Rigid Rules

One aspect of this process I find interesting is the querying rules. Agents all have their own specific sets of rules about how to query, and for the most part I follow them exactly. I believe this comes from my work as a proposal writer. One aspect of that job that I enjoyed was the fact that the format was set in stone. We had to follow the RFP guidelines to the letter, even if it seemed counter intuitive. I find myself doing the same with these queries. I would imagine, having been on both sides of the proposal process, that many writers don’t follow the instructions as precisely. I think I would find that irksome as an agent.

If I, an agent, specifically told a writer to query me in a certain way, it wouldn’t automatically disqualify them, but I would sure begin reading their work with a different mindset.

But what I find interesting is that there is no set standard for query replies. I received to rejections yesterday. One of them came on nice letter head and was typed, TYPED like on a type writer, quite formally. That was the best rejection yet. Surprisingly, on the day that I get my best rejection, I also get my worst. This rejection came from an agent who didn’t even bother to use her own paper. She wrote “Not for us” at the top of my query and placed my own query back into my SASE. Great for recycling and being green, but still, kinda lazy and cheap if you ask me.

If a writer goes through all the trouble that I do, using resume paper, printing out the agents name and address on the letter, printing a nice SASE, stamps on everything, I would at least expect a form letter in response.

Interestingly the best rejection I’ve gotten was a hand written note from an agent in New York. She had scrawled in cursive on the note, “Sadly, not quite right for me. But good luck! Thanks for the query.” Then she signed her name.