Common Querying Questions
January 14, 2023
Querying is a stressful, strange and confusing time in a number of different ways, so I thought I’d gather together a few of the questions I had, as well as a few I’ve seen crop up again and again from others.
I’m Australian. Can I query a US or UK agent?
Yes! In fact, you may well find it’s your only option . . .
When I first started to research traditional publishing and querying I had assumed, being that I am Australian, that I would need to get an Australian agent. Makes sense right? Then I can meet them in person, they’ll have all the connections in Australia, we could do cute little coffee dates and one day when I’m very rich and famous they’ll come with me to conferences and book signings so I’ll have at least one friend. . .
So off I went to Google. Now, there certainly ARE Australian agents, but at least when I was researching, I needed to find Australian agents who were willing to represent Young Adult Fantasy, and I found precisely one. ONE. And she wasn’t open. There was no indication of when she might open, and it appeared she was only taking referrals at that time. My research phase was all going down late 2021 / early 2022 too, so events and conferences where I might casually find a way to drop a pile of papers for us both to bend down and pick up—our eyes meetings and us both realising we were meant to be—seemed unlikely.
And this kind of threw me for a loop for a hot minute. Are you telling me no Australian has ever published a YA Fantasy novel? Did I just fever dream that?
Off to Google I went again. This time stalking authors, then once I found some authors (and yes, for the record, there are a number of extremely talented YA Fantasy authors right from Australia’s sandy shores), I stalked their agents.
And guess what— they had US or UK agents.
Image via giphy.com
Dear reader, at this point you’ve probably realised you’re way more switched on than I because you’re probably sitting there going, well duh. But the thought of querying a non-Australian agent seriously had not entered my head. Low and behold, the list of agents who represented my genre went from one agent, who I couldn’t query, to a pool of hundreds of agents—all open and actively responding to queries.
So yes, you absolutely can query UK or US agents. It’s important to note however, that the agent will first focus on selling your book in the country they’re in, before selling further rights from there. But that doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to walk into a bookstore in your homeland, and pick your book off the shelf . . . or have an adorable coffee and revisions date over zoom.
Do I really need Beta Readers?
Well it’s not a requirement of querying, but I’m going to highly recommend it. I’m also going to strongly recommend that not all of your beta readers are friends and family. Ideally some (if not all) of them will be your ideal target audience or at least read widely in that category. My beta readers were utterly instrumental in helping me to improve my manuscript and I can’t thank them enough. I think I had close to eight beta readers all up, though only three or four who read the full manuscript. (I felt a lot of my problems lay in those opening pages and I liked to get a fresh set of eyes on it whenever I made significant changes.) After you’ve been reading your own work for so long it can be really hard to work out if the information you’re conveying is coming across how you want it to and betas can be so incredibly helpful at showing you how to see the wood through the trees again. Most often they’re writers and devoted bookworms themselves who are also going to be champions and cheerleaders of your work—I have two beta readers in my head now that as I’m writing I keep thinking I seriously have to hurry up and finish this book so I can send it to so-and-so because I think they’re going to love it or I can not wait for so-and-so to read this scene—they’re going to FLIP OUT!
Image via giphy.com
In terms of where to find beta readers Goodreads can be a great resource. They have forums where people post, offering both free and paid beta reading services, and where authors can request directly as well. If you are open to paying for beta readers Fiver can be great too. While prices vary, Fiver does come with the benefit of you being able to read reviews of what your experience with them might be like, a clearly defined deadline for when feedback will be returned to you and often an idea of how that feedback will be structured.
Do I need to have a big social following?
Again it’s not a requirement, and thank goodness for that. While I was in the trenches I had no Instagram, no TikTok . . . heck, I didn’t even have a website. I did get Twitter in March 2022, right around the same time I hit go on my first batch of queries, but I mostly used it to research and find agents. I didn’t start trying to be present on the platform for another three or so months, and even then was utterly terrible at being consistent with it. At the time I got my agent I had ~1k followers . . . and still nothing anywhere else, including this shiny website which didn’t exist then.
The majority of agents will tell you you do not need a social following. At the end of the day, whether you have 10 Billion followers or 10 followers if they don’t connect with your writing, or think they can sell it, then it’s going to be a pass for them. Having said this it certainly is not going to hurt. It’s definitely a positive mark in your column when an agent is weighing up a tough decision, and even if your agent doesn’t care there is always the chance your future publisher might. Social followings take a long time to cultivate so it certainly does not hurt to chip away at it whenever you get the chance. I’d say pick one or two and focus your energy there—you really don’t have to be everywhere all at once. But don’t beat yourself up if you’re having a hard time with it . . . for most authors cold querying agents, it is not the silver bullet to their success. And if you find you need to step away from any platform because it’s impacting your mental health or your ability to write—do it. It ain’t worth it.
Should I personalise my Query Letters?
To be honest I didn’t most of the time. If an agent mentioned something really specific that grabbed me and made me think they might be extra curious about my concept I would maybe raise that in my opening few lines . . . but on the whole I didn’t. Can’t say whether that was the right approach or not. I’ve seen people say something personalised will always stand out because most people don’t bother—and this is likely very true. However I also suspect, time poor as agents are, there is a good chance their going to skim through and jump right to your blurb anyway, and that, along with your sample pages, will be the determining factor in their decision.
An agent wants X sample pages pasted into a Query Manager form. Does this mean single or double spaced?
Industry standard is double spaced, so even though the Query Manager form removes most of your formatting, it’s generally safest to assume this is the case. Having said this . . . if adding a paragraph or two over will get your work to a better stopping point or its chapter end, well, I’d be lying to say I haven’t done this. Use your best judgement here, but also don’t forget that your goal is to create opportunity—if stopping part way through your first chapter feels ‘more hooky’ and is more likely to leave an agent without the answers they’ll be craving (narrative answers of course, I’m not talking about an I have literally no idea what the heck is going on situation), then certainly don’t stress about giving them that whole chapter. You want them to want more after all. Most agents will accept a little over, but don’t totally flout an agents guidelines. The agent will be able to see the word count of what you’ve sent and is going to know if you go significantly over.
