Why "Query Widely" Is The Worst Advice Ever For Unagented Writers

A little bit of a scandal has rocked the YA writer community of late, and I actually have something to say about it.

A literary agent - who shall remain unnamed, but shouldn't be too hard to figure out if you do some research on the Absolute Write forums - recently disappeared quite abruptly. She simply left agenting without notifying her agency or her clients, some of whom had submissions out to editors. She posted a message on Facebook and that was that.

Since then, a handful of former clients have come forward with different variations on the same story. Turns out this agent hadn't even submitted manuscripts as she had promised. She hadn't responded to important messages from editors. 

I read through these blog posts and through the AW forums and I thought two things:

1. Why on earth would an agent behave this way? What is there to gain? How can she possibly continue to work in publishing after such an epic flameout?
2. Thank god I didn't accept her offer of representation.

That's right. At the end of last year, after 60+ queries, 10 partial and full requests and months of querying for THE MERMAID'S DAUGHTER I ended up with a few close calls but only one offer of representation. An offer from this very agent.

I had a few concerns about her at first. I did my research (not only because I love research, but because any aspiring author should do so) and I had some reservations. Her agency had been involved in some weird behavior in the past and had received warnings and non-recommendations on a handful of the agent resource sites I looked at. 

On the other hand, she had recently sold a debut YA author's series for big six-figure money and had a decent track record in non-fiction. What the hell, I thought. "Query widely" is the first rule of querying. You never know what agent will respond to your story. It doesn't hurt to send her a letter and see what happens. Famous last words.

What happened was that as time went on, I began, and got excited about, a newer, stronger story. And I got promising rejections from legitimately impressive agents I would put on my "dream agent" list. I wanted the chance to go back to those agents with my new manuscript.

I started to hope she'd never get back to me. I started to wish, that out of all the agents I queried, she would be the one to forget about my full submission and just leave me alone. I wanted this because I didn't want to face the decision of having to choose between an agent I really wasn't excited about or remaining unagented.

In hindsight, it seems like a simple choice. But there really is a fear that this might be your only chance. This offer of representation might not be perfect, but at least it's something. And isn't something better than nothing? She scheduled the call. I came prepared with my list of questions. And the knot in my stomach only grew larger. 

She seemed kind of irritated at a lot of my questions. I brought up my hesitancy about her agency, based on this prior activity they'd been involved in, and her explanation was completely lacking. I asked about her sales record. Yeah she had that one big YA sale over a year ago, but what else? What was on submission? What had sold in the past year since then? The answer: nothing. Big Red Flag. She was very complimentary, threw around all the names of the big publishers. Someone at Little Brown was a personal mentor of hers and she just knew she'd love THE MERMAID'S DAUGHTER. That all sounded good, but what was the point of saying you had these connections if you didn't have any actual sales to back it up.

I kept coming back to that point. She kept getting more irritable. Up until that point, she was giggly and causal in a way that made me question her professionalism. Did I really want this person to represent me? I had a full ms still floating around with another agent, so I told her I'd need a week to let the other agent know I had an offer of rep and think about things. In the meantime, She'd send over her suggestions for the first three chapter revisions so I'd have an idea of the type of re-write she had in mind. 

I hung up feeling conflicted. I emailed the Interrobangs. Returned to Absolute Write. Scanned the Publisher's Marketplace listings. And I kept thinking, Little Brown, Harper Teen, Dutton, all great YA publishers she said we would submit THE MERMAID'S DAUGHTER to. I was so close. So why did I feel so uneasy?

In the end, she never ended up sending those revisions. It only confirmed what I had suspected all along. This agent was not for me. I sent the email saying as much and received two of the most passive aggressive responses ever sent in the history of Gmail. It didn't matter though. My decision had been made. I still remained unagented. But at least I didn't have a bad agent.

When I query RUN, ZELLA, whenever that may be, I will absolutely not "query widely." Why should I? I know what agents I'd be excited to represent me. I know what types of sales history or agency activity will send up red flags. I'm going to query selectively. Querying widely is exactly what got me into this situation in the first place. I overlooked my hesitations in order to just get my work in front of an agent who would accept it. Any agent. But any agent isn't good enough. 

Comments

[Jamie Wyman]

*applauds* Well said.

[Phoebe]

Go you! Seriously, I really admire you for making such a hard choice. I have no doubt that you'll be able to snatch up an awesome agent with Run, Zella.

[Janice Hardy]

I don't think querying widely means send a query to everyone with "agent" in their title. Querying widely doesn't go against being smart about who you decide to work with. You're a great example. You queried widely (it sounds like) and made a choice based on research. The only thing you did "wrong" (and I use this term very loosely here) is that you queried an agent your gut told you wasn't legit. But you realized it and didn't make a mistake there. Very smart.

Tastes vary of course, but querying a lot of good, reputable agents is a great way to find the right one for you. The list of your dream agents might not be right for you, and the smaller one you queried on a lark might be the one who loves your work and sells it well. Until you sit down and talk with an agent, you don't know who you'll click with.

Query widely, but query smart. Don't query an agent just because they're an agent. Make sure they're legit, and are someone you'd want to work with.

[Stephanie]

This is one of the most educational blog post I've ever read. I've had very similar concerns but haven't seen the answer clearly until now. Thanks! Just curious--how many agents would you query now?

[Claire Dawn]

Yes! I agree. Writers are willing to have ANY agent, when they have none. But when you have a bad agent, having no agent looks beautiful. I'm not ready for querying, and won't be for maybe another year, but I'm slowly compiling a list of perfect agents for me. It's now got 7 people on it.

[rifferaff]

Thanks everyone for your great comments!

Janice, I recognize your name from Kristin Nelson's blog. Congrats on your success as a debut author and thanks for your feedback.

Stephanie, I have about 7 agents who are my very top choices, but I think I'd query 20 - 25 this time around instead of the 60 I did last time.

[Jaimie]

OH MY GOSH. THAT agent!??! I am so glad you didn't go with her! She had sketchy written all over her. Dude.

Don't you love that now she's a flake you can talk about this openly?

[Jaimie]

You know, this makes me question the agent who was teamed up with her in that podcast. At the writing conference I attended earlier this year, she was slated to attend and I didn't see her once. Some other agents behaved badly too. Hmm.

[rifferaff]

Yes Jaimie, *that* one! And it does make me wonder about the other agent she teamed up with. Their track records in the industry are so wildly different. If I was agent #2, I'd be nervous about publicly aligning myself with agent #1.