Earlier this week, Jessica Faust posted a request for Agentfail stories at the BookEnds, LLC, blog. It was a chance for writers to respond to the #queryfail day on Twitter that many of them had been so horrified by.
Most of the responses were as full of vitriol as these same authors accused #queryfail participants of. But a few nuggets came out of the maelstrom of hurt feelings and repressed anger.
One was a lack of responsiveness. Writers hated that a query doesn’t receive even an auto-response so they would know it had been received. They hated that agents play the no response = rejection card. Even though we all understand that agents (and editors for that matter) are overworked, it can be frustrating not to know when to cut your losses and submit somewhere else.
My questions for you are:
- How do you know when to cut a submission loose and move to another agent/editor?
- How do you keep track of submissions so you can maximize your submission cycle?
On a related note, #queryfail 2 is planned for April 17. Check it out on Twitter.
Edited to add: Here’s a link to a post on tracking submissions.
Interesting! I don’t write fiction (that’s worth even trying to sell, although I’d love to be able to do that someday). So I haven’t had much experience submitting a book proposal or anything. But I have submitted hundreds, if not thousands, of proposals or pitches for articles. And it’s always annoyed me when I don’t even get a “thanks but no thanks” or a “we got your submission” email. But when to give up on one and maximize the submission cycle? I don’t know, and I’d love to get some advice on that.
I keep a spreadsheet with the date the query is sent, the date I need to check in, and the date when it is considered rejected. I check my spreadsheet weekly to keep on top of things.
For my own writing, which is strictly poetry and short stories at this point, I keep all my info on Duotrope. Most of the folks I know personally also use either Duotrope or a spreadsheet for tracking.
As an editor, I always(!!!) send out an email letting the author know I’ve gotten their submission. And, my whole publication is just little old me. Even I can find time to do that, even if it takes me a month or longer to let them know whether or not I liked the story.
I think part of that comes from my own frustrations as a writer, but it just seems like it should be a standard.