Blog - Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing

The best strategy for sending query letters

Nathan Bransford — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 20:43:51 +0000

Once you’ve written a fantastic query letter, researched literary agents, and compiled a ranked list of reputable agents who specialize in your genre: it’s go time, baby. Here’s my best strategy for sending out query letters.

I also offer online classes with exclusive resources about finding and working with literary agents that you can take at your leisure. They will help you every step of the way!

And if you need personalized help, I can help edit your query letter, or you can book a consultation to ask questions about your strategy.

In this post we’ll cover:

What to know before you start
What not to do when sending queries
Sending query letters in batches
How to rank the literary agents on your list
Consider supplementing your query strategy
What happens after you send your query letter

What to know before you start

The publishing industry can be a bit of a mystifying place. It’s a land with quite a lot of arcane customs and norms that can feel a bit impenetrable to outsiders.

Your questions may pile up. Is it okay to query multiple agents at the same agency? When is it okay to follow up with agents? Should I agree to submit a manuscript exclusively to an agent?

I’m here to help. Here’s a post that covers everything you need to know about literary agent etiquette and how to not to scare off these wondrous and somewhat persnickety creatures:

A guide to literary agent etiquette

That said, when it comes to approaching agents, don’t twist yourself into knots trying to get everything perfectly perfect and walk around terrified you’re getting it wrong. As long as you’re operating with good intentions and honesty, you’re going to be fine.

Agents are not delicate flowers who are going to wilt just because you have a typo in your query. No one is going to reject you over a minor faux pas, and if they do, you probably wouldn’t want to work with them anyway.

What not to do

Let’s talk for a second about what not to do when sending out a query letter.

One of the most mystifying ways some aspiring authors go about the query process is to blast an e-mail to every single agent in the publishing industry with a “To My Future Literary Agent” subject line.

When I was an agent, what made me slap my head wasn’t just that it’s poor e-mail etiquette or knowing that 1,000 of my closest colleagues were also considering the project at exactly the same time. It’s just not a good strategy.

What if you didn’t get your pitch right and everyone rejects (or ignores) you? Well, you blew your chance to tweak your query letter a bit and try again with another round. (And no, you can’t just tweak it and re-send it to those 1,000 agents again. That’s a good way to get blocked forever.)

If you rush the submission process you lose the ability to evaluate and adjust as you go. Instead…

Send query letters in batches

It’s much smarter and more effective to send out the query in batches of ten to twelve at a time.

When you get a rejection, send a new one out. If a few months go by and you haven’t heard from an agent, consider it a rejection and send a new one out. Many/most agents these days have no-response-means-no policies, so you should not wait endlessly for a reply.

Take your time. Check your hit rate. If you’re getting a good amount of requests from agents, it probably means your query/submission package is working.

If you’re not getting any requests for more materials with, say, your first 15-20 queries, you might take another hard look at your query and opening and think about making adjustments. Luckily, since you still have plenty of agents on your list, you have leeway to experiment.

As time goes by, you might receive some feedback that prompts you to revisit your approach, but there’s only so much you can learn from rejection letters. Don’t get overly caught up in the verbiage of the rejection letters.

Going at a steady pace can be frustrating and feel tedious sometimes, but it gives you time to look at your query and opening with fresh eyes as your results come in.

How to rank the literary agents on your list

Okay, sure, you might agree with the batch process, but how do you decide on which agents to prioritize?

There are two main schools of thoughts on ranking agents. There’s Camp Force Rank, where you rank the agents from top vibes to lowest vibes and simply move down your list from top to bottom.

There’s also Camp Tiers, where you group the agents into A-Tier, B-Tier, C-Tier, and D-Tier, and pick a few agents from each group to form your batch.

I’m personally in Camp Force Rank, and I followed this approach with my own books. Here’s my reasoning…

If/when you receive an offer of representation, it’s considered good form to follow-up with the other agents who are currently considering your manuscript. It’s bad form to blast new queries out to all the other agents on your list to shop your offer. It’s a small industry, word may get back to the initial agent who offered, and the first agent may well rescind their offer.

Knowing this, I personally wanted my project being considered with as many agents at the top of my list as possible at the time I receive an offer of representation.

