As an author, one of the more detailed activities I do – outside of writing – is querying. I have to keep track of both agents and editors I am querying. There are a lot of details to keep on top of when querying. I use OneNote to track it all.
This post assumes you know the basics of OneNote and how to create tables. If you don’t, please review these previous posts on those topics:
Research:
Every workshop or piece of advice on querying says to research the agent/editor you query. This post isn’t about the why’s and how’s of querying, but about staying organized. Here’s how I stay organized for the research:
1. Create a Notebook for Querying.
2. Create a Tab (Section) for Editor Research and one for Agent Research.
3. Create a Page for each editor and agent you research where you will enter any information you gather.
4. Create a table on the page to track any information you research (example below).
Submissions Tracker:
Submissions is a process that is almost entirely done by email. A *few* publishing houses have an online database where you can see your previous submissions, but most done. I have yet to run across an agent who does. You want to track who you’ve submitted what to (especially when you have multiple books in the process). Here’s an example of how:
1. In the Notebook for Querying…
2. Create a Tab (Section) called “Tracker.”
3. Create a Page for the tracker.
4. Create a table on the page where you will track details. See below example.
5. Enter each submission in the table and update as needed.
Submission Letters:
Of course, I keep all the emails, but in case I just can’t find it, I also track the letter I send to each editor and agent. I do personalize my letters, making them specific to the agent/editor dependent on the research I’ve done, previous interactions with that person, what they’re looking for, etc. Here’s how I track these.
1. In the Notebook for Querying…
2. Create a Tab (Section) called “Submission Letters.”
3. Create a Page for each submission.
4. Copy and paste your email into the page.
5. When you get a response that is NOT a form letter, copy and past the response below the letter.
This doesn’t take long and will keep you organized! Happy querying friends!
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