Comparison
DraftAndQuery vs QueryTracker
QueryTracker is built around finding US literary agents and recording what you sent them, while DraftAndQuery is built around the manuscript and the dates it is waiting on.
Comparison
DraftAndQuery vs Airtable: build your own base or use a built one
Airtable hands you a flexible database and expects you to design the submission system, while DraftAndQuery hands you the system already shaped around manuscripts, response windows and follow ups.
The short answer
Airtable is a genuinely capable choice and some authors run excellent submission bases in it, especially writers who enjoy building systems and already keep other work there. The cost is that you design the schema, you maintain it when your process changes, and the reminders only exist because you built them. DraftAndQuery makes those decisions for you in the shape this trade actually uses: numbered drafts, one pipeline per title, a stated window turned into a date, a follow up queue per recipient. Pick by whether you want to own the design.
DraftAndQuery and Airtable side by side
| What you are deciding | DraftAndQuery | Airtable |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Add a title, add recipients, enter the stated windows | You design tables, fields, views and automations first |
| Who owns the structure | The publishing workflow is built in and maintained for you | The structure is yours to build and to revise |
| Manuscript versions | Numbered drafts linked to the submissions that carry them | A general database that can model whatever you define |
| Response deadlines | Stated windows become dates that drive the follow up queue | Dates and reminders behave the way you configure them |
| Vocabulary | Query, partial, full, offer, reversion, reading period | Generic records and fields across every industry |
| Maintenance | Your time goes into submitting rather than into the tool | The base needs upkeep as your process changes |
| Flexibility | Fits the publishing pipeline closely, and deliberately so | Adapts to almost any workflow you can describe |
| Best fit | Authors who want the submission system to already exist | Authors who like building and keeping their own systems |
On the right is the kind of tool Airtable is and the job it is shaped around, rather than a list of what it includes at any given price. None of it stands still, so take the current position from them rather than from here. DraftAndQuery is published by MLJ, SASU and this page is written by Jimenez Julien.
Choose DraftAndQuery when
- When you would rather spend Sunday afternoon revising the synopsis than rebuilding a formula field, the ready made pipeline wins.
- If you have tried a spreadsheet twice and abandoned it by round three, the missing piece was the dated follow up queue.
- When several titles are moving at once, per title pipelines and version stamps stop you designing that structure yourself.
- If you work with an assistant or a co author, shared stages and dates matter more than a base only you understand.
Choose Airtable when
- If you already run your whole writing business in one base, adding submissions to it keeps everything in a single place.
- If your process is unusual, say tracking translation rights or a serial release schedule, a general database will bend where a dedicated tool will not.
- If you genuinely enjoy building systems and the base becomes something you maintain happily, that is a real advantage.
The spreadsheet phase and why it usually ends
Almost every querying writer starts with a sheet: agent name, date sent, materials, response. It works beautifully for the first batch. It starts to strain when the second batch goes out against a revised opening, when an agent asks for a full, and when three months of silence need to be told apart from three months of the stated window not having run out yet.
The failure is never the columns. It is that a sheet does not surface anything on its own. You have to remember to open it, sort it, and work out which dates have passed. Rounds die in the gap between the record existing and anyone looking at it.
What a general database asks of you
A tool like Airtable removes the arithmetic limits of a sheet and adds real relationships between records. If you build it well you can link a draft to the submissions that carried it, set a formula for the follow up date, and build a view that shows only what is overdue. Writers who do this end up with something close to a purpose built tracker.
The honest cost is design time and drift. Publishing workflows change as you move between agents, presses and contests, and every change is a change you have to make to the base. That is fine if you like the work. It is a slow tax if you do not, and it usually gets paid out of writing hours.
What being purpose built actually buys
DraftAndQuery already knows what a partial is, that a full request runs on a longer clock, that reading periods close on a date, and that a press holding your manuscript is a different situation from an agent holding it. None of that has to be modeled, named or maintained by you.
It also means the defaults are opinionated in a useful way. Submissions get a close out date so dead entries do not sit in the live view. Follow ups group by recipient so one agent with three of your projects gets one note. Those are decisions this trade has already settled, and they are baked in.
Questions people ask before they choose
Can I move my existing base or spreadsheet across?
Yes. Export what you have to a spreadsheet file and map the columns to title, recipient, date sent, materials, stated window and outcome. Closed submissions come across as history, which is worth keeping. Most writers finish the import in an evening and spend the time on entering response windows.
What if I need a field the tool does not have?
Custom notes and tags cover most of what writers add, such as a referral source or a conference where you met the agent. If your process needs something genuinely structural that publishing does not share, a general database really is the better home. That is a fair reason to pick the other side.
Which tier should a single author start on?
One Author at 15 dollars a month covers a writer with one or two titles in circulation. Author Plus at 39 dollars suits several projects, pen names or a heavier round. Small Press at 95 dollars is for a team reading and tracking submissions together.
Other comparisons on draftandquery.com
Comparison
DraftAndQuery vs Duotrope
Duotrope is a market listing and tracking service built around periodicals and the writers who feed them, while DraftAndQuery is a pipeline for book length manuscripts moving through agents and presses.
Put the two against your own target list
A comparison table only takes you so far. Bring twenty names from the list you are querying now, the drafts already in circulation and the stated windows you were quoted, and we will set them up live so you can watch the follow up queue fill in. If the other tool turns out to be the better home for this round, that will be just as clear.