Creating Your Querying Spreadsheet
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- Querying can be stressful with all of its moving parts. Literary agents Jessica Faust and James McGowan break down one of the best organizational methods you can use to streamline your querying: spreadsheets!
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Jessica Faust’s love for books is what first brought her to open BookEnds Literary Agency. It is her desire to be an advocate for all authors that pushed her to create her blog, the BookEnds TH-cam channel and to maintain a vibrant presence on Twitter.
Jessica is proud to have grown BookEnds to an agency that represents authors of all genres for children and adults, allowing her to reach more readers and help more authors and illustrators achieve their dreams.
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James McGowan is a Literary Agent at BookEnds and writer for children. He began working with the agency as an intern in the summer of 2015, and basically never left. He represents a talented group of authors and illustrators working in everything from board books to middle grade graphic novels. He also works in adult nonfiction, and adult mystery and suspense projects. James is the author of GOOD NIGHT OPPY, which is available now.
Connect with BookEnds!
Twitter: bookendslit
Instagram: bookends_literary
Website: www.bookendsliterary.com
Connect with Jessica: bookendsjessica
Connect with James: jmcgowanbks
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Present me LOVES when past me helped. So Present me helps future me often. ❤
I just wanted to comment on how brilliantly Bookends has branded themselves as approachable while maintaining such a high level of professionalism. Seriously grateful for all the real world advice.
Listening to you to is a great way to start a Sunday morning.
I have one of these. I also have a column for authors who write books like mine who are represented by that agent (if applicable). Every time I read a book in my genre that I think might touch on my subject matter (generally) I look at the acknowledgements to see who the agent is. I read a ton, so this is helpful for me.
Great tip! Also great info to have for comps/personalization in a query letter!
Great video. One thing I have in my spreadsheet is how the agent wants to be queried -- whether it's through QueryManager, direct email or a form on the agency's website.
I appreciate all the assistance you offer writers. Thank you!
Ahhh!! This is exactly what I needed right now, as I’m currently working on updating my Google sheet for my current MS 😅 Thank you so much for making this video. I usually have a column for pieces of the agent’s MSWL that I copy/paste to remind myself why they’re a good fit before I submit, too!
I do that too! Quotes from interviews, MSWL, who else they rep that’s similar, etc
Excellent post! Thanks so much, I really needed this.
I have a column for notes about why my book might be of interest to that agent. Helps right the opening of my query letter. Genre, interests, archetypes, etc.
I used query tracker. It does all of this and is so easy and convenient. And free!
❤
You guys are hilarious! You make learning the process fun and engaging. It makes everything less scary knowing how to organize the spreadsheet, how to keep track of what step we are at with editor/agency, and a tally of our results so we know where to query next. Very informative. Thank you.
I mean, if we didn’t have a personal connection with Jessica, that AWESOME LAUGH sure felt personable! 🤣
Great video! I’m just starting the final edit of my manuscript now and doing this leg work now will not only help keep me motivated to see the next steps ahead but also make sure I don’t end up slowing my momentum once I’m “done” editing. 😅 Thank you for the info! ❤️
Made a spreadsheet and damn...first 6 names are from Bookends :).
A visual might make this all clearer.
Thankfully, Query Tracker does a lot of this. I am querying some agents through other means than QT and this is an important tool for querying those agents. Even though I have rewritten my query several times, I still feel it’s my weakest point. Any suggestions of how to deal with this other than hiring someone? Thanks.
It might be a good idea to find a writing community (online or locally) that would be willing to work with you on refining your query letter! We have a very recent video on finding a critique group that you may find helpful
Awesome.
I just started querying. I am in Canada and started with Canadian agents. Should I not limit myself to Canadians at the start? That is, query both U.S. and Canadian agents equally?
Patricia -- I'm in New York City. For my first three rounds of querying I only queried NY Agents at NY Agencies thinking I might be able to actually meet them if I got an offer. Then in Round Four, I spread out to New Jersey and Connecticut. In my last round I actually queried agents in Los Angeles. The further down the query list I go, the further out the Agent/agency is, including Canada and England. Do what you feel comfortable with at first but don't be afraid to expand to different cities or countries.
Question: you mentioned querying a few and then easily moving down your list to continue querying. Is it not advisable to go ahead and query everyone you think will be a good fit for your book at once? I'm very thankful to have found your site/blog & videos. They're informative and you are both quite affable.
So, it's alright to query one book to two agents who work at the same agency, as long as you query them at different times?
Random question. Do you think there’s value in attaching a positive feedback beta reader’s report to a query?
Every query is different, but I think for the most part, unless you can naturally fit it as just a sentence or two into the query letter, you might be better off skipping it in favor of using your limited space to cover the key elements of the query letter. Now, if you happen to have a pretty well-known author as a beta reader, you could technically consider using that as a "marketing" tool that you can mention in the query letter (briefly).
Do Agencies put a person's name in a data base so that one person within the agency knows the person has already been rejected by another in house agent? Another question, I assumed that query tracker is the usual place to find an agent. Would a person query someone they randomly noticed on Twitter? Could you addess this in a future vlog?
For our agency, all of our agents use Query Manager to receive submissions, which allows them to see everything an author has queried to other agents at BookEnds. They can see what projects were queried, which agent they were queried to, and when. This might be different for other agencies! And there are lots of ways to find and research literary agents; plenty of people query agents they find on Twitter! I believe we have several videos on finding the right agent for you that might be helpful :)
@@BookEndsLiterary Thank you for responding.
Mine's a little more anal than your suggestions but basically the same idea! Thank you for the confirmation! BTW, I'll blame my quirkiness on being a writer while I tell you I just replayed y'all's song at the end because that's my fave part of the tune! Yes, I know!😂
How often do you make offers to authors who end up choosing other agents? Has that changed in the last few years? Wondering how/if this correlates with the slowdown you spoke about in publishing.
Interesting question! I'm not sure that we have the answer to this, for the most part I don't think we really tend to track what we miss out on, just who accepts!
Jessica you are savage :D lol