Revenge Querying

An author friend once told me that when she was querying her YA manuscript, for every rejection she received, she sent out two more queries. She called this revenge querying. And it must have worked (or something must have worked) because you could walk into almost any bookstore today and pick up her book.

The theory behind her revenge querying is sound. Rejections hurt, even when you’ve been querying for so long that you’ve lost count of how many you’ve gotten; but if you remind yourself that it’s just another no (and that, really, all you need is ONE YES), you get back out there and try again. And again. And again and again.

So I’m taking my author friend’s revenge querying to a new level.

Last week, I entered Michelle Hauck’s Nightmare on Query Street contest. I didn’t get in, but it didn’t upset me like it used to (way back a year ago or so). For one thing, I think I have contest fatigue. There are only so many you can enter before you realize you have great contest luck (like one of my critique partners) or you’re better off querying (me). There’s also the realization that getting into a contest doesn’t mean you’ll get an agent. Contests are just a way to stand out from the rest of an agent’s slush pile, which in the end might mean nothing.

Still, the NoQS contest wasn’t a complete wash. Because (back to the whole revenge querying thing) I do have a little resentment, a little rejection anger, and I’m putting it to good use. I’m going to take the list of Nightmare on Query Street agents and I’m going to query them. All of them. Well, okay, not the ones that don’t fit my category and genre, but as many as I can. For the rest, I’ll look into the other agents in their agencies and find the ones that fit my manuscript. I’ll query them.

It may take me some time to get through all those NoQS agents, especially since I’m going to also apply revenge querying to Brenda Drake’s Pitch Wars agents. (Yeah, I didn’t get into that contest either, but I was so close according to one of my mentors. See this.) I think I’ll feel just a little bit of satisfaction when I have success (partial or full requests) with any agents that participated in those contests.

My author friend said revenge querying works and I believe her. It hasn’t gotten me an agent yet, but I’m hopeful. Always hopeful.