Querying by the Numbers

Lots of folks have been discussing querying trends on Twitter, so I thought it might be time for another deep dive into my querying statistics. As some of you may know, I decided to query my most recent manuscript, an MG contemporary called SECRETS ROLLER COASTERS KEEP, not because my previous agent suddenly became a bad agent but because he no longer felt like the right agent for me. I was lucky enough to sign with Jennifer Herrington of Harvey Klinger Literary Agency back in April of this year, so that's where these numbers come from.

I'll forgo all the disclaimers I felt compelled to share last time, but you should take these facts and figures for precisely what they are: one writer's statistics querying one manuscript. If your numbers don't look like mine, that is no reason to fret. Every journey is unique, and every manuscript is, too.

I ended up submitting 77 queries over the course of three and a half months. You might think that's kind of high, and the truth is, it kind of is. But I've been around the block, so once I know my query's working, I commit and go all out. Here's how those replies broke down:

Partial requests: 6 (7.8%)

Full requests: 13 (16.9%)

Rejections: 45 (58.4%)

Non-responses: 13 (16.9%)

Offers: 3

(It's worth noting that I had at least twice as many non-responses until I received my first offer. It's also worth noting that some of these 13 non-responses eventually turned into responses, but only AFTER I'd accepted Jenn's offer of representation, so I didn't go back and change those outcomes in my notes.)

Query Response Times (Rejections) depicts the frequency of response times (how many agents responded in zero days, how many agents responded in one day, and so on) for the 45 agents who rejected my query:

If these response times surprise you, you should know I make a point of querying agents who respond to almost every query and/or who respond quickly. Though I do confirm that they represent my category, I pay way closer attention to the response rates and times reported on QueryTracker than to their #mswl. It's especially important to query fast-responding agents when you're getting your feet wet, as you need to figure out how well your query is performing, but I also feel like agents who treat querying writers well will also treat their clients well.

Now for the positive replies. Query Response Times (Requests) depicts the frequency of response times for the 18 agents who requested a partial or full:

The shape is generally the same, though it spikes several days later. Good news takes longer than bad news, at least in my experience, and these numbers bear that out. You may also want to know that the three query responses that eventually turned into offers are embedded in this graph at 1, 2, and 62 days to response.

Here's how the quartiles break down for both rejections and requests. For the uninitiated, the median is the data point in the very middle of the set; 50% are below it while 50% are above. Likewise, the quartile Q1 is exactly halfway between the minimum and median while the quartile Q3 is exactly halfway between the median and maximum.

What exactly does this mean? Look at the Combined column first. The median is 17 days, which means that 50% of the agents who responded to my query did so within 17 days. Now look at the Rejections column. Since Q3 is 39, we can say 75% of the agents who rejected my query did so within 39 days. I like looking at quartiles and especially the median because measures like the average are more influenced by outliers. Case in point: the Combined average is 23.8 days because that maximum response time is so much higher than the others.

Perhaps you'd also like to know what my response times looked like on partial and full requests. Sadly, the next graph doesn't differentiate between them--you can blame my laziness--but I hope you'll find it helpful.

Somewhat surprisingly, the shape of this graph mimics the shape of the first two, which suggests that many agents respond to partials and fulls in about the same amount of time that they respond to queries. I should also let you know that one agent took 102 days to reject my full, but since I'd already accepted Jenn's offer of representation by that point, I didn't include it here. As for where my offers fall, they're embedded in this graph at 3, 33, and 94 days to response. (The 3-day response was to a partial, so the amount of time it took the agent to review my full isn't reflected in this graph.)

Here's how the quartiles break down (and this time, I did log partials and fulls separately):

As you might expect, it generally takes agents longer to respond to fulls than partials. Also, my numbers are skewed because I received an offer roughly three and a half months after sending my first query, which forced the others to respond and created an artificial upper bound. (My query response times are probably also a little skewed for the same reason.)

I think that's it from me! Have you queried this year, too, and if so, what would you add?