multiple picture-book projects query question

[hellowhirled]

I've started querying with several picture book projects. I'm sending one project to each agent I query. Let's say I have 5 projects and a list of 20 preferred agents. That's only 4 agents I can send each project to. If all reject the one I send without asking to see more, do I then wait a certain amount of time (how long?) and send another? Or does a rejection mean "don't send us anything else is in the foreseeable future?" What is the etiquette?

I'm sure waiting years is fine, but I'm wondering about shorter time periods. One or two places say one a month is the limit but most don't mention it. (Since maybe half the places don't send rejections unless interested, if I send too much they could simply stop opening my stuff after a while and I would never know--I suppose if places that were answering stop answering then I could figure it out--I'm too early in the process to know anything--at times I think "what if I had sent that agent a different project instead? It's all fraught with regret .)

Is it better to give up on ones who sent a recent rejection, and move on to non-preferred agents, then wait a year or more to circle back to the preferred ones?

What about trying the same agencies but a different agent? 

Thanks for any insights.

[MKWrites_318]

You can query an agent more than once as long as it's a different project and as long as you know they've either rejected the other query or have had sufficient time to reject the other query. I think they expect us to query more than one project over the years, honestly.

As far as when to query them again goes, read their submission guidelines. If they say "no response within 12 weeks can be considered a rejection," then you know that after 3 months, you can assume they've seen the query and rejected it. However, I would tack at least an extra three months onto that, honestly. 1. Because querying is super slow right now, so they might not be getting through their inbox as quickly as they used to. And 2. to make sure that you don't send them another query too quickly, because that doesn't really look good to or sit well with all agents.

If the agency doesn't give a waiting time for query rejections, I assume 6 months to be safe. Because, again, querying is really, really slow right now. But before I sent another project, I personally, would wait 9 months to a year. But I am uncommonly cautious.

Some agencies say you can query more than one agent with the same project and some say not to. Read their agency submission guidelines. If they don't specify, most of us just assume it's ok to query more than one person. Definitely don't query more than one at once and do wait for the full rejection time before emailing the other agent.

And this is beside the point, because ultimately, I'm not sure it matters. But I always query one project at a time. That way you have a better idea of what's getting good responses and what isn't, instead of taking several shots in the dark and continuing to wonder. And that way you don't get your agents and queries mixed up. I'm a very disorganized person, so sending Query C to Agent A and then sending Agent B Query A and then sending Agent A Query A instead and... I'm stressed just thinking about trying to keep that straight. It lessens the potential for writer error if you query one project at a time.

Hope that's helpful! Good luck in your querying!