So. WOW. Lots of queries. Lots to say.
To be honest, I'm not sure I could pull something off like that again. Especially not when it bleeds into a work day. I was reading queries nonstop from Sunday morning until 6:07 pm Monday evening. And it went right down to the wire! It's one thing to read something fast and say 'yes' or 'no.' But it's quite another to have to read all of the queries close enough to articulate WHY it isn't for me.
First off, let me give you guys the stats:
Entries: 240
Disqualified: 31 (reasons: late or early, sent more than one, sent to the wrong email, incorrect header in the subject line, or unfinished ms)
Requests for Partials: 27
Requests for Fulls: 3
Unfinished Manuscripts: 4 (really?)
Included Attachments: 1 (why, man?)
Were not for genres I represent: 8
Vampire stories: 7 (yup.)
Queries that blew me away/caught my rapt interest: 8
And there is a stat that I stopped keeping track of too, because there were so many: Queries that were good but not great and didn't stand out. For the most part, these were fantasy, paranormal, and women's fiction. Those are such, such competitive genres, and I get well over 100 queries for paranormal/urban fantasy for YA and adult per week. That's a lot! And you have to make sure your story sounds different. My biggest piece of advice for those writers? Insert some of your main character's voice into the query. Because there are a hundred paranormal stories out right now, but what makes them stand apart from one another are the characters.
So, I know some people are looking for an explanation to the "Not for me" responses. To be honest, I don't know why you want an explanation because for one, I warned you when we put up the rules for this contest that this could be a response, and two, that says a LOT. What "not for me" means is that the query was fine, but I just didn't get into the subject/story/voice/whatever. It also means that the storyline sounded fine too--again, just not for me personally, which means that you're on the right track! And that's something that my form rejection does not tell you. When you receive a form rejection you're left wondering "Is it my query?" "Is that just the one agent's opinion?" "Is is the story?" And I think that the one little line "It's just not for me" speaks volumes.
Let me remind you guys--this was NOT a query critique! This was a chance to really hear what an agent is thinking when they're responding to your work. And this was really, really tough to do. I set aside the time to do it this weekend and I STILL ran out of time. Yeesh! And the time constraints are the reason that agents must use form rejections in the first place--because our time should really be spent on our clients first and foremost (and to all of my clients, sorry I was MIA for 2 days!).
So. All in all--I hope it was helpful! That was the whole point. And now I have a handful of fun things to read too. :)
If you guys have any further questions, I'd be happy to answer in the Comments section below until 9 tomorrow morning. And for any of you who write paranormal and urban fantasy (for adults and YA) who want to show me just how great the voice of their character is, check out the other contest I'm judging at Guide to Literary Agents here.
Thanks for participating, everyone! I had a really fun time doing this. And thank you, thank you, thank you to fabulous Kathleen Ortiz for arranging this whole thing! Someone owes her a box of chocolates or something! Or a car! Or a book deal!
Cheers,
JSV
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Thanks, Jo!
I'm really happy she requested partials and some fulls! That's fantastic, guys! Congrats to you!
Friendly reminder: The synopsis contest closes at 11:59 p.m. TONIGHT! Super easy to enter and even easier to win!
~K
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Thanks, Jo!
I'm really happy she requested partials and some fulls! That's fantastic, guys! Congrats to you!
Friendly reminder: The synopsis contest closes at 11:59 p.m. TONIGHT! Super easy to enter and even easier to win!
~K
I really enjoyed the contest. It gave a lot of insight.
Thanks again Joanna! I was one of the 'fine but didn't stick out at all' queries. First time in my life I've ever had trouble sticking out like a sore thumb. Hearing that from you has made me really glare at my query and never be satisfied, in a good way.
Were there any queries that, like mine, were bland and failed to pique your interest but had sound ideas beneath the bla? Or when you read a boring non-standout query does it just blur into nothing at all for you?
Thanks so much for doing this. I think it's awesome that you put all that work into it! Thank you!! I do have one question though:
If we were one of the not-for-me's, can we still submit to the Lucky Agent contest?
Oh, and super congrats to all those who got partial or full requests!
And thank you again Kathleen!
Your feedback was helpful, however short. Also, thanks for clarifying the "not for me" statement.
I can't imagine how much work this took, but please know that it was very much appreciated. Thanks again!
Thank you for doing this.
I think it's great that both of you have taken the time to do this. It's tough getting continuous form rejections and not knowing exactly where you went wrong.
Also, I'm really glad that you put in this section about paranormal, fantasy, etc. I was one of those people who didn't have enough information to make my story stand out and now I have more understanding of why.
