Should you query literary agents in the summer?
While much of the publishing industry will decamp to the beach, your dream agent could still be waiting for your query. Photo by Karolina Grabowska
Age-old wisdom says you should never query agents in the summer months, but is this a myth or a fact?
One thing that is 100% true is that the publishing industry drastically slows down over the summer, far more than other commercial industries. If you’re coming from another field, publishing will probably seem quaint, or even infuriating, though perhaps the world would be better off if we all followed this lead.
From Memorial Day on, the industry takes a deep breath. Kids are out of school, agents and editors go on vacation (Hamptons anyone?), and those who are in the office often take Fridays off….so there is a very good reason many authors avoid querying at this time.
Historically, this summer slow-down meant your query was more likely to get tossed into a towering paper slush pile, or worse, completely missed in a messy email inbox. So this is not a myth, and anyone who tells you to wait until fall is not giving you bad advice.
However….
Times are changing.
With more and more agents using online submission systems like QueryManager, you’re far less likely to get lost in the shuffle. Yes, submission forms are super annoying to use as an author, but they dramatically increase the odds that your query will be seen and responded to (even if it’s with a form rejection). That means that as long as the agent is accepting queries, they’ll eventually see yours, even if they take time off for the summer.
One can also argue that in this frenetically paced world, many agents use the slower summer months to catch up on submissions. Plenty are actively looking for new submissions (I just rounded up a bunch of them for my newsletter), and there’s bound to be less competition when fewer authors are pitching.
So what do I tell my students or clients to do? It depends on their situation, but here’s my most likely advice:
If their book is about a very timely topic that could lose steam by waiting, I would encourage them to jump on in.
If their topic is evergreen but their submission is in top shape and they feel motivated to query, I probably would recommend testing the waters with a handful of agents. If they don’t get any wins but do get helpful feedback, they can always use that information to revise their query for a wider submission in the fall.
If their book still needs a bit of work, I’d recommend they use the summer months to edit and polish before submitting in the fall.
What NOT to do when it comes to timing your submissions
First, and most obvious: Don’t pitch before you’re entirely ready. I’d rather you query a fantastic book on Christmas Day than submit anything less than your best any other day of the year. Most books aren’t rejected because the idea is terrible or the author is a horrible writer but because they pitched before they were ready. Timing is infinitely less important than the quality of your submission. So make it the best it can possibly be.
The other thing I don’t want you to do is waste time trying to game the odds by perfectly timing your submissions. You’ll find blogs out there that have admirable analysis on which months traditionally have the most book-deal announcements. It’s fascinating, but it’s not going to help you land an agent. For one thing, book deals are announced weeks or even months after they’ve been agreed upon, and the timing of a book’s sale is unrelated to the month an agent took it on.
A few other tips for submitting your query
Don’t
Email agents who say they are closed to queries or whose submissions managers aren’t accepting submissions
Wait if your topic is especially timely and could lose steam quickly
Pitch a book in the summer (or any other time, really) if it’s not 100% ready to go
Do
Query agents who still say they’re open to submissions (You can often find this information on their website, their social media accounts, or on their Manuscript Wishlist if they have one.)
Prepare yourself for a slower response time
Use this time to edit/polish if your preferred agents aren’t open yet
Take a break yourself!! If you’ve done everything you can, take some time to recuperate. You need and deserve it!
How to know if you’re ready to submit your query to agents
I have relentlessly hammered the point that you shouldn’t pitch agents until you’re ready, but how do you know if you’re ready? That can be hard to determine, but it’s important to know this: Agents and publishers want to see books that are as close to publishable as possible. Unless you’re a household name, they’re not going to find the hidden genius in your idea and help you bring it to fruition.
At a bare minimum here’s what you need:
For fiction: A query letter plus a complete, finished, polished manuscript. They’ll likely start by asking for the first few pages or chapters, but they’ll expect the rest of the book to be ready immediately upon request.
For nonfiction: A query letter plus a polished book proposal, complete with marketing plan and sample chapters. (More on proposals in this post “How to Write a Knock-Out Book Proposal + Template.”)
For memoir: This gets tricky. Some agents and publishers will treat memoir like fiction and request the entire manuscript, while others will want a book proposal. And some will want both!
When the time is right, here are a few additional blog posts that can help:
6 Things You Must Do Before Querying Agents
How To Write A Query Letter That Wows Literary Agents
How To Find A Literary Agent: The 6-Step Strategy That Works For My Clients
Go get ‘em!!