Queried: 03/06/2025
Nudged: 06/11/2025
Closed/No Response: 07/04/2025
FR: 07/20/2025

No responses are the worst but it comes with the struggle of querying. Still grateful for the opportunity to query Ms. Ramona.

Form rejection after auto-close from 121 days. Querying is not for the weak.

@Waterbear Yes, you're touching on what, in my mind, is the fundamental problem with the query process as it exists today--the first filter is essentially judging your work on your ability to do the thing that you're trying to get the agent to do for you (i.e. sell your work).

However, the reason things are the way they are is the unyielding math of agent time and query volume. It's not at all uncommon for an agent to receive 50-100 queries per week. Reading takes roughly one minute per page. So, even if you've got a Spartan query package of just a 2-page query and a 10-page sample, an agent might be able to crank through their queries at the rate of four per hour if they read everything in ever package. (Allowing some time for breaks and reflection.) That's still 12.5 to 25 hours per week, and if they do request a full, there's additional hours of reading and research.

Making matters more difficult, reading queries and fulls isn't anywhere near the most important thing agents do--reviewing contracts, meeting with editors, editorial work for current clients, crafting pitch materials, pitching client work, continuing education and the general administrative "stuff" that comes with any job all comes first. (Plus probably some other things I don't know about or haven't thought of.) So, there just isn't time in an agent's work week to read the entire contents of every query package.

While I certainly don't claim to know the details of any agent's process, the math makes it inevitable that they must stop reading most queries sometime well before they finish the package--at least if they want to get any other work done and still clear their query inbox sometime prior to the heat death of the universe.

So, there has to be some way for agents to invest just a little bit of time in the package to figure out if it's worth their time to read the rest or not. Thus, the query letter--that insanely hard to write, maddeningly incomplete piece of work that requires completely different skills from novel writing, but remains the best way anyone has thought of to show agents what you've got in a form compact enough they can actually afford the time to read it. While this means that most of the time, most of the information in your query package won't be read, the incremental cost of attaching a synopsis and sample to a query is nearly zero, since almost all the work lies in creating those two items, and you need them anyway. And if your query happens to catch the agent's attention, it's to your advantage for those items to be right there, where the agent can act on the impulse to keep reading, rather than having to request additional material and wait for your reply.

I'm not trying to be snarky or discourage anyone with this, but I think it is important for writers to understand just how heavy a lift that query letter has to perform. It's almost as hard as the fate your book will someday face when it sits on a shelf in a bookstore (or a list on an online retailer) and the cover art, title, and maybe the name of the author, try to induce a reader to read the blurbs and cover text. During those vital few seconds of attention, everything you and your marketing team has done will either convince the reader to choose your book over hundreds (thousands?) of others trying to do the same thing. Or not.

Q: 5/22
Rejection: 7/20

YA SF 90k

Form rejection: "Thank you for considering me as an agent to partner with and represent your works along your publishing journey. After careful deliberation, I've decided this story isn't the best fit for me. Best of luck with your publishing endeavors."

For anyone having the query vs sample page discussion in these comments, maybe try reddit - r/pubtips since they discuss stuff like this over there and it's a better forum for it.

But if they aren't reading the sample pages, one has to wonder why we even include them. Writing letters and fiction are two separate skills that only share the basic ability to write words. You could be bad at letters and excellent at fiction, but agents seem to only care about letter formatting ability, which completely discounts our ability as fiction writers, the skill these agents are profiting off of and marketing. What they're judging us for and what they're selling are completely different things, and it's only fair to judge us for what they sell.
I'm not in defeatist mode, just adding perspective to the conversation.

@theoldtiredroad A rapid response is not an insult. I'm saying this as a person who once got a rejection in 14 minutes.

Consider that your query should be less than 500 words long and the average adult reads about 250 words per minute. In those two minutes or so, the agent needs to see something unique and attractive (to them) about your book, or there's no point in reading anything else in the query package. If you happen to clear that hurdle--and most queries don't--then you probably do get some extra time as the agent reads sample pages, synopsis, or whatever else is in the query package. But even that doesn't take all that long, although depending on the agent's process, they may set it aside to think about or re-read. In most cases, most of the time, your query isn't getting hours and days of thoughtful scrutiny, it's just waiting in line for its turn.

A rapid response, therefore, doesn't mean you're being deprived of your just share of attention; it means you aren't waiting as long to receive it.