In June of 2025 I made a promise. In one year’s time, I’d be querying.

My life as a writer started back on Neopets, RP-ing Warrior cats and gifted kids (like superpowers—not just smart kids). By the time I graduated college, I’d written four novel-length works, to varying degrees of completion. All of them were done, but I only edited one. Twice.

Since then, I’d written a few more novels, again to different levels of completion. Some are in decent shape, ready for an alpha reader or critique partner to dig into. Others… Well, it’s unlucky I’ll ever open those documents again, haha. In total, I have around a dozen book-shaped things sitting in my files, waiting to be touched.

Somewhere in writing those dozen novels, I learned something uncomfortable: writing and publishing are two very different skillsets. Every time I sat down to write one of those novels, I’d also look into how to publish it afterward. The amount of work I learned was ahead overwhelmed me. Like so many writers, I would finish something, then never touch it again. What do you mean I need beta readers, not just my one writing buddy? I need an agent? Social media? Going on sub? It was too much. I didn’t want to think about it.

But as the ideas for THE EVERWINTER KING solidified in my head and I sat down to write, I told myself it’d be different this time. Come June 2026, I would’ve sent my first query. I swore it.

And by June 2026, I’d sent 50.

I divided my batches into three—two small ones to start, then one bigger one. Querying advice says to send small batches. 10, 15 at a time, tweaking based on feedback. Most people querying in 2026 know this is outdated. Agents rarely give feedback these days (and I understand why!), so the most feedback you can expect is not getting any responses. It means something when you query agents who are good fits and hear nothing in response.

Which is what happened to me. I sent my first small batch to mitigate the itch to query while I finished my final line edits. This batch was supposed to be 15 fast responders (per QueryTracker’s stats). The problem is, I misread QT’s metrics. I was new to using the site, you can’t blame me. But that batch of 15 turned out to be four or five faster responders, while everyone else took months, if they even got back to you at all. Oops.

So I sent a second batch of another 15, this time accurately grabbing real fast responders (people who responded within a month, ideally). All of these queries were sent by the end of May 2026.

By early June, I knew I had a problem. Half of all my queries ended up as form rejections. Some queries sat in the dreaded “maybe” pile for days, even weeks, before becoming form rejects in the end. I still have a handful from that early round sitting in “maybe” piles, and I’m confident I know how they’ll end.

30 queries. 17 form rejects. Okay, I know numbers well enough. I also know what it means when your concept is interesting enough to be a “maybe,” but close evaluation makes it a “no.”

It means the pages are weak. So, after mourning it for a few days, I rewrote the opening to THE EVERWINTER KING and finished my line edits (plus a continuity check, to make sure it all matched the new opening). With a new opening, I needed new numbers to see how well it did. I fired off a few queries—15, with the intent to send out another 15 slowly over the front half of July.

Two things happened.

One, I got my first request almost immediately. It ended up being a quick rejection, but it was still exciting! And hinted that my new pages (plus the updated query letter I wrote to go with them) were doing something right.

Two, July 1st came around, and over a dozen agents I was interested opened. So my “slow trickle” of queries I planned for July mostly happened on the first. I’m grateful it did, because this flood of queries netted me another full request! As of July 10 I haven’t heard back, but I’m not in a rush for this one. I’d be thrilled to work with her, so I hope she takes her time reviewing.

My total stats as of July 10 are 64 queries sent, two requests, 23 rejections (all form), and one CNR. Hopefully these numbers lean more in my favor in the next few weeks!