Querying should be a team sport.

I'll bring the orange slices.

Mar 11, 2025

If you played sports (or maybe just soccer?) as a kid, do you remember the sweet, refreshing halftime moment when a parent would swoop in with a giant plastic container of orange slices?

Like puppies circling a bowl of food, a dozen hands dove into the container, clamoring for their ration.

Upon securing a wedge or two, sinking your teeth into that chilled, sticky snack gave you just enough pep in your step to get back onto the field and play a little harder.

Well, sometimes, we all need that proverbial orange slice to keep us going.

sliced orange fruit on red textile — Photo by Max Griss on Unsplash

Querying a novel is like the world’s longest soccer game. You start full of hope, ready to get the ball into your opponent’s net. And maybe you get close a time or two, but then… BOOM. The ball bounces off the goalie’s hand or ricochets off the metal goal frame.

By halftime, you’re a little wiped out. You’ve played an intense game — submitting dozens of queries to agents; maybe you’ve received a few requests for the manuscript, only to have them rejected.

Exhausted, you’re ready to get subbed out. You want to sit on the itchy grass and pout a bit because it feels like your teammates are making all the goals. It’s not the best feeling in the world.

Many oranges were consumed in this uniform.

But you know what? Sometimes you just need a teammate to bring you an orange slice, and suddenly the rest of the (querying) game feels a little easier.

After attending the Kauai Writers Conference in November, I was determined to keep in contact with the friends I made there. So, I started another writing group. (My OGs, SWC, and I still meet regularly, don’t worry.)

The S.H.I.T.Y Writers Group (So Happy It’s Thursday, Yay!) — or The Thursday Writers — is an excellent group of folks at various stages of the writing process who write in different genres. It’s a blast!

Last week, while we were yapping on Zoom about our writing updates, I felt pretty defeated.

Lately, querying has been ridiculously slow — like near-radio silence. That, in turn, has caused me to slow down my query submissions.

Let’s be honest; it’s infuriating to keep shouting into the void if you never hear back.

However, among my non-updates to the group, I mentioned that I had received a full request for my manuscript at the beginning of the week. To me, it was a throw-away comment. With each non-response and rejection, my ability to feel excited about anything related to querying has waned.

Here are the stats for those curious…Since December 1, 2024, I’ve distributed six copies of my manuscript to agents (per their request/post-query), and three have been rejected. Probably not great numbers to post on the internet, but there you have it. This industry needs more transparency anyway.

So, when I mentioned to The Thursday Writers that I’d received a full request and bulldozed past that information, a fellow writer1 held up her hand and gave me a gentle scolding.

“Excuse me, but a full request is always a big deal,” she reminded me.

And you know what? She was (and is) right!

Many writers, myself included, never hear back from agents at all, or the agent rejects your query without requesting a partial/full manuscript. That’s the reality of trying to publish a book.

Thick skin required.

Anyone who has played sports understands: you will feel much worse in the second half if you skip that little slice of cool, sweet refreshment after running around in the blazing sun for a few hours. Without the treat, you might even peter out before the end of the game…and that definitely won’t get your book published.

Unfortunately, I’ve become so jaded by this process that I failed to recognize that this small forward progress of getting a full request and sneaking the ball past the defenders could be the last step toward a successful goal.

Who's to say that this latest request for my manuscript won’t be the one that causes the agent to make an offer, ultimately gets my book on sub, and lands me a publishing deal?

It feels so profoundly improbable at times that I forget to relish in the possibilities.

Where would we be without teammates (or writing group friends) cheering us on, reminding us to replenish ourselves before moving forward?

This was post-game, obviously not on the soccer field, but here’s me and my life-long bestie. We cheered each other on despite being opponents, just like fellow writers supporting each other through the query process!! Always share your orange slices, kids; sometimes, it’s all someone needs to find their motivation.

With that boosted mindset, I’ve spent the last few days trying to focus on the accomplishments within the query process thus far.

A request of any kind indicates that my query letter is doing something right — that the magic formulation of hook, summary, comps, and bio was done in a way that has drawn in a portion of the impossible-to-impress, itty-bitty agent population. Plus, there are still several copies with agents that could be my game-winning shot toward my publishing goal.

The process feels hopeless, but there is some hope remaining.

So, if you, too, are in the so-called Query Trenches, remember that this is a statistically terrible game, and every incrementally positive play is worthy of an orange-flavored celebration because that might be the one that gets you the win.

So, three cheers for everyone in the query trenches, and here’s hoping that there’s a kick-ass pizza party at the end of the season.