My Querying Journey
I started writing my novel, The Cosmonaut and the Fisherman (which began with the cheekily named title Red Trip) sometime in 2020. Up til that point, I’d started many novels, but never finished any of them. I got close with a fantasy novel in about 2010, until I realized how derivative and just outright terrible it was. I set that novel aside (probably forever) when it was at about 50k words. But Cosmonaut felt different from the start. I felt more connected to these characters than I ever had with any others, I loved the setting, the time period, and heck I even sympathized with my bad guy.
I finished the first draft of Cosmonaut in 2019 with over 100k words. If you know anything about the publishing industry, you know this is a high word count for anything except fantasy and science fiction. I worked on simultaneously polishing the story and cutting words. It’s now down to 90k words, still on the upper boundaries of the word-count for my genre, but acceptable.
I sent out my first query letters in July, 2022, and queried until I had my first offer of representation at the end of August, 2024. Here’s a cool little graphic of my journey:
Out of the 216 queries I sent to literary agents over two years, 205 of those were rejected or ignored. I received two offers of representation, and signed with my agent on September 13, 2024.
Is two years a normal amount of time to query for agents? I’m sure there’s some kind of curve, and it wouldn’t surprise me to learn I was on the far side of that curve. I’ve heard of people getting agents when they mentioned their in-work manuscript to an agent at a cocktail party. And I’ve also heard of people querying for a decade or more. Those two situations are obviously outliers, but the point is: everyone’s journey is different. During the time I was querying, YA fantasy was super hot. YA fantasy authors were signing left and right. If, like me, you’re querying a historical action/adventure novel, there’s an agent out there for you but it’s probably going to take longer. And not to put too fine a point on it: your book has to be good, and it has to be publishable. Querying isn’t just about tenacity, it’s also about knowing your craft, and knowing your genre.
Here’s my advice on querying: if you believe in yourself and your book, then you query until you run out of agents, or you run out of steam. Don’t let anyone give you a magical number–to give up after, say fifty agents or six months. (made up examples, I’ve seen numbers all over the board) If I had listened to any of this advice, my book wouldn’t be on submission to publishers.
The Query Letter That Got Me My Agent
Okay, here’s probably why you’re here. First, a couple caveats:
Your query letter needs to be good, but it’s your book that’s going to sign you with an agent. So yes, by all means put the effort you need into your query letter. But make your book sing. Make it irresistible, make it un-put-down-able. Your query letter will open the door, but it’s your book that’s going to get you invited inside.
Also, this is just one query letter. It was successful for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s a perfect (or even a good example of a) query letter. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you just copy/paste, replacing my details with your own. Read up, look at other query letters, and decide what works for you and your book. And best of luck to you, I wish you success!
Dear [Agent’s first name],
I’m thrilled to present to you my novel THE COSMONAUT AND THE FISHERMAN, a 90,000-word adult historical. Tolstoy tragedy meets Steinbeck America, my novel is a character-driven story steeped in the Space Race and Cold War of the 1960s. It has the pervasive found-family heart of First Cosmic Velocity by Zach Powers, with the unexpected discovery of relationships established while undercover seen in American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson. The emotional pulls, coping with trauma, and self-discovery found in In the Quick by Kate Hope Day tie the characters and their stories together, infused with the tragedy and dark humor found in A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles).
Soviet cosmonaut Victoria “Vika” Rusanova crash-lands in Cold War America and must escape her pursuers before they capture her and the secrets she carries.
Sixteen-year-old Tabby Shelton and ten-year-old Giles Shelton live alone on the family ranch, trying to keep their father’s death a secret to avoid being separated by the state. When they discover Vika in their barn, they realize she has brought catastrophe to their doorstep.
After initial hostilities, the three form an uneasy alliance. When the police and FBI descend on the ranch, the unlikely trio must flee, and Vika must choose between abandoning the children or help the young orphans survive the calamity she has brought down upon them.Pursued by an FBI agent with his own agenda, Vika must also untangle her own inner conflicts, including the death of her lover she unwittingly betrayed, and the dawning realization that even as she attempts to evade capture and complete her mission, her country has already disavowed her. Tabby and Giles must also come to terms with the possibility that, along with the loss of their parents and their home, they could lose each other.
Their journey will conclude in a life-or-death showdown that will test their loyalty and faith in each other.
THE COSMONAUT AND THE FISHERMAN is a Top Three Finalist in the Clive Cussler Society’s 2024 Adventure Writers Competition and won Third Place in the Adventure category of the Historical Novel Society UK’s 2024 First Chapters Competition. It was also Honorable Mention in the Gutsy Great Novelist 2024 and selected as a quarterfinalist in the 2024 Screencraft Cinematic Book Competition.
Kirk Rafferty sits on the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Board of Directors as Communications Co-Chair. Kirk is a former US Navy Cryptologist, a technical writer, and an information technology architect. An avowed nerd, Kirk loves reading, traveling, scuba diving, and is obsessed with spies, the Cold War, and the Space Race. He lives with his family in Colorado.
Thank you for your consideration and time.Warm regards,
Kirk Rafferty