Spirit Of Fire: August 2013 Update – Querying (Includes Tips)

Yeah, so I just thought that it’s been a long time since I updated you about the status of Spirit Of Fire, the first book in the Spirit Of Fire series. So, here’s what’s been happening:

Querying. Yeah, I’ve been doing bucketloads of querying. Querying agents, querying publishers–you get the idea. And this process can be quite a long, tiresome process. But, seeing as I want this book to be traditionally-published, this process is necessary.

I started querying agents at the start of July 2013, and as of August 24th 2013, I’ve sent queries to 32 agents. Of those, I’ve received 12 rejections, however many (I was pleased to see) weren’t the standard rejection note, but personalised to me and my book. One agent said “I would certaintly encourage you to keep trying”.

From the feedback that I have had so far from agents, one thing that I have found is that maybe my manuscript is too long. At 137,000 words, many agents are saying that although the concept is interesting, it is too long to market at a YA audience. And they’ve got a point. Most YA novels are 60,000 to 90,000 words. However, like with all things, there are exceptions. L.A Weatherly’s Angel novels are around 120,000 (did you check out the interview I did with her, regarding the third novel in the Angel trilogy–which incidentally I bought recently and can’t wait to read!).

But, despite my novel being long, (and there are plenty of fantasy novels out there that are longer) I’m still remaining optimistic; I hope that one day, I’ll get an email from an agent who just gets my novel. And of course, you’ll be the first to know when that happens!

Now, along side querying agents, I’ve also begun querying some small presses. Initially, I was a little skeptical about this, after all, there’re plenty of warnings about small presses out there, but it’s far more realistic for a relatively-unheard of writer to get published by a small press for their debut novel, rather than one of the big six.

With any query, the query letter is hugely important–after all, it can mean the difference between the agent reading the sample chapters, or not. Therefore, I spent ages perfecting my query letter. And there’s lots of info out there, to help you too, such as this site and this one.

But one of the most important things to remember when querying anyone–agents or publishers–is that you follow their guidelines as best as you can. If they ask for sample chapters, send them exactly the ones they want–usually, they’ll want the first three chapters, first 10,000 words or first 5-50 pages. Every agent and publisher is different, so make sure you send them what they want, and not what others might want.

And, another thing is that many won’t open attachments if you’re querying by email. So find out first whether you should include the requested materials as attachments, or in the body of the email.

And, once you’ve queried, it’s just really a matter of time of waiting. Some take 24 hours to reply. Others take up to six months. And, another thing, check through their guidelines for their response time, because some will only reply to ones that they’re interested in, others will reply to all.

So, read up on them. And only contact agents that will be interested in your work’s genre/readership. Most agents have preferences, so don’t waste your time sending an adult crime novel to an agent who only deals with children’s fiction.

So, to sum up, even though I haven’t been talking much about Spirit Of Fire recently, I haven’t forgotten about it. It’s gradually making its way out their, whilst I’m busy writing the fourth Untamed novel, Enhanced.