How do you know if your query is working?

[brimfire]

I thought I remembered seeing a thread with a question similar to this, but I can't seem to find it.

How do you know if your query is doing its job? Yeah, I know if you're getting requests, that's good, but what if you're only getting one or two requests out of every ten queries? Is that just luck? Should you rewrite the query to try to get 5-6 requests out of every 10?

I guess I'm asking if there's a magic percentage that tells you: yes, your query is the best it can be for your project.

Any thoughts?

[ajhoward]

Hi there,   

I think this is a good thread, because there may be others like me who don't know the answer.

I hear of writers, who are having much better luck and/or success than me. Sometimes, it takes a while to hear back, and it difficult to know how deep my query is in a slush pile.

I know the competition must be great, because there are so many good query just on this forum. Karma to you. 

Thanks for ideas,

AnneJ   

[newday11]

  In my opinion it just might not be write (ha ha) for their lists. newday11

[bodwen]

I've heard that your query is doing its job if you are getting at least a 10-20% request rate.

[MaryL]

I've heard the same thing:  20%.

[tm9410]

20% sounds right - but of course those numbers only stand true if you've done your homework and you're querying the right agents.

Tamara

[brimfire]

Yeah. That's the thing. I see people put their # of partial and full requests in their signatures, and it always seems like they have more out there than me.

Oh, but wait. 20%? Really? That's not so bad. I think my two previous books were about that, but I don't query a lot of agents. I think there's only about 40 that might rep my kind of work. I envy those of you who can query 200+

[DHE]

20% sounds right - but of course those numbers only stand true if you've done your homework and you're querying the right agents.

Tamara

Strangely enough (and I know others can attest to this annoying phenomenon), most of my requests come from agents I don't think will want anything to do with my ms and the agents I target, personalize queries for, and generally think are a perfect fit, often hit me with form Rs.  I've increased my hit rate by quitting the homework and just querying people who list YA.  *shrug* Go figure, eh?

But yes, I've heard 10-20%.  Also keep in mind that different genres are going to be easier or harder to find an agent for depending on the popularity of it at the time.  It can be harder to find a home for literary, chick lit is having a very hard time right now.  On the other hand, if you're querying something that's very popular, you might have a very high request rate, or your query could get lost in the mountain of similar-sounding queries.  So don't try to compare too much and just send out lots of queries. 

[pilot27407]

Who knows what agents think… maybe s/he got out off bed on the wrong side, or maybe s/he got some great news (like the cat is pregnant). Same query used on mid-size agents got me a 15-20%, but when I sent it to top agents I got better than 30%. Finally, I dropped the query, wrote a short intro letter and pasted below a 2 page synopsis…. So far I’m batting in the 40% (half of them asking for the full).
The percentage is based on those who replied…. Which is slightly over 50%. On a different note, just the other day I got a form reject from an agent I queried over six months ago, and also got a request for three chapters from a four months old query…. So, who knows. 

[tm9410]

Wow, Pilot, it sounds like you have a great success rate right now - congratulations!

Tamara

[pilot27407]

If you’ve sent out 10 queries and didn’t get even one request… time to consider rewriting it. Most important, make sure you query the right agents.

[MF]

Out of the 17 agents I've just queried, all but three ask for five to fifty pages along with the initial query. One wanted a synopsis with the query. So that means 13 of the agents queried already have a partial.

In a situation like that, I'm not so sure that the 20% figure still makes sense. If so, what we're saying is that 20% of those queries should result in a request for a full. Is it just me or does that figure seem a bit high?

MF

[brimfire]

I don't consider the 5-10 pages that a lot of agents ask for to be a partial, but maybe I should. So far, all the requests I've gotten have been from my query only. All the queries with sample pages I've sent out how been rejected - I'm thinking this is primarily because my book is written in present tense. *le sigh*

I wish I had tons of agents to query, but I've narrowed down my list to about 40 - those who rep sci-fi, fantasy, andromance. Not too many of those. I envy people who can send out 100+ queries.

[MF]

I'd guess then that the 20% figure would be applicable to those who get only a query and no pages. I wonder what a good return rate would be on queries that included pages?

[violet]

I wish I had tons of agents to query, but I've narrowed down my list to about 40 - those who rep sci-fi, fantasy, andromance. Not too many of those. I envy people who can send out 100+ queries.

Hi Brimfire!

Even though I write YAUF, I queried many agents who didn't rep. either genre. You really have nothing to lose (but an R). I think many agents will take on one or two genres a year they don't rep. They just don't want to broadcast it because then they'll be flooded with queries.