How many queries should you send before shelving a manuscript?

I hear this question all the time. Shelving a manuscript feels like shelving a part of your soul, so getting to the point where you think you need to stop querying can be one of the hardest things to do as a writer.

There is no one size fits all answer. Looking back at the past manuscripts I have queried, I've often wondered if I stopped querying them prematurely. One in particular makes me wonder if it would have been successful had I kept going. 

I have stopped querying after sending anywhere between a couple dozen and almost a hundred (see below for more thoughts on the numbers). I've decided to "shelve" each manuscript at different points.

So how do I decide when to shelve it?

For me, it depends on three things:

1) Feedback 

Am I feeling like I'm getting any kind of positive feedback from agents? If I am getting positive reactions or any kind of good feedback, it helps me keep going. If no one has responded positively, then I am more likely to start thinking about shelving.

2) My gut

With each manuscript I have hit a point where I come to accept that this wasn't the manuscript. As I continued learning the craft of writing, I realized that the manuscript wasn't quite up for the task and I could do better. 

Or maybe I just know it's time to be done. No one else can tell you when this point is. When you know, you know.

3) Excitement over a new project

This is the best time to stop querying an old manuscript, in my opinion, because it doesn't feel as soul-punching. For the most part, I have stopped querying a project when I feel like I have something better in hand, something that outshines whatever I've been querying. 

The manuscript I shelved after less than two dozen queries? It's because I'd also been working on a nonfiction proposal for something that came from my heart and I turned my focus to that project. 

The last project I queried (before the project I am currently querying), I hit almost a hundred queries sent. I still believe in that project, but the new story hit me full force and wouldn't let go. I jumped whole-heartedly into my current story and haven't looked back. 

No one can tell you when to shelve a project. Sometimes you'll just have a feeling, sometimes you'll have an epiphany that your talents have grown beyond how you wrote that last book, and sometimes your writer's soul will move on. Some people shelve after dozens, some after hundreds.

Don't let number of queries sent be the deciding factor of whether to shelve your project. If it is the right thing to shelve after ten, shelve it. If it is the right thing to shelve after a hundred and fifty, shelve it. If it is the right . . . you get the idea. 

Currently, my gut and soul and feedback are all telling me to stay the course. I keep working on other projects while querying, but I'm seeing hopeful things with this manuscript. 

It's OK to shelve a manuscript. Shelving a manuscript only means that you are on to better things. Don't consider shelving to be a type of death, but instead realize that it's a type of rebirth. Here you start, off on an adventure.