of months to a year, and of course, sometimes there is no response. Because of the volume, there’s just no way for agents to get to things faster. So we expect that you are simultaneously submitting. If you’re not, and instead you’re submitting to one person and hoping/emailing/begging them to respond, that person may not appreciate the pressure (flattering though it is). I promise, they are getting through their stacks of submissions as fast as they can. Their lack of response to you is not about you.
When you send your materials to more than one person in the industry, be sure to mention in your letter “this is a simultaneous submission” as a courtesy.
The way I recommend doing it is to send out queries in batches. Send out five to ten queries to different agents, then wait a week or two before sending out another batch. Pay attention to any helpful feedback that comes your way, so you can revise your query if necessary. Keep a spreadsheet of queries sent, and whether/when a response was received.
Here’s something else to think about. If you are simultaneously submitting, I suggest you target either agents or editors, not both.
The reason is simple. If an agent decides they want to represent you based on your manuscript, then finds out you’ve already sent your manuscript to a list of publishers, you may have killed (or at least harmed) the agent’s chances of selling your book. If you want an agent, concentrate on that first. Then let the agent target the publishers.
Of course, if you’ve shown it to editors face-to-face at a writer’s conference, that’s different. When you’re at a conference, use every opportunity you’ve got. Talk to everyone about your work!
In any case, the main message here is: definitely submit your work to multiple (carefully chosen) industry professionals at once, and avoid putting pressure on any one person.
Not that I’m feeling pressured or anything!
What’s your query process?
Image copyright: belchonock / 123RF Stock Photo
This is helpful, thanks!
How cool to see this question from the agent’s perspective! Thanks, rachelle.
* I no longer worry about querying. That will be the purview of the executor of my literary estate (wow, does THAT sound pretentious!). I’m just going to write. If anyone ‘discovers’ my blog and wants to see what I have, cool, but I’m not holding my breath.
* When I did query, I worked to the one-at-a-time attitude, because I felt it would be ungentlemanly to have to tell someone who might have wanted to represent me that someone else had beaten them to it.
* Not that it happened, or was even likely, but gaucherie is inexcusable in any guise.
Andrew, in your case, hubris is an admirable trait!
Thank you. This really is helpful, and timely, information. Especially the tip to send either to agents or editors, and not both.
The question of if I should query agents or editors is still one that perplexes me? My feeling at the moment is, why wouldn’t I want an agent?!
Another question (sorry, so full of them today): if I were to have an initial preferred agent, should I query them first or wait till I have some feedback in order to improve the query before I go for ‘the big one’?
Chris, some people don’t get agents because they want to go with a small press that doesn’t require an agent, or possibly self-publish. And yes, if you have a preferred agent, put your best food forward and try to get them before querying wide.
Thanks for the helpful information Rachelle.
What I understand from your post, Rachelle, is that efficiency calls for prayerful consideration of potential agents and simultaneously sending customized queries to those at the top of my list (or the same process for editors). It is not efficient to send “to whom it may concern” queries to every name I can dig up.
* My present writing education includes accumulating knowledge of agents/editors in preparation for that future prayerful list. In the process of getting words on a page, I tend to forget this. Thank you for the reminder.
This is very helpful, Rachelle! I hadn’t thought about the challenge a writer presents to a potential agent if she/he queries agents and editors simultaneously. Thanks for sharing this! I always appreciate your insights!
RachelIe, love how you mentioned “it’s expected” that writers are sending simultaneous submissions. This lifts some of the pressure off writer and agent alike.
*BTW, I’m still a huge fan of late, great Erma Bombeck. Her humor never gets old.
Lara, the conference was really neat. All three of Erma’s children ( in their 60s, I think) were there and did panel discussions. There was also a one woman show portraying Erma and her humor. It was really great and I recommend it!
Rachelle, more than a decade ago, when I was submitting my work directly to editors (This was when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and things were different), I used an Excel spreadsheet to keep up with the editor/publication and date of submissions. And I was taught early on, as you say, to indicate this was a simultaneous submission, as a courtesy to the recipient.
Then, when I attained representation and the agent asked for a list of the editors and publications I’d queried, I had the information readily available. I didn’t realize the importance then…I do, now, of course.
