{"id":1422,"date":"2019-02-21T17:28:12","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T22:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/?p=1422"},"modified":"2019-02-21T17:32:25","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T22:32:25","slug":"querying-triage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/21\/querying-triage\/","title":{"rendered":"Querying Triage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Thinking about querying can be overwhelming and a bit nauseating to boot. Mostly there&#8217;s just so many questions. So little feedback. So much lost sleep! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of thinking about querying as it&#8217;s own unique situation that doesn&#8217;t happen the same way in other industries, think of it like a job search. Yes! It&#8217;s another overwhelming and slightly nauseating situation with a lot of helpful parallels that might just allow you to figure out what needs adjusting in your process as to finally &#8220;get the job&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.giphy.com\/media\/6AaB96ZVrUN0I\/giphy.gif?w=580&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Query &#8211; Resume<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>When you send the query out, it&#8217;s similar to a resume you may send employers hoping to catch their interest about your skills. The query functions much in the same! It captures an agent&#8217;s attention and provides some promise about your ability and story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If your query is not catching attention, treat it as if your resume isn&#8217;t getting bites either. Consider these changes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Adjust who you&#8217;re sending it to. Perhaps there are agents better suited for the type of stories you write<\/li><li>Be more specific. It could be that the teaser information you provided wasn&#8217;t making your concept clear enough. <\/li><li>Show your skills by identifying comp titles or thinking outside the box. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Partial Request &#8211; Phone Interview<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Great work! You caught their eye! This means you&#8217;re getting a chance to show your stuff for real. However, if you didn&#8217;t get an upgrade to the full manuscript, there was likely something about the pages that turned them off. Look for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Pacing issues. This may make the events of your story feel disjointed. <\/li><li>A lack of emotion. Whether on the page or from the characters, missing this crucial element can makes it hard to connect to them.<\/li><li>Unclear stakes. Without tension, it can muddy up the reason your character is trying to achieve their goal. Do they even have a goal?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Full Request &#8211; The Interview<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether this is an upgrade from the partial, or a direct result of the query, getting here is a great sign! But when you don&#8217;t secure that final &#8220;yes&#8221; take a review of your story:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Look for common reasons the answer was no<\/li><li>Was the manuscript fully polished and ready to submit? We&#8217;ve all sent things too early sometimes. <\/li><li>If the answer is no the previous possibilities, then maybe the reason is the proverbial &#8220;not a good fit&#8221;. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Along the way, there are different approaches to take that can help better your story in the event there has been a struggle reaching the next stage. Maybe try new betas, new CPs, reading more in your genre, or even letting the idea sit for a while before editing again. And ultimately, if it just wasn&#8217;t a good fit, locate some new agents you respect, trust, and admire and send more queries! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It only takes one &#8220;yes&#8221;! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.giphy.com\/media\/p1chWWGExnuYE\/giphy.gif?w=580&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thinking about querying can be overwhelming and a bit nauseating to boot. Mostly there&#8217;s just so many questions. So little feedback. So much lost sleep! Instead of thinking about querying as it&#8217;s own unique situation that doesn&#8217;t happen the same way in other industries, think of it like a job search. Yes! It&#8217;s another overwhelming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59,41,47,34,42,45,72,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agent","category-characters","category-editing","category-inspiration","category-plot","category-practice","category-query","category-writing-tips"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YHlB-mW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1422"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1433,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions\/1433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}