How I Read Queries
Elana RothDear readers,
After the balagan (Hebrew for "utter madness") that arose this week after I suggested it might be nice to let agents with queries know you've gotten an offer, I thought it might be helpful for me to give you a rundown on how I tackle my query pile. Especially because several people mentioned that my 2-3 response time on queries just isn't fast enough if I want to stay on top of the hot projects. (I think that's totally unfair, by the way, but I'm not arguing with you anymore.)
So the first thing you should know about how I read is: I read everything in the order it comes in.
There are almost NO exceptions to this rule. It's the only way to make it fair and democratic, and to keep myself organized. This way I don't lose track of requests, I can easily label things, and clear things out by date. (Sidenote: We here at CJLA use Google Apps, which has the BRILLIANT label & filter system of GMail. I have distinct colors for QUERIES and REQUESTED. Every email with the word "query" or "submission" in the subject gets automatically filtered into the QUERIES folder. And emails are threaded, so I know if I have responded.)
The only time I will jump ahead is if I see a name that is referral, or if someone is letting me know that they have an offer on the table. Those are special circumstances. Everyone else goes exactly in the order in which they came. Everyone gets treated the same.
When I had fewer queries coming in, my habit was thusly: every morning, over my cup of coffee, I would read the queries from that same day a week earlier. So on a Monday I would read last Monday's, etc. Now I'm a bit busier so this doesn't happen as often. But I'd like to get back to it since it kept me timeline. Now I most often read 30 in a batch, which is a little more draining. But I am still within 3 weeks on response on queries, and nothing exceeds that. If it does, then it got marked as spam because you did something silly like send it to me and 50 of my nearest and dearest agent friends.
When I open your letter, I usually do a quick eye scan for both format and keywords that look interesting. These are speed reading tricks. The more cleanly formatted emails are more pleasing to the eye and are usually more inviting for closer reads. The jumbled ones are less so. If there is an attachment, you are most likely going to get a rejection letter, because I explicitly say don't do that, and it's 2 extra steps for me to read what you sent, plus you could be trying to poison me or my precious laptop.
Once I kind of have that initial sense of what I'm looking at (and haven't seen that it's clearly not for me), I read the letter more closely. Unless it's a genre I don't handle in the slightest, I move down to the sample pages. (Unless there are no sample pages.) The sample pages are a real deal clincher for me. If the concept looks good, those first few pages better match up. And if there are no sample pages, well, that concept better be freaking AMAZING for me to request it. It has happened.
Every now and again, there's something interesting about a query, but I'm not sold, so I set it aside for a few hours or another day. But I hate seeing lingering things, so I get back to those quickly.
Now, once I request something, I smack that extra label on that email, so those are tracked also. And I tackle those by the same chronological order as the queries. The timeline is less strict here, because my request-rate varies, but if I see that a manuscript came in 2 weeks ago and I haven't looked yet, I'll speed up.
I have a feeling you would probably like some stats. I do not have any at the moment. I am, however, doing the following: I am keeping all March queries and responses, and I will do a round-up of one month's worth of queries and detail stats in early April.
Cool?
~Elana
Reader Comments (11)
To be honest, I was a little shocked--well, more like dismayed--at some of the response you got to your last post. Personally, 2-3 weeks is a pretty good response time. Yes, some agents are faster, but most are far slower at 6-8 weeks, and don't even get me started on those that believe no response means no. I think you have a pretty good system in place, and before anyone here says that I'm trying to suck up, I havent ever queried you simply becasue I have read your submission guidelines and I know that you don't represent my genre (mores the pity for me!) BUT, I do follow you on twitter and read your blog mostly because you rep great writers, give awesome advise to those of us wannabes, and you pass on great books to read. Hello, CANDOR and I'm excited for EPITAPH ROAD to come out. Anyone who bitches and moans about a 2-3 week response time is just a Bitter Betty.
Oh, but I would like to see your stats when you get them rounded up!
I like learning new words, and balagan is one of them--though I don't know how I can slip it into a novel with a Catholic protagonist.
It certainly was a balagan, with some un-called for shots across your bow in my opinion. I like the way you handled things, and this post is a timely insight into your process. Good to know you're so democratic--even though it means the odd hot property might elude you from time to time.
Hopes it's as sunny in NYC as it is in Portland, OR.
Personally, I think business relationships live or die on mutual respect and professionalism, so I can't believe the fire you've come under.
