Convention Season

You're wondering if you should send a query letter to that agent you've decided is perfect to represent your manuscript. There is that element of luck to the process and you'd like to maximize yours by timing the submission, but when is that time?

Not now.

Chances are, your New York City-based ideal agent is wandering around the Javits Center in their home town, perusing the displays at Book Expo America.

They are sitting in conference rooms listening to those in the know discuss where books and publishing are headed so they can be one step ahead. They are getting their hands on ARCs of new books they did not rep so they can see what the competition is doing. In short, they are not in their offices clicking through their e-mail inbox, skimming the opening line of query letters.

You could send your query anyway, but then your letter is in an inbox stuffed full and when the agent does come back to the office, they'll be put off by the huge number of items they have to deal with. They'll start reading and become aggravated. Their patience will wane. And that is not the frame of mind you want your dream agent to be in when she gets to your intriguing epistle.

And don't forgot publishing hours. The industry takes off for the weekend on Thursday evening or Friday noon at the latest, so the agents are gone as well to their summer home in the Hamptons (or their tiny flat in Brooklyn).

Try next Tuesday.

It's as good a day as any.