It’s the dog days of summer. Back to school preparations have begun. Long summer days are waning. And New York publishing has slowed to a crawl with Summer Fridays off and sequential vacations that make an agent’s sales job much harder. But this could be good news for writers who’ve spent the summer at writers conferences getting inspired and educated, or at home polishing up their latest manuscript. Or both!
With work slowing down in August around the world, agents’ eyes turn to making headway on tackling their slush piles that have grown like summer gardens while we’ve been away at writers conferences and taking time off ourselves. Bottom line: In August we READ submissions!
So if you’ve heard that you should not query agents in August, I’d suggest something else. Why not query now when agents are actively reading and get ahead of the pack? When September rolls around, agents are in full-on pitch mode to editors who are now back in the office, rested and refreshed, and ready to buy those final books of the year before the holiday season hits in November.
If an agent’s webpage says to cool it in August, of course don’t query them. But if agents are actively accepting submissions and you’ve got something ready, I say query now instead of waiting four weeks.
And after you send out your queries? Take time off yourself to celebrate the progress you’ve made this year in your publishing journey. Every step gets you closer to your goal. Keep writing!
