Keeping Track of Queries: QueryTracker and Beyond
When you’re querying, you’re going to want to keep track of your queries somehow.
For me, it was easiest to create a simple excel spreadsheet. I kept track of:
The agent’s name
Their agency
What materials their query required
How to send a query to them (i.e. email or an online form)
Whether they would respond to the query, or whether no response was a rejection
The date I sent the query
The status of the query (waiting to hear back, closed with no response, rejection, full request, offer of rep)
Every time I sent a query, I updated the spreadsheet.
Other people prefer a more high-tech method of keeping track of queries, and this is where QueryTracker comes in. Querytracker.com is a website which serves a few purposes:
It compiles lists of agents and provides authors a place to comment on their interactions with those agents (which can be very helpful, especially if you’re not sure if the agent is a schmagent)
It tells you how long agents usually take to respond to queries, which gives you a sense of how long you might be waiting to hear back
If you pay for a membership ($25 USD per year), it will allow you to view a list of the queries currently in the agent’s inbox (although this is self-reported by users, who report to query tracker when they’ve queried an agent). You can see where your query is in the agent’s queue.
It allows you to keep a list of the agents you’ve queried, with options to categorize those queries by status (waiting to hear back, closed with no response, rejection, full request, offer of rep)
If you use Query Tracker, it takes a little bit of exploring to figure out how to add agents to your query list. Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Under the “queries” tab, click on the dropdown menu under “Active Projects.” If you hit “manage project,” you can create a new project for your manuscript. You can input the name, the genre, and the length.
Once you’ve created a project and you have it selected, navigate to the “agents” tab. In the search box, type in the name of the agent you want to query.
When the agent’s name comes up, check the box all the way on the left (it’s the untitled box to the left of “query status”). This will add the agent to your list.
Then, click on the circle that appears under “query status”. This makes a box pop up and you can input the way you sent your query (if they use query manager, select “online form”). You can also input the date you sent your query.
Navigate back to the “queries” tab. The agent will now appear on the list of agents you’ve queried.
On the “queries” tab, you can click on the icon in the “query status” column to update the status of your query. Query Manager lets you do things like sort your agent list by query status, which can be really helpful for seeing where you stand.
So there you have it! Whether you use Query Tracker, a regular old spreadsheet, or even a pen and paper, the important thing is just to keep your queries organized in a way where you can keep track of them easily. Don’t add more stress to the querying process by forgetting who you’ve sent queries to, or being unable to remember who has responded yet!