Let’s talk about stats baby!

Revealing my query stats for the other books I’ve queried.

Sincerely Media on Unsplash

In 2021 I started writing, for many reasons I won’t go into on this post because I’m going to stay on topic. After about a year of 100 words here and 500 words there, I wrote a 48,000 word mystery. I had no idea it was too short. I had no idea what I was doing. Basically I googled so, I wrote a book… now what? I discovered I needed to query. I wrote a query letter and sent it to two agents. Neither responded.

My learning curve was more of a steep incline.

The second book was a cozy mystery set at a fancy retreat in Puerto Rico. I queried 15 agents and got 3 requests and one offer of publication from a small press. All the agents passed and I decided that particular small press was not for me.

Back to the drawing board.

My third book was a cozy mystery set in a 1990’s video store. This time I got serious about querying. I started listening to The Shit No One Tells You About Writing and even submitted my query to them. You can listen to that episode here.

The hope I felt about this book—Oh my little heart.

I loved this book. It still has a special place in my soul. First because it’s when I felt I really started to grasp the actual mechanics of a book. Second because the video store is based on Film is Truth, a video store in Bellingham, WA that I worked at in college and then managed briefly ten years later. And third because if I got three requests not knowing what I was doing at all, this time had to be better.