Query vs. Submission: A Note on Terminology

Spend a little time on LitMatch, and you’ll notice that we use the word “submission” in a lot of places where you might expect us to use the word “query.” It’s a small point, but one that we sometimes get questions about, so I wanted to take a moment to elaborate on both terms and why we don’t always consider them to be the same thing.

In the general, industry-wide sense, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of distinction between the two words, and in many cases, they’re used interchangeably. You might visit one agent’s Submission Guidelines page and find the same kind of information in another agent’s Query Requirements. Most times, the wording doesn’t matter, because in either case, they both tell you how the agent wants you to approach them, which is the information you need to get your query, and your submission, started.

So, what’s the difference?

For our purposes, we use the word “submission” to encapsulate your contact with an agent from beginning to end. That submission could start with a letter, an email, a phone call (in rare cases), or an in-person meeting. Later, it could become a request for chapters, feedback on the full manuscript, or an offer of representation. Whatever form it takes, the word submission covers it from start to finish.

We use the word “query” to refer only to the initial communication from a writer to an agent. Once the agent replies, asks for additional materials, or makes an offer, then the query portion is over, and the submission goes forward from there. In short, the query is the opening line, but the submission is the entire conversation.

Once again, this is just the way we refer to things, so if you see the words used differently in other places, it doesn’t make them wrong any more than seeing the same usage makes us right. It’s just a wording system that makes sense to us and so far has worked out well for the majority of our users. And in the end, what we call it won’t matter so much when your query becomes a submission that ends in success.

Christopher Hawkins
Litmatch.net

Site Upgrade: Hotlist, Filters, and Listing Pages

A number of big changes hit LitMatch in the past few days. Like most of the changes we make, they incorporate suggestions made by our users and combine them with a few ideas of our own.

The first thing you’re likely to notice is the new layout to the agent and agent listing pages here and here. We’ll get to that in a moment, because while it is the most obvious change, the biggest and potentially most useful change is in the hotlist.

Where the hotlist used to be an all or nothing, yes or no toggle switch, the new hotlist allows you to rate agencies on a scale of 1 to 5, represented by a series of flame icons that appear both on the agent/agency detail pages and the listing pages. Hotlist entries added before the change have been automatically defaulted to 3, so none of your existing information was lost during the transition between old and new.

Because the icons appear on the agent and agency listing pages, it’s easier to see, at a glance, which agents and agencies you’ve hotlisted, and sort those agents and agencies according to your rating. Under the old system, the only way to view your entire hotlist was by using the filters on the listing pages, which made it difficult to view the items you highlighted in the context of all the listings available.

Which brings us to the changes to the listing pages themselves. They’ve been reorganized with a cleaner look to make the information you need easier to find and the filters easier to operate. Here are some highlights of what’s been changed:

• The filters have been moved to the left of the listing table. This brings the listings to the top of the page where they belong and gives us more room to add new filtering options in the future.
  
• The agency addresses are no longer part of the table, but when you hover over an agent’s or agency’s name, a tooltip appears with their full address inside.
  
• On the agent listing, the agency names have been moved below the agent names in order to compact the table and aid in browsing. Even with this change, you can still sort agents according to the agencies they work for.
  
• You can now view the agents and agencies you’ve hotlisted without using any filters and sort according to your hotlist just like you would with any other column.
  
• The color coding used on the “Total View” filter has been updated and a key has been added to make it easier to read.
  

More changes are on the way as we approach our one year anniversary in September. In the meantime, we want to hear your thoughts on the new updates and your ideas for the future. Drop us a line at admin@litmatch.net!

Chris Hawkins
LitMatch.net

On Quitting

A few of you have written me lately to ask a very important question, perhaps the most important one ever asked of me: When I’m sending out queries, how do I know when enough is enough? How do I know when to quit?

The question is important because the answer will define your writing career. It may determine your very success or failure as a writer. It’s also one that will stay with you as you look back on it in five, ten, even twenty years. It’s not a question to be taken lightly, and it’s one that only you can answer.

Almost every professional writer has faced rejection. Some go through hundreds of rejections (and several books) before they ever find success. Your own experience isn’t likely to be all that different. You might rack up 70 rejections, which may seem like a lot, but if you stop at 70, how will you know that 71 wouldn’t have been your lucky number?

So how many is enough? Fifty? A hundred? Two hundred? My answer: “At least one more.”

That, however, doesn’t mean you should just charge ahead blindly. If you rack up a sizeable pile of rejections without getting anywhere, change your tactics. Review your query letter to make sure you’re putting your book in the best possible (and most salable) light. Make sure your book, especially your sample chapters, are as perfect as you can possibly make them. Then go back at it, at least one more time.

I make it sound easy, but I know from experience that it is not. Going forward in the face of overwhelming adversity is difficult. But in those times when the obstacles seem insurmountable, my thoughts always turn to Winston Churchill. In 1941, went to his former school to deliver a speech. England had just survived nearly a year of the Blitz, a bombing campaign that left over 40,000 people dead and challenged the spirit of the nation. Here’s what Churchill had to say:

“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

If Churchill, and the nation he led, could summon that kind of courage, given the overwhelming odds that they faced, how can I, or any of us, give our own dreams any less?

Christopher Hawkins
LitMatch.net