I'm currently querying my first novel, The Kindness of Strangers.
I trawled through Agent Match on the Jericho Writers website to find agents that are currently accepting submissions in my genre (contemporary suspense), and drew up a shortlist of ten - then I added one for good luck.
I used the tools on the Jericho Writers website to create my submission pack, making sure that my pitch letter, synopsis and the first three chapters were as tight and polished as I could make them. Then I got feedback on these from a few folks whose opinion I trusted (published authors); the feedback was that the submission pack was agent-ready and I was good to go!
So far, I've received 4 rejections. Three were just form emails, but the fourth was more encouraging. The agent said my writing 'had much to admire' and was 'tight and impactful', and the book's premise was interesting. She still passed, but I took some encouragement from those kind words.
The author Will Dean, in this YouTube video, says you should expect one hundred rejections. When you get rejection number twenty three, you can sail through it without it knocking your confidence because you know you're on your way to a hundred. It's good advice that has certainly helped me accept my paltry four rejections with good grace. Only ninety-six more to go!
Photo: British Museum/PA