What To Do Now That Your Query Is Out?

Now that you’ve sent out your query letter to agents, what do you do? Don’t just sit around twiddling your thumbs while you watch for the mailman and watch your inbox. Go take that trip you’ve waited for, go work in your garden or kitchen. Clean the house or watch that week long marathon you’ve been dreaming of. Do whatever it is you’ve been putting off while you perfect your novel. It may even do you good to start a new book. Those characters that kept bothering you but didn’t fit in your current novel have their own story to tell. Let it out and get immersed in a new story. Whatever you do, don’t keep rereading and rereading the same story trying to perfect it. Live a little and learn something new. Get your mind out of the story and relax. After a month, or at least a week, you can go back to your story and look at it again with new eyes. You need a new perspective and a less stressed mood to see things as a reader and not the writer. Start the process over again if you want or wait until your first round of replies comes. Some replies will probably come within days, others may never be replied to while others may take months to get through their pile of suggestions.



Just relax and remember that any rejections you get are at your writing, not you personally. Writing is a craft you learn, a technique you perfect. Most authors have gone years before they got published but they kept at it because they loved to write and they knew that one day someone would treasure their story as much as they did. Here is a good article on other famous authors who got rejected and how they dealt with rejection.



As a side note, don’t expect every agent or editor you send your query letter to will give you a reason why they don’t want it. Some will give you a critique if they have the time but many agents and editors (speaking for freelancers) won’t be willing to open themselves up to arguments from authors who think their work is the best the world has ever seen. If you want examples, read this article from an editor’s perspective. Once you’ve gotten the rejection letters, and you will probably get a few your first time out at least, read them and decide what next. You can send the editor/agent a thank-you for their time, which may get you a few brownie points in the future but probably won’t matter, you can throw the story away and start fresh in a fit of despair, you can relax, breath deep, and just accept that you aren’t a perfect fit for the person at that time, or any number of other responses. Arguing with an agent or editor is a sure way to be ignored in the future, at least by that person, but sending a professional thank you to someone who sent a critique is a must. Get known for being nice and professional and you may start getting more critiques, or you may still be treated like everyone else. It’s up to you to decide how you react, their words are merely their opinions and not the global opinion. Keep that in mind and you may become a published author yet.