This is a post about agents and statistics.
Meet Laura Bradford. She is @bradfordlit on twitter.
She is a Literary Agent with Bradford Literary Agency. Not only is she an agent, she made the agency.
In January, we had a conversation about agents, writers, and the query submitting process. I asked her for a rough estimate on how many queries she received in a month.
Instead of giving a rough estimate, she went out of her way (with the help of @Natalie_Lakosil) to get an actual count of queries from February. I can’t express just how grateful I am to have access to this information.
I strongly recommend going to Laura’s twitter feed and reading her exact posts. I am going to give a brief description of the statistics.
She received 924 queries. This was average for a month. She states that she receives anywhere between 800 to 1,000 queries in any given month. This is approximately 11,000 queries in a year.
If you have wondered why it is difficult to get an agent, this is part of the reason why. What makes you stand out from the 10,999 other interested parties?
Do you write the genre the agent wants?
Did you follow their submitting guidelines?
Did you bother to read their agency page?
Laura replies to all of her queries. Of the queries she received in February, she had a 1% request rate. She says don’t be discouraged, because of the queries she did receive, a lot fewer than 924 were in the same ballpark.
After reading some of her tweets, I’d be surprised if they were in the same universe as Laura’s guidelines.
There is a lesson to learn here. Queries don’t have to be perfect. They do, however, need to be in the same galaxy the agent is in. They need to be, at the very least, in the same genre the agent represents.
I’ve learned a lot of things following agents on twitter. First and foremost, they are real people. They have likes and dislikes just like you and me.
Queries need to be interesting and catchy. I’m quickly coming to the conclusion there is no such thing as a perfect query because every agent is different. They like different things.
What they do need is to be submitted to guideline, tell what your story is about, and interest the agent.
Unfortunately, you won’t know if you interest an agent until you send the query. But, don’t be cutesy, don’t think you’re special and can get away with it, and follow instructions.
There are 10,999 other folks — at a minimum — out there who are competing with you. And some of them even follow instructions.
Read Laura’s twitter feed. You want to know what to not do? She explains it, rather clearly. Listen, even if she isn’t in your genre. I know she doesn’t represent mine, but I’ve learned a lot from her regardless. While her agency does represent urban fantasy, epic fantasy isn’t on the list of sub-genres/genres represented.
I hope you find this information useful! I did.