Query Questions with Naomi Davis of Bookends

After a short break to give me time away from my blog, Query Questions is back!
I hope to bring you many fresh interviews with agents from fresh agencies. Feel free to throw agent suggestions at me on twitter. 

Writers have copious amounts of imagination. It's what makes their stories so fantastic. But there's a darker side to so much out of the box thinking. When a writer is in the query trenches, their worries go into overdrive. They start pulling out their hair and imagine every possible disaster.

Here to relieve some of that endless worrying is a series called Query Questions. I'll ask the questions which prey on every writer's mind, and hopefully take some of the pain out of querying. These are questions that I've seen tossed around on twitter and other writing sites. They are the type of questions that you need answers from the real expert--agents!
Today we hear from an agent who has recently moved to Bookends, Naomi Davis with her answers to your questions about querying and information about her wishlist.

Is there a better or worse time of year to query?
Lots of writers think that conference season is not a good time to query. I find this to not matter, personally. Everything goes into the pile and we work through our submissions when we have time. This can be on a plane, in a hotel, in front of the TV at home, or during work hours – it all depends on the agent and the schedule she sets for herself. While there may be times of year when an agent is quicker to respond, it would be a pretty rare and unwise thing for an agent to be like “This is book sounds excellent but it came in during July so NOPE!” If we’re particularly busy, it may take longer for us to get to it. My best advice is to follow agents on social media and watch for MSWL posts that indicate the agent is hungry for a new project.


Do you look at sample pages without fail or only if the query is strong?
There are many queries I see that clearly do not fit my wishlist. These I will reject based on the query itself. But when a project is within the genres I’m seeking, I base my decision on the writing sample probably 95% of the time.


How open are you to writers who have never been published?
Completely open. While I love to see queries from established authors and writers who are pursuing their careers independently through writing groups, social media presence, and shorter publications, I’m always hopeful that a debut author will be an undiscovered wonder I get to work with from the start!


The dreaded rhetorical question in a query. Are they as taboo as the rumors say?
You’ll find some agents vehemently opposed to these. I recognize that constructing a query is an art in itself, and I try to look for the story within the query, not just the way this is executed. Personally: I don’t immediately reject a project for any petty reason like this, but as a general rule, the fewer reasons you give agents to reject your book, the more manuscript requests you might receive.


How important are comp titles? Is it something you want to see in a query? Are movie/tv reference okay as comp titles?
They are important because they help us envision positioning on bookshelves and the target audience, which helps us strategize our own submission lists. While I do like to see them, I’d rather see an accurate comp title than see an author trying to force a label on their project when it doesn’t really fit. Yes, I like to see movie/tv comps – in fact I encourage creative comping, too, such as inserting familiar characters into other settings for a comp. “If Harry Potter was forced to navigate the world of Ender’s Game…” sort of comps tell me a LOT more than “Fans of Divergent will love this story” comps. A comp should tell the agent as concisely as possible what familiar notes to expect from your novel.


Do you prefer a little personalized chit-chat in a query letter or would you rather hear about the manuscript?
I love when authors give me a personal note like “I loved your thread about worldbuilding on Twitter” – it tells me they probably have a clear grasp on what I do and do not want to see in a query. But it’s not required. Some of the strongest submissions I’ve read came from quick, to-the-point queries. I will caution that the more word space you spend talking about what you love about the story, the more reason you give us to skim. A personalized intro is fine but then do get to the point so we can form our own opinions.


How many queries do you receive in a week? How many requests might you make out of those?
I receive no fewer than 200 queries a month – usually closer to 300 or more. Of these, I typically request 20-40 manuscripts. It’s hard to break it down by week because when I post a #MSWL Tweet or two, I tend to get bombarded with queries. So to tie back in to your earlier question about when is a good time to query: I don’t post those Tweets unless I want my inbox SLAMMED.