Mentioning Submissions to Other Agents

LordDelusions said:

So one agency asked for a friend's manuscript. but along with that, the agency in question asked what other places did the friend submit to, if any?
Is this ethical? Should my friend feel pressured to listing other agencies that she has queried/submitted to?

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Do they want her to list them or do they just want to know how many others are considering the manuscript?

I've been asked, when sending fulls, how many other agents have the ms. I've never had a problem with just listing the number.

LordDelusions said:

So one agency asked for a friend's manuscript. but along with that, the agency in question asked what other places did the friend submit to, if any?
Is this ethical? Should my friend feel pressured to listing other agencies that she has queried/submitted to?

Click to expand...

Did they ask specifically for what specific agents the manuscript had been submitted to? or did they ask for a "submission history" for the manuscript?

If they asked for a "submission history" for the manuscript, I believe they mean has the manuscript been submitted to any publishers. And if it has not, she can respond, "The manuscript has not been submitted to any publishers. However, it is on submission with other agents." (assuming it is on submission with other agents or she intends to continue to query).

If they specifically asked for the names of other agents, that would make me uncomfortable, and I would likely respond. "The manuscript is on submission with other agents, and I am conitnuing to actively seek representation."

Maybe others have seen this specific request before and will offer additional or more specific advice.

~suki

Agents will assume that the manuscript is on submission to other agents, what they are really fussed about is whether publishers have seen it before.

One agent who requested the full of my MS asked who else was considering it at the time, and I disclosed the agency names, not the specific agents. Suki has good advice, and I agree with waylander's comment. Don't stress over it too much. Good luck!

One of the agents who has my full asked me for a submission history of the MS. Being new to the whole thing, I wrote back and told her that I had it out to other agents. When I heard back from her, she asked me to keep her updated on the submission history of the MS - and included that she meant publishers and not agents. So unless they specifically say agents, I would take it to mean they want to know if the MS has been submitted to any publishers.

I just had an agent ask for an exclusive and mentioned that partials were out with 4 other agents. I also let the agent know that I did query one, only one, publisher, just to test the waters and that I had gotten a request for the manuscript. Is it a negative thing to have other agents or even a publisher looking at the ms? Is there a chance that would put an agent off?

rathhaven said:

I just had an agent ask for an exclusive and mentioned that partials were out with 4 other agents. I also let the agent know that I did query one, only one, publisher, just to test the waters and that I had gotten a request for the manuscript. Is it a negative thing to have other agents or even a publisher looking at the ms? Is there a chance that would put an agent off?

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Any legitimate agent will have no issues with other agents looking at the manuscript, unless you promised her an exclusive and lied about/didn't tell her other agents were looking at it. I'm not a big fan of exclusives, so I was lucky none of the agents I deal with asked for one.

As for publishers, yes, some agents will be turned off if an author has shopped a manuscript to publishers, as the agent will ordinarily then not be able to shop it to that publisher. But if you only shopped it to one publisher, don't worry.

~suki