Agent Kristin Nelson cautioned authors this month about rushing out to market with NaNoWriMo drafts. She said what many of us stress each year to novice writers: your NaNo draft is just that—a draft, a rough one, nowhere near ready for submission.
But then, in her post-NaNo article, she goes even further: even if your manuscript is truly ready for submission, avoid the rush at the top of the year. “Don’t submit during the first few weeks of January,” Nelson writes. “[O]n our first day back, we’ll get 600+ queries. Hard to stand out in that influx.”
Bottom line: Think of the queries arena as a fitness center: January is teeming with fresh-faced enthusiasts, and they’re directly between you and the attention of the agent you want. “Best time to submit? The last week in January/first week in February,” Nelson writes. “Agents are back in the swing of things and excited to read. February is usually a slow month for us.”
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
