The Personalized Query Reject

I've started sending out query letters (slowly...only three so far) to agents to get a feel for what I need to work on.

QueryTracker.net (QT) is awesome in keeping track of who/when/what happened when you query agents.  You can sort the agents in their system in a variety of ways, search for agents that meet certain criteria (i.e. represents your genre), and see comments from who else has queried them and been rejected/selected.

For my first agent of this round, I selected one person at a top listed agency.  (Only a query letter.)  I got a quick rejection the next day.

For the second one, I sent the query letter to an agent I was very impressed with at a conference I attended.  She is one of the most queried agents.  It took a month to hear back but I got a personalized rejection letter!  Woohoo!  Through QT, I had been monitoring when other people heard back from her and they were getting one-day turn-arounds.  So, the fact that it took a month and it had my name instead of "Dear Author" was encouraging.  Plus, she added an extra line up front about something I said in my letter.  It was probably the nicest rejection letter ever.  I assume it is the next level of rejection form-letters but since it had the extra line and my name, I'm counting it as personalized.

For the third one, I am still waiting.  I selected a colleague of an agent I had a one-on-one with.  (I really liked the agent I met with but she had said at the time that the story was something that would appeal more to her colleague.)  The agency says to give them three months since they ask for the first three chapters.

If nothing else, I am feeling better about my query letter that it made it over one well-known agent's immediate reject pile.