I really appreciate your transparency. Honestly, your process sounds similar to what most people go through simply reading for enjoyment - we buy a book, we really want to read it, then we buy another - our tbr list growns, our book shelves overflow. Then we must read the book club selection before the book club meeting, work on our own writing and research, etc. Not enough hours in a day:)
The whole process you just described sounds much like what a manager would do in reviewing the CVs and applications. It’s easy to fall behind, and there’s never enough time in the day.
Thanks for sharing this, Kesia. It's really helpful to get an insight into your process, to see it from the other side. As an author, it's harder waiting for a response when you don't know what's going on. I wish agents would drop a quick note to say they've received a query and it's in process or they're going to start reviewing it in a week, or two, or three, whatever kind of update they can provide. Otherwise the query could be lost in the ether, and we won't know.
Completely understand this, though with 1000s of queries it’s not possible to personally reply to everyone. I do find QueryTracker good for this as it ensures no queries are lost in a busy inbox! Thanks so much for reading and replying ❤️
How do you determine the priority of your guilt list? Is it based on timing, initial enthusiasm, something else? I've had a full out with another agent for over a year and I see a ton of responses on QT before and after mine and yet still, I languish.
The guilt list is definitely in order of oldest to newest for me, but it’s true that brand new fulls may jump the line if there is, for instance, a lot of interest from other agents. I’m so sorry you have been waiting so long!
Great insights and really helps us understand what it must be like to wade through all those manuscripts. I wonder are you tempted to use an AI like ChatGPT or Claude to process such a volume or work?
I totally understand and am glad to hear you say that. I was simply wondering if it had any practical application for some of what your work involves. As somebody whose day job is software engineering, I find it a double-edged sword. I do use it for assistance with the mundane parts of the job but find it often unhelpful for the real work. I personally would never use it for writing but some people find it useful for outlines, editing, etc.
Thank you for sharing more about your process! It can feel so excruciating to be on the author side of this, but it helps to read about the agent process. Have fun in London!
Thanks so much for your insight, Kesia. As always – posts like yours really help to demystify the process. As I’m sure you know, us unagented authors spend a lot of time second guessing, tying ourselves in knots over the whys & wherefores, so this is really helpful. Publishing takes serious time!
I really appreciate your transparency. Honestly, your process sounds similar to what most people go through simply reading for enjoyment - we buy a book, we really want to read it, then we buy another - our tbr list growns, our book shelves overflow. Then we must read the book club selection before the book club meeting, work on our own writing and research, etc. Not enough hours in a day:)
Honestly, it’s not a million miles away from that - you are so right! Thank you ❤️
The whole process you just described sounds much like what a manager would do in reviewing the CVs and applications. It’s easy to fall behind, and there’s never enough time in the day.
Exactly like this! Thank you so much for reading. ☺️
Thanks for sharing this, Kesia. It's really helpful to get an insight into your process, to see it from the other side. As an author, it's harder waiting for a response when you don't know what's going on. I wish agents would drop a quick note to say they've received a query and it's in process or they're going to start reviewing it in a week, or two, or three, whatever kind of update they can provide. Otherwise the query could be lost in the ether, and we won't know.
Completely understand this, though with 1000s of queries it’s not possible to personally reply to everyone. I do find QueryTracker good for this as it ensures no queries are lost in a busy inbox! Thanks so much for reading and replying ❤️
Thanks for the insights. Signed, A Querying (still optimistic) Author
You're so welcome!
How do you determine the priority of your guilt list? Is it based on timing, initial enthusiasm, something else? I've had a full out with another agent for over a year and I see a ton of responses on QT before and after mine and yet still, I languish.
The guilt list is definitely in order of oldest to newest for me, but it’s true that brand new fulls may jump the line if there is, for instance, a lot of interest from other agents. I’m so sorry you have been waiting so long!
Thank you so much for this! I'm not yet at the querying stage, but I'm saving this email/post for when I (hopefully!) have fulls requested.
Great insights and really helps us understand what it must be like to wade through all those manuscripts. I wonder are you tempted to use an AI like ChatGPT or Claude to process such a volume or work?
No, I don’t find the idea of using AI for this purpose to be ethical, personally! Thank you so much ❤️
I totally understand and am glad to hear you say that. I was simply wondering if it had any practical application for some of what your work involves. As somebody whose day job is software engineering, I find it a double-edged sword. I do use it for assistance with the mundane parts of the job but find it often unhelpful for the real work. I personally would never use it for writing but some people find it useful for outlines, editing, etc.
Thank you for sharing more about your process! It can feel so excruciating to be on the author side of this, but it helps to read about the agent process. Have fun in London!
Thank you so much! ☺️
Thanks so much for your insight, Kesia. As always – posts like yours really help to demystify the process. As I’m sure you know, us unagented authors spend a lot of time second guessing, tying ourselves in knots over the whys & wherefores, so this is really helpful. Publishing takes serious time!
It really does - frustratingly!! So glad this is helpful ❤️