44 query letters; 44 rejections

I began sending out queries for World of Mirrors in August 2004 and threw in the towel May 2005 after 10 months. In the meantime, I have rewritten the book and am optimistic that its fate is not on the closet shelf.

Being a quasi-nerd computer type, I like numbers. Behold the stats from 44 queries.

Agents/Publishers wanting to see part/all of the book: 3 or 7%.
Agents/Publishers writing personal rejection letter/notes: 3 or 7%
A/P who said: “not right for us”: 9 or 20%
A/P who said: “no new clients: 4 or 9%
A/P who never ever responded in spite of an SASE: 9 or 20%
A/P who send an AHFL, an ass-hole form letter with arrogance: 6 or 14%
A/P who wrote an outright lie: 1 or 2%
A/P who said “no computers”: 1 or 2%
A/P who just plain said no, i. e. the AHFL was not arrogant: 8 or 18%.

What you can expect: about 44% will be receptive or at least kind and let you down nicely. The other 57% treat you, the customer, like, well, you know like what. And this, after a letter has been honed by the author, her writing group and an independent editor. This was not a stupid, ill-considered query.

Moral: Suck it up! Get that new query out there. Make the novel sound so exciting that that a lazy sloth would wake up and read it;that someone in some distant galaxy might turn off American Idol and read it. Well, maybe that’s asking for too much. Sorry.

Onward,

Grapeshot