Thank you again for doing the contest.
I am in the process of revamping my query now. In response to my query you wrote: "Please don't take this rejection as a comment on your writing ability, because it isn't intended to be one. I'm sure another agent will feel differently," and this has given me hope. I do write women's fiction (chick lit) and I know there is a lot of competition out there...
Thanks for your time! I have a question: If 8 queries really blew you away, why a request for only 3 fulls? And what about the 22 remaining partials? (I mean if you weren't blown away.) Just curious...
This contest was awesome! Thanks so much to you guys for holding it!
I also think I'm going to revamp my query a bit. Thanks for the input!
Joanna...YOU ROCK! Holy crap. SuperAgentBot 10000
240!!!!! Oh, my. Get some rest, Jo!
And what a great opportunity for writers. How cool to see what an agent is really thinking!
Thank you both for being so thoughtful and generous! This was very helpful. I found out about the contest from a RT on Twitter. Amazing how fast things are changing -- and for the better, in my opinion.
Again, thanks!
Thanks so much for taking the time to do something like this. It was immensely helpful :)
Oh wow, this is so heartening. I am one of the "on the right track" folks, and I can't even tell you how good that feels. I love the right track.
Thank you for doing this, and for breaking everything down the way you did, too.
This was really fly.
Thank you for giving us this opportunity. I was one of the "not for me", but I read into it exactly what you said in your comments: that my query is fine and the storyline is fine and I will have better luck with another agent, so thank you!
This was a great *contest*!! Joanna's comments allowed me to see that my query focused more on the romantic sub-plot than the actual plot!! Oops! But, I guess it's easy to overlook those *little* things when you're so close to the story.
Thank you so much!! Great learning experience!
Thanks for doing this contest Joanna!
Thanks so much for all your time, Joanna! That's a lot of queries to go through in such a short time.
I'm assuming that a "I already have something similar on my list" is also a sign that there needs to be something more in the query to differentiate it from the vast quantity of similar-sounding queries (like voice)?
Wow. That's a lot of queries. o_O
Thanks so much for doing this, Joanna!
I'd like to echo Sonja's question:
{{Thanks for your time! I have a question: If 8 queries really blew you away, why a request for only 3 fulls? }}
And offer heaps of thanks to Joanna. It's such a wonderful opportunity when somebody on the 'inside' offers a little peak at how things work and why.
Thank you both so much for holding this contest. It might not have been meant as a query critique, but you pointed out problems that three different critique groups haven't mentioned. I learned a lot. Now back to the query writing drawing board.
I just wanted to say thanks. The feedback was helpful--I'm in the YA fantasy category and it was nice to hear what an agent really thinking. I know I need to figure out how to make mine stand apart. I really do appreciate all the time you put into this the last two day!
I reiterate the others. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. It gets so hard to get form reject after another, never knowing if it's your story, or just a sucky query. Now, I have some feedback and I can fix part of what needs to be fixed.
Sending you both a huge slice of calorie free chocolate fudge cake :)
PS - I actually heard about the other contest before getting my response for this one, so I--of course--submitted to it :)
Thanks tons to Joanna and Kathleen! You ladies rock. We writers live for feedback yet get so little, so the time you took away from your clients for us was greatly appreciated.
One question: Has Urban Fantasy replaced Magical Realism?
Thanks to both of you for this contest!
I was one of the dingbats who didn't put the full title in the subject line. *slaps forehead*
I actually have two questions for you Joanna:
Since it wasn't a part of the contest, does that now mean that I have officially queried with you and should not send another one to you or anyone else in the agency if I end up doing some tweaking to the query?
Piggybacking off the last question: With the other contest that you mentioned, should I not do that after receiving the rejection from my query? Or would you be okay with me submitting my entry for that contest? (And hopefully manage to follow the directions)
Once again, contests like these ones are such great opportunties and relieve some of the pressure of *officially* querying an agent. It is truly appreciated. :)
Wow - so generous of you Joanna!
I, too, was one of the dimwits who made a mistake (put the wrong e-mail address), but regardless, have to appreciate what you did. 240 queries in such a short amount of time is ruthless. You are full of awesome.
I also was curious about entering the Lucky Agent contest. If we have been rejected by you, should we step aside for this one?
Thanks again, to both you and Kathleen!
I have a question about the Lucky Agent contest too: I looked at my first 200 words and from those alone you can't really tell the genre of the book, one has to read the whole scene to get to the fantasy element. So I guess my question is: how ill the paragraphs be judged? Hook? Tension? Do you expect the fantasy and/or romance element to be already there in those first couple hundred words? (If so I guess I can already step out!!)
