Email Query: 8/06/20
Email Rejection: 8/10/20
Form Letter
YA Fantasy

EQ: 8/7/2020

Adult fantasy, 119k

EQ 8/4/20 Adult fantasy 130k
Full request same day

EQ: 7/24
ER: 7/28 Form rejection

Science fiction, 89K

EQ: 7/19/20 (110K Sci Fi)
ER: 8/23/20 (Quick note) - "This is not for me, but thank you for the look."

EQ 7/8/20
PR 7/9/20 (Sent 7/12/20)

Upmarket Fiction, 74K

Form Rejection: 7/16/20

EQ: 7/17/20
ER: 7/21/20
Form, like others have reported. "This is not for me, but thank you for the look."

Adult SF, 111k words

Email Query - 07/10/2020 - Fantasy - 192K

Rejected - 07/14/2020 Email message "Not for me." Not sure if she does not care for this type of fiction or if she didn't like it.

EQ: 7/4
ER: Form R. One line.

EQ - 7/3/20
ER - 7/6/20
“This is not for me, but thanks for the look.”

YA Dark Fantasy 87k

EQ 6/25/2020
PR 7/01/2020 (50 pages + synopsis, sent same day)
Upmarket Campus Novel, 114K

I have to say I take a lot of comfort in reading some of the comment threads. Sometimes, I'll just check the little 'helpful comments' box and it takes me back pretty far (in terms of chronology). One thing I noticed on this agent's thread is that there were more than a few disgruntled comrades, expressing indignation regarding her terse form responses. Pals, this is a solid inbox. Something you can see if you have the premium membership, which I do recommend because Patrick keeps up a very unique resource and it's only $25/yr. I know that might seem like a lot out of the gate but I joined at the end of February and in the four months I've been on, I've learned a lot about what you can harvest from data patterns. And so far as I'm able to parse, Blasdell's approach to handling the e-valanche is one I wish I could see in all agents.

You look at some agent inboxes and see spotty efforts, at best, in keeping up with the flood of incoming queries--which, of course, is better than no effort at all. I'll look at a page on an agency site and see the smiling face of an agent waxing rhapsodic about how they're eager to sign great page turners but then peek at their stats and see they haven't responded to the eighteen piddling queries that have been logged on their timeline during the last thirty days. Whereas someone like Blasdell (and a few other agents) are meticulous in staying on top of things over the long haul and they've got the numbers to prove it.

Yes, the process can feel like being flayed. But, guess what, buttercups? You grow second skin. And it *is* both tougher and more elastic. Agents and writers are up against staggering odds in terms of making a match. And even after you beat those insane odds, some agent-writer relationships don't survive a poor pairing with an editor or the folding of a reputable house or a raft of apathetic publicists or byzantine in-house bureaucracy or even something as simple as a shift to a new genre. Or all of the above.

Navigating this business can be soul-destroying. But it can also give you super powers. So slap on your heavy-duty boots and tread over the no responses and the terse responses and the fulls that stay out for months on end. If you're gonna pop in for an update, wait three months to do so. And in the meantime, query widely and armed with knowledge (a premium membership so you can look at timelines and reports on this site is way more than half the battle, I'd say).

Also, speaking of premium reports, one based on the data we, as a community of writers, log on this site shows that half of queries go without a response and only 8% get requests for both fulls and partials. That's eight out of a hundred. While fifty out of a hundred get radio silence. So get sharp enough to cut glass on the outside but stay soft on the inside. Even though we're all getting our tender, creating egos flame-blasted in the process. Cause you know what happens to coal under seemingly-unbearable pressure, right? Yeah, you do. Shine on, you crazy diamonds. xx

EQ May 31, 2020
ER June 6, 2020
Form letter

6/17 EQ: ST1MULU5 (Adult Thriller)
6/24 PR: Sent same day w/synopsis

EQ: 6/23/20
ER: 6/26/20
Form letter

EQ: June 18
FormR: June 24

96K YA historical