How Literary Agents Review Queries: 5 Insider Secrets

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You’ve spent hours researching agents and perfecting your query letter — only to hit “send” and feel like it’s been lost to the void. It can take weeks or sometimes months for agents to review your query, which can be disheartening and lead you to a spiral of doubt. In today’s video, I’m revealing five secrets about how agents actually review their queries. I hope it helps demystify the process and makes you feel more confident as you await a response!
 
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HOW LITERARY AGENTS REVIEW QUERIES:
01:28 – They begin with the basic details
03:48 – Each agent has a system  
06:32 – They are open to updates
07:57 – Personalization can be nice, but isn’t necessary
09:25 – Querying is like speed dating
 
ABOUT ME: 
My name is Alyssa Matesic, and I’m a professional book editor with nearly a decade of book publishing and editorial experience. Throughout my career, I’ve held editorial roles across both sides of the publishing industry: Big Five publishing houses and literary agencies. The goal of this channel is to help writers throughout the book writing journey—whether you're working on your manuscript or you're looking for publishing advice.
 
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[joevaldez]

With 44 agents queried, I've received 7 rejections--6 generic, 1 personalized--in two weeks. The personalized one was very encouraging. 10 agents I queried use QueryManager and 5 of those have gotten back to me already. Cecilia's observation is a good one. Like dating, the process is intensive, but it has to be to get the results both parties seek. I don't want a business partner who's less than 110% invested in my work. Anyway, that's keeping my spirits up for now. Keep these tremendous videos coming, Alyssa.

[squashfan]

I reckon I'm now past 100 queries, still 'work in progress'. I've consumed lots of helpful videos and articles.
Here's the key points I've learned:
1 - Publishing is first and foremost a business. It's commercial. Books are products for making money.
2 - Agents are not your friend. They are always looking to say no, at the earliest opportunity.
3 - Don't make it easy for them by failing to follow their simple query instructions.
4 - Be patient, keep going, don't take it personally.

[rachelparris]

I just wanted to echo that in my experience referrals don't necessarily help (they don't hurt of course). I've queried two books and both had a decent request rate. Six of my queries were referrals to agents from author friends and only one of those resulted in a full request. All the other requests were from cold queries.

[rowan]

That may explain why I get these generic responses saying "This is not what I'm looking for right now."
Even when I read their bio what genres they represent and what tropes they want more. This makes me wonder when it's the right time they would see fit liking my MS.

[KevinBarrettDalton]

I'm getting ready to re-query a Victorian murder mystery novel I first queried over a year ago. I had gotten personalized feedback from (what I'm told is) a pretty high percentage of the agents I queried, but none of them wanted to see the book, unfortunately. I then got more feedback on it, revised it pretty extensively and will be sending it out again. My question is regarding the agents to whom I sent it the first time. Since they didn't say that they'd be willing to look at it again after revisions or anything like that, I assume I can't send it to those same agents again? And especially the ones that sent a form rejection. Which would be unfortunate, since I pretty well covered the vast majority of appropriate agents... Thanks for any advice you can provide, and I always find your videos informative and enjoyable.

[JohnDWJ]

Thank you so much. Subscribed.
I’ve been querying for about 9 months now. It has been quite a process of patience and moving through rejection, silence being the worst form of it.
I feel good about my letter and my story.
I’m sure I’ll find the right person as the energies align.

[y.t]

I’ve been binging watching your videos lately, although my novel has 0 word so far 🤣🤣🤣 Good stuff!
I’m a full time engineer. But maybe I’ll start writing my novel later this year, based on my own family saga 🤣 The motivation was that I hardly ever impressed by any family saga novels. What happened in real life in my family (a couple of generations before me) was much more ridiculous 🤣 And I like reading and writing. Maybe I’ll start my novel as a way to deviate from my daily engineering work and relax.

[christinabriggs]

Thank you for this Alyssa.You are a gem. 😁

[edsimnett]

The idea that agents not using query tracker or equivalent would know about previous queries is 100% opposite from what I have been told by other agents, every other video on this topics talks about how many queries there are, and the work required to log submissions in detail would be insane. Change the title, word count and precise genre description, and how would they know it is not a different project anyway? It is entirely reasonable that an aspiring author might have a project a year or more (and why not query the same agents), while another might spend 10 years working on the same project?

[larssjostrom]

This is very informative. The first insider secret I have written in my notebook. I am glad for the comparison to speed dating, some people make it seem like I have to make a marriage proposal in my query letter by making someone feel very special to me.

[maryfuzzell]

This is like dating. Anything but a yes, is a no. No matter how nice or cruel the no is stated. There is no hope, there is second chance. So don't waste precious time trying to make the wrong agent love you. Move ahead, get feedback from peers and find your yes by sending more queries

[Jane_Harlie]

Thank you so much for all that you do for us, Alyssa! I'm 2 months into my novel and a little over half way done writing....I'll expect the worst but hope for the best when it comes time for querying. Hahaha!

[wilshade]

Important and useful information as always. I learn something with each and every video. I'm in the home stretch of my finishing my book. Querying has started creeping into my thoughts. My goal is to have the book finished and ready for querying by the end of June.

[samp]

Thanks to the authors here for their honesty about receiving numerous rejections. It makes other authors like myself not feel alone with the rejections we have received too. So thanks and good luck to everyone, maybe this is our year to get a "yes" . ❤ Thanks Alyssa, your channel is my favourite one to learn from. Great information as always. ❤

[anandaferraresi]

Alyssa, you are so necessary. Thank you.

[latham]

Thank you so much for these videos. I’m doing everything so can to make my first query as best as it can be. Your videos put me on track.

[MatthewHilferding]

I've been actively querying for representation on an epic fantasy quadrilogy for some months now, but I've been going about it pretty slow, trying to keep fove letters out at a time. I've sent out about 30 or so, no requests, i jist got another rejection today.

[Caerulean]

New setup's great but I just realized what's missing: the doggo. xD

[mre]

Love this video and all your content! Thank you so much for your straightforward approach to the market! The one thing I’d probably add is that querying actually shouldn’t be like dating at all. It should be like speed interviewing or even Shark Tank. Writers tend to invest so much of themselves in the process that writing becomes more of an extension of themselves rather than a product that they produced through creativity. For better or worse, this creates an emotional attachment, similar to anything we endeavor to create. Consequently, we are now being rejected or accepted or questioned, rather than the product and it creates significant emotional turmoil with us. I think one of the best ways to overcome this is by using positive self talk such as; “I am not the character in my book, ” or “this book was born out of creativity and I’m proud of it, but it doesn’t define me or change my intrinsic value.”

[MrDanroche]

Just started querying my latest manuscript. Kept the first batch small. 4 so far, might submit one more then wait