What next?

Some thoughts on what to do if/when querying doesn't go as planned.

A framed print in my office. (Art by Megan Herbert)

Today I’m answering another reader question, this one from Shelby, who asks:¹

Do you have any advice on querying, especially when hitting walls? After a year of rejections, I feel like I’m out of options. What next?

I love this question because hitting walls is a thing that happens often in this field, and not just to querying authors. It happens to agented-and-aspiring authors, too, and even published authors, often times in acquisitions meetings. Progress is rarely linear, and success can be followed by slumps or ruts or flatlines.

I’ll start by saying this Shelby: I’m sorry you’re feeling discouraged, but in a strange twist of fate, this feeling of “Ugh, what next?!” is a great feeling to get comfortable with. You don’t have to like the feeling, of course, but most writers I know ask themselves this question at least once a year—maybe even monthly—so you’re not alone!

I think there are a two important questions you need to ask yourself at this point in time. I’ll expand a bit below, but the short of it is this:

1. Are you ready to shelve this book or do you want to keep querying it?

2. Do you still want to be traditionally published? (With this book and/or another?)

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Are you ready to shelve this book?

Some writers know deep in their gut that it’s time to shelve a book. It’s a feeling—a loss of interest in the project, perhaps a lack of faith in the story, etc. But sometimes this question can be tricky because we still believe in the book. The reason we feel like there are no options left is simply because there’s been no agent interest.

If you’re uncertain on this point, I would spend a moment reviewing the type of feedback you’ve received from agents so far.

• Has it been silence and/or form rejections?

  • If yes, have you tried revising your query yet? Maybe it’s your query that’s not working!

• Have you received any partial or full requests?

  • If yes, great, your query is doing its job. What happened after the requests?

  • If you got form rejections, your pages are clearly not working for the agents.

  • If you received personalized rejections, this should be encouraging!

    • Did anyone suggest you query them again if you revise and/or if you write something new? Agents don’t say this unless they mean it!

If you’re receiving positive feedback and you still believe in your book, it may be worth querying another round.

On a similar note: How many agents have you queried? I recently queried again too,² and found that response times were pretty slow over all. There were also a lot of agents that I wanted to query who were closed to queries when I began my hunt. (I’d signed with someone new by the time these agents re-opened, but if I hadn’t, I could have tried them at that point).

All this to say, if you’ve only queried a few dozen agents, it may be worth doing another round and/or seeing if there are agents now open to queries who were closed when you first started querying.

If you believe your book still has legs and don’t want to give up on it yet, here are some things to consider before querying more:

1. Seek out feedback on your manuscript (via writers groups or crit partners)

2. Revise and polish as necessary (based on feedback you’ve received)

3. Workshop your query (again via writers group, crit parterns, etc)

Some folks may suggest hiring a professional editing service at this stage, but I would be careful about how you spend your money here. Not all editors are created equal—basically anyone can call themselves an editor and charge for services. There’s also no guarantee that a professional edit will lead to an offer from an agent, because the edit is simply feedback. They key is how you revise based on those notes.

Many people view a professional edit as an investment in oneself—and it is—but if the cost is large, I would save your money for educational experiences that cast a wider net.³ Things like workshops and writing conferences, where craft is taught on a large scale. This type of investment will help you with any/all future books you may write, whereas an edit letter on a book you’re hoping to query will only help you with that one book. (Author

Beth Revis

has shared similar thoughts on threads here, as well as suggestions on how to approach professional developmental edits here.)

That said, there are many more affordable editing/feedback opportunities that could be great at this stage: like a professional query edit or an edit on the opening 50-100p. (Again, Beth hints at this in the first link I shared above.)

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Do you still want to be traditionally published?

This is perhaps the biggest question that you need to address. If your main goal is traditional publishing, it makes sense to not give up on querying. Of course, you don’t have to keep querying this book. You could write something new and try again. But querying itself is quite a process, and if you heart is no longer set on trad, self publishing is a viable option.

