Nathan Bransford - The Forums

So I'm still querying. My full is still out there and from the web it looks like she takes 3-4 months with them so I'm trying to be patient. Yesterday though I sent out a couple of queries. Within about 30 seconds I had a response to see more. Last night I re-read everything and sent it out and this morning I had a nice email saying she looked at it and the voice didn't grab her as much as she hope but that she was sure another agent would snap me right up. *sigh* What an up and down!

How's everyone else doing with waiting times?? I alternate between thinking that I'm never getting this published to of course I'm getting this published. *sigh*

Also hanging on the edges. Got my 9th reply finally. Also got a full and partial still out there. It's been over a month for the partial, and about two weeks for the full. I'm debating whether or not to work on my other manuscript, and fighting the urge to send 10 more queries out just so I'd have something to read...

When I got my first full request, I was a wreck until I got my response - I was checking my e-mail and staring at my phone constantly until I got the dreaded rejection. The query rejections that followed were some of the hardest, too. I've definitely been where you are. Some days I let myself get a little optimistic, and some days I was convinced that I'd never even get a request again.

But I've hit a patch of good luck lately: I've had a partial out for a month, a full (that the agent called on the phone to request) out for a week, and one agent who suggested additions to the first chapter to make the opening stronger and invited me to resubmit to her. I'm still waiting on responses from all three of those agents, but weirdly enough, I don't feel half as tense about it anymore. Sometimes I even manage to forget about it for a few hours! I've been querying for three months now, and I'm finally able to relax and just work on the next book. Hopefully that feeling will last...

I hear you, Ken. I was flying high when I got a partial request a couple weeks ago. When I got the rejection back a week ago, it was a pretty low point. (Though she did tell me the idea was highly marketable, it just wasn't for her)

Luckily for me, I'm too stubborn -- or too stupid -- to get stuck in the lows for long. I think it's because I'm a tweaker, so I'm always doing something to the ms, query, etc. that I believe, in some portion of my mind, makes the whole thing stronger.

I recently discovered the secret to playing it cool on the query-go-round: Start a new book that you're really excited about. Then you care less about what happens with the old one - and the full and revision requests start rolling in:) (It's always when you least expect it, right?)

Krista G. wrote:I recently discovered the secret to playing it cool on the query-go-round: Start a new book that you're really excited about. Then you care less about what happens with the old one - and the full and revision requests start rolling in:) (It's always when you least expect it, right?)

I agree with this advice :D

Krista G. wrote: (It's always when you least expect it, right?)

You know that's very true. I'm working on a new YA which does help although every once in a while I start panicking about the one I'm querying. You know, I think I made a mistake in not setting up a new email account for queries. Every time I log in to my email I panic and then find out I'm panicking over spam. :-)

kenpochick wrote:You know that's very true. I'm working on a new YA which does help although every once in a while I start panicking about the one I'm querying. You know, I think I made a mistake in not setting up a new email account for queries. Every time I log in to my email I panic and then find out I'm panicking over spam. :-)

Ha! People always talk about stalking their e-mail accounts when they're querying, but I'm exactly the opposite - I prefer not to open it. I usually only log in once a day, because I figure the longer I ignore it, the more likely it'll be that there'll be something worthwhile there:)

I recently received a rejection for a full an agent had requested almost exactly a year ago. I had marked it in my file as "MIA," which basically means the agent isn't interested and I probably won't hear from him/her. I do believe in querying in batches, but don't wait to hear from everybody before continuing to query. Keep querying and don't get obsessed about hearing from this or than agent or you'll go nuts. Also, I agree--work on a new project. I'm already 30,000 words into a new novel so the rather enigmatic rejection I received (she gave me feedback, but I'm not sure I understand it) didn't sting that much.

Krista - "query go round". Too funny.

Has anyone else noticed a change in response times? I thought that March and April were really slow, but seem to have noticed response time picking up in the last month or so - this from my unscientific survey of other's blogs more than my own experience.