On personalized first lines

So, as you may remember, even I was surprised by how much of a difference there was in the success rates between cleverly personalized queries and standard, "Dear Agent" letters.

The tailored queries received an amazing 42.4 success rate--that said, these were, of course, January queriers--to the average will be lower than that (my guess would be around 30 percent).

The "normal" query--the "Dear Ms. _______" and then continuing on with a copy-pasted query--had a 10.5 percent success rate.

And those who made mistakes--who got my name wrong, etc--had a zero percent request rate (and not just because I found the errors somewhat annoying). Those who don't do enough research to spell an agent's name correctly are often the same writers who don't bother to learn what we're interested in--or how best to present their work.

Now, what am I considering tailored?

I don't mean, Dear Agent, I hear you like YA, and this is YA, so you'll love this, right?


Here are some of my favorites from January:


I would love to work with someone else who remembers Surge fondly. When I read your  latest blog post and found an interview  stating your interest in YA fiction with  crossover appeal, I knew I had to query you.

and 

I was very drawn to your "If you can write a  book that's officially about one thing but really actually, about so much more...“  comment—which makes me think you might  take an interest in my manuscript.

and

I saw in your interview that you are actively seeking  works that go beyond “shopping/romance/school issues” and “examine the emotional nuances of this life stage, with writing that is beautiful but accessible to young  adults,” which has been my goal with my manuscript.

and

I’m sorry to say, I’m totally team Peeta.

Now. What do these lines do for these writers?

• They prove that the writer has done his/her research--thus preventing them from ending up with the 33 percent who did not.
• If you read the agent's blog, mention it--this is a great way to connect.
• With these lines, I get an immediate sense of the writer's voice. As you can imagine, I reject a lot of queries and manuscripts because the voice is off--especially for YA. This proves right away that you're less likely to fall into that camp.
• If these manuscripts are as amusing as their pitches, I'll be giggling for hours.
• Keep in mind that I request a lot of queries simply because I want to read them. Your query functions, in this way, like book jacket copy.

Finally...the pie charts!

Now. As surprised  many of you, the largest percentage of queries were rejected for something completely within the writer's control: these were projects in categories that our agency had gone on the record--many records, in fact--to say were not for us.

At the time of the making of this pie chart--and this has since changed--we did not represent sci fi, fantasy, or thrillers.

But we received hundreds of these projects--some with headings like, "I've read that you're especially interested in sci fi, so..."

This is easily prevented with the use of my favorite work for this purpose, The Jeff Herman Guide.

There's a new edition out every year. And it's much more than just lists of genres--it also includes detailed interviews, so that you can get a good feel for each agent as a person.

Now, sometimes I get emails like this:


According to Agent Query, you are interested in literary and women's fiction, and you are also actively seeking new clients. Does Jeff Herman know something Agent Query doesn't? Somehow, I doubt it. You seemed like a good fit for my work, which is precisely the reason I queried you. If your listing on Agent Query is  inaccurate, then perhaps you should consider changing it.


Best wishes,
[Writer]


Now. This is an issue of far more than just rudeness (it's never a good idea to take this frustrated tone with an agent): this shows that, when finding an agent, it's not just a matter of genre--but a matter of taste.

For example, all three of these works fall under the umbrella of Women's Fiction:

But most agents would only be interested in one or two of these. 

As you can see, it's very important to do your research--or we will lose respect for you immediately. 

After all, if you haven't bothered to learn who we are--why should we want to know more about you?

The very easiest remedy? 

Cleverly personalized first lines. 

For example: 

Query personalization
The big magenta section is 76.6 %
The blue wedge on the right is 10.6%
The green wedge, top-left, is 10.5%
And the tiny yellow sliver on the left is 2.2%

76.6% of writers wrote "Dear [Agent's name]" and the rest was a form.

10.6% wrote merely "Dear Agent"

2.2% made errors--misspelled my name, called me by another agent's name, etc.

And only 10.5%--keep in mind these were taken from a batch of relatively smart January writers, too--bothered to make a real, personalized query. 

Next time, I'll show you how that makes a huge difference in success rates.

Hope this finds you well.

