Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The Waiting Game

It's been ten days since I sent off a whole bunch of Bell-Men queries to agents. In all, I had 20 queries out at once. I received four form rejects in the first three days, and then...nothing. Even allowing for the Easter weekend, that's just weird. I figured responses would be trickling in steadily for several weeks, not a whole week of nothing.

At least the four rejections were for queries that did not have sample pages as part of the query package. I can handle my query being weak, as long as my actual sample pages start generating some interest.

*Hits Refresh Inbox 10,000 times*

10 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

Hit refresh a few more times for me, huh?

K.C. Shaw said...

Sure, no problem. *refreshrefreshrefreshrefresh*

I can keep that up all day. And I do!

Fox Lee said...

Refresh like the wind! Then find something nice to eat. It will take your mind off things : )

Richard said...

I had thought the average round trip time for rejection letters was pretty long. Would you really expect a significant portion of those 20 to be back by now?

Cate Gardner said...

That is odd. Normally agents are much quicker than that and sometimes so quick you're still in the sending out queries process when the no's and partials start to come in.

RefreshRefreshRefresh.

K.C. Shaw said...

Natalie--The food is a good idea. Chocolate will probably fit the bit, although (since it's 9am here) probably not until I've eaten something more dreary, like oatmeal.

Lertulo--It all depends on the agent. Some of them get back very quickly and some of them take forever, so I figured I'd hear back from about half of the 20 agents within a few weeks, another five within the next few months, and about five would never respond at all.

Cate--Yeah, it's almost like my queries were just going into the huge black hole that lives in the middle of the internet, swallowing emails. Maybe 80% of all agents take Easter week off, and they're all just now getting back to reading queries.

Jamie Eyberg said...

You will hear great things, they are just backed up right now and haven't gotten to yours. :)

K.C. Shaw said...

They're probably all busy eating half-price Easter eggs.

Danielle Birch said...

I'm impatient as well. Maybe some chocolate to snack on while you're refreshing :)

K.C. Shaw said...

With one of those wonderful coincidences, I happen to have some chocolate right here, ready to eat. :)

Still nothing from any agents, yea or nay.