How To Know When To Query

When should a writer begin querying a book? Surely after completing the writing and editing, the next course of action is sending the book to agents and editors, right?

I won't be the Scrooge of the writing world and say "No, you shouldn't automatically query each book." But I will utter a proclamation of caution, "Don't rush the process."

When I first started my adult writing career fifteen years ago, like most beginners, I was clueless about querying. Fortunately, I was wise enough to realize my first couple of books were "practice" books and definitely not ready to send out.

And also, fortunately for me, my mother was a writer and had shelves of writing craft books. Every time I visited her, I devoured her books and filled note cards with advice on how to become a better writer.

After I finished my third book, I thought for sure I was ready to query. I'd put into practice the skills I was learning, had read widely of the market I was targeting, and was gaining confidence.

But books three and four gave me my first experience with rejection letters. And rightly so. When I read now what I wrote then, I quickly realize I was NOT ready to query. Even though I had improved, I still had a long way to go.

I continued to read craft books and wrote book number five. When I finished, I had the intuitive sense that I'd crafted unique characters, a moving plot, and was finally implementing most of the craft techniques I'd studied. I sent it out with high hopes.

You can imagine my excitement, when after five years, and five books, I finally got a call from an editor. She told me she liked my book and asked me to make some changes. The short version of the story is that after making the rewrites, they didn't accept the book. Not long after the rejection, I gave birth to twins and took a seven year writing hiatus.

When I started writing again a few years ago, I reviewed my writing note cards, read the latest craft books, and this time had a whole new world of internet resources at my beck and call. When I finished writing The Preacher's Bride, I spent several months editing it.

Then I ran onto the querying playing field and joined the free-for-all tackle to grab an agent. I was slammed to the ground by plenty of rejections before one agent (Rachelle) asked to see the full. But even with that one sliver of hope, my manuscript seemed doomed to sit in her slush pile forever.

As most of you know, my Genesis contest final propelled my manuscript of out the slush pile. And after months of waiting, I finally teamed-up with Rachelle Gardner and the rest is history--she sold my book to Bethany House, got me a three book deal, and now The Preacher's Bride is releasing next fall.

In hindsight, I realize I queried The Preacher’s Bride too quickly, just as I had earlier manuscripts. I rushed into it before my manuscript was the absolute best it could be. During the months it sat in Rachelle’s slush pile, I decided to enter it into a contest. As a result, I ended up improving my opening and my book in a number of ways. When Rachelle finally read my manuscript, it was the new, better version.

What did I learn from all my querying?

1. We’re too subjective: Writers have an unrealistic view of their own work. It’s nearly impossible for us to read what we write objectively and know if it's good enough to query.

2. We’re too impatient: We’re so relieved and excited when we finish a manuscript that we become overzealous in our efforts to get it published and share it with others.

3. We’re too naive: Many of us query before we know enough about the publishing industry and how it works. The process of querying can educate us on the harsh realities, but why not learn as much as possible before starting?

So, how does a writer know when to begin querying? Unfortunately, there is no magic formula. Some writers might be ready after one book, and others like me, might struggle with their sixth.

There are ways to prepare ourselves so that our querying process is successful (more about that in the next post.) For today, I leave you with this piece of advice: As hard as it may be, slow down. We may only get one chance to make a good first impression and we don’t want to lose it.

What about you? Did you ever query before you were ready? What was the result?