Why You Shouldn't Idealize Your Competition

I took 200 randomly selected queries from those 808 received in January, 2011 to see how far off the mark most of these queries are.

Of those queries, 13 percent were perhaps right for someone else—but not for me or anyone at our company.

30.5 percent were interesting but not quite there yet—with further work, the query and project could be marketable.

And 56.5 percent need to go back to the drawing board.

Some had interesting takes on punctuation:

“if you respect self-promotional maniacs, then you'll understand where i'm coming from n going ;-) ...just google me 4 an example of what i'm willing to do to promote my book. how often do ya find such career dedication? Lol”

Some attempted to use quotes from readers as “proof” that the work was worth reading:

“[[Author] has an interesting and unusual  writing style.” --Author’s friend

Some have word counts that are far enough from the norm that I stop reading:

“I have recently completed a 352,000-word novel of literary fiction...”

And, though I’d never reject someone for use of one cliché or for formatting…

Eleven used my least favorite query cliché: “Then [Character]’s world was turned upside down.”

Thirteen of them had obnoxious formatting:

• Bright colors and fonts
• Emoticons :)
• An email forwarded so many times, the line breaks don’t work
• Pictures of how the author imagines the book cover
• Instead of paragraphs, one big block of text

Ten of these queries were only one paragraph long.

Eleven had more than five punctuation errors.

Three compared their works to two or more runaway bestsellers, ie, “This is Harry Potter meets Twilight meets Eat, Pray, Love.”

Which, as you can imagine, did not make them appear particularly well-read.

And six of those CC’d about forty other agents, so I could see what other agents were receiving this--way to make a girl feel special.

Next week on (as I'm calling it) The Pie Chart Show, we'll...actually have pie charts!

Stay tuned!

I'm in DC visiting family, and my cousins (five and seven) have worn me out! This week's installment will be posted tomorrow--when I return to NYC, my computer--and have had some much-needed rest.

Hope this finds you well.

The Best Timing for Your Query: Saturday Part I

For those of you just now tuning in--welcome! It's a sunny day in NYC, and a lovely 55 degrees. (Which is, I should note, weather enough for sunbathers in Central Park. Crazy sunbathers, but sunbathers nonetheless.)

As promised, I'll begin adding some of my presentation today--starting at the most logical place--the beginning!

So.

As you know, I used January, 2011 as a test month to find data to show what's really going on in the slushpile* and other incoming work.

In the month of January, I received 808 queries. 

And I requested 95 of them.

Which works out to 11.7 percent--which is higher than usual.  

Now. Why are these statistics a little off?

The savviest writers, who were ready to go in December, had read that December is a bad time to pitch. (It is. We're busy with holiday parties and preparations.)

So all of the savvy writers from December ended up in January.

Our average acceptance rate for queries, by the way, seems to hover around 7 percent.

On the average Monday morning, I have between 100 and 200 queries waiting (since that's Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and early Monday).

This month, the Monday average was 154.25

And, the more queries I have that day, the less average time I have to spend on each.

For that reason, I suggest that you don't query between Friday and Monday.

Here are the traditional bad querying times:

• August
• December
• Easter and Thanksgiving breaks

Allow me to add to that list:

• Friday through Monday
• After a catastrophic-sounding announcement about publishing
• Off-hours: I can't help but wonder what you're up to if you do your business correspondence at 3 am. 

So, in other words, the best times to query are:

• Normal, non-holiday weeks
• Tuesday through Thursday
• 10 am to 3 pm

Next week, we'll discuss how successful your competition is--and why--and some tips to keep you out of the bottom 61 percent.

Hope this finds you well and warm.

________________________________________________
* The "slushpile" is the pile of everything coming in that wasn't solicited. So, this includes (almost) all queries and manuscripts that are sent right away, before we ask for them.

A method to the madness!

Okay! Here we go!

Now. Though you may not have realized it, the presentation was made up of 197 very fast-moving slides.

I can't bear the thought of converting all of that at once, so it's going to be in pieces.

Tell your friends! Every Saturday, a new chunk of the presentation will go up.

And you will be free to take notes.

Hope this finds you well and warm. Current New York weather? 27 degrees. Eesh.

Pie charts coming soon!

In the meantime: may I say I loved my time in Texas?