Thinking About Querying Agents?

Not to be a downer, but the news is worse than any of us thought. The number of books submitted to literary agents per year number in the millions. Granted, many of those are the same manuscript submitted to multiple agents (been there x at least a hundred). The estimate of acceptance ranges from 1% to 15%, but I find the higher number implausible. 

If you find yourself among that rare 1-15%, the news isn't necessarily good. An agent must then make a sale. Ooof. According to this Substack article, in the first half of 2026, six agents obtained deals for between 3 and 5 debut books (totaling 22). However, an additional 28 agents managed to sell two each, equaling 56. 

Fifty-six plus twenty-two makes a grand total of 78 deals.

78 out of millions of submissions. 

 

If you've queried and gotten rejected, you belong to a very large club.

But wait--there's more. What genre are you pitching? It matters. This same article details the genres that have obtained the most deals. "Upmarket" is number one. Honestly, I always have to look up what upmarket means, because I forget and the term itself is nonsensical. Essentially, upmarket is "better" than regular old commercial fiction, meaning the writing is elevated, but it also appeals to book club members. Or snobby book club members. If I've ever read an upmarket novel, I was unaware that it was one. What I'm picturing from the definition is a story that drives discussion (hence, the book club part). Maybe its theme is vague and open to interpretation.

71 deals in the first half of 2026 were for upmarket novels, followed by literary fiction (precious), thrillers, fantasies, romance, horror, and on down the line. My genre didn't make the list. The closest would be general/commercial fiction, which amounted to only 3.

The traditional publishing market is woefully out of step with customers. For self-published books, by far the best selling genre is romance, followed by fantasy (or a romantasy hybrid). Why do publishers choose to pick up books people aren't reading? For cachet? Cachet doesn't make anyone rich.

When I started out, I was completely ignorant to the realities of traditional publishing. I took every rejection to heart, which resulted in a lot of heart stabs. To be clear, my manuscripts weren't very good; one was semi-good. It really wouldn't have mattered, though. What did matter is that it led me to self-publish. I'm forever grateful for that.

Can you make money self-publishing? Sure, some authors can. Some authors make a lot of money. As you well know, I'm not one of them. But it still beats begging. It beats humiliating myself and destroying a piece of my self-worth with every rejection. 

Traditional publishing is by no means a guarantee of making money. Read my post, where I cite real-world numbers.

The easiest way to get a publishing deal is to already have one under your belt. But even that is hardly a sure thing. How well or poorly did your last book perform? Did it even earn back its advance? (Most don't.)

I need to add that 99% of agents are looking for the same things; not the same genres, but the same themes. Read through the "wants" on Manuscript Wish List:

• #ownvoices
• BIPOC characters and cultures 
• queer
• LGBTQIA+
• Activism
• Underrepresented Voices

Find one agent list that doesn't mention these things. Go ahead. I'll wait.

 

It's not just that traditional publishing is inaccessible for most of us. With self-publishing an author can write about whatever he or she wants. By the way, what qualifies as an underrepresented voice? I think mine is underrepresented. As is yours, no doubt. 

I'm also unwilling to wait one to three years for my novel to be published (hypothetically, of course). When I'm ready to publish, I'm ready to publish. 

There are reasons why some authors are intent on pursuing a publishing deal, and that's fine. We're all different. For me, the best thing literary agents did for me was reject me. Nope, haven't made hardly any money with my self-published books, but I still would never look back.