#queryetiquette

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On the topic of that agent who complained but after hours query mails (or any agents who do): as a global business, I am super suprised they don't expect this to happen often due to time zones!

The thing is - there are two people who complained and caused mini-viral twitter moments. One was a pill - the other one had a legit reason to complain, IMO, and I'll give some backstory.

So the one last week was a tweet quoting an agent who was griping about "authors need to send queries during work hours". Ridic, IMO, and that agent seemed to just be a crab. I answered this some posts back but REALLY -- I truly don't know any other agents who would complain about this -- like, he needs to join the 21st Century. Agents who are good at managing their email or who have dedicated query manager inboxes and such don't even KNOW when you send -- and we certainly don't CARE. Authors should NOT worry that we are sitting around being jerks about this, we are well aware of time zones and the fact that most authors have actual jobs and families and whatnot. I have gotten queries on Christmas Day or in the dead of night, or whenever, and I have no problem with that. I get to them when I get to them.

IT GOES BOTH WAYS, THOUGH: I assume that most AUTHORS realize that AGENTS are reading queries on off hours, on weekends, on holidays, right? Like, literally most agents do not have time to get deep on the query inbox during regular work hours. And so, we might send requests or REJECTIONS at any of those times. I have certainly had people complain online -- VERY vociferously -- because I sent a rejection over a holiday weekend. (So much so that I now stress about it... like "oh dang, does Arbor Day count as a holiday? Is somebody going to come at me because I rejected them during Purim? Ahhhh)

POINT BEING: Don't worry about the querying agents thing, IMO.

However, the one from a few months back was a very different complaint, that has nothing to do with authors. In that case, it was an EDITOR who was complaining that an AGENT sent a submission after hours on the Friday of a holiday weekend.

This is a legitimate complaint, for the record. Sorry, but yeah. Agents are professional email-senders. A huge part of our job is making sure that our clients have the best chance possible for success -- that means that, in my experience, we have scrupulous etiquette surrounding the submission process.

These submissions are NOT going to some query in-box to be dealt with in the order received - they are emails going straight to editors themselves without a buffer. Therefore, we want editors to know that we value their time - that we are NOT shotgunning submissions at random, but that we have specifically curated what we are sending them. If editors respect us and believe we are sending them great projects for a good reason, they will continue wanting to open our emails. If editors think we are rude schmucks who send things willy-nilly, they will not want to open our emails. You know?

Part of that respect for editors also includes respecting the fact that weekends, holidays, and the middle of the night are time off. It's one thing to send a response to a quick question or something like that over the weekend or at night - sure, we all check emails on our phones, and it's fine if you just fire off a response or non-urgent inquiry without regard to time because it can be looked at whenever -- it's also fine if something IS time-sensitive and really just needs to be answered ASAP because it's truly urgent -- but a SUBMISSION?

Sorry, but in my opinion, SUBMISSIONS are a big freakin deal and should be treated as such. It takes me several solid days of work (or if I don't have SOLID days to dedicate to it, then those hours spread over a couple of weeks) -- to hone a submission, make a sublist, craft the letter, strategize how and when to send, etc -- it's something on which I spend a great deal of time and care, and I would not throw that away by being sloppy about the email.

If I am prepping submissions after hours or on weekends, I schedule to send during work hours. If I am sending to the UK or another country, I absolutely try to send or schedule to send during THEIR work hours.

If I was an author and I found out my agent was shotgunning my query to random editors after hours on a holiday weekend with no regard to how that would be perceived, I would be PISSED. This is not how you treat important client work.

It later came out that not only this, but also the agent in question is an ACTUAL schmagent -- like the type of person who routinely does not follow best practices at all and is an actively bad apple. And this type of email is Classic Them, and actually part of what makes them a schmagent.

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I've gotten feedback from several agents that my project would compete with a current client of theirs. Based on these agents' publicly available client/book lists, I don't see anything that similar to mine. (yes, I realize it could be something that isn't announced yet). This brings up several questions: 1) Would it be inappropriate to ask who/what that client/project is? 2) Can you unpack the worry that agents have about taking on too-similar projects? 3) How similar is too similar?

