Staying Productive While Waiting on Literary Agent Responses

Journey to Publication - Week 12

Photo by Liza Summer

As we hit week 12 of querying my novel THE LILAC ROOM, I have now sent out the manuscript to 13 literary agents and am waiting on responses from these lucky souls who have volunteered to brave my novel. Three months into the querying process, I have grown rather impatient, and after conversations with fellow querying writers, I have learned, at least, that I’m not alone. The querying process is both daunting and frustrating from the sheer time it takes to land a book deal, so I thought that I would share my tips and tricks on staying productive during this cold-email pandemonium (and insights into how I manage to retain my sanity while engaging in this grueling waiting game).

Write Smaller Pieces

Think your work as a writer is done once you’ve put the finishing touches on your manuscript? Think again. The best way to convince literary agents (and yourself) that you are a true writer is to always be writing! In many cases, smaller publication credentials can make or break the query. While you might not immediately place a piece in The New York Times, writing and sending out smaller articles can help you solidify your claim to writerly prowess and add a few additional bonus points to the author bio in your query. I have a few publications in progress that are set to go live next month, so I’m excited to update my bio with some additional publications once those pieces go out into the world. Working on smaller articles—or even short stories or poems—is also a great way to get your mind off the work you are querying as you explore new intellectual avenues.

Tweak Your Manuscript

You should feel pretty confident about the state of your manuscript by the time that you begin querying literary agents—that is, larger edits such as removing extraneous chapters and filling in plot holes should be done before contacting agents—but even a fairly solid manuscript always has room for improvement. A few weeks ago, I revisited my opening pages, tightening them up after receiving valuable beta-reader feedback—since then, I have secured many more manuscript requests, so sometimes even the additional line or two of context will make or break the query! I periodically revisit THE LILAC ROOM to see if there are any additional changes that I’d like to make—and every time, I always make a tweak or two that helps the manuscript shine. Agents who have requested my manuscript more recently have received the most updated version of the draft, and this always increases your chances of getting an offer. The more polished, the better!

Work on Your Next Project

I feel an inordinate pleasure every time I read THE LILAC ROOM because—at the expense of sounding self-absorbed—I sometimes cannot believe that I wrote the novel that I am reading! (I don’t think it’s self-absorbed, by the way, to genuinely love your own work. In fact, if you don’t feel exalted after reading your own writing, you should probably go back and make some edits. Your own writing should make you feel amazing. That’s part of why you’re a writer!) However, at times, I do need a break from perpetually reading and editing the work, and that’s why I’ve started working on my next big thing—the proposal for my upcoming non-fiction book, THE THEORY TRAP. Agents often sign writers who exhibit long-term potential—not just writers who come to them with one-hit-wonders. Investing time into your next big work can be a great green flag for agents who are on the fence about signing you—and may well lead to an offer.

Read!

The best way to become a great writer is to read great literature. (So you probably should not be reading chick-lit or whatever drivel the publishing world is coming up with these days.) Visit your local bookstore to pick up a Hemingway or a Nabokov novel to get the real deal. As you imbibe the wonderful words of the masters, you'll hone your own craft and get closer to becoming a Hemingway or a Nabokov yourself. These stories are also great ways to distract the mind from the unforgiving real world as you wait for your query results.

For more worthwhile literary picks, check out my Top 10 Books of All Time List.

Bonus: Don’t Waste Your Time on Forums

The worst (and most tempting) thing that you can do as a querying author is to engage endlessly with publishing forums and subreddits (please stay off r/PubTips), driving yourself mad with other people’s failure or success stories as you attempt to make sense of your own writing journey. The truth is that no one’s case will ever be quite like yours because every manuscript is distinct and unique. You might conclude that you are doomed after reading that Author A got 20 manuscript requests and no book deal, or you might suppose that the publishing world is easy to navigate after reading about Author B’s success from a single manuscript request. The truth is, however, that neither of these authors wrote your book and no amount of ancient divination will tell you how agents will react to your own work. So stop reading about other people—instead, stick to your gut and trust the process. If you genuinely love your book, someone else out there will love it, too.

Week 12 Updates

As we head into the third month of querying my novel THE LILAC ROOM, I’ve gotten 13 total manuscript requests with another new one that came in this past week. I’ve followed up with several of my agents, and many have responded that they have not started reading the book yet, so this process might be a bit more lengthy than I thought. It seems that agents don’t quite prioritize non-client manuscripts, so it might take them several months to get through the full draft. The good news is that because most agents responded to my follow-up, we can assume that they are still interested in the work and just haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. Two of my agents, however, did not respond to follow-ups, so I am somewhat less hopeful for these particular ghosts, though I will give them a few more weeks to trickle in with answers before moving on. It seems that agents can, indeed, ghost you entirely after a manuscript request (though this seems somewhat less common than the typical “no response” query closure).

Here comes the query tracker for this week!

Query Tracker:

Query Rejections: 91

Manuscript Requests: 13

Manuscript Request Rate: 6.9%

Total Queries: 187

See you next week!