Here we go.

I’ve thought long and hard about HIGMA posts and how I would approach writing mine, and I concluded that utter chaos was the way to go. But first, for people who share my attention span, here’s my querying journey in one paragraph:

I wrote a book. I edited (major). I edited again (major). I edited again (minor). I edited again (minor). Then, I wrote a query letter. Then, I queried. Received rejections (lots), full requests (a few), an offer (one). Stars aligned, and I ended up signing with my dream agent. So, instead of telling you how I got my agent, sit down, grab a cup of tea, and let’s talk about how I almost did not query her. But first, here’s some unsolicited advice.

On preparation.

Pre-query prep is perhaps the most important step in the querying game. You’ve written a book, you’ve done your best to polish it, and now you’re at the dreaded querying stage. Some people don’t dread it, but it was my first ever time querying and I didn’t know how I would react. However, I was mentally prepared to die in the trenches. (Call me pessimistic, I’ll tell you I’m realistic. TBH, I had zero expectations bc expectations lead to disappointment ...seems like I have my own character journey to go on.)

The Query Letter

I wrote my query letter in the middle of one of the largest malls in the world while we were looking for a Japanese bakery. It was a pitiful thing in my notes app. Loose draft, bare bones, but it was something. More importantly, it made this whole thing real. I rewrote the words until I had two versions. Then, I sent it to my friends who generously took the time to give me notes. After that, it went to my CP, who helped me fine tune the ending. Lastly, it went to my husband aka the most neutral party. In my head, if he could make sense of it without having read the book, it was good to go.

Made some more tweaks here and there over the next few weeks and I ended up with the opening lines of the query, which I am incredibly proud of:

“Born with a rare ability to control the dead, Viola has two reasons to hate her death magic: it killed her sister, and now, it will kill her too.”

Around mid May, I decided it was time. (If you ask my CP about this, she will tell you she threatened to take my laptop and query for me if I didn’t do it!) ANYWAY, it was time. I knew the book needed work, but I didn’t KNOW what else to do with it on my own, which meant I needed help. I knew I wanted to pursue traditional publication, which meant I needed an agent.

The Agent List

Make an agent list. But Sonia, HOW do I do that? Lots of easy ways. Pull out your favourite books, flip to the acknowledgements, and start noting down your favourite authors’ agents. Bonus points if you’re in the same genre/age group. Oh no, you’re done, and your list is still thin (my og list had 9 agents, so don’t feel bad!)

MSWL (disclaimer: i didn’t use mswl) is another excellent way of finding agents.
Query Tracker is also excellent at filtering by genres, by who’s open for sub etc.
Finally, whisper networks are G O L D E N. They have all the insider tea about what’s going on in the querying landscape, and they are wicked fast at telling you who’s open and who’s closing. Where to find whisper networks? Ask around, a friend of a friend will have a discord link. What if you don’t have friends? TIME TO MAKE FRIENDS. Hop on instagram, bluesky or threads. People (not everyone) are kind and will (usually) help.

On querying.

If I’m honest, the act of querying itself was uneventful. I’ve heard people describe it as cathartic, and I think that’s beautiful. To me, it was a lot of copy pasting because I did not take the advice of pre-splitting docs in 10 pages, 15 pages, 20 pages, 25 pages and 50 pages. So, don’t be like me, save different versions of your sample pages.

Some people query in batches. Some do not. I did not, mainly because response times are at an all time high, and it wouldn’t have changed anything for me. I was pretty confident in my query letter (it ended up doing semi-alright with a 30% request rate) and agents don’t give personalised feedback anymore (ONE agent gave a short personalised feedback on my query package).

That being said, it was a lot of fun sending the actual queries. I loved personalising them — I personalised all my queries, save for one because an agent I had been waiting for had opened a few hours prior and I scrambled to query her in case it was a fluke and she wasn’t actually open (spoiler: she requested a full almost immediately, so personalisation isn’t a must!).

As one does, I refreshed query tracker like my life depended on it, and in the process became an expert on QT data analysis. Seriously, I think I had most agents’ response patterns down to a T. I had a pretty good sense of who was going to CNR (close/no response), reject or request a full. I was right a whole lot (except for email queries; these ones were hard). Meanwhile, my poor CP had to deal with hearing “maybe this is awful and no one wants it” at least 4947 times a day for six whole weeks.

On rejection.

I’m very unfazed by rejections because I don’t take them personally (unless they come from me ..more on that below). The way I see it is, I don’t like every book I read, and I cannot expect agents to all like my book. Reading is subjective, and the expectations of agents having to like everything they read is ludicrous. If you follow me on the gram, you’re probably already familiar with my “This is the business of one yes” mantra, so I tried to focus on that. And my rejections on fulls were very kind, except one, where she was very rude and it wasn’t even about my book.