Based on these agents' publicly available client/book lists, I don't see anything that similar to mine. OK but... you have no idea what those clients are writing? You know what is PUBLISHED. But the books that are not yet published, not yet announced, not yet sold, in the process of being written -- that could be A LOT OF BOOKS.

Would it be inappropriate to ask who/what that client/project is? I think the fact that you're asking means you know it's kinda inappropriate, yes. :-) You just have to take the agent's word for it -- if it was a published book, and they wanted to tell you, they would have told you. If they aren't telling you, it means they don't want to tell you or can't tell you. Basically - if THEY think it's too close, it's too close.

(And um.... I don't want to blow up those agent's spot but uh... they could also just be saying that to be nice. In fact, it could be that they just don't like your project. Is that what you want to hear? That in their opinion, this is a lousy book?)

Can you unpack the worry that agents have about taking on too-similar projects? Here's the thing - we all have things we like and are known for. Like - I have a lot of heartfelt middle grade books. So I get A LOT of queries for heartfelt middle grade books. But I can't ONLY rep heartfelt middle grade books! I have to mix it up, or my clients will all be competing with one another. There are only so many editors who WANT heartfelt middle grade books, right? What if I have multiple books going on submission at the same time all to the SAME EDITORS - that's not a great scenario, I'd like to avoid that.

So it's not that I can NEVER look at heartfelt MG books - in fact, I love them, etc etc -- but probably, if I were to take something new on in this space, it would have to be really extraordinarily special or different from the HMGB I already rep.

Let's take a more specific example. I have repped several circus-themed books. (I happen to like circus themed books! I was in a circus in high school! It's a long story! Anyway!) -- The thing is, having repped YA, GN/Comic, MG books, ALL about magical circuses... I had to draw a line in the sand. Like, I can't have people thinking that I ONLY rep circus books. I can't keep READING circus books. The chances that I would take on a new circus book are quite slim.

Or mermaid books - now, I've repped YA books about Victorian mermaids and Modern Surfer Mermaids and Dangerous Mermaids with hallucinogenic blood. Could I rep another mermaid book? I could, potentially, but it would have to either be in a totally different category, or somehow be breaking some new ground, and I would have to know where I could send it (that couldn't be any of those places that already pubbed my Merm books.)

HERE'S AN OLD POST ABOUT "HOW SIMILAR IS TOO SIMILAR" -- it even has a CHART!

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I queried an agent who seemed like a decent fit, and she requested my full, yay! Then I did more research and found some red flags. On the off chance she comes back with an offer of rep, is it bad form to use this offer to entice other agents, knowing I might not take her up on it? And if no one else bites and I turn her down, does this ruin my chances to send future queries to those agents I notified (with a new ms, obv)? Will it seem like I made it up for attention?! Thank you!

I feel like, wait until this actually happens, and then IF she offers - talk to her. Maybe she's actually awesome and those red flags aren't what you imagine. Who knows?

After you talk to her, you'll have a better sense of what to do. If you're gut is telling you, hey, she might be the one, she really gets me and the book, etc -- go ahead and nudge the other agents, tell them you have an offer -- and if one (or more!) of them happens to also offer, great you can make your decision, and if none of them do, hey, you have an agent.

IF your gut is telling you NO DICE and you know that you won't take her up on it even if she's the only one who offers - it's better to just decline her offer with thanks ("I've decided to go in another direction, but thank you so much for the kind words" or something), and not treat it as an offer of rep that triggers a nudge to all the other agents.

Because the thing is, when you nudge them and say "I have an offer" - you are basically telling them, "please DROP EVERYTHING and read this right now" - which sounds good, right? But in fact, if they are super busy and unable to drop everything right now, this will make them more inclined to say "no thank you, sounds like you have a great offer, best of luck" and step aside.

