We're all here on Wattpad for a reason, whether that reason is to read, to write, to connect with others, or even to figure out what this site is all about.
I've been using Wattpad since 2012, and much has changed not only on Wattpad, but also in t...
I know what it's like to feel rejection - it never feels good, especially when you've worked your butt off on a writing project and something just isn't quite clicking. Why aren't agents (the fish) biting the idea for your book (the bait)?
I want to start this chapter by discussing what querying is and why it's so darn important.
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Querying. What is it?
When you've finished writing your book, edited it, polished it, made sure it flows well, etc. etc., it's time to pitch your book to agents who will either say "gimme your full book," "i never want to see your face again" (but a more polite version of this, even though it totally feels like a punch to the gut when they reject you), or will just straight up ghost you. So yay for that :D
First:Querying is done for those who wish to be traditionally published. If you are self-published or don't want to get traditionally published, you don't need to read this, but it can be helpful.
Second: As I mentioned in my introduction, publishing is an extremely gate-kept industry. And by that, I mean that you can't know anything about it, make any connections in it, or get into it without an.... *drumroll please* 🥁🥁🥁 .... AGENT.
Agents are individuals with specific bookish tastes (both audience and genre) that are looking for their next best-selling book. Is it yours? Maybe. Maybe not. If you query a popular agent, say Colleen Hoover's agent, you're probably out of luck, simply because the sheer odds of her even seeing your query letter are ridiculous. Or maybe the agent you want to query isn't open to queries right now.
A query letter is a pitch that includes several items, and my holy grail that I always, ALWAYS direct people to is queryshark.blogspot.com. The agent who hosts this blog goes through real query letters, sometimes a few times, and ruthlessly, to demonstrate what sorts of changes authors need to make to create BOMB query letters that will land them an agent. There are also quite a few success stories here too! Here are some pretty concise guidelines for query letter writing:
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Step #2 also includes knowing the market, and knowing what is a demand in the market. Does your book address that need? Are you giving competitive titles that are new and relevant (competitive titles are those books on the market already and were published within the past 2-5 years but would be "rivals" to your book, if yours were to be selected)? Is your word count typical for your genre? And no, I don't mean JK Rowling's 7th book in the Harry Potter franchise or Sarah J. Maas's 7th book in her Throne of Glass series, which boasts 200k words. No debut author will be able to publish a book that is longer than 120k-150k words, especially if it's not fantasy/sci-fi. Well, 99.9999999% of debut authors at least. As our marketing director always says: those authors earned those high word counts. High word counts = more pages to print = higher costs. For a debut author with no connections or "street cred," they won't put too much risk on someone whose performance (sales, marketing etc) they haven't seen before. (Sorry, this was way too long-winded and I'm gonna pipe down now 🤭)