I will send a query as per your instructions - that's professionalism. In return, I know you are committed to responding to all queries. THANK YOU! However, I also know you are human (!) so OF COURSE I need to give you time to wade through your bulging inbox - you make that quite clear in your blog and on your site, so I have no problem with that. And just in case you're thinking the world's gone made around you - in my book, if I receive an offer while I'm querying you, common courtesy and professionalism should prevail: I need to keep you in the loop. Simple, really.
Oh my, it did cause quite an uproar. I think your response time is more than fine, considering the industry. If, perhaps, you were delivering medical test results, it might be a little long.... but for a query, it's above (or, technically, below) average!
Besides, you know shouldn't worry that much about what us crazy authors rant about :-)
This is a very useful post. I've just started following your blog and I think that, in addition to reading all the queries and manuscripts we hordes of writers hurl at you daily, it's so wonderful that you take even more time to coach us along!
Personally, I agree that a 2-3 response time is excellent. I tried to shop around a picture book manuscript (rejected every time) but most of the responses were much longer and nothing more frustrating than receiving no response at all and wondering if it's because I did something wrong technically or because my manuscript was no good in their eyes.
I do hope to be querying you in the near future as I'm in the home stretch of finishing my YA novel...5 chapters to go! I do realize that this is a first draft and it will not be sliding under anyone else's gaze until I get it polished up. But when it is ready to go out, I will be greatly appreciative of a 2-3 week response. Thank you for letting us know what it's really like on the other side of the slush pile.
I don't believe that any of the negative postings on Elana's previous topic were aimed directly at Elana. She obviously is very courteous and sensitive to writers, and tries to answer everyone in a timely manner. Since she does answer every query, and since it obviously important to her to be notified of another agent's offer (even if she hasn't yet answered their query letter), then she should state so in her submission guidelines. I know that as a writer, I would then be courteous of her wishes, as would others writers. I think that the root of many writers' frustration stems from the fact that the majority of agents, in my opinion, are not as respectful of a writer's feelings. In other words, many just chose to ignore a query, when, in reality, it takes a simple push of a button to send off a form rejection. People find nothing more insulting, in any aspect of life, than being ignored. Because so many agents chose to follow that path, the thought of giving them such consideration (by that I am referring to notifying them of an offer when the writer never heard back from the agent at all) is not appealing to me as a writer. In general, I have personally had some not so good experiences with agents, and I think many other writers feel as I do. I had an agent her left the industry, and her agency made no provisions for my continued representation. However, I read on another agency's blog that when one of their agents left, the remaining two agents all absorbed the departing author's clients.I have another writer friend whose agent woke up one day and decided to cut loose all of his/her fiction writers. I think that our opinions as writers stems from these types of experiences.As for Elana's turn around times on queries, it is commendable that she responds in 2-3 weeks. But I currently have 8 agents who requested 4 fulls and 4 partials---all but one were requested in one or two days. So it is bound to happen that a writer might be snapped up by another agent before that second or third week comes around. Anyway, this is just my 2 cents worth, for whatever it's worth.
I have to think that if you don't want to see if another agent is interested after receiving a first request, you probably shouldn't have bothered to query that other agent in the first place. Your first offer won't necessarily be the best fit. How will you know if someone else isn't better suited for you if you don't at least ask? Maybe the agents who try to snap you up in a day or two can do so because they aren't that busy and are desperate for clients (not that I think many agents like that exist, but it could happen). In short, when you query an agent, you should be committing to at least professional communications until you get a "no," and if you've done your homework, you'll know how long a response will take.
Can I just say how very, very much I LOVE LOVE LOVE that you used the word "balagan" in your post? Sooooooo happy to see another frustrated Jew spit out a well loved Israeli term. Such a shame you don't rep my genre, because that right there would have made me do just about ANYTHING to get you to be my agent! Now back to my "balagan" of a manuscript.
Holy shitake mushrooms, batman, you DO rep my genre! My "balagan" just sat up, smacked me in the face, and said, "Shalom Alechem, my little matzah ball! We gots work to do if we want Elana Roth to rep us!" Have a wonderful Pesach and I shall query you shortly!
I must first applaud those agents who do bother to respond even if it is a no. It shows that you do care enough to not keep the writer waiting. So thank you. And a 2-3 week time is also quite good
2-3 is actually quite good. Most are 4-6. Sooner the better, but send something at some point. Nothing is worse than hanging in the space between, wondering if they will love you or reject you.