Why Agents Don’t Accept Queries on Social Media

As our social media grows so do the number of comments and DMs asking to query, pre-querying, or just plain querying. I once made an effort to reply to all of them, but lately, I’ve stopped. It’s just too time-consuming.

BookEnds has a very simple and straight-forward query process. You choose the agent you think is right for you and send your query through their Query Manager form.

This allows us to easily and efficiently track and respond to queries. Things don’t get lost in the social media void or trapped in spam filters. It ensures everyone gets a reply and allows us to share queries if we want. It’s the only way we’ll accept queries.

Pre-queries

Pre-queries are a pet peeve of mine and I would guess I’m not the only agent who feels this way.

For those not familiar, pre-queries are when you DM or ask an agent if they’d be interested in your book or if they accept a book on…. They’re a waste of time for both authors and agents.

Querying involves research and pre-querying does not get you out of the work. Google, MSWL, and an agent’s website will easily give you the answers to what kind of book, or what genre, an agent represents. That’s your pre-query work.

The best way, the only way, to know if an agent is interested in your work is to query. Asking if I’m interested in a book on dogs might elicit a no, when the actual description of your book, which also includes dogs, could be exactly what I’m looking for.

I love engaging with authors in our comments and on Twitter, but I also need to focus on the real work of my job and that means lots of DMs will go unanswered.