Holidays and Queries to Agents: 5 Perspectives

"So Virginia, Should You Query During the Holiday Season?" That’s a question writers ponder with the first whiff of Christmas trees and mistletoe. You may be worried that everyone's out of the office, or agents are rejecting nearly everything now, thinking that many unpolished NaNoWriMo submissions are flowing in. To help make your decision, I've pulled five perspectives from around the Web on "Holidays and Query Letters."

1. Avoid those last two weeks. In a blog entry from 2008, agent Nathan Bransford suggests that there is no best time to query, but he does add that it's a wise idea not to query during the few weeks around Christmas and New Year's.

2. Don't rush your NaNoWriMo submission. In an blog entry on Writer Unboxed, the agent advice varies, but most agents agree that if you participated in NaNoWriMo, take time over the next few months to revise before sending that query. Don't make your submission another December rejection.

3. Holidays = More time to read? On Twitter, agent Kate Epstein suggests that the holidays are the right time to query agents as they may have more time to read the query.

4. Miss Snark says it doesn't matter. Miss Snark, during her brief but influential reign of the blogosphere, also weighed in on the subject of querying during the holidays.

5. Sometimes it's better, and sometimes it's worse. Editorial Anonymous says sometimes editors will read more over the holidays and sometimes they will delete more. It all depends on the particular editor.

As you decide whether or not query this holiday season, you may want to heed a piece of advice from Agent, Janet Reid, “You can query too soon. You can never query too late.”

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