Is it okay to double dip?
For those of you out there who have had the unique pleasure of receiving numerous agent rejections, I am wondering what happens when you actually run out of agents to query. Is it okay to go back and re-query agents if you change your query? It hasn't happened to me yet but I'm just curious since no matter how optimistic I might be, I also have to realize that the agent list is finite.
Thanks,
-Jenn
www.jlpenn.com
I had never considered this. I always thought that if I had run out of agents to query (and that is assuming my query was any good) that I would consider the novel trunked and move on to the next one. Of course, there is always the possibility of moving directly on to publishers as well.
One tactic is to doublecheck all agencies you queried that did not respond. Look for those that say they will send a response, either rejection or request. If you did not get a response from that agency, poilish your query letter and requery. You may have just gotten lost in their spam filter.
I have gotten requests for partials (and a full, once) using that tactic. In large part because my second query to the agencies was a much better query letter.
It is also helpful to know what genre you write in.
I'm in Fantasy at the moment and looking for agents in that genre. But I come across other agents of no interest to me. See what I mean.It is always possible for folk to message you with agents that might have listed out.
best wishes
I've also heard it said that you want to go back through your work before you send iot out again, and make sure it's the best it can be. Delete more usueless adverbs and speech tags, recheck your dialogue, and cut mnon-essential verbiage.
I think one would have to go a long way to bottom out on agents, agencies, and publishers though. I've found a bnearly bottomless barrel of places to sub to (and I've papered three rooms with rejection letters). There's always one more agent, one more house to look at.
I just looked at your site and blog (they look great, by the way). Seems like you want to sell a book you have already published independently to a trade (i.e., big) publisher). There are agents who specialize in that and agents who refuse to do so. You have to identify the ones who do. They want to see sales potential. If you sold, say, 300 copies in your home state or city the agent can use that to convince a publisher the book will sell nationwide.
You may also try going straight to a publisher. Sourcebooks looks for people like you who have a good book and the ability to self-market.
Best of luck.
(By the way, how many agents have you queried?)
If you run out of agents to query, you can always look into alternate paths to publication. You can query some publishers directly (be sure to check whether they accept unsolicited submissions). Self-publishing might be an option for you as well. Or, just move on to the next project. But new agents are coming up all the time, so you can always try them as they come along.
I hope this helps!
Short answer: yes
Long answer: Read my article The Road to Publishing to fully understand the process