However, the thinking in Camp Tiers is that if you initially screw up with your first attempt at writing your query, you’ll still have some agents left from your top tier who you can try, so you won’t feel like you totally blew it.

There are no hard and fast rules here, so choose the approach that resonates most with you.

Consider supplementing your query strategy

Also take note: in this day and age, sending out a query letter is not the only way to approach agents! The days of pitch wars and agents soliciting pitches on Twitter are now largely a thing of the past, but you can meet literary agents at writers’ conferences, through referrals, and pitch events.

There isn’t a “best” way to approach an agent or a secret channel that will give you greater odds. Instead of getting caught up with a method-first to querying, instead just come up with your list of agents and determine each agent’s preferred way of receiving queries.

Don’t limit yourself to one channel, but good old-fashioned query letters is almost assuredly the route you’re going to take.

What happens after you send out your query letter

After you’ve sent your query letter off into the great unknown, you sit back and wait for the literary agent to consider it. And wait. And wait some more.

If you get requests: your query letter has done its job and you have moved on to the next step!

As I mentioned earlier, many/most literary agents have a no-response-means-no policy, so if you do not hear back after a couple of months you have your answer. It is not customary to follow-up if you haven’t heard back on a query letter.

Keep your cool, stay calm, and be professional throughout the process. Patience in the submission process (and life, for that matter) goes a long way.

More query letter resources

Do you have a tried and true strategy for sending out queries? Any superstitions? Take to the comments!

ORIGINALLY POSTED: November 13, 2019

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!

For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.

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Art: The messenger of love by Leonard Straszyński

Are people talking about books again? (This week in books)

Nathan Bransford — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 18:16:42 +0000

This week! Books!

We’re easing into summer, typically a quieter time in publishing, but I found some links for you.

The Rise of Ragebait Lit – Maris Kreizman, Harper’s Bazaar – Are people talking about books again??

Gulliver’s Warning – Fintan O’Toole, The New York Review of Books – Happy three hundredth birthday to Jonathan Swift’s wildly inventive novel channeling his loathing of colonialism.

Think for Yourself – Dan Chiasson, The New York Review of Books – Another argument that there’s value in engaging with the kind of connective writing you may be tempted to brush past with A.I.

No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious – Ted Chiang, The Atlantic – Ted Chiang has long been one of the most astute writers on A.I., and he dismantles any notion that A.I. is–or could be–conscious.

How Lit Mags Are Dealing With AI-Slop Submissions – Jasmine Vojdani, Vulture – A look at the front lines of A.I. slop evaluation.

About those Dad Books – Kenneth Whyte, SHuSH – More on last week’s WSJ article on the supposed decline of “Dad Books.” Kenneth Whyte picks apart the less-than-convincing evidence the article relied upon to cite a trend.

Author Jon Klassen’s prestigious award win reflects a broader shift in children’s literature – Christophe Premat, The Conversation – A look at children’s book author and illustrator Jon Klassen, and what recent attention for his work says about perceptions of children’s literature.

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

The Divorce by Freida McFadden
The Deal by Elle Kennedy
The Final Target by Nora Roberts
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

The Land and Its People by David Sedaris
Strangers by Belle Burden
The Hero Next Door by Martha Raddatz
All We Say by Ben Rhodes
Liar’s Kingdom by Andrew Weissmann

Young adult hardcover:

Behind Five Willows by June Hur
The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss
Release Me by Tahereh Mafi
Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
If Only I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin

Middle grade hardcover:

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Wombat Waiting by Katherine Applegate
KPop Demon Hunters by Jessica Yoon
Refugee by Alan Gratz
Unsettling Salad! by Aaron Reynolds

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

How to come up with good comp titles for your book

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

Follow me on Bluesky and Threads

And finally:

If you’re a sports fan of a certain age, a heaping dose of addictive nostalgia dropped this week in the form of two very entertaining games: 82-0 for basketball and 7a0 for soccer. Poof goes your productivity!

Have a great weekend!

Photo: Pasadena, CA. Follow me on Instagram!

How to come up with good comp titles for your book

Nathan Bransford — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 20:22:29 +0000

A good “comp title” can help put a literary agent or reader in the right mindset when you’re trying to pitch your book. A bad one may leave their eyes glazing over.

