Stats Part Thirteen: I've run out of Italian

What I did this Xmas vacation:

Ate entirely too much Mexican food
Became the Savior of the Wastes in Fallout New Vegas (Neutral Good for all my gamers)
Refrained from murdering the mother of a small child kicking me on a Xmas day flight
Knit socks, taught my niece to knit
Listened to advice on fight scenes from my delightfully tipsy in-laws
Wrote the first scene of my next novel

What I didn't do:  Blog. 

It's been very quiet on the agent front lately,*  and there wasn't really anything to tell.

But after much silence, I got another email yesterday.  Luckily it was a full request!  That brings the totals to:

Queries sent: 100
Rejections received: 36
Requests still pending: 6

Anyway, hope continues to abide, and I'll continue to try to ignore the whole thing and concentrate on moving onto my next book.

*Almost too quiet.  I've never been to New York for the holidays, but I bet the annual fleeing of agents makes a significant dent in the population.

A New Hope: Stats Part Dodici

Rejection treat update:  Banana with cream cheese frosting and a salted caramel filling from Kara's Cupcakes and Rogue Chocolate Stout.  The salty/sweet combo was unspeakably* delicious.

Queries sent:  100
Rejections received: 35
Requests pending: 3 full** and 2 partials!  Both partials are new requests, one of them from a DREAM AGENT (squee!).  One of the partials also requested I send the first three chapters by post.  Although it sucks to have to pay postage, it's always kind of awesome to print out a gorgeously formatted piece with your name on it.  If I squint, I can almost pretend it's really published.

I also got to write an author bio for one of my requests, which unlike the synopsis and the query, was actually kind of fun.  I recommend that my readers who are also writers try it for kicks.

In other news, I actually started working on a new book.  I decided the best way to go would be to write from a different viewpoint in a completely new genre.  Take that year of hard-won experience!

*Though apparently, not un-writably
**I've decided to include the Word-challenged agent in this category even though I'm not sure she's still considering me.  Hey, a girl's got averages to bump up.

Stats Part Dieci

Queries sent: 100.  That's right one fucking hundred.
Rejections received: 24
Requests received:  I got a new full request this week.  So that makes 6 Grand total, with 4 still out there. 

So that means I've had a non-response rate of 72%.  But I guess no one ever wanted to be a writer because it was easy.  Plus, just because I haven't heard doesn't mean that some agents won't come across my query a couple of weeks from now.  They can reject it then ;)

Either way, I'll keep updating the stats on the blog as I hear back.  Especially on cupcake/beer time.  For those interested, my 20 rejection combo was a gingerbread cupcake with cream cheese frosting and little tiny sugar maple leaf candy sprinkles from Susie Cakes.  My beer was Hitachino Nest White Ale, which comes from Japan and has the cutest owl on the bottle.  The beer tasted citrusy with notes of coriander, like a nice Belgian white.  And the owl is sure to ward off rejection!

Stats Part Otto: Special JV edition

Things I did this weekend:

Sat amongst hundreds of fellow nerds for the Harry Potter 7 opening weekend.
Prepared for said movie experience by gathering with friends to rewatch HP6.
Churned out a healthy amount of knitting while watching my husband kills splicers in Bioshock 2.
Made ginger cupcakes* on a whim, ate them for breakfast for 4 days running.
Went to a pub quiz, figured out an anagram, and came in 3rd.
Managed to churn out a 1 page, 2 page and 4 page version of a synopsis.

and queried like it was going out of style**

Queries sent: 70

Rejections received: 18, including another 5 word rejection. I'm still waiting for the day when I open an email and just see "No."

Requests received: 1 new request for a partial!  This request was intriguing because it was made by an 18 year old agent.  When I was 18, you could find me in a dorm room, planted on my roommate's futon, eating cold Chinese food and shouting out bids while watching the Price is Right.  But hey, more power to the non-lazy youngins.

*non-rejection cupcakes.  sometimes you just can't wait for an excuse.
**it is literally going out of style, at least for this week.  I can't imagine turkey and red wine will make agents eager to dig into the slush pile.

Rejection Stats Part Sei

It's been a weird couple of days in the query game.  I got another request for a full (!), but the agent requires that I also send in a synopsis.  To which my brain responded "ARRRGH!  WHY DID WE NEVER WRITE A SYNOPSIS!"  The answer to that question, which I've been finding out painfully over the course of the last few days is that synopses are the devil's own business.  I'm not really sure how to artfully summarize the characters, red herrings, and full ending of a mystery novel in less than 500 words.

In other strange query news, I got a request to see ten pages.  Ten pages.  That would be the blind date equivalent of meeting to wait in line for coffee together before going separate ways.  I think that agent might be a commitment-phobe.

And on to the stats!
Queries sent: 50
Rejections received: 10, including another "Not for us, thanks," and TWO literary agent ninjas
Requests received: 2 full, 1 partial

TEN REJECTIONS!  You all know what that means, don't ya?*  CUPCAKE AND BEER TIME!  That's right, for every ten rejections I receive, I am entitled to a cupcake of my choice paired with complementary beer.  Today's selection is a Snowball from That Takes the Cake, which is coconut and almond cake topped with cream cheese and coconut.  Much sweeter than rejection, no?  And if any bitter tang remains, it will be washed away by the Maui Coconut Porter.

*Impossible.  I just made this shit up.

Request for pages = me losing my mind

Finally something besides a form rejection comes my way!  I received a request from an agent to read my entire manuscript.

This is one of the only agents I didn't send a sample to along with my query letter though.  So if it gets rejected, at least I'll know it's probably the pages and not my query.  That's not a good realization or anything but I'll take what I can get at this stage.