Tracking Agent Queries with QueryTracker

by Aug 17, 2024Writer's Life0 comments

It can take some time to find an agent to represent you and shop your book. During this time, you may face a lot of ….. *crickets*. That’s right, dead silence. You may also receive a lot of rejections. Many published (even bestselling!) authors report the heartbreak of reaching out to agent after agent after agent after agent before finally finding the right person to partner with. During this time, it can be easy to lose track of which agents you have contacted. This is where QueryTracker comes in. Rather than wasting your time and the agent’s by re-querying an agent (and possibly looking rather classless and developing a bad reputation to boot), QueryTracker helps you keep track of your agent queries. It’s a tool that has a few other benefits, as well.

Finding an Agent to Query

In my last post, we discussed using Publisher’s Marketplace as a resource for tracking down suitable agents. Unlike Publisher’s Marketplace, QueryTracker is free to use. Once you’ve created an account, you can click on the Agents button at the top to begin a search.

The Agents search button at the top of the QueryTracker page. You can, of course, search for an agent you’ve found through a similar author or through Publisher’s Marketplace. Or you can search for agents who work with your genre.

Search by Genre button

 

I've selected the genre Fiction > New Adult (Any)

This will return a list of the agents serving that genre, but notice from the flags that this search includes agents based in multiple countries (here we see Canada, the UK, and Australia).

In one column of the listed agents is the flag for the home country of the agent. Here we have agents in multiple countries.

We can use the Advanced Search button to further filter this list down. Here, I’m setting the country to USA, and I’m eliminating snail mail as the Query Method. Unfortunately, this does not filter out the agents not accepting queries at this time (a shortcoming of the software IMO).

Advanced Search button appearing under the Search By Genre button.

Country filter set to USA

Query Method set to Email, Web Form, and Query Manager

Research an Agent

Clicking on an agent’s name gives you a wealth of information about an agent. An agent may be listed as accepting queries, but in the upper right corner of the agent page, you’ll get their query response rate. This information is based on other users of QueryTracker. It’s always possible that the users aren’t returning to QueryTracker when they’ve received a response from an agent, but the information can help you prioritize your time.

Here’s an agent with a low response rate. Notice not much detail about the agent, which could be another sign of low activity.

An agent profile with a low response rate (0.3%) and not much profile info.

Alternatively, this agent has a high response rate and more details (blog, Twitter/X profile), possibly indicating a more active presence.

Agent profile with a much higher response rate and more profile information.

The Comments tab on the profile page gives comments that other QueryTracker users have left about the agent, like what type of response they’ve received, whether it was helpful or not. Also helpful is the Query Timeline button on the right side of the profile page. Often times an agent accepts queries by multiple paths, but the Query Timeline can give you information about the path with the best results. For example, the below image is of one agent’s Query Timeline. It shows that submissions have been made through email, an online form (usually an agency’s website), and Query Manager (which is a form that Query Tracker links directly to), but the only queries that seem to receive results are those coming through Query Manager. If a rejection is better than no response at all, you might decide that it’s better to submit through Query Manager than through the other methods.

Query Timeline for one agent. Shows submissions made through email, an online form (usually an agency's website), and Query Manager, but the only queries that seem to receive results are those coming through Query Manager.

Tracking an Agent

On the right hand side of the agent page is a panel for adding your notes about the agent for a given project you are hoping to publish. You can add the agent to your Query list or your Do Not Query list and add your notes for the agent or their agency. You can also set reminders and a priority level to help you plan ahead. One of the tabs on the Agent page also lets you copy and paste your Query Letter to refer to when you follow up with the agent.

Agent notes for my project. This shows I have queried this agent by email, I've made a note to myself about the agent, and the query age is 47 days.

Once you’ve added an agent to your Query list, you can set a status for the agent. This is where you set the Query Method for your query. To do this, check the checkbox for Query Status, then click on the check mark.

Query Status check box in the Agent Notes for the project.

Query Status checkmark.

A dialog will pop up allowing you to set the query method:

Query Method selection. Lists Not Sent, Snail Mail, E-mail, Online Form, In-Person, Referral/Pitch, and QueryManager Form.

To refer back to your Query List, on the Agent Search page, select the My Query List radio button at the top of the page and make sure no search filters are set.

Pulling up your Query List by selecting the My Query List radio button on the Agent Search page.

Below is a screenshot of my Query List. On the left (first column) is the Query Status. You can click on the Query Status for each query to update it with the response you received. The green page icon in the second-to-last column shows that I have made notes about these agents, and I can click on the icon to bring up the notes. One can also click on the bell or eye icons in the same column to set notification or watch actions, respectively. The lock icon in front of the name of the first agent in my list indicates a private entry because I queried an agent that I couldn’t find in the QueryTracker database.

The list of five agents I've queried.

 

QueryTracker also includes a section on Publishers so that you can track direct queries to publishers. I mentioned the one agent I queried that wasn’t in their database. Of the four or five publishers I’ve sent submissions to, only one was in the QueryTracker database, so the tool doesn’t seem quite as useful for publisher submissions.

Overall, I’ve found QueryTracker to be another useful resource for authors hoping to publish. How about you? Have you used QueryTracker? What is your favorite feature of the software?

Autumn Harting
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