I see this question asked a lot in writing forums and groups – and I absolutely understand why. Unfortunately, so much of landing an agent is about luck and timing that you really do feel like you have to try and game the system in whatever way you can.
But the truth is, I don’t actually think there is a best time of year for this. Let me explain why.
The ‘publishing’ calendar
There are a lot of events or seasons throughout the year that relate specifically to publishing, and it’s often recommended not to query agents during those times. For example, the Frankfurt Book Fair happens around mid-to-late October and this is considered to be one of the most important events for agents and publishers because it’s where a lot of deals happen. Similarly, the London Book Fair takes place in March and is an equally popular event for industry folk.
Then you’ve got the universal end-of-year/winter rush, which cancels out November to about February, and people like to take time off during the summer holidays too, so there goes June through August.
When you tally it all up, it leaves you with about twelve specific days of the year free for you to send queries – and for all you know, the agents on your list are sick or otherwise engaged with personal matters on those days!
So… when should you send queries?
The truest answer I can give to this is, simply, whenever the agents on your list are open. If your manuscript and query package are ready to go, send them out. Sure, you could wait until all the book fairs and annual holidays finish up, but if the agent has said they’re open during those times, all that waiting will do is put you at the back of a very long queue. If an agent cannot take on any more queries for any given reason, they will close – and that’s the only time you shouldn’t send.
Of course, I am basing this on the belief that agents read their queries on a first-come-first-served basis, and this won’t be universal for every agent, but it does seem to be the case for the majority – this is much easier to tell with Query Tracker, because the data is there to look at. Of course, I don’t have data for agents who work through a standard inbox, but I would assume they start with the oldest queries.
Does timing have nothing to do with it then?
I started this post by saying that finding an agent is a lot down to luck and timing, and then went on to say how there is no perfect time, which I appreciate might sound a little contradictory. What I mean by ‘timing’ in this instance is that your query finds an agent on a good day, or not when they’ve just signed another client with a premise similar to yours.
Quick story time: I once got a full request twenty minutes after sending my query (on a Friday afternoon, no less!) because the agent was sitting at her desk as my email came through and she clicked on it.
So if this happens, it surely means that there is a best time, right? Well… no. Because I couldn’t know this agent would be ready then. Actually, I remember thinking that Friday afternoon was a pretty silly time to send a query, but I had it ready and I couldn’t be faffed with waiting, so I sent it. If I’d sent it while she was on her lunch break, it might have been months before I heard back from her, and I might not have had the favourable response.
And, to continue with this story, getting the timing right for sending one query doesn’t mean you’re in. I wasn’t – that agent did not end up offering on my manuscript, despite how keen she seemed at first. When I looked into it, I saw she had already signed three others in the couple of months before, and when you consider that an agent might sign five or six clients in a year, my odds were slim.
Now, if I’d queried her six months earlier, before she read those other queries she went on to sign, perhaps I’d have been in luck… But I’ll never know.
There is no crystal ball
The hard truth is that this isn’t the kind of thing you can game – you can’t know when an agent’s going to be in the right mood or what other manuscripts they are strongly considering. There simply is no crystal ball for these things, so there’s no point stressing over it.
Just send your query and hope for the best. That’s all any of us can do.
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