Why I Quit Sending Queries

I remember the day I first sent out query letters: It was January 24, 1988. I was a skinny, twenty year old Goth and my local post office was in Carmichael, California. I recall my kung fu slippers slapping on the dirty tile and the smell of paper in barrels; magazines and advertisements tossed out for recycling. Back then, you included a self addressed stamped envelope with your query. I had no idea how much each envelope weighed so I had to go up to the window; the staff at the Carmichael post office got to know me.

I sent hundreds of query letters to agents and publishers over the course of thirty-three years extolling the virtues of roughly two dozen different books. Most earned nothing more than a form rejection letter. How many rejections did I get? I collected them in my 20s until I had 273, got depressed about the shoebox of shame, and threw them all out. That was twenty years ago; I have probably gotten a couple hundred since then.

At the beginning of this month---(February, 2021)---I decided to stop sending query letters to agents and publishers. Doing so has proven to be a lot of effort for nearly non-existent reward. Before you send a query you need to know that agent or publisher: What do they like to read? What have their past projects been? What genres are they looking for? How many cats do they have? You have to research each one and then present your carefully honed query letter, which takes a great deal of effort itself. At the beginning of this month I reflected on the many times I’ve approached agents and publishers and decided to stop. If one approaches me, that’s another matter entirely, but as for continuing to chase after them---no. This dog has run his heart out and has finally accepted that he will not catch that car. The dog rather lie in the shade or chase the cat up a tree. (Long story: The cat is kind of a dick and pissed in my doggie bed).

I am 53. You get older and you get a stronger sense of your own mortality. Some of us, having that understanding that far more days are behind us than are before us, start eliminating things from our lives that do not make us happy, that do not serve us. Also, I want to spend the time I spent researching agents and publishers, all the hours crafting query letters, on writing and editing, making my projects as good as they can be---I am a writer, I will be one the rest of my life. I intend to continue self publishing books. I have little patience for marketing so each book may sell four copies but whatever.

This blog is not about how the publishing world has ignored “my genius” or how I am “too good to play the game.” It is simply that approaching agents and publishers has never worked for me; I need to direct my energy elsewhere. One place I am directing it is writing, and that feels right.

Izk

#writing #publishing #books