Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I started querying in April, did a batch of five, got a partial request, and then finally in early July I got a rejection for that. So now I've just started batch 2.

Genre: Um . . . urban fantasy? (Two people who play the same online video game fall in love, and the narrative magically crosses between the real world and the game.)
Queries sent: 10
1st stage rejections: 5
Partial request: 1
2nd stage rejections: 1 (which was personalized)
Pending: 4

Finally able to add my stats.

Queries sent: 1
Rejections: 1

Hey there guys! I got my stats for Overcast Shadows/The Coming!

2 Queries sent, and 1 full manuscript request from a press not an agent. Wish me luck :)

Well, I'm adding my rejection stats. Because I'm starting to get frustrated. Why are agents so busy??? Give me a new agent who would jump for joy at a query email. Please.

Genre: Contemporary YA
Queries sent: 8
Rejections: 5
Pending: 3
Partial requests: 0!
Full requests: HA!

:(

otherside89girl wrote:Well, I'm adding my rejection stats. Because I'm starting to get frustrated. Why are agents so busy??? Give me a new agent who would jump for joy at a query email. Please.

Genre: Contemporary YA
Queries sent: 8
Rejections: 5
Pending: 3
Partial requests: 0!
Full requests: HA!

:(

Keep trying! I know you will get there eventually :) I have experienced so much more rejections (with other novels) and this one request is my very first ever since a year of querying so stay persistant!

Shadow

Aw, thanks, shadow!

Hello,

I've been reading these and thought I'd post my own stats. I'm querying in literary fiction.

Queries sent: 17
Rejections on query: 5
Rejection via non-response: 3
Partial requests: 1 (she later passed on the project)
Full requests: 8
Rejections on the full: 3
Rewrite requests: 3
Pending: 2

Worth mentioning: all of my requests came from agents who had seen part of my manuscript (I pasted the opening pages into a few of the queries). I think all but one rejection came from people who only got the letter. I think it's a lot easier to pass on a letter. My novel is solidly literary fiction but has a big hook; I think including a small sample allowed folks to see how I intended to navigate that. I hope that's helpful.

Best of luck, everyone!

Genre: Contemporary YA
Queries sent: 17
Rejections: 11
Pending: 6
Partial requests: 0
Full requests: 1.... rejected



Just got a rejection on my first full. Ouch. :/ Sigh. Try, try again.

Aah, you guys are so courageous. I'm nowhere near the query stage but the simple thought of doing what you are doing now scares me! Keep at it! You are all a special kind of awesome.

post deleted.

Genre: Mystery
Queries: 5
Form Rejections: 2
Personalized rejections: 1, then add the two below
Requests for partials: 1, then personalized rejection
Requests for fulls: 1, then personalized rejection
Contest entries: 1
Contests outstanding: 1
Frazzled nerves: 20,000
Redoing my query: By all means, constantly

I sent one a week for a while, but stopped at 5. Now I'm completely revising my query, looking at my opening scene, and moving forward.

New stats now that I've queried more than once.

Genre: YA Fantasy
Queries sent: 11
personal rejections: 1
Form rejections: 3
Still out: 7
Partial requests: 0
Full requests: 0
Nerves: Already failing

I'm kind of surprised how generally few queries have been sent by those reporting in this thread. I'm used to seeing stories about writers who found their agent after 75 attempts. I hope you guys putting your stats up are keeping on sending those queries out!

Continued best of luck to all!

Genre: YA/Fantasy
Total Queries Sent to Date: 17
Queries awaiting response: 11
Rejections: 6
Form Rejections: 4
Personalized Rejections: 2
Request for Pages: 0
Request for Full: 0

But it hasn't even been a month since I sent the first letters so I still have hope.

Quill wrote:I'm kind of surprised how generally few queries have been sent by those reporting in this thread. I'm used to seeing stories about writers who found their agent after 75 attempts. I hope you guys putting your stats up are keeping on sending those queries out!

Continued best of luck to all!

I was one of the early posters on this thread (back in those glory days of last February), back when I had a low query count and a cushy request rate. Now my query count is embarrassing, and my request rate is becoming a sliver in a very dorky pie chart I keep. Of course, the two gluttons of that pie are No and No Word.