What Happens to My Query When I Hit Send…?

Are you a writer? Have you ever wondered how agents process query letters? I don’t doubt there are as many methods for attacking the slush pile (or query inbox) as there are literary agents (and there are HUNDREDS of those). Nevertheless, wouldn’t it be interesting to know how one or two agents go about it? Well, here’s one perspective from Jennifer Laughran, an agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency. She likens the process to ER triage! Yes, some queries are DOA, but others need more nuanced attention. It’s a fascinating insight. Indeed, it’s interesting what you can find out from reading literary agent blogs. For example, in this post, Lauren Ruth, Literary Agent with BookEnds, reveals that she logs every query in an Excel spreadsheet so she can track her response, and know if she’s queried by the same author, or receives the exact same query more than once. Anyway, I thought you might find that interesting.