Keep in mind that self publishing is not any easier than trad; it’s simply different. There are pros and cons to both avenues. I suggest taking a peek at this post from Nathan Bradsford, which lays out a few questions you should ask yourself when deciding if self publishing is right for you.

If you’re worried this is an either/or situation, don’t be! Some self published authors go on to secure an agent and trad deals down the road, so trying self-pub won’t close trad off to you. And some trad authors go on to dabble in self-pub for certain books. Writers who have a foot in each door are called hybrid authors, and many have great careers publishing in both spaces.

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What’s next?

What you do from here will depend on how you answered the above questions.

Perhaps you’ve decided to get some feedback and revise a bit, then try another round of querying with this project. Or maybe it’s time to write something new, then head back into the query trenches with that fresh novel. Maybe you’re ready to leave querying behind and take the plunge into self-publishing.

Quick note: If this is your very first time querying, I want to advise against jumping straight into self-publishing. Many, many writers don’t get an agent with the first book they query because their writing just isn’t strong enough yet. One of my very best writer friends—a super talented individual with an adaptation of her novel hitting screens soon—queried sixteen different novels before landing an agent with an ms that went on to be her debut. This friend admits that she wasn’t ready with the earlier books. She still needed to grow and strengthen her skills as an author. I know all that rejection wasn’t fun for her, but I also know she doesn’t regret it, because she got her break when she was finally ready.⁴

I know it can feel overwhelming to go back to a blank page and try all over again with something new. But if a book isn’t ready—if it’s not a strong piece of storytelling—it’s unlikely to succeed in any space, be it trad or self. The first book is a huge learning experience, and with each book you write, you will continue to learn and strengthen your skills, putting yourself in a better position to publish down the road.

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Okay. So let’s say you’ve decided that you don’t want to do self-pub at this point but you’re also not sure you want to keep querying this particular project. My suggestion would be to set this particular ms aside and try to write something new.

Honestly, the answer to almost all publishing conundrums is write the next book.

It might be hard to jump straight into something else. It’s okay if you’re feeling dejected and discouraged. Of course you are. Things didn’t go as you planned. Let yourself feel those things. Take a bit of time away from writing if you need to. Go for a walk, get coffee with a friend, read some books, travel. Do something that refills your well. Once you’re motivated and feeling inspired again, you can head back to the keyboard and write the next thing.

Lastly, I want to leave you with this reminder: When you hear “no” from agents, it doesn’t mean “never.” Every writer I know has faced rejection multiple times over. At the querying stage and the submissions stage. This field is full of rejection. But the one thing all these writers have in common is that they kept writing and they eventually got that yes.

So if you want to keep trying, please do.

For more querying advice, try my How to Query series, which start here:

How to Query, Part 1: Writing your query

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A note about my summer schedule

My kids get out of school this week. Throughout the summer, my posting schedule will be on pause, with the exception of monthly AMAs for paying subscribers, which will continue to post on the first Monday of each month.

Once everyone is back in school (very late August), things will be business as usual here at From the Desk of Erin Bowman.

Thanks for being one of my readers 🖤

Until next time,

Erin Bowman is the critically acclaimed author of numerous books for children and teens, including the Taken Trilogy, Vengeance Road, Retribution Rails, the Edgar Award-nominated Contagion duology, The Girl and the Witch’s Garden, and Dustborn. A web designer turned author, Erin has always been invested in telling stories—both visually and with words. Erin lives in New Hampshire with her husband and children.

1. Like last time I answered a question, this is paraphrased.

2. I haven’t talked about this much publicly, but I changed agents about a year ago.

3. This advise is mainly for very new writers. Once you are more seasoned and understand the ins/outs of crafts and have experience taking notes and turning them into an effective revision, a professional edit can be an excellent investment if/when you need one!

4. This friend is

Jodi Meadows

and her newsletter is great, if you want to check it out!