A Spreadsheet for Querying a Novel
I’ve spent a year in the query trenches for a queer romance novel. I had five agent full/partial requests, and five rejections. I think I’ve come to terms with the fact that it may not happen with this novel—but there’s always another. And I have learned so much about querying! So here is the fruit of my labor: a spreadsheet for querying authors.
You can find the blank template here, or click on the image. The spreadsheet is view-only, so either download it, use FILE > Make a Copy to create your own editable copy, or copy and paste the table to your own spreadsheet. Please do not request edit access.
Notes on using the spreadsheet:
How many agents can you query from this agency: This is an important thing to note, because agencies differ. Some say you can query as many agents as you want, but only one at a time. (I’ve actually never seen an agency give permission to query multiple agents from their firm at the same time.) Other agencies say to query just one agent, and they’ll pass along the query to another agent in the firm if they think it fits them better. That means a rejection from one is a rejection from everybody.
Small Press/Big 5: You should always thoroughly vet an agent before querying. Most of that is beyond the scope of this post, but one of the things to check is whether an agent has sold a client’s book to a small press that requires agent submissions, or one of the Big 5 publishers. A new agent may not have any sales yet, but you can check if at least their agency does.
Social Media: Another piece of agent vetting is to check out their social media. I look to see if their posts are friendly and queer positive—basically I want to see if they’d be a good co-worker for my book. While querying, I follow agents’ social media and sometimes interact politely with relevant posts.
Comps: Are any of this agent’s clients’ books like my own (genre, themes, setting, characters, etc)? If so, I can mention them in my query letter.
Wishlist: A wishlist is the kind of books the agent is looking for. This will be on the agency website, the agent’s personal website, and/or a site like Manuscript Wishlist. I personalize my query letter using this info. Given your interest in contemporary romance, humor, and LGBTQ+ voices, I’m writing to share my novel….
Date Sent and How: Many agents use QueryTracker for submissions, but some use email or a form on their agency’s website. It’s good to know where an answer will be coming from. Remember to whitelist all email addresses (that means setting a filter on your email to keep messages from a certain sender out of the spam folder).
Package: I like to jot down what the agent asked for in a query package. There’s always the query letter, but some agents also want to see a synopsis, first three chapters or first 5000 words, 1-sentence pitch, info on the target audience, etc. I have all that ready in a doc, to streamline the process.
Date Response Expected: Sometimes the agent will give an estimate of 30 days or 16 weeks or whatever. If there isn’t one, I give it 3 months before I follow up. And of course, some agents just say if you haven’t heard in 2 months, assume it’s a no, which I don’t really appreciate. Your query may get rejected in the first week, but then you have to sit and wait another 7-8 weeks before moving on. A quick form rejection would be much more helpful.
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