First Month Stats (September 2022)

WOW, I opened to queries and you all delivered. I thought I'd put my first month stats here for those interested, and I want a record of this phenomenal month for future reference. 

In my first 24 hours of opening, I received 450 queries. By day seven, I had received over 700 queries. The incoming queries slowed down after that. I had only anticipated receiving between 30-50 queries on that first day! I am grateful for every query I received.

In the month of September, I received a total of 1095 queries.

Fiction: 1062
Nonfiction: 33

I also received 8 notifications of offers. Five were publisher offers and three were agent offers. 

The genre breakdown for the queries I received:

FICTION
Action/Adventure: 14
Chick Lit: 8
Commercial: 13 
Crime/Detective/Police:  15
Family Saga: 14
Fantasy: 268
Horror: 76
Literary: 74
Multicultural: 4
Mystery: 52
Mystery Cozy: 20
Offbeat/Quirky: 17
Romance: 15
Romance Contemporary: 48
Romance Historical: 18
Romance Paranormal: 5
Romance Regency/Victorian: 2
Romance: Thriller/Suspense: 18
Science Fiction: 223
Suspense: 17
Thriller: 60
Upmarket: 18
Western: 4
Women's Fiction: 42

Nonfiction

How To: 1
Memoir Survival Story: 15
Narrative: 6
Natural Health & Healing: 1
Science & Technology: 1
Self-Help: 6
True Crime: 2
Cookbook: 1

As you can see Fantasy is astronomical and Science Fiction is close behind.  

​I still have 81 undecided queries in my inbox as of writing this.

I requested 30 full manuscripts. The breakdown of those I requested are as follows:

Horror: 2
Thriller: 1
Offbeat/Quirky: 1
Cozy Mystery: 3
Suspense: 1
Romance Thriller/Suspense: 1
Romance Contemporary: 1
Romance Historical: 1
Romance Regency/Victorian: 1
Science Fiction: 4
Chicklit: 1
Fantasy: 10
Upmarket: 2
Cookbook: 1

Trends I noticed:
Stories set in the 80s (lots!)
Cults in some way, shape, or form

Comps I noted were used often:
Gideon the Ninth
A Memory Called Empire
Station 11

I've learned a few things about my tastes and what I don't gravitate toward. For example, I'm not as fond of stories with paranormal creatures or fantasy creatures such as elves, fae, vampires, or werewolves. I'm also not as fond of stories where the politics are too close to our own since we live it every day. I like to escape and experience politics in other worlds (can include important topics of our world though!) and in unique ways and how the MC deals with it there.

As you can see, I've been super busy and have spent a ton of time in my query inbox (it still hurts A LOT to send passes and I actually say, "I'm sorry" every time).

In the month of October, I hope to focus a lot more time on my full requests because I have so many amazing manuscripts to read.

Kimberly