I was going through my Twitter feed and noticed that one of the agents I follow published query statistics for 2015. I don’t remember the exact number of submissions the agent got, but it was somewhere near 3500.

I do remember how many offers of representation were made: nine.

Doing a quick number crunch, that means that the agent accepted roughly 0.26% of queries sent. In other words, more than 99% of queries were rejected in 2015 by this agent.

For the sake of pessimism, lets play this out a bit more…

Lets say that 1000 agents received 3000 queries each in 2015. And that each of them sent offers of representation to 10 authors (a generous number, I’d say). That would mean that these 1000 agents received a total of 3 million combined queries. Out of those, only 10,000 authors received letters of representation. And this hypothetical scenario doesn’t take into account any of those offers that don’t actually lead to a published novel.

Pessimistic math is the best!

All negativity aside, these statistics led me to a very important question: What do I need to do in order to be part of that 10,000?

When you step back and think about it, a “less than one percent chance” of anything happening is extremely small. In the realm of science a level of error that small would be considered, in most cases, to be statistically insignificant – a margin of error so small that it doesn’t affect the end result.

Of course, querying agents is anything but scientific. There is a distinct human element that makes the process inherently unpredictable. This means that the 0.26% chance of receiving some kind of offer of representation could be much higher for some and much lower for others. The percentage, in reality, might look something more like 0.26% ± random cosmic modifier.

But that isn’t really the case, is it?

As a writer, I know that isn’t true. The burden of success rests firmly on my shoulders. When I send an agent a query, my words are what prompt the response. If I don’t do a good enough job describing my work in the query or if my first chapter/s aren’t interesting enough, the agent will pass on the work. It’s hard to accept, but that’s the truth – that my fate as a published writer rests upon me and no one else.

And that brings me back to the original question. The real answer, however, is anything but simple.

Getting better at writing is a good first step, but the more time I spend in the writing world, the more I’m realizing that being a good writer doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you will be published. As in any other business, it seems that networking and self marketing are key to drawing attention to work that you’ve produced. Attending writers conferences and workshops is suggested, as well as writer/critique groups, and even creative writing classes. At the end of the day, most of these activities are geared towards personal development, but also serve the purpose of increasing your footprint in the writing world.

I’d love to be published in the near future, but the more I delve into this new world, the more I’m realizing that it is important to be involved in it. Simply standing by the sidelines isn’t nearly as important as stepping out onto the field and forcing your way into the game. Doing anything else guarantees that you’ll stay on the sidelines, regardless of your skill. This even extends to self publishing. I can vomit as many novels as I want onto Amazon, but if I don’t have a presence in the community, they’ll never be read. As much as I’d love to see something I’ve written in print, I just as eagerly want to see people reading it…

So I’ll do all of the above.

Writing will continue as it has in the past. Work will be outlined, written, edited, and passed around to willing readers. Twitter will be posted on. My blog will be filled with random musings. And agents will be bothered with countless queries.

I hope their inboxes are ready…