The Problem with Dragons

I started querying my New Adult Fantasy novel, The Shattered Queen in February. Let me share with you how it’s going.

Just a side note. I adjusted the genre to NA Fantasy. New Adult is a category that fills the gap between YA (Young Adult) and Adult books. My writing tackles subject matter that is not appropriate for those 16 and younger, but I write fairly clean romance that is safe for 16+.

My novel could also be classified as High Fantasy – which means my story is set in a fictional world entirely of my making with its own rules and magic system. Or it could be put into the category of Romantasy, though it is tame by that genre’s standards.

Alright, I feel like I went off on a side quest there. Let’s get back on topic – Querying. Most aspiring authors use QueryTracker to simplify the querying process. You can find a list of agents currently accepting queries there, and many of those agents also use QT to manage the queries they receive. In fact, for many agents, you can do everything through QT, and it saves loads of time because it can save your information and automatically add it to each query you submit.

Here is what my QT Dashboard currently looks like. I know it seems pretty desolate, but it’s not unusual for agents to have an 8-12 week turnaround on queries. One agent that I follow on X received like 500 queries in the first 48 hours. Writing is highly competitive, and agents can’t possibly take on as many books as they would like to. It’s normal to query for years sometimes before landing a literary agent.

As you can see, I have already received two frowny faces since February, with 8 outstanding responses. The clouds indicate that my query was submitted through QT and will update automatically as responses are sent from the agents. The other symbols mean that I queried the agent either through email or a custom form on their website. Now, to be fair, this is really only 1 rejection so far. The first frowny face is because the agent I submitted to had just closed to fiction, so it wasn’t a true rejection, though I am sure there will be many more to follow.

I tend to be a slow and steady type of individual when it comes to querying. I want to see what, or if, I get any more specific feedback from the agents before I query again. This is a humbling process, and I may need to do more work on my manuscript or my pitch before querying another 10 agents. I have adopted this mindset because I have seen other writers rush headfirst into querying without taking the time to receive feedback and make adjustments.

I will keep you posted on how things go. I expect that in the next four weeks, I will receive 4-8 rejections, and then I can get to work again on strengthening my manuscript and query letter. It’s about the journey, yes, but also the destination.

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