All of us writers know about the dreaded query. We know that it is our one chance to get noticed by an agent. We know that we have to do everything in our power to make our query letter sing.
So, does just sending a query letter to an agent without them at least seeing your first page...is it the best option? Is an agent able to tell from just a query letter that a project is worth seeing? Does writing a good query letter mean that a manuscript will be well written? Is it the same for a bad query?
Like everything else I think this is not as simple as it seems.
On Nathan Bransford's blog he searched to answer these questions and the others that rose from them.
What did this show me? I don't have quite as much faith in the query system, I can tell you that. Reading people's queries showed me that just because an idea sounds great doesn't mean the execution will be. And execution is everything. If you have a great plot but bad writing the story falls flat.
What do I think agents should do? I think all agents should ask for at least the first page along with the query. Then if they reject us we know that there is more to it than just a sucky query. We then know there is something wrong with our manuscript, and that is important to our success. Finding what works with our writing and what doesn't.
The point of this post was to tell you all not to give up. That if an agent rejects your query not to put too much weight into it. Taste IS subjective. If your story is worth telling you will find someone to represent you.
So what do you all think? Should all agents ask for pages with the query? Or do you think just asking for the query is fine? Or should they do something different?
You tell me. In the comments.
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