Thanks for sharing.
Awesome! I use an old fashioned Excel spreadsheet even now, to track all my submissions to publishers.
Whoa! You got to go to the Erma Bombeck Workshop? I am soooo jealous!!
I had finished my first draft before I even knew what the term “query letter” meant…
My very first and utterly terrible query went to you, Rachelle. I googled “literary agents” and from a list of several hundred I asked God to show me one and you were it.
I think it was His way of leading me to this blog and a supportive community.
I am now querying again with a drastically improved manuscript and I hope a stronger query.
And while I am at it, I will plug another agent’s work. I got a library copy of agent Donald Maass’s book “Writing 21st Century Fiction.” By the third chapter, I ordered my own copy. Good stuff.
Oooh, that book is on my birthday wish list!
I love Books & Such. I can’t even imagine querying anyone else. But I never thought about it putting pressure on any one person. Every day, I realize the magnitude of information I’ve yet to learn. I so appreciate the B&S blog.
I agree, Shelli. If I ever would have been represented, this would have been the dream agency for me.
This is SO incredibly helpful. Thank you!!
Rachelle, querying multiple agents at a time reminds me of fly fishing for your dinner while backpacking in the Rockies. You’re casting where a 10-inch trout is rising, but the first thing you hook is a 6-incher or even a small bluegill. What do you do? If you release it and keep trying for the real-meal trout, you may go hungry. The meal-sized trout may never hit your fly, or you might hook him and get him right up near shore, only to have him spit the fly as you reach out with the landing net.
*In today’s climate, can an unrepresented newbie afford to turn down an agent who responds quickly when that might be the only agent who ever responds positively? How can you be certain you aren’t tossing the small one back in, only to end up with nothing?
You’re agency is filled with 14-inchers. A fisherman uses the smallest flies, which are very much harder to tie, for the biggest trout because they got big by not being fooled by the easy-to-make big flies. The hard-to-make flies, the best presentation on the water, and the right approach to reeling them is the only way to land the big ones. The folks who have y’all as their agents are fortunate.
Yep, I’ve always submitted simultaneously. In fact, Janet Grant was the very first person I sent a query to way back in 2008. But I didn’t just sent to her. I researched and looked for all of the competent agents who represented my genre.
I think I’m changing my mind about simultaneous submission though. I think there may come a time when a writer makes a connection with an agent and they realize, I don’t really want an agent…if that agent isn’t this agent.
Now that would be a truly foolish attitude to have when you first start out…but what about after you have been querying and meeting agents at writer’s conferences for ten years. At that point, I think you kind of know what you want. Maybe I’m crazy, but I’ve been looking for an agent for 10 years and I have stopped submitting simultaneously. That could change, but for now, I am that insane writer. I can live without an agent, I don’t know if I could live with the wrong agent for me.
So, what do you think? Epic crazy? Smart and savvy? Somewhere in between? You tell me.
Very timely; most helpful.
As always, great advice – especially the batches part. Too many times I sent out a bunch of queries at the beginning, and then slapped my forehead after I revised the query (and the bridge was already burned).
In my experience the query always improves – especially after a bunch of rejections.
With all the agents who post that they want you to come to them only if you have an existing market strategy, an established social media presence, and venue bookings it makes me wonder what the heck I would need them for? I write. I’m a creative talent, not a salesman. This is why self pub and Amazon are going to cream traditional publishing. If you are going to make me do all the work, why would I pay you 15% and let you keep my subsidiary rights?
I just sent my first agent query ever last night and that was to your agency 🙂
Congratulations! That is such a good feeling, to get that first query out there.
This blog is like a gardening book: Every one I read, I learn a little something that I didn’t know before! I didn’t realize folks approached editors directly. I’ll feel less guilty about the simultaneous submissions too. wink wink
So cool about the timing of this post, Rachelle. I wondered the same thing while preparing to submit a picture book manuscript recently. I found your post from October 26, 2011 and followed your advice! Thank you for investing in writers.
Is an agent who says he only accepts exclusive queries (i.e. “if you are sending this elsewhere, don’t bother sending it to me”) a red flag?
Do you accept Christian books from outside U.S.?