Thanks!
Sorry, there's a typo in my post above: the 'ill' was meant to be 'will' (i.e. how will the paragraphs be judged?), my keyboard gobbled up the 'w'.
A. Grey--Yes, there were a few that were bland, but the concept was enough to intrigue me at least a little. I think I requested two like that, to read partials, but there were more than two--I just picked the couple that intrigued me the most, with a concept that resonated with me personally. So blah doesn't mean that your query is doomed forever, but it certainly doesn't help your odds.
Jenilyn--absolutely! If you were one of the "not for me" ones, I'd love for you to prove me wrong by showing me a hero or heroine on the page that IS very much for me, and that maybe him/her didn't get a chance to shine through on the query. So yes--do enter!
Whispering Writer--I'm not sure you received one of the Truth Responses, which may be because your query came in late or early or somehow didn't fall in the guidelines? Feel free to contact me again by forwarding your original query so I can see the time and date.
Sonja--haha, good question! I don't know if any of the partial request peoples are on here, but I can tell you more than a few had responses like "This query is just okay, but the character is great so I'd like to see 20 pages..." or "Your query was good until the second paragraph, but even still I love this concept so..."
As for the fulls, obviously the 3 fulls had fantastic queries, and the other 5 I requested longer partials of because even though they blew me away, there might still be something else that makes me hesitant to see the full, and in one case, I'm not sure the story is quite right for me, but I loved the query so I'm looking at pages to see if I can refer it to a colleague. So yeah...those are the reasons.
Ann--exactly. There were a good handful where I felt, from reading the query, would be too similar to something I'm already representing, and while I'll definitely sign writers in the same genre, even the same specific genre, the voice and plot need to feel different enough--I don't want my clients to have to compete with one another!
Vicki--Another great questions! Urban fantasy and magical realism are very different, although not everyone might realize this. Urban fantasy is all about the world-building, creating a world within our world that has magic or vampires or an alternate universe or whatnot. Where as magical realism is when it takes place within our usual world, with just one or two magical elements, but that doesn't mean that you have to build the whole world around those elements. Think of a story like Garden Spells as magical realism, but Kelly Armstrong's Bitten is urban fantasy. Does that help?
Tiffany--if you'd like me to give a query but forget the subject line, I will still do that for you :). First you have to forward me the email with the time and date in there so I can see that you were, in fact, on time (and I can check on that!). The reason I didn't respond to people who forgot the "Yes, I can handle the truth." was because 1)it didn't follow guidelines, but mainly 2)I was worried that they didn't get the full rules of the contest and therefore didn't understand that my responses weren't going to be a critique but just an honest response. So feel free to forward that to me again.
Also, even though I passed on your query, I want you to sub to the other contest! Because your query may have not shown the your characters true voice, but your story surely will, and I want you to show me who your hero/heroine really is!
ChristaCarol--even if I've passed on your work, I definitely suggest entering the Lucky Agent contest, especially if you've revised! You never know, right?? Plus, the winner gets a 20 page critique, so even if your sample is the strongest, it's worth getting a critique that will help further improve your work! At least I hope it is :)
sciri--I read a lot of paranormal/urban fantasy, and a lot of them don't have a fairy or magic in the first 200 words--that's fine! Since you're entering, I'll know what the genre is. You're good to go :)
Mine fell into a genre you don't rep, but I appreciate your time, comments and your generosity.
Thank you so much for your time, your comments, and the comments in this post--especially clearing up the not for me part. :) Sometimes it's easy to forget how subjective things can be.
Joanna, thanks for giving your time and expertise! Now that the 'not for me' is cleared up, I feel much better about my query and I'll keep soldiering on.
I'd love to know from an agent's perspective if steampunk is considered fantasy. I know fantasy typically means "magic" and steampunk may not have magic in it - but just from a querying perspective I'm never sure if it's lumped in with fantasy or not.
Joanna and Kathleen, thank you so much for holding a query contest. Thanks to your rejection, I took time to analyze my query style. After teaching elementary school for so many years, I tried to convey how you would use my manuscript in the classroom. I wasn't focused on getting you to read it. Your time and comments were greatly appreciated. I posted my query, your response, and what I learned on my blog today. Thanks again for all of your time and effort!
I want to thank you for advising that the "Not for me" speaks volumes. I have often wondered if there was anything behind those words. You have made me feel a bit better about recent rejections I have received.
Thanks.
Maribeth