Be Your Own Editor

Christine writes:

Hello, I am currently attempting to sell my first completed novel. Is it a bad
idea to send out queries to numerous agents, or is that an acceptable procedure? If I do, should I really mention it in my query letter? Thanks!

Excellent question, Christine, and one too few writers think to ask.

If you ask agents, many will say they don’t accept simultaneous submissions. But the average query letter from a writer with no relationship to the agent does not count as a “submission.” Given the amount of time it takes agents to reply to query letters, which can be months, and given the number of agents you may need to query before getting a bite, which could be a hundred, it would hardly be fair to make you sit around and wait to see if each one bites before throwing out the next line.

Literary agents can’t be blamed for taking a while to get back to you—you would not believe how many queries every single agent in the business receives every day of the week. And their first priorities are to make deals for their current clients and to read submissions that were referred by friends and associates.

Be not disheartened, though, Christine: every agency reads its query letters, because while most of those queries are resoundingly bad, the select few that aren’t bad (yours, for example!) stand out. And agents do take on clients they came upon in the slush pile.

So worry first about writing the most catchy query you can, not about the etiquette of multiple submissions. Don’t bother mentioning that your query letter has been sent elsewhere; agents will assume this to be the case.

If, however, you’re lucky enough to get a request for a real submission, i.e., someone wants to read your manuscript, then you should ask what their policy is. At that stage, many agents will want to have it exclusively… but make them specify for how long, because, just as with queries, manuscripts can sit collecting dust when agents have more urgent matters to deal with (which is always).

You can leave the time frame unspecified at first, but check in after a month or six weeks to see if they’ve read it. Certainly, if you get interest from another agent, call to tell them so, and say that you’re waiting for their response before sending it to Agent #2. (People in publishing live in fear of being “scooped” on a great manuscript, so you might want to make up Agent #2 even if he doesn’t exist.)

But I’m getting ahead of you. For now, query as many agents as you think wise—but do your homework, and don’t bother querying agents who aren’t right for your work. And while it’s fine to query multiple agents at once, try to personalize the letters to some small degree, and be careful not to put a letter in the wrong envelope—a query letter addressed to a rival agent accidentally ending up in an agency’s mailbox will pretty much kill your chances at that office, for a whole lot of reasons.

One final note: this advice pertains to query letters regarding book projects. If you’re submitting articles or short stories to magazines or journals, a stricter set of rules applies, and you should find out what each publication’s policy is.

Thanks for the question, Christine. Feel free to write again if other questions come up during your process, and good luck.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 11:06 pm and is filed under Literary Agents, The Book Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.