On self-rejection, or how I almost did not query my agent.

ha...ha ...this one’s about to be a good one, probably why you’re all here tbh. (Why do I blog like I text???) ANYWAY, I had somehow convinced myself I was too green for the big name agents. In my head, this was my first finished book (I’ve written a lot of books, just never finished them. I’ll talk about this someday because I apparently like to yap in longform) and it was nowhere near perfect, insert more self-doubt here and there. At that point, no one but me had read DEATHBRINGER in its entirety, but my best friend had read about 1/3 of the book and my CP had read one act and a lot of snippets.

I MADE THE GENIUS DECISION of not querying my dream agent, because I was convinced I was not ready yet, and that I was going to waste her time. Who told me this? ME, myself. When I say I am my biggest enemy, I am my biggest enemy.

ONE FINE NIGHT at 2 in the morning, after asking my CP 78 times whether I should query my now agent, I decided to HIT SEND ON THE QUERY. And friends, oh friends, this was an email query. I had no query tracker to lean on, so I had to ...wait.

...and I waited. Meanwhile, UK agents have this amazing policy of notifying them of fulls instead of just offers (which I personally think is brilliant because it helps prioritise), so I notified her of my fulls. And then, I received more fulls, so more notifications went out.

EXACTLY three weeks went by — and by now, everyone should know that I had already convinced myself that I was never going to get a response (before you come for me, please know time is a concept when querying and minutes feel like days) — she emailed me back.

Friends, when I tell you I’ve never held my breath opening an email before ...I was in the middle of making dinner when the email came in, so ofc I stopped, who needs to eat anyway when THE DREAM AGENT requests your manuscript??!!

I sent off the ms (yes, I tried to edit a chunky 126k word book in 30 mins before I sent it out — we’ve all established that I am a very logical person lol) ...and she acknowledged receipt within 20 mins (it’s always the little things!!!) THEN I SAT DOWN ...and if I could’ve held my breath for longer, I probably would have.

FIVE DAYS LATER SHE EMAILS ...

Before opening the email, I was CERTAIN it was going to be a rejection — no one reads that fast and loves it (reader, a lot of people would go on to read very fast and love it, but that’s a story for another day!). I began telling myself that it was okay, I had other books, I could always try again ...and my husband was quite done with me at that point. “Open the email,” he’d said.

I did.

It was not a rejection. Far from that, she was reading and loving it and said to let her know if I had any offers.

I was happy for a grand total of 15 minutes, before being a broken record of “What if the second half is awful and she hates it?” After being absolutely insufferable to my husband (live) and my CP (through text) ...I went back to my regular programming.

The days passed, and I received a few more full requests. More days passed (it was three days, but I am dramatic and remember query time is different from normal time) and no news, so naturally, it meant only one thing: it was a rejection.

NINE DAYS LATER, I was sitting in bed, fighting with scenes (something I do very often) and an email came in. Again, I held my breath, because ...this could be it: the rejection I was so certain was coming. (Again, why am I like this???) ...BUT IT WAS NOT.

Instead, it was a request for a call...

To this day, it is one of my favourite emails ever received. I cried. I never cry. From this single email, I knew she understood the book the way I did. She spoke of the characters with the same care I do. And she just KNEW what to do. On top of that, her assistant also loved it and sent me the loveliest note ever.

If I was feeling this way before the call, imagine how I felt after the call, except you won’t have to because I’m about to tell you.

On the OFFER.

Our call went splendid. Perhaps the greenest flag for me was that I had a long list of questions, and by the time we finished talking, she had answered all of them without me asking. And we were so aligned on editorial vision it was a bit like she stepped into my brain and figured out what I wanted to do with the novel. And I was so comfortable during our call it felt like I had known her forever. I love the “when you know you know” saying, because it applies to agents as well.

The offer came, and I notified agents who had my full, sent a couple more fulls, and withdrew my remaining queries. I know, I know. People say, you should cast a wide net, see how many offers you end up with, etc. etc. but remember my mantra about this being the business of one yes? It goes both ways.

Besides, THE Juliet Mushens offered me representation, and I wasn’t going to say no.

Words of Wisdom

Friends, we’ve come to the end of my post, and I’ve realised just how much I missed blogging. So I might be here more often than not. Before I sign off, let me sprinkle some of my wisdom (lol ...give me a pass, my name literally means wisdom).

Querying is mostly luck and timing.
Journeys are different — take all advice with a grain of salt.
Trust your gut. It’s always right.
There’s no secret recipe. You have to work hard, really really hard.
Agents don’t owe you anything. Most of them are underpaid, work overtime to read submissions and are as exhausted as you and me. Keep that in mind as you query.
Lastly, querying something as personal as a book is INCREDIBLY brave. I am proud of you, and I am rooting for you <3

Until next time,

Sonia x

P.S.: if you see a typo, no you didn’t ...look at the cute cat!

How I got my agent ...and a series of unsolicited advice.