Basically - I HAVE AN OFFER is a big red button. I personally would only push it for a legitimate offer. Because while it MIGHT lead to other offers - it will almost definitely also lead to fast declines. And it would be hard and embarrassing to go back to people afterward and be like "whoopsie, false alarm, lol!" - so you've effectively hobbled that manuscript.

(Though yes, you could go back to them with a new ms, as you say, and just, "that ended up not working out" it.)

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Can you query two novels at once and if so how do you approach it - prepare a separate list of agents/editors for both? Can you ever overlap?

I mean I wouldn't, personally, in an ideal world, it sounds like a nightmare to keep track of. But choose your own adventure, I guess. Just, yes, obviously prepare a list for both, and keep track of what you are doing, where you are sending, who is requesting, etc.

I wouldn't query the same agent with two projects at once if that's what you mean by "overlap" - - query with the one project, and if they are interested and want to talk or see more, tell them about the other one and see if they like that as well. If you get serious interest and/or an offer from an agent who has seen both projects, then write to all the agents who have ONE and say, "hey, just so you know, I have a call with an agent who seems interested [or, I have an offer, if you do]; they actually saw another project from me in addition to the one you have. [Describe project] -- Would you like to look at this other project as well?"

(Fair warning that some agents might be fine with this, others might be scared off at the prospect of reading and considering TWO novels, or they might only rep ONE of the kinds of novels you have, and thus at this point they might back out.)

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Do you appreciate receiving thank you emails from authors you have rejected, or is it just one more thing cluttering up your inbox? Does it matter if it was a form vs. personalized rejection?

I don’t need (or even want) thank you emails for regular query rejections. I mean - I’m not going to be MAD or anything like that - but it’s just wholly unnecessary and one more thing cluttering the inbox.

If, however, the agent has gone out of their way to write something really helpful or even give specific notes (like, on a full) - a quick thanks is nice. Not because we need praise or anything! But rather, for me, if I spend a lot of time writing notes for people -- sometimes I think “oh man I hope they got those notes....” or “oh man I hope my notes didn’t freak them out” or whatever. So it’s nice to know at least that you got it.

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Hi! Over a year ago, I accidentally queried two agents at the same agency simultaneously (within two weeks of each other). It was a careless mistake on my part, and I obviously didn't get a response from either one. Now that I'm a bit smarter and more careful, would it be okay to query one of them with a new book? If so, should I mention and apologize for my past mistake or just hope they don't remember?

I wouldn’t mention it or worry about it at all. Fresh book, fresh start.

(Now, if you’d done this 35 times or something... they’d remember)

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Hi Jennifer, Here’s a point of query etiquette I’ve always been curious about: if one accepts an offer of representation, when do you withdraw queries from other agents (the ones where you're just hanging in the slush w/ a query)? Once you’ve verbally accepted the agreement? Once you’ve got the paperwork you need to sign? (Guess I’m highly paranoid! What if I were to withdraw all my queries and then an offering agent changes his or her mind of something??) Thanks.

Well, if it were ME, I’d have informed everyone that I queried that I had an offer of representation when the OFFER got made - so that then everyone would have a chance to look if they wanted to. And when, a week or so later, after thinking about the various choices and speaking to the interested agents and their clients, I decided to accept one offer, I’d tell everyone thank you, and that my decision was made.

But assuming the offer was made, you accepted, it’s a wrap already, I’d go ahead and tell the others as soon as possible, so that they can just delete your email without having to waste time on it. (Very irritating when you are like “wow I love these pages, can I see a full?” and the author is like “sorry, I already accepted another offer” - argh.)

I’d say it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that anything will go wrong in between the time that the offer is made and you accept, and the time that you actually have a signed agency agreement. I mean - what COULD go wrong? But if it DID, somehow, in a bizarre twist of fate – if any of the agents seemed super cool and into you, you could always go back and say “weird story but it didn’t work out, can you reconsider.” I don’t think anyone would mind (particularly if you are willing to tell us the weird story. WE LOVE WEIRD STORIES!)

Point being: if the other agents were legit interested, they’d be happy to see you back again. And if they weren’t, they wouldn’t have accepted you anyway, so no harm done.