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.

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* 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.