One Year of Querying: Stats & Lessons Learned • Querying Tips for 2024 • Meredith E. Phillips

[@NicoleWilbur]

This is great - awesome tips! I love following your journey! I'm so with you on that point of being realistic...my mindset isn't "I'm going to fail" but more "it might take 20 books but if I keep having fun and improving my craft, I have a decent chance - but be prepared for those 20 books :)" And thanks for the shout out - lol I added a timestamp to skip the pain of the letter 😂😂

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

Ahh thanks! Yeah, I've got to ground myself in the realities of a situation. Your video was so good! The pain of the letter is necessary lol

[@hgfwrites]

This is such a helpful video! As someone who’s looking to get my book traditionally published and hasn’t done too much research for querying yet, these tips were so important!

[@chelseawhite4129]

I just wanted to say how helpful this was! Thank you!

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

I'm glad it was helpful!

[@AnnaRobbinsWrites]

What an amazing resource this video is!!! I’m sure I will be back to rewatch it many times. Thank you Meredith 🧡

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

Thanks, Anna! I'm glad it's a good resource 🥰

[@readknitwithcheryl]

Thank you so much for this video, Meredith. I will be subbing to these channels and podcasts you recommended, for sure. I hope to be traditionally published, so this was very helpful. Have a wonderful week and don't give up on your books! As long as you want this as a career, go for it! I truly have a good feeling about you as an author and I believe it will happen for you!

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

Thanks, Cheryl!! I'm glad you enjoyed the video and I appreciate your encouragement 💕

[@IHBooks]

Since I have nothing to say about querying, I’ll comment on less vs fewer 😉 Fewer - things you can count. Less - things you can’t count. People vs sugar. Cars vs wind. Flowers vs pollen. Etc 😊

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

Oooo okay thank you!! I'll try to remember that next time lol

[@EmmaBennetAuthor]

What a useful video ❤

[@astoldbydiamond]

Thanks so much for sharing your whole process! I wish you best of luck on your next manuscript

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

Thank you!

[@thewriterssoundtrack]

This video was really helpful! I will definitely refer back to this when I start querying, thank you! 💕

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

Thank you! I'm glad it was helpful 💕

[@JoeyPaulOnline]

I've been a writer and author for almost 20 years, no idea if lesser or fewer 😅 Love the breakdown!

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

LOL I'm glad I'm not the only one haha!

[@JoeyPaulOnline]

@MeredithPhillipsWrites effect and affect get me too, plus lay/lie/laid etc. Never gonna work those out 🤣

[@Morganwrites]

Thanks Meredith for breaking down those query manager form questions! They are so vague and hard for me to decipher exactly what they’re asking. 😅

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

It's already such a difficult task compiling all the stuff, I don't know why they can't be a little more clear on these questions!!

[@sherrylalonde5719]

I'm at the point where rejections roll off my back too. I will say full request rejections are a little harder to swallow, but one of the benefits of them taking soooo long to get back to you is that I've often forgotten by the time it shows up months and months later. One trick about agencies with a 'one and done' policy is that you can query new agents at that agency if it's been six months since you sent the first one. Also Manuscript Academy is a good place for query/page critiques, reasonably priced and the critiques are done by well-known agents - just keep in mind that any agent who gives you an edit/critique can't offer you representation according to AALA.(not the case for UK agents)

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

Ooo I didn't know about the new agents tip!! That's an interesting caveat, but it makes sense.

[@frankiesscifiobsession3660]

Lesson learned: be more patienter

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

The most important lesson 😂

[@tesslydon6925]

I found your channel through your querying vlogs and I'm so glad I did (esp since historical romance is one of my fav genres). Plus this video comes at a great time. I'm wrapping up my last revision and hoping to query early 2025.

[@malikamaybe]

Good luck to you with querying next year!

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

I'm so glad you're here (and especially glad you like histroms haha)! Good luck with the final bits of revisions and HAVE FUN querying in the next couple months!

[@booksvsmovies]

As someone who almost exclusively reads histroicals in the romance genre, I'm sad to see the market downturn. :(

[@aps-pictures9335]

Hah I wrote a book without a hook in a dead genre 😂🤷🏻‍♂️. It’ll never publish, but I enjoyed writing and editing it. Just needed it out of me really. Just a shame all the agent podcasts died in 2022.

[@erikaromerowrites]

I created a professional email address for my writing and use it to query. But, I have it set to forward to my gmail. So I don’t need to check for replies manually, but all my writing-related emails are in one inbox, not (only) mixed in my gmail.

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

That's a great way to do it, too!

[@76kilosofshade81]

Watch and comment the second time for the algo gods! 😅

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

Haha thank you!!!

[@76kilosofshade81]

@@MeredithPhillipsWrites always!

[@mikahjaschke8470]

Will you pleeeeeeease self publish? I want to read your book so badly!!!!! (Don't worry, I understand how daunting it is, I don't want you to feel pressured to do something that doesn't light you up. (But seriously... please?))

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

haha aww thank you!! I'm glad you're so excited about my book! At this point, I don't know that self-pub is for me just because of the initial expense and honestly, I don't want to have to figure out things like formatting for Kindle and buying ISBNs and all that kind of stuff. But never say never! I hope the book can be completed and published and make its way to you sooner rather than later 💕

[@nicoleporter1369]

You don't necessarily have to buy an ISBN. Ebooks usually come with one that is retailer specific. Although editing can definitely be costly.

[@scarlett0512]

Have you thought about becoming a hybrid author? I just saw a video by an author that originally idie published her debut novel. It was recently picked up by a publisher and traditionally published. Don't give up!

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

Honestly, going indie scares me, haha! There's a lot of upfront costs if you hire editors, cover designers, etc. and I don't know that my marketing skills would do me any favors 😅 It's definitely a great option for a lot of writers, but I don't know if it would work for me. Never say never, though! Who knows where I'll end up.

[@malikamaybe]

omg I love this so, so much. Thank you for making this! I'm already mentally ready to wrap up with this querying journey and it's only been like three months lol. I have a few fulls out and a trove of rejections lmao. I really want to work on having more of your mentality when I query again where I let it roll off my back more. I totally, totally thought I would handle it better (because it's not my first or second time querying tho lol the last times I did so was ages ago when I was a teen and A Youth respectively), but I think this let me know I still put too much of my self-worth on nabbing The Dream (career author) still. If you have any more advice on handling the wait and rejections personally, I would eat that up lol. Random suggestions I have too would be that I do think if someone using QueryTracker (I also recommend paying for the year) can see response stats that they might consider their first round of queries including faster responders so they can see if their query is working at least kinda faster. Now lmao, there's usually not a ton of those quick responders, but I think it's a good idea to slide some in first. I also used the same sub for query critiques as the other authortubers mentioned and found it super helpful (and it was the way I got help from an author who writes in my category/genre). Also, also I think it's worth it to pay for *one month* of Publisher's Marketplace personally to see the deals agents of your list have made. Thank you so much for this video, Meredith!

[@MeredithPhillipsWrites]

I'm so glad you enjoyed the video! And congrats on the full requests!! That's awesome. Yes, totally agree that Publisher's Marketplace is great for a month or two, but I wouldn't buy the full year.