In the past, comp titles were broadly optional, but they’ve become more and more essential in a tighter marketplace. Above all, if you’re seeking publication, it behooves you to know the individual flavor of your book, where you fit in the market, and who your readers are.

So what are comp titles and how do you come up with good ones?

In this post I’ll cover:

What are comp titles?
Your goals for comp titles and what to watch out for
How to come up with good comp titles (and why you shouldn’t fear them)
Tools that can help you
Two approaches for utilizing comp titles

Also, don’t miss my online classes on finding a literary agent, and if you need help, reach out for editing or book a consultation!

What are comp titles?

Comp titles are books (or occasionally TV shows/movies) that are in the same vein as yours. Pretty simple, right?

Not so much. There isn’t even a consensus within the industry on what the word “comp” is shorthand for, whether it’s “competitive titles” or “comparative titles” or “comparison titles.”

To further confuse matters, there are two broad categories of comp titles that don’t always neatly overlap:

Market comps: More narrowly focused on the current marketplace for your book’s category/genre, as in books/authors that have been successful within the last 5-10 years. Example: “My contemporary romance will appeal to readers of Beach Read by Emily Henry and Tangled Up In You by Christina Lauren.”
Vibes comps: More focused on stylistic similarities, even if you’re drawing upon older books and movies/TV shows. Example: “Think Jurassic Park meets Fifty Shades of Grey“

On your publishing journey, you’ll find that both types of comp titles have their uses.

If you’re providing a comp title to a publishing professional like a literary agent or an editor at a publishing house, use market comps because competitive titles are crucial to how literary agents assess the viability of projects and how editors build their P&Ls when they’re preparing offers. The goal here is to give the agent/editor a sense of the current market for your book (as well as your familiarity with said market).

If you’re writing jacket copy or pitching your book casually, you might utilize vibes comps because your goal here is to place yourself alongside books and authors that are in the same ballpark as yours. As in, “If you liked that, you might like mine.”

Comps used to only be mandatory in nonfiction book proposals, but they’ve increasingly become crucial for fiction too. I used to advise novelists to only utilize comp titles in query letters if they had strong ones on hand, but now I advise everyone to include comp titles.

Your goals for comp titles and what to watch out for

While the overarching goal for both types of comp titles is the same (you want to inspire someone to read your book), there are nuances for what you’re trying to achieve with market comps and vibes comps. Here’s your mission:

Market comps: You want to show a publishing professional there’s a current market for your book and that you are familiar with said market.
Vibes comps: You want to inspire a high-concept sense of intrigue in the listener/reader by making familiar archetypes feel fresh with an unexpected but easily comprehensible combination.

For market comps in a query letter, your core focus should be on books that were successful* within the last 5-10 years. The more recent the better. While your list of three titles may include a movie or TV show, I would strenuously encourage you to list at least one book that was published by a major publisher within the last 5 years or a highly successful self-published novel with an established fandom.

Do you see the asterisk next to the word “successful?” That’s because while it’s good to include bestsellers, for market comps I’d steer clear of books that have become such mega-bestselling household names they are read by non-readers who maybe pick up one book a year (e.g. The Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, etc.). The reason for this is twofold:

These books are unicorns whose trajectories are unrealistic to emulate.
Including them does not tip off an agent that you have a more nuanced grip on your knowledge of your market.

For vibes comps, you’re really just aiming for a sense of intrigue. You want to inspire the words “Huh, that sounds interesting,” and there aren’t really rules on how you get there. Heck, the LitRPG genre as a whole is basically a vibes-based comp of “fantasy novel meets Dungeons & Dragons.”

So how do you come up with these bad boys? Here are some tips.

How to come up with good comp titles (and why you shouldn’t fear them)

Here’s what you do: You sit down in front of a laptop. You brainstorm. You do some research. You stay sitting until you have a list of comp titles.

This isn’t magic, people. There’s no substitute for putting in the work.

There are tons of books out there, and it shouldn’t take you more than a couple of hours of good solid market research to find some comps in your zone.

If you’re struggling to find anything even remotely in the vein of your book, you may have written something truly idiosyncratic, which may require a gut check around whether you got too far out there for traditional publishing, or you may be thinking too narrowly. Particularly for market comps: Cast a wide net.

Remember: you’re just looking for what your potential readers are reading/watching in your genre/category. It doesn’t have to be an identical stylistic or subject matter match.

And don’t psych yourself out. Some authors make like ostriches with their heads in their sand because they’re terrified to see what else is out there, due to some combination of:

They’re afraid they’re going to find a book too similar to theirs that will kill their chances.
They’re daunted by the idea that they’re going to have to read a bunch of new books.
They’re worried about other voices getting inside their head.

Do not worry about these things. A similar book out there won’t hurt your chances (it might even help you). And trust that your own voice will keep shining through. Familiarizing yourself with the market can only help you.

Now, I highly recommend that you read at least part of a book you’re including as a comp title, just to gut check whether it’s truly a fit for yours. And it’s advantageous to read widely in your genre.

But am I going to send you to jail if you don’t read the entirety of a book you include as a comp title? I will not. And no one else will either. Just go to a bookstore and read the opening, or utilize previews on Amazon, and utilize your time as best you can.

Tools for finding comp titles

You, my friend, have access to comp title jetpacks that authors of yore could have only dreamed about. It’s easier than ever to find comp titles thanks to Google, recommendation algorithms, and artificial intelligence.

First, particularly for market comps, it’s crucial to know your genre. From there, just Google by subject matter and genre, or go browse a bookstore to come up with an initial list of books that are broadly, even tangentially, in your zone. Don’t worry about how accurate they are just yet.

From here, go to those book pages on Amazon, Goodreads, and/or StoryGraph and see what else their algorithms recommend or which other books are on users’ bookshelves. Expand your list. Go to those book pages too. Your net will swiftly grow, and you can start narrowing down which books are the best fits.

You can also search Publishers Marketplace and see which books have sold recently in your genre/category, which is helpful because they distill books to pithy pitches.

Or? I’m not going to lie, this is an area where A.I. can be extremely helpful. If you input your plot/subject and ask for similar books published by major publishers in the last 5 years, A.I. chatbots like Claude, Gemini, and/or ChatGPT can give you a solid starting place very quickly. Just make sure to double-check that the books they’re recommending are real.

Two approaches for utilizing comp titles

There are two main approaches for formulating your comp titles for public consumption:

Vibes comps: The classic “[BLANK] meets [BLANK].” Example: Conversations With Friends meets Alien (someone please write this). I also drew upon a variation of this approach when I pitched Jacob Wonderbar as being like “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for kids.”
Market comps: Simply list the titles in the form of “[MY BOOK TITLE] will appeal to readers of…” List both titles and authors. It’s not necessary to “prove” why you’re including these comp titles, such as listing the themes associated with each comp title, though you can nod to stylistic similarites/differences.

When you’re writing a nonfiction book proposal, a section of the proposal is typically devoted to competing titles in a bit more of a detailed way, with some basic analysis of how your proposed work compares. Note that this should be a bit more of a thoroughly researched evaluation of previously published books that compare to yours, and should include:

A super brief description of the comp title
How well the comp title sold (if you know it)
How your book is different

Try to be concise with these and spend no more than a paragraph on each one.

Go comp and prosper

We live in a very noisy world, and comp titles have become a crucial shorthand for how and where your book is going to stand out.

If you’re seeking publication, it pays to do this research, to read widely in your genre/category, and to avoid ostrich syndrome by staying abreast of the market.

Be accurate and honest, don’t overthink comps by getting too narrow, and remember that at the end of the day: it’s your story that really matters.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 18, 2018. UPDATED AUGUST 9, 2021.

Art: The Seventh Plague of Egypt by John Martin

The publishing sky is falling again (This week in books)

Nathan Bransford — Fri, 29 May 2026 16:47:59 +0000

This week! Books!

Dad Books Are a Dying Breed – Pamela Paul and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal / Are hardback books things of ‘great beauty’ or a dying art? – Jasmine Ketibuah-Foley and David Smith, The BBC – As I like to say, the sky has been falling in publishing every year for the last twenty years. In this week’s alarmist headlines, the WSJ extrapolates from a decline in nonfiction sales over the last few years to declare “dad books” dead. The slide is being accelerated by a 19% decline in politics and current events books (I have some theories…), but industry veterans worry podcasts are eating into sales. Meanwhile, a columnist in the UK declared the end of hardcover books because they’re too expensive, which the BBC then dove into.

Writing & Publishing Awards Have Difficult Decisions to Make Regarding AI – Jane Friedman – In the wake of the Granta A.I. controversy, industry expert Jane Friedman has a common-sense reckoning with the responsibility writing awards have to police A.I. usage, and ends up in a similar place as me. While decision-makers should educate themselves on what A.I.-generated writing typically looks like, good luck “proving” A.I. usage, and perhaps we should instead simply focus on the output, not the process.

Nonfiction Book Publishers Aren’t Remotely Ready for AI – Charlotte Klein, New York Magazine – And speaking of, in the wake of the controversy surrounding Steven Rosenbaum’s The Future of Truth: How AI Reshapes Reality including A.I.-hallucinated quotes, Charlotte Klein argues that when nonfiction publishers don’t even fact-check their books, they’re not remotely prepared for the A.I. wave.

What’s Missing from Belle Burden’s “Strangers” – Jessica Winter, The New Yorker – Did Belle Burden misrepresent the extent of her financial hardship in her divorce memoir? Jessica Winter argues her bestseller Strangers wasn’t transparent about her generational wealth. Social media backlash argued she referenced her privilege, then backlash to the backlash wondered why people instinctually carry water for the rich. And so the discourse turns…

Why Michael Crichton’s Best Novel Failed as a Movie – Ian Mackenzie, Lit Hub – For elder millennials like me, Michael Crichton’s Sphere was the apotheosis of the adult novels we were reading as impressionable teenagers. Ian Mackenzie looks back at the novel and its film adaptation.

The Rise of the Sensitivity Reader – Kyle Paoletta, The Nation – A review of a new book on the rise of sensitivity readers and what it says about the contradictions within a disproportionately rich, white industry assuming moral authority over what gets published, a responsibility that then gets shunted onto sensitivity readers. Though what’s the real harm in ensuring a book doesn’t unintentionally offend groups it’s going to be marketed to?

Why Is TikTok in This Book From 2006? – Angelina Mazza, New York Times – The publishing industry has quietly been revising reprints with updated cultural references for decades, a somewhat bewildering practice that has become newly controversial when someone noticed a reference to TikTok in a reprint of Pretty Little Liars, which was published in 2006. It’s particularly common in middle grade, as publishers argue confusing references might stop young readers in their tracks. What say you?

This week in bestsellers

Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):

Adult print and e-book fiction:

The Ballad of Falling Dragons by Sarah A. Parker
Ironwood by Michael Connelly
The Deal by Elle Kennedy
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Adult print and e-book nonfiction:

Liar’s Kingdom by Andrew Weissmann
Strangers by Belle Burden
Suicidal Empathy by Gad Saad
This Is Me by Hayden Panettiere
How to Rule the World by Theo Baker

Young adult hardcover:

Release Me by Tahereh Mafi
The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss
Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
Us Dark Few by Alexis Patton
The Thorn Queen by Sasha Peyton Smith

Middle grade hardcover:

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Wombat Waiting by Katherine Applegate
KPop Demon Hunters by Jessica Yoon
Unsettling Salad! by Aaron Reynolds
Growing Home by Beth Ferry

This week on the blog

In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:

And keep up with the discussion in all the places!

Follow me on Bluesky and Threads
Check out the Bransforums

And finally:

Why Is It So Hard to Be Ordinary? – Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker – Anyone writing books and then seeking publishing has probably wondered why simply having fun writing doesn’t feel like enough. Joshua Rothman grapples with the universal pressure to be extraordinary.

Have a great weekend!

Photo: Newcastle, England. Follow me on Instagram!

Bransforums are closing. What’s next?

Nathan Bransford — Wed, 27 May 2026 19:00:00 +0000

It’s the end of an era.

I’ve decided to shutter the discussion forums at forums.nathanbransford.com, which I launched way back in 2009. Quite a lot has changed on the ole Internet during that time, and it’s been a herculean effort through time to beat back incessant waves of spam (shout out to John Shea for his tireless help here).

UPDATE: The forums are now dark!

And… what’s next? Do you have any ideas on what you’d like to see? Should we rev up the Facebook group, start a Discord, or